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Scott’s pulse pounded hard in his veins as he and Eric walked down the hallway away from Megan’s room—away from Megan, who was with Gretchen. “Want a drink?”
Eric shook his head. “I need my thoughts clear.”
“Agreed.”
There was no doubt about Megan’s innocence anymore for either of them. Eric was clearly on board, too. The little time with her had been proof enough. She was kind, honest, and the most beautiful creature in the world.
When they got to the door of the library, Eric stopped. “This is a fucked-up mess.”
“We have a lot to figure out, bro.” Scott closed his eyes, hoping to find the way through this horrible maze. “We’ve got to help her.”
“Dylan’s evidence means one thing—someone was using Megan’s IP from her mother’s home to get into TBK’s network.” Eric’s tone might be steady, but he knew his brother better than anyone. A storm was clearly brewing under the surface of all that calm.
Scott opened his eyes. “You think it’s someone from the inside?”
“Maybe, but the viruses have Kip’s fingerprints all over them. I found ten lines in the fucking hack’s code that were identical to what we found when he sold the targeting software to the Chinese back then. Fuck. This is bad for her.”
He agreed. Déjà vu was crashing in on them. Ten months ago, they’d cracked a flaw in the government’s drone guidance systems and had won an enormous contract to fix it. “What are we missing? It’s got to be right in front of us.”
“Five million lines of code in and the first backdoor attack came. After that, three more a few months apart from each other.” Eric was in that space of his where he was working out all the variables and outcomes.
“I’ve run it over and over in my head. This hacker is only testing us. The contamination isn’t their endgame.” The last attack had been three months ago. The best and brightest from the CIA, FBI, and even TBK had put in the best security systems on the network. He and Eric believed, despite all the good feelings the team had, another was coming. If unprepared and not ready for the hacker’s next attack, the entire project would be scrubbed and the code would be destroyed. They’d end up losing the government contract. How long would they continue to pay for their mistake in trusting Kip?
Eric sighed. “Let’s head to the basement. Target practice will clear our heads.”
“Great idea, bro.”
Their basement had four distinct spaces. One was a theatre room with the latest and greatest screening equipment. Another was a wine room for their collection. To the left of that one was the game room—pool table, wet bar, pinball games, and card tables. The space they were headed to was the gun range, their favorite place to think and chill. The soundproofing had cost a small fortune but was well worth the expense.
After unloading several clips into the targets, Scott removed his ear protection and motioned for his brother to do the same.
“You’ve got something?” Eric asked.
“Maybe the techs will pull something from her computer that will be useful to us. But I’m thinking her modem might still have some digital breadcrumbs on it.”
“Hell yeah it could.” Eric slapped him on the back. “That’s using the old noggin.”
“We could have someone from the Dallas office retrieve it for us. Vicky even. She’s the lead down there.”
Eric shook his head. “No way. Have you forgotten she had the biggest crush on Kip back then?”
“Yeah, but I can’t believe she’s a mole. Remember how shocked and disgusted she seemed after learning of Kip’s betrayal of TBK?” Vicky had been with them since the beginning. If they couldn’t trust her, whom could they trust? But Scott wasn’t ready to test that yet. “What about Felix? He’s there, too. He could help.”
“I know we’ve checked and rechecked everyone’s background, but it’s not enough.” Eric was obviously not ready to trust anyone but him completely.
Scott felt the same way. Kip’s betrayal had changed them both. “We’ve also verified the contamination came from outside the system.”
“We have, but until we catch the motherfucking hacker, it must be one o
f us. Megan deserves that much.” Eric paused. “I think that I’m the obvious choice.”
Scott nodded. “There’s no one I trust more, bro.”
Eric sprinted up the stairs. “Since we were going to use the plane for the New York meeting, Josh probably can have it ready to take off within the hour for an unscheduled Dallas trip.” Josh was a friend and TBK’s lead pilot.
Scott raced behind Eric. “I’ll call the O’Learys and see if we can use their plane tomorrow.”
“Exactly. I’m sure they won’t mind. Let’s not tell Megan where I’m going, okay? We don’t want her to worry.”
