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Our beers arrived. The tension in my shoulders eased slightly. Four guys having beers on a Saturday afternoon. No crisis. No operations.

"What brings you to Jasper Creek?" Roan's question was casual, but his eyes weren't.

"Visiting family."

"For how long?"

"Haven't decided."

We locked eyes. Both recognized the deflection. I could see Roan deciding whether to push.

"Must be tough leaving all that training cold turkey." So he decided to push.

"Anything's possible if you put your mind to it."

"Jesus Christ, you two." Jase set down his beer hard enough to slosh. "Just say what you're thinking instead of doing that spec ops dance."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Roan said.

"Bullshit. You," Jase pointed at Roan, "are wondering if Code's the solution to your cyber security problem with Onyx. And you," the finger swung to me, "are wondering if small-town security work would bore you to death after twenty years of hunting terrorists online."

"I said nothing about a cybersecurity problem," Roan said.

"You mentioned it last week. Hart's great for a lot of things, but when it comes to the dark web, he's lost. Then there's that contractor you hired who couldn't handle the encrypted files from that stalking case."

"That's confidential."

"It's also exactly the kind of thing Code could solve in his sleep." Jase turned to me. "Roan's company handles everything from personal security to corporate investigations. They're getting national cases now. They're good, but Hart only knows so much. He's also tried to teach this knucklehead some things, and it's been impossible. All he knows is Google and Facebook."

"I understand the internet," Roan protested.

"You called it 'the Google' last week."

Renzo laughed. "He's got you there."

"I'm not looking for work," I told him.

"Neither was I when I got here." Renzo leaned back. "Was supposed to be passing through, maybe stay a couple weeks. That was over a year ago. Now I'm married, finishing my Tennessee architect license, all in with the local construction company with a good man named Harvey Sadowski."

The burger was good. Better than good. Real beef, not the processed stuff from military facilities. It was an ordinary, perfect moment.

"Look." Roan waited a beat. "I'm not going to push. But if you're sticking around and get bored, come by the office. We've got some interesting cases. Nothing like what you're used to, I'm sure, but..."

"Define interesting."

"Corporate espionage. Guy thinks his business partner is selling secrets to competitors in China. Can't prove it because everything's encrypted."

"What kind of encryption?"

"Hell if I know. That's the problem."

The technical part of my brain engaged before I could stop it. "Recent activity or historical data?"

"Both. Three years of emails, plus whatever he's doing now."

"You check keystroke loggers? Network traffic analysis?"

Roan stared at me like I'd grown a second head.