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She reached for them, and they wrapped their arms around her.
They are my forever.
“I’d like to go see my parents now.”
Chapter Eighteen
7:50 a.m., Friday – TBK Tower, Destiny, Colorado
Erica walked into Matt and Sean’s office, realizing that it had been two weeks since she’d been abducted. Not enough time to forget, if there ever would be, but still she felt better being back in her routine.
When they’d left the cemetery Monday night, her men had taken her straight to Sam O’Leary’s office. She’d broken down and told him everything, crying as he held her in his arms. It felt so good to let the past go. She still had a lot to work through, but she knew she could do it with Dylan and Cam by her side.
“Hi, Erica. You look like you’re feeling better,” Sean said, looking up from his screen.
“Can’t keep a good woman down for long,” she told him. “How’s it coming with getting Kip’s code out of the system?”
“We’re on it. We’ve isolated most of it, but there are sleepers that we’re still searching for,” Matt said. “What can we do for you?”
“I’d like my laptop back, if you don’t mind.”
“I haven’t had a chance to check it out. Can I hold onto it through the weekend?” Sean asked. “It might’ve gotten damaged when those Russians took you.”
“I’ve dropped it before at home. It’s indestructible.”
“Kind of like you, I bet.” Matt opened a drawer and brought out her laptop. “Here you go.”
She took it. “Thanks.”
“Please let us know if anything weird pops up on your screen,” Sean advised.
“Weird?”
They both pointed to the white board on the wall.
Matt sighed. “If you see that, call us right away.”
She looked at the strange code. Gen1us$KL$w1ns. “What does it mean?”
“It’s Kip Lunceford’s calling card. So far, whenever we find it buried in the code, it doesn’t do anything,” Sean told her. “It seems benign, but we’re still working through a lot of lines of code to make sure.”
“Probably just an egomaniac’s way of getting attention,” Matt said. “The other parts of his code are much more destructive, but we’ve taken care of a big chunk of it. Another month, and we’ll have TBK’s system clean.”
“Thanks guys,” she said, heading for the door and glancing back at Kip’s digital calling card one more time. Gen1us$KL$w1ns. “I’ll be sure and call you if that pops up on my screen today.”
* * * *
7:57 a.m., Friday – Sheriff’s Office, Destiny, Colorado
Dylan shook his head. His gut was twisted into a knot of rage. “This can’t be right, Black.”
The man had come himself to Destiny to deliver the bad news.
Cam was beside him, as pissed and frustrated as he was. Ethel sat in the chair in front of the desk.
“Sorry, Strange, but it’s true.” Easton Black, his former boss at the Agency, sat in the other chair. Like him, Black was never without his shades. “As I told your sheriff and judge before, the laptop with the e-mails from Mitrofanov to the president of Spetssetstorsky Construction has vanished.”
* * * *
