“What the hell?”A single flower—a small daisy—lays across the keyboard in theserverroom.
“I like daisies. One of the street vendors was selling them this morning.”Al had been so surprised when he’d seen me walk in carrying a flower I’d bought on impulse. I told HuskyFan to pick his wife a flower. Could Al beHuskyFan?
Moments after I call up the access logs, Royce slips into the server room. “How are welooking?”
“I don’t know.” I explain my early morning surprise. “I think…it might be Al. What do you knowabouthim?”
Royce pops two white pills and washes them down with his coffee. “Anti-seizure meds,” he says at my raised brow. “Mostlyprecautionary.”
“Mostly? You look like shit, Rolls. Go home. Relax. Or…I don’t know…go fishing. Get drunk. Binge watchHouse of Cardsor something. Lucas and Orion will be here in an hour. I won’t bealone.”
“I can’t.” Royce takes another slow sip of coffee, then sets the cup down next to mine. “Best thing I can do is work. Too much time alone and things get dark prettyquick.”
Touching his arm, I try to find the right words to offer comfort, but then my phone buzzes, and I hold my breath. When Lucas’s name and number flash across the screen, I try not to let mydisappointmentshow.
Zach and Al called in sicktoday.
“Bingo.”
“Care to explain?” Royce drops down into the chair next to me. I try not to notice the tremble in his legs as he shifts to getcomfortable.
I turn my monitor so he can see the access logs. “Lucas and I were having a drink after the team happy hour on the twentieth.” Highlighting two card swipes, I continue. “We left the bar ten minutes after he supposedly entered theserverroom.”
“So, the hacker—Al?—stole his key card. That doesn’t explain how he accessed encryptedfiles.”
Waving my hand at the old, now defunct, security camera in the corner of the room, I try to keep the disgust out of my voice. “The strongest password in the world isn’t safe from acamera.”
“Son of abitch.”
“What do you know about Al? How’d you find him?” Continuing my scan of the logs, I find half a dozen of my own logins at times I was either asleep or engaged in other bed-based activities with West. The pang of loss hits me hard, but I try to ignore the hole in my heart so I can listen toRoyce.
“I’d advertised. I wanted to be fully staffed—if not overstaffed—before I had to…leave. His references were excellent, and he’d served with my very first commandingofficer.”
I tuck a stray curl behind my ear. “He told me he handledradar.”
Royce slides over to a free terminal and launches a browser. “Let me pull up his employee file.” A few moments later, he snorts. “He lists his army commission as ‘Specialist.’ Given who he served with? That’s bullshit.” He picks up his phone. “I still know a few guys I can call forintel.”
After he exchanges several off-color jokes and vague updates on his life—no mention of the tumor—with someone he calls “Ace,” he asks about Al Hagen. I can’t hear what the man on the other end of the line says, but Royce sits up straighter, asks a few quick follow-up questions, then shakes his head. “You’re sure?” As he pauses, anger churns in his eyes. “No, that’s what I needed. Pretty sure he’s involved in some underhanded shit, and the authorities are going to be calling you before long. Thanks a lot. Give my best toMarta.”
Defeated, Royce slumps back in his chair. “Well, that’s all the evidence I need. Al served four years as a Cyber Operations Analyst. Surveillance and reconnaissance, cyber-attacks, digital forensics, and threat analysis. Sound like skills he put to use breaking intoOversight?”
I can’t help my wry laugh. “What the hell do we do now? He’s covered his tracks. All we’ve got are card swipes and logins at times I can prove weren’t Lucasorme.”
Royce pinches the bridge of his nose. “Keep working on Oversight. Get her up and running. Let me handle the rest. I’m going to have a little heart-to-heart with the rest of the cabling crew. They still on therooftopdeck?”
“Yep.”
Pushing to his feet, he looks better than he has in a week. Purpose shines in his gaze, and he rubs his hands together. “This ought tobefun.”
“Go get ‘em,Lieutenant.”
* * *
Oversight launches without a single hiccup,even though Lucas and Royce had to finish installing the last three cameras alone—Royce didn’t trust any of the crew Al brought in, and though we don’t have any hard evidence, the three men who showed up today are currently downtown talking to thepolice.
I can’t help but take a minute and stare at the software’s main interface on the screen in front of me. “We did it, baby. You and me. And Lucas and Orion and Abby and Royce, and even Al, as much as I’d like to kick his ass right now. You’re better than you would have been if he’d nevertouchedyou.”
She throws up her regular system status message—All Clear—and I grin. “Yeah,youare.”
