“Or in a piece of tech that hides it in plain sight, like a modem or cable box.” Maizie went over to the TV unit and crouched in front of the console. “Take a look at the symbol on the flash drive and then find something around here that’s a USB port with the same symbol on it. That’s the only way to figure out which one it is, other than trying every single USB port in this house.”
“How many can there be?” Zelaya wandered out of the living room, into the kitchen. “There’s a desktop in here on a little table, by the way.”
“Look for the symbol.” Maizie continued peering at ports on the gaming system and TV console.
Kenna moved to her and looked at the flash drive she had set on the TV stand now that she had taken it out of her tablet. A small swirl in the plastic looked like it might have been designed as some kind of flame. It was possible Shawn Terrance thought his evidence would burn down the company he worked for.
She headed down the hallway, wondering if he had even known all this would happen when he first decided to become a whistleblower. The tech company he developed software for had been in the business of building servers and programming them for particular uses. That was back nearly thirty years ago when they had first started.
Now the company was in four countries, and their products had spread to routers, artificial intelligence programs, and so many other cutting-edge technologies she couldn’t even begin to understand the scope of what they did.
If there was a connection toDominatus, Kenna didn’t know what it was. Once again, she found herself trying to stay as far from any of them as possible. But when the president of the United States had her on speed dial and constantly sent hercases she was supposedly meant to investigate, it was difficult to lay low.
She’d had Maizie set up an auto-reply for anything that came in from the Oval Office, indicating she was already on maternity leave—and that she would be for the foreseeable future.
Not a foolproof way of convincing the president they were out of whatever game she was playing, but it could be enough for now.
Kenna snagged the TV box from the bedroom but didn’t see any other tech with a USB drive in it. She unplugged it and took it to Maizie, who could use a power supply in the living room if needed. As she walked, she tried to see if the USB port had the same symbol on it, but it was buried inside the console.
She glanced at the front door as she passed it, but Jax hadn’t come inside. Was he still talking to that neighbor?
Kenna found Maizie with a screwdriver and the open circuitry of a game console. “Here’s one you can try. I didn’t find any others.”
“Zeyla tried the desktop tower, but it wasn’t any of those.”
Maizie hit the remote, and the TV flickered to life. She changed the input to one for the game console and plugged the flash drive into the port. “It doesn’t have the symbol that I could see, but we have to try everything.”
Nothing happened on the screen.
When she tried the console Kenna had brought in, the screen on the TV flickered to life. “Now we’re talking.” But the display required them to enter a password. “Any idea what it might be?”
Maizie shook her head. “It might take me some time to break into it. We could have that be your first lesson in password cracking.”
“Sounds exciting.” Kenna tried not to let the lack of excitement seep into her tone.
In exchange for teaching Maizie how to solve crimes, Kenna had agreed to some basic lessons in IT support—the kind Maizie gave to their team when they needed it. Definitely something Kenna could do at home with the baby, on an uncertain schedule. But that didn’t mean she had an aptitude for it.
Maybe she just didn’t want Maizie to be disappointed if Kenna turned out to be terrible at dealing with advanced computer systems.
“Let’s bring it all with us and get out of here.”
Zeyla strode into the room. “Good idea. Did you notice the camera up there?”
Kenna spun around and heard Maizie behind her disconnecting cables. Up on the wall, the camera in the corner now had a red light on it. “Someone is watching us?”
“Like you said.” Zeyla shrugged. “Let’s get out of here.”
Kenna headed first to the door because Jax would be out there, and she wasn’t going to let fear control her actions until there was a reason to be afraid. She knocked on the door first, though. Alerting him to the fact that they were coming out.
The door opened before she could reach for it.
On the doorstep, Jax lifted his chin. “Time to go?”
Before she could answer, someone else spoke. A slim woman in athletic wear, her brown hair curled into waves that didn’t move, with a smile that was far too excited. “It is you!”
At the end of the leash she had a hold of, a tiny Chihuahua trotted around, jingling a bell on its collar.
The woman’s expression brightened even more. “I’m so glad I could meet you all.” She leaned toward Kenna conspiratorially. “Your husband has been so polite. But I know what he isn’t saying. After all, I’ve been following your team since that press conference with the president!”
