Page 7 of Knight Watch

He surveyed the room. Everyone was deep into whatever they were doing on their screens, and Caitlin sighed, blowing her brown bangs away from her face. “Apart from internet connection problems? I had to make sure Mercy didn’t shoot the router when it shut down for the third time. I called the network provider company and tried the sweet way without success, after having an earful from Mercy, they promised to fix it first thing this morning. So far, we’re still connected.”

Kingsley rubbed the back of his neck, hiding a grin. “I was referring to the case.”

Caitlin lifted her head and smirked. “Don’t look so discouraged, Kingsley. We’ve made headway. It takes time to dig through so many layers. James and Alex are going through Rutherford’s phone and bank accounts. The man won’t have a secret left by the time we’ve finished. It’s intense, and they needed quiet after Mercy blew her top yesterday, so they’re working in another room. I’m tracking the money while Cain and Mercy are digging up the dirt, or should I say possible dirt, on Raymond Rutherford.”

Killian, who was at her feet, had been yawning a second ago but must have smelled her food because he put his head on his mistress’ lap with watchful eyes as she scratched behind his ears.

“So, what you’re saying is you don’t have anything yet?”

Caitlin bit her lip. “Let’s say we’re getting there. But it’s tricky. Without a computer expert or a hacker, we have to be careful we’re not detected, or worse.”

Kingsley nodded. It was true that no one at Alliance had that particular skill set. “You need reinforcements?”

Caitlin seemed to consider it for a moment. “I think we’re on the verge of cracking it, but if it takes more than an hour, I won’t turn your offer down.”

Malco came into the conference room, carrying a laptop. He let himself fall on a chair, a hand massaging his leg where the prosthetic fit.

“Just saw Alex and James. They’re sending some data through, so far, they’ve been able to trace every call from his phone.”

Kingsley blinked. “Every call? Are you kidding me?”

“The guys are still trying to make sense of what they’ve found, but there weren’t that many calls on that phone… and everything looked too perfect.”

Mercy stopped typing. “What do you mean? Too perfect. how?”

Leaning back, Malco looked at the ceiling as if collecting his thoughts. “There aren’t enough calls from his contact list for such a big businessman. And it’s a small list for someone so successful unless he knows all his contact’s numbers by heart, which I fucking doubt.”

“Where were the calls from?” Kingsley asked.

“They all came from payphones scattered around the city. But the pattern looks too perfect.”

It rang a bell in Kingsley’s mind. “Computer-generated?”

Caitlin chimed in. “Yes. There’s software out there that can be downloaded and programmed to auto-dial specific numbers or one number in this case. Politicians use it all the time with those robocalls they make. They would’ve had to tweak it to make it dial from different numbers rather than to different numbers.”

“Exactly,” Malco replied.

Cain crossed his arms. “It’s all theory so far. How can we prove it? The man volunteered his phone and came to us for help. We know he lied about how long Sydney’s been gone, but what are we missing? Why involve us if he’s behind it?”

Mercy whooped. “There is a way to find out. We need to hack into any cameras that are pointing at the payphones.”

The four operatives around the table dove back into their computers like maniacs, and Kingsley was about to do the same when his phone rang.

“Hey, King. Thought you would want to know what we found,” Wolf drawled through the line in his familiar twang. “We found more ears and eyes in the apartment and motion detectors at both entrances. And not the cheap stuff. Military-grade quality. It’s lucky for us that the fuckers didn’t know how to install it properly. Otherwise, we would never have found them.”

“Military-grade?”

“Hell yeah. And I mean the kind of stuff used in embassies; not that we ever do that. You could put it in a wall and still hear a fly fart in the next room.”

“How common is that stuff on the black market?”

“Well, I don’t know. But Bentley here said that you need to have serious connections. And even more serious money. The only thing indicating Sydney wasn’t under any kind of official surveillance is the installation, which was done by a blind duck. There’s also nothing in the apartment that gives us any reason to believe she’s a security threat. Either she’s the best operative who ever lived, or she’s an ordinary kind of gal caught up in bad shit.”

Kingsley was convinced the latter was the case. If only he could confirm where the bad shit was—or wasn’t—coming from.

“Want us to remove the bugs, King? They’re inactive, but Bentley needs more tools to remove them.”

“No, leave everything as is and come back here.”