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Their conversation would have to wait. This came first. She put her wine glass on the table and studied what appeared on the screen. The encrypted file was actually several files included in a folder. Her eyes ran over the decrypted titles as she tried to decide which to open first.
“Be careful,” Cole warned. “This might be classified information. I don’t want you to get in trouble for seeing something you shouldn’t.”
“You mean I could be committing treason by even looking.”
“It’s possible.” He took the chair next to hers.
“I’m in too deep to stop now.” Pretty much nothing would stop her. Her father had left this for her to find. It had to mean something, had to be connected to his disappearance, and might be the key to locating him.
“No idea what any of that says,” Cole said, his eyes on the screen. “Does it make sense to you?”
She scrolled up and down, analyzing the data. It was mostly code. But to do what? She switched to a different file inside the folder and went through it, only to find the same code. This was going to take some time.
“Since I can’t help you, how about I make us some dinner while you work on that?” Cole offered.
“Huh? Right, food would be good.” She’d grabbed a protein bar earlier. Other than that, she’d had nothing since breakfast. She turned back to her screen, going systematically through the various files and mentally piecing together what her father had attempted to do. Slowly, it was starting to come into focus.
The unmistakable scent of onions and garlic wafted out to her, and Kelsey turned to find Cole sauteing something at the stove. She half-smiled. It was good to see him in her kitchen again. They’d enjoyed cooking together when he was on leave. Shopping at the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings and creating meals from their purchases had been part of their norm, and she’d missed it. They’d worked well together in the kitchen and even better in the bedroom. Everywhere, really, until the pregnancy changed everything.
She gave her head a shake and went back to studying what was before her. There wasn’t room in her brain for making sense of her relationship with Cole and understanding her father’s files simultaneously. One would have to wait.
Kelsey was close to sorting out the purpose of the files when Cole put a plate of food down in front of her—a heaping serving of chicken and vegetables over rice with a lemon sauce.
“Your specialty,” she commented, picking up her neglected wine and taking a sip. It was her favorite of his recipes.
“Somehow, it always tastes better when I share it with you,” he said, taking the place opposite her with his plate.
She gave him a half-smile, trying to sort out what he meant by that. Was it just an observation? Perhaps, but what did she want it to mean? No clue, which was probably why she’d put off the conversation about earlier today. Their situation was both complicated and simple. On a basic level, she’d love to crawl into bed with Cole and come out some time next week. But that wouldn’t be smart considering their relationship.
“What have you discovered?” he asked, sparing her from further analysis of their relationship.
“It looks like Dad was trying to write a computer program for a particular function.” She took her first bite of the food, relishing the taste. “This is good.”
“Trying?” Cole prompted.
“Dad’s good with computers,” she said. “He’s the one who taught me the basics of coding when I was a kid, but it was a hobby for him, not something he did on a higher level. What he was trying to do surpassed his skill set. Do you know what a phishing program does?”
“I think so,” he said. “Phishing tries to dig into your stuff and get information about you and then use it against you.”
Rudimentary, but mostly accurate. “Right. From what I can tell, Dad was writing a program that would revealwhohad tried to access classified information. Basically, he was phishing for a name.”
“Of who knew where the ambushed SEAL team had been?” he asked, putting a forkful of dinner in his mouth.
“Exactly. Whoever sold the information had to have a specific level of security clearance. There would be clues in the coding about usernames and passwords used to access that particular data. Dad was trying to get to that.”
“Sounds challenging. Is it even possible to build a program to do that?”
“Absolutely. And the federal government’s systems have been subject to this kind of attack in the past. That might be where Dad got the idea to try it.” Millions were spent on cybersecurity, but there was always a way in if someone had the skills and the determination to see it through. Various U.S. government agencies had succumbed to phishing and ransomware attacks. It wasn’t a farfetched idea.
“So if I’m understanding you…” Cole put his fork down. “If Edwin was trying to figure out whohadaccessed sensitive data and then potentially sold it, that means he wasn’t the one to access the data originally.”
Now Cole was catching on to what she’d already realized. Dad had gotten close, so the blame had been cast back on him, with the real criminal accessing the data on her father’s laptop in order to implicate him. “He was searching for the truth to catch the bad guy or guys. If I know Dad, he wanted all the answers before he presented his case. He’d want hard evidence.”
“That would be like him,” Cole agreed. “And he wouldn’t know who he could trust. Anyone higher up could be the leak. He’d have to be in possession of something concrete that couldn’t be suppressed. Could you fix the program or create one that would do what Edwin attempted?”
“Given enough time, I suppose, and with David’s help to deal with the military programs.” She could, but she was missing information that her father had. “I have to think that Dad had a particular target in mind and was going to aim, if you will, the phishing program in that direction. We don’t know who that might be.”
“And you’ve been through all the material that you decrypted?”
