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“No one.”
“No family? Friends? Someone looking after a cat for you?”
“There’s no one. I was a foundling. My mother left me on the doorstep of CommTECH.” Unreadable, luminous blue eyes stared up at him. “I was found by a security agent called Jones. On a Friday. Hence the name. I then spent my youth in various institutions.”
“I get it. No family. What about friends? Boyfriends?” The thought that she might be involved with someone grated on him. It seemed he was fast developing possessive urges when it came to Friday Jones, and in his line of work, there was no room for them.
“No time for either friends or romance. My colleagues are just that—people I work with. We don’t socialize.”
“You’re telling me no one outside of CommTECH knows that you’ve gone missing?” He ran a hand over his head as he tried to get his brain around someone being so completely alone. Without his team, his brothers, he’d be lost.
Her eyes flicked away for a second before returning to his. He felt his body tense, instantly alert.
“Not exactly no one,” she said.
His mind raced through the facts as he knew them. “There’s the person who told you about me.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Yes.”
“Who is it?”
“I can’t tell you. But they would never betray me. They want what I want.”
He crossed his arms and glared at her. That answer was unacceptable. “And what exactly is it you want?”
Wide, sad eyes looked up at him. “Freedom.”
He sucked in a breath and then cursed on the exhale. “You’re part of Freedom.”
Her cheeks flushed, but she nodded once.
He clasped his hands on top of his head. No wonder Enforcement was so hot to catch up with her. She was a rebel. A member of Freedom. Part of an underground revolution.
Or, in the eyes of the Territory governments—a terrorist.
Chapter Six
CommTECH headquarters,
New York City, Northern Territory
“What do you mean you lost her?” Miriam Shepherd, CEO of CommTECH, asked the holo-image of the Enforcement agent.
The man stood to attention, large as life, in the middle of her office. This was the way Miriam liked to deal with the dirt that came with her job. At least a holo-image didn’t leave marks on her priceless silk rug.
“She may have been buried under the rubble, ma’am. We’re checking for bio-signatures right now.” The man’s voice had all the emotion of a drone.
“When will you know for certain if she’s dead?”
“Within the hour.”
Too long. She could be out of the Northern Territory by then. Especially if she’d obtained the services of a smuggler. No. Not just any smuggler. Striker. The man had been a thorn in the side of CommTECH ever since he’d mysteriously appeared three years earlier.
“Keep searching. This is a priority order. Stand by for further communication.” She waved her hand and the image disappeared.
“We need to make sure the girl is no longer a threat.” Ju-Long Lee, master of the obvious, and CEO of Lee-Chan Medical, smoothed a hand down his pristine oriental-style suit.
“What do you think I’m doing here?” Miriam let none of her frustration show in her tone. If the man hadn’t insisted on a meeting in person, none of this would have happened. He didn’t believe there was such a thing as an un-hackable conference call, and they were all suffering because of it.
