“Long story.”
“We have time.”
“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She grinned. “I had leukemia when I was a kid. Meant I spent a lot of time in the hospital and got to know the nurses pretty well. The doctors’ expertise was needed, but the nurses cared for me day in and day out. I wanted to be just like them and give back. So when I went to college I declared nursing as my major.”
“What changed that?”
She scowled. “I got into the nitty-gritty of the job and discovered that the sight of blood takes me out. Bam. I see it and hit the floor. Just like that. Not my own, but other people’s. Doesn’t make for a very good nurse.”
“I would guess not. That had to be disappointing.”
“It was. Very.”
“How did you move on to computers?”
“The long part of the story.” She took a deep breath. “I had plenty of time sitting around in the hospitals and spent a lot of it on a laptop my mom got me for playing games. After a while, that didn’t seem to keep my interest, so I decided to find out how a computer worked, and I took one apart.” She gave a wry smile. “I was home by then, and unfortunately, it was my dad’s computer. That didn’t go over so well, but I got it back together and it worked fine. So that led to me buying my own parts and building my own computer. And then I decided I needed to know how my games worked, so I learned some coding. I even designed a few video games and joined the computer club at school.”
Sounded like a full-fledged nerd to him. “But you didn’t want to do computers for a living?”
“Nope. The desire to be like the nurses that were taking care of me was too strong for that. I honestly thought it was my calling. But when I found out I couldn’t do it, I looked for a way to help others using computers. Not in traditional ways, like programming or repair. That led me to white-hat hacking. I see it as a way to prevent problems and even stop ones that could potentially be very harmful to people.”
“You do provide a valuable service, that’s for sure,” he said. “And your ability to hack into systems helps put security measures in place so real hackers can’t break in. Which is becoming all too common these days.”
“People like Kane have made millions on the backs of other people.” She gritted her teeth. “Sure, I really want him stopped so that I can go about my life. More, I want him stopped so he quits taking advantage of innocent people. Often times elderly people who are less computer savvy.”
“You have a very altruistic way of looking at life, and I find that admirable.” Attractive even, but he wouldn’t say that and take them down the wrong path.
“Just trying to do my part.” She nibbled on her lip. “Do you really think it will be safe to go to the Veritas Center?”
“The safest thing to do would be to keep you under wraps here behind fortified fences. But I have to respect the fact that I can’t wrap you in bubble wrap when you could be a valuable part of this investigation.”
He made eye contact and locked on, feeling as if he were locking in a mortar round. “Just know, if we leave to go there, I need to be certain you’ll follow my every direction every step of the way. No questioning. No fighting. No arguing. Just do as I say. Because, though I applaud your altruistic way at looking at making Tarver pay, your life means more to me than finding a hacker and bringing him to justice. Much more.”
15
Brooklyn stared out the rear window of Colin’s SUV at they pulled into the Veritas Center parking lot. Colin sat in the back with her, Dev behind the wheel, and Reid rode shotgun. She had no idea what to expect, but she never thought the building would be beautiful and look nothing like a laboratory. Two glass towers rose into the sky and were glowing under spotlights shining down on them. A building connected them on the ground level, and a skybridge at the top level, the glass walls illuminated from inside.
“Doesn’t look anything like a lab, does it?” She looked across the seat at Colin.
“I thought the same thing when I first came here.” Dev glanced back in the mirror.
“Me too,” Colin said.
“Same,” Reid said. “But then I was told the place was built by Maya’s grandfather for mixed use, and he left it to her when he passed away. She’s the toxicology expert here. So she took on several partners, built out the east tower as labs that were supposed to be offices, and the right tower was and is condos where some of the partners still live.”
“Talk about living close to work.” She laughed and reveled in the good feeling when life had been so tense for so very long.
She was glad Colin was able to bring her here. She felt happier each time they left the cabin, and she was actively involved in doing something to find Kane. She thought Colin understood that. When a problem presented itself he didn’t seem to be a do-nothing kind of guy.
“Pull into the parking garage, Dev,” Colin instructed.
He got a roll of the eyes from his brother in return. Not surprising. They’d drilled this trip several times today before leaving, and Dev had to know his role. So, protocol would say that he would follow their security plan without deviating unless a problem presented itself, and Colin didn’t need to give him directions at all. But clearly he felt the need to say it, so he did. That was, between his big visual sweeps of the property and his hand drifting to the butt of his gun.
“I’ll need the passcode to get in,” Dev said.
Colin rattled off the number he got from Blake Jenkins, the former sheriff who was married to Emory, the DNA expert. Blake took charge of all criminal investigations and would be waiting at the door to let them in.
Dev ramped up the lot until they reached the top floor and parked near the entrance. The door opened, and a dark-haired man, who obviously worked out and carried himself with authority, stepped out to hold the door open.
