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Somehow, though, he knew that Joey would.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Joey rolledher eyes and looked to Steven for sympathy. The phone on her desk was on speaker with Will Gilbert from his place in the field.
“Will, you’re not listening. I can’t just hack into someone’s computer from here. It has to be connected to a network,orI have to physically have access. Otherwise, there is no way in. Who is this woman, anyway? What does she have to do with Blue Smoke?”
“It’s a long story. But she’s here now, and I need to know what she knows.”
“So ask her,” she said. “But unless there is a way in, I can’t give you anything. Get access to the computer and then we can talk.”
“Fine. Thanks for nothing, Joey.”
“Always a pleasure, Will.”
The phone disconnected, and Joey turned back to Steven. “Where were we?” She’d reached out to Steven, who she’d only known online as Vertigo. She’d connected with him through a few of the hacker chat rooms she still frequented. She hadn’t expected the scrawny nineteen-year-old who’d shown up, but who was she to judge? From everything she’d seen from him, Vertigo was a talented hacker. And, more importantly, was a genuinely good person who had learned hacking for the thrill of learning. Not to cause chaos.
Steven shook his head. “What? Sorry. I just can’t believe I’m here with Phoenix. Like, in real life. This is crazy. I’m geeking out right now.”
She chuckled. “I’m pretty excited to be here with Vertigo. But here, please call me Joey.”
Steven nodded. “Oh, right. Joey. Umm, we were pulling the NSA satellite images,” he said with a bewildered shake of his head. “I can’t believe that sentence just came out of my mouth.”
She chuckled. “Oh, that’s right. It’s all good. It’ll take some getting used to. Trust me, this isn’t my usual network either. Will wants as much information about the shooter as possible. We’re going to see if the NSA knows anything we don’t.”
An alert sounded from a program in the background of her screen, and Joey’s heart leapt. It was the trap door inside Zia’s server.
“What’s that?” Steven’s question made her stop just before she clicked into it and changed programs.
“It’s another project. You take lead on the NSA server. Dig as much as you can and see what you can get to Gilbert. Don’t forget to mask your access like we talked about. You should be in the clear from here.”
Steven nodded. “Okay, cool. I’m on it.”
Joey loved the confidence. She knew Steven was the right choice for this.
She grabbed her laptop and jogged to the conference room, pulling up the program as she went. She apologized as Flint dodged her in the hallway.
Setting the laptop down, she pulled out her phone to call Cole. “Come on, pick up,” she pleaded to the ringing phone.
There was no answer, so she left a message. “Cole, it’s me. We’ve got a bite. Call me back.”
Joey watched through her system as the mole accessed the altered files. She dialed Cole again, but again, no answer.
“Drat. We should have been set up at Zia. What was I thinking?”
If they’d had a team onsite right now, she could have pinpointed the location where the files were being accessed, and the team could get the man right then and there. But with Zia headquarters being all the way on the other side of DC in Maryland, there was no way Black Tower could get there. And Zia security wasn’t exactly up for the job of facing down a killer.
As it was, it was all going to depend on the little bit of code she’d hidden in the fake reports. She said a quick prayer. All she could do was watch and wait for her program to send up the signal.
Cole called her back thirty minutes later.
“I’m sorry,” he started. “Did we miss him?”
She clicked her tongue. “Yeah, unfortunately. I could see him pulling the files from the lab computer, but he’s not in there anymore as far as I can tell.”
“What now?” Cole asked. “Was that it? Why weren’t we ready?” His agitation was clear.
“Hey, hey. Calm down. We’re okay. He might have the files, but he also took a little present with them. It’ll ping us every thirty minutes, as long as the device is connected to a network.”
