A few minutes later her mom called back. “You were right. It was under Lana’s bed. What do you want me to do with it?”
“Give it to Dean and tell him not to let it out of his sight. I’m sure Scott will be in touch with him soon.”
As soon as she hung up, Colt looked at her. “She found it?”
Kate’s ex was a good-looking guy but kind of on the scary side. Except for the prime physical form component, he didn’t look much like a SEAL. Although from what Scott said, Colt wasn’t exactly a SEAL anymore and was working in some kind of black ops. Colt was the polar opposite of Scott’s clean-cut officer appearance—which pretty much went for Kate as well. Scott’s sister had that refined, elegant Grace Kelly look.
Natalie wouldn’t have put Colt and Kate together but appearances weren’t everything, and something about Colt obviously spoke to both Kate and Scott. Natalie knew how much Colt’s friendship had meant to Scott and how his false accusations had stung. Colt had a lot to atone for.
Maybe she and Scott’s former chief had that in common.
Natalie nodded. “My sister had it. I should have thought of it before. Lana is special needs and loves computers, but she’s gotten into trouble before with games on the Internet so my parents are really careful. They have parental controls that prevent her from accessing certain sites and monitor her usage, which Lana hasn’t been too happy about.” Natalie smiled. “She’s slow, but not unsavvy. She figured out ways around the controls so my parents had to take the computer out of her room. She must have seen my laptop in one of the boxes and taken it.”
“She sounds like a teenager.”
“Pretty much,” Natalie agreed with a laugh. “I should tell Scott.”
“Tell me what?” Scott said, coming back into the room with Kate.
Natalie filled him in on the laptop.
“That’s great,” he said. “I’ll have Baylor bring it back and Kate can have a look at it.”
Natalie was surprised by his tempered reaction. “I thought you’d be more excited,” she said.
“I am,” Scott assured her. “It will help prove that you tried to send a message when you found out what was going on.”
“But?” Colt said, as it was clear there was one.
“But even if Mick didn’t leave a trail on the laptop,” Kate explained, “we have some new information that leaves little doubt that my godfather was behind the leak. We found the link.”
• • •
Scott’s suspicion had paid off. Brittany Blake’s friend Mac had called when he and Kate were in her office.
“What link?” Natalie asked.
“Between the general and you and Mick.”
She looked taken aback. “But I barely knew General Murray.”
“He knew you,” Scott explained. “He’d probably been watching you and the other kids brought to America in the program for some time, waiting in case you were ever activated. Remember when I mentioned the Illegals Program that was uncovered back in 2010?”
She nodded. “The one that was the basis of the TV program.”
“That’s right,” Kate said. “Guess who was on the national security staff when that plot was uncovered?”
“Murray,” Colt said flatly, not missing a beat.
Scott nodded. “The adoption program for the kids of Soviet ‘traitors’ was apparently connected to the Illegals Program. But as none of the kids had been activated at the time, its existence was pretty much kept under wraps and buried. Mac only uncovered a few references in the files because she knew what she was looking for.”
“Jeez,” Natalie said. “So I was under surveillance not only by the Russians but by the Americans, too?”
“We’re not sure,” Kate said. “Mac wasn’t able to find out much more. The idea was that not all the kids wouldbe turned or utilized. They’d wait and see how they grew up and be given opportunities when possible. The kids wouldn’t be traditional sleepers or moles or Russian spies who are groomed in America; they would be typical Americans being forced to work as agents. They were a new brand of unaware asset, making them harder to track and uncover.”
As Kate was obviously having difficulty accepting the general’s involvement, Scott stepped in to continue. “My guess is that Murray kept knowledge of the program to himself and maybe a very few others. The theory being that if one of you were activated, he would have control. If you weren’t, the whole program would have been forgotten about and lost in the archives. Mac said that when it was originally conceived the program was much bigger, but unlike the Illegals Program, it never really got going after the fall of the Soviet Union. It was just there lying in wait in case it was ever needed.”
“I feel like a spare tire,” Natalie said, taken aback by the whole capriciousness of it all. She’d been a widget in the machinations of two countries. “What about Mick?”
