Page 63 of Jonas

“Ivy told you about the new Himalayan she got Eric?” Nebraska asked, with the first smile I’d seen from her all morning. “He’s so grumpy he’s adorable.”

“Great, grumpy pussy, just what I need,” Zane grunted.

I was unprepared for Derrika’s bark of laughter. Moreover, I wasn’t ready for her to slam her forehead onto my bicep and roar her hilarity there while taking me along for the ride. My arm shook with the force of her amusement.

I felt Cash’s gaze boring a hole through the side of my head. I didn’t bother turning to look at my friend. I knew what he saw, and I knew what I’d see in his expression if I faced him.

Like me, Cash didn’t welcome uninvited touching. Neither of us were the hugging type. Neither of us had been touched with kindness throughout our childhoods. We’d discussed this and both of us were self-aware enough to understand why we didn’t like it and neither of us planned on putting in the effort to resolve the issue. But just like Derrika reaching out under the table to hold on to my thigh, her head resting on me while she giggled herself stupid was welcomed—not tolerated but very much welcomed.

“Sorry,” Derrika sputtered. “But really, grumpy puss…” she couldn’t finish through her tittering.

I heard rather than saw Lore join in. As soon as she did, Nebraska and Kira did, as well.

It was Smith who broke the men’s silence. “Hate to break it to you women⁠—”

“Oh, no, Five, no one needs your two cents,” Kira halted his enlightenment. “I have intel to deliver.”

The laughter quelled to snickers. Derrika lifted her head. I barely suppressed my urge to tag her around the neck and pull her back to where she was.

“What’d you find?”

Kira lifted her head and smiled over the top of her laptop.

“First, the mayday call has been uploaded to the server. But last night I was poking around.”

“More like obsessively searching,” Cooper corrected.

“Actually, if you must know, I went down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.”

There was a collective groan, except Cash, he remained silent.

“What?” he asked when I glanced at him. “Like we don’t all know that most of those theories aren’t grounded in a kernel of truth.”

“Well, one of them gave me an idea,” Kira went on. “Chips.”

“You want a snack?” Cash muttered irritably. “I get a girl’s gotta eat when she’s gotta⁠—”

“No, computer hardware. Remember a few years ago when the head of the National Security Council was quoted as saying that a transformer was confiscated at a port?”

“And the statement was walked back a few weeks later but the internet went wild. Yes, I remember,” Zane growled.

“That back door into our power grid was a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream,” Kira stated. “It’s also how the Chinese shut down the power in Phoenix. It’s also how they’re going to shut down more of our grid. I checked, but I want Shep and Garrett to double check and make sure I’m not seeing what I want to see, but it’s also how the Grainger lost control. The captain said there was a full override of the ship’s systems. Most of the ship’s hardware came out of China. They used the same kind of backdoor.”

“Can we override their backdoor?” Smith inquired.

Kira slowly slid her gaze down the table. When it landed on him, she didn’t need to say a word, her expression said it all.

We were fucked.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“This wasn’t on my New Year’s bingo card.”

I caught Jonas’s smile at my comment, but only in profile. He was staring at Zane. I would’ve been, too, except the look on Zane’s face scared me enough to look away.

“Switchboard.”

At Zane’s insane word, I glanced back at him to see him pulling his phone away from his ear and angrily jabbing at the screen.