A little more than an hour later, Julian had finished explaining his connection to Kovalec. And I won’t bore you with all the details. Just know that their respective companies had developed complementary technologies and it was in everyone’s best interest to collaborate – which they’d been doing for several years.
UntilJulian started to worry thathistech would be weaponised – seemingly imminent based on rumours about Kovalec’s shifting political affiliations. And as Kovalec was about to become one of the bad guys, Julian wanted out before he was dragged down with him.
‘So, is that why you invited him here, to end the partnership?’ I asked.
Because if that was the case, then why the sting operation? Why not let Julian end his association with Kovalec, then go on his merry way?
‘Not quite,’ he replied. ‘And Kovalec invited himself. He wanted to buy the last piece of the puzzle.’
I gasped, instantly understanding what Trudy had meant. No wonder Julian had been a suspect.
‘But you weren’t going to sell it to him, were you, Jules?’ I asked tentatively.
‘God, no! What do you take me for?’
‘Well, pardon me,’ I said, more than a little cross. ‘But all things considered, that’s not an unreasonable question. There were actualspieshere, Jules. Like, people on the islandspyingon you. And you werethis closeto being arrested!’ I added, pinching my thumb and forefinger together. ‘They think you’re in on it – whatever it is.’
‘Well, yes, I know all that now,’ he replied with a frown. ‘I still can’t believe that Dale and Trudy were investigating me. I thought Dale and I had struck up a genuine friendship. Itrustedhim.’
‘I’m sorry, Jules,’ I said, commiserating.Iwas disappointed and the budding friendship I’d lost to a lie was only five days old.
‘And Tom – I hadnoidea he was…’
I held my breath, mentally filling in the blank withyour ex-husbandand trying to formulate an explanation that wouldn’t upset Julian further.
‘…undercover,’ he said, finishing his thought.
Oh, thank god.So, Juliandidn’tknow about me and Tommy – he would have said something if he did. That meant one less complication to discuss, but Iwouldtell Julian eventually. Especially if Tommy and I… Nope, I couldn’t go there. I couldn’t hope for something that seemed unlikely, if not impossible.
‘I thought he was just a skipper,’ Julian went on, dragging my thoughts back to the villa. ‘And a bloody good one – he came highly recommended.’
Considering the lengths Tommy’s organisation had gone to infiltrate Julian’s little corner of the world, it was no wonder his sailing credentials appeared legitimate.
‘AndElsa… You don’t suppose anyone else on the island was part of it, do you?’ he asked, his eyes returning to me.
‘I wouldn’t think so, no,’ I replied evenly, which was mostly the truth. I wasn’ttechnicallypart of the sting. And it was clear Trudy hadn’t outed me, or Julian would have mentioned that as well.
‘You shouldn’t have any trouble replacing them, Jules,’ I continued. ‘Once word gets out, people will be dying to work on Aetheria.’
‘I suppose,’ he replied, seeming deep in thought. ‘You know, even if theyhadarrested me, I’ve done nothing wrong and I’ve got the build logs to prove it.’
‘For?’ I asked.
‘For the dummy code I was planning on selling to Kovalec.’
‘Dummy code?’ I blinked at him in surprise.
‘Yes, I’ve been working on it for weeks – back in the trenches, locked away in my villa. It’s almost identical to the real code, you see, except for the bugs I’ve embedded. And at the risk of sounding immodest?—’
‘You? Immodest?’ I teased, injecting a little levity.
He gave me a friendly side-eye, his mouth quirking. ‘At the risk of soundingimmodest, it would take someone as clever as me a very long time to determine why the code intermittently glitches. And even if they did, it could be attributed to faulty hardware or a random tech gremlin, rather than an issue with the code itself.’
‘Wow,’ I whispered, simultaneously shocked at Julian’s involvement in such a dangerous caperandproud of how he’d handled it.
‘And what if youhadsold the dummy tech to Kovalec? Wouldn’t that money be tainted?’ I asked, wary that I wouldn’t like his response.
‘Absolutely and I would have donated it – found some cause on the right side of history…’
