Page 33 of 72 Hours

Had worked with.

“But it’s unintelligible.” He frowned. “A numeric address, with no obvious key.” It obviously frustrated the hell out of him, not being able to find a solution on his own. “This isn’t my area, computer investigation. Maybe the address is purely random, but I hoped it might have a clue as to the perpetrator.”

“Human nature doesn’t like random,” I said, matter-of-factly. “People can’t resist setting up addresses that reflect something about them personally, even if it’s a code. In reality, the most secure passwords are those based on whatever happens to be on your desk that day. Think up anything more easily memorable than that, and you start to let yourself slip. But that’s what people do.”

“They fear not remembering at all?”

I nodded. He was watching my face, and the leap of pleasure in my chest at sharing things with him again was disturbing. “Pass it over here,” I said. “We can try it out on my warped mind, right? It’s the sort of puzzle that’ll help to while away my injured hours.”

He looked unconvinced, or maybe he was too possessive of this whole thing.

“Niall.” I very carefully kept the emotion from my voice. “Neither of us wanted this to happen, did we? Neither of us feels comfortable, thrown together like this. Fuck it, neither of us wanted to see the other again this side of Armageddon. But you’re here now, and we’re in danger, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that we can work well together if we put all the personal crap aside.” I saw him shift uncomfortably, but I hurried on before I lost my nerve. “Don’t have any other choice, do we, until we can get in touch with someone to bail us out. Look, I know I’ve been the worse culprit, always prodding, always angry with you.” Call me childish, I deserve it. “But like you said before, this is too important to be hampered by my resentful shit.”

He took a very deep breath. Then he nodded. “Like a truce,” he said, softly. I couldn’t really gauge the tone of his comment, but I didn’t hear any overt sarcasm. His eyes looked full of confusion. I didn’t think I saw hostility, but then let’s face it, I’d been wrong before. We just had to be pragmatic about this. We had to swallow our personal antipathy and knuckle down to solving this situation.

“A truce,” I agreed. “We need to face the crisis together. I can be sensible about it.”

Why did I think that was the biggest crock of shit I’d served up since this all began?

“SO WHAT DID JUDITH say?” I hadn’t been able to ask while Junk was still around, and then I’d been out of action for all those hours. I wasn’t sure I liked the answering frown on Niall’s face.

“I couldn’t reach her. Cissy said she didn’t know where she was.”

“Crap,” I said, with some enthusiasm.

“Tanner, I know. It’s likely that Cissy does know. But she’s not saying.”

“She’s very protective of Judith. Always has been.” Cissy was Judith’s friend as well as her assistant. And Judith inspired the best in people.

Niall hesitated, then spoke again. “There’s been another attack. A letter bomb, sent yesterday to Judith.”

“Shit! Anyone hurt?”

“Judith’s okay, apparently. But this time it got all the way to her office. Cissy wasn’t on post duties, apparently, and the new junior didn’t know enough to guess what it was. It blew up in his hands. He’s in the hospital now, though they think he’ll be okay. But Cissy was very shaken. She says they’re evacuating the main building and bringing in Government security forces.”

“Where has Judith gone, then? Has she gone into hiding?” I realised for maybe the first time that I knew very little about Judith’s personal life. Where she lived, who she cared about. Who cared for her in return. Who she dated, if she dated. “How do we really know she’s okay? And who the fuck is doing all this?” I was totally perplexed. “Just one thing after another, all aimed at the Project Team. What the hell is this all about, Niall?”

His voice was tired. “I don’t know. Cissy also asked where Greg was. As if she didn’t know he’d been here. As if—”

“As if Judith didn’t know he was here.” I knew our thoughts were in accord. “So it obviously wasn’t an official visit.”

And it was then that I realised we were all alone in the trailer.

YEAH, I DON’T KNOW why it took me so long to notice we no longer had our visitor with us. Blame the drugs, blame my distraction with someone else. But there was no Greg hovering in the corner of my living room, no frightened protests, no wide young eyes pleading with me to believe him. No Dylan, guarding him for me.

“He’s gone, then?”

Niall nodded. “While I was talking to Cissy, she got an e-mail message from Simon saying to send Greg back as soon as possible. It was very urgent, so she said. I protested we hadn’t really finished questioning him—but Cissy insisted.”

When Cissy insisted, it was the equivalent of Judith’s own orders.

“The dog—Dylan—was nosing around outside, under your trailer. Greg was so damned nervous about him that I had to ask one of Junk’s girls to see him safely off the site. He said he had a car parked just outside the perimeter. He’ll be okay to get himself back.” He saw my frown. “He had no more information for us, Tanner. He didn’t see the attacker in detail. I saw no reason to hold him any longer.”

“So did you talk to Simon?” I was a little alarmed at all the things that had been going on while I’d been out of it.

“I tried, but no luck. Seems Simon is in hiding now, too, the same as we are. Or else he’s looking for Brad.” His voice shook, surprising me. “The whole damned Team seems to have gone AWOL! No one’s answering the security cell numbers, no one’s left any messages as to where they are or what their orders are.”

Running scared. Not something Niall Sutherland would have much tolerance for. We may have handled dangerous situations in the Project Team, but these direct—and potentially murderous—attacks on us were something else. But I was surprised that Judith wasn’t pulling things together. “How was Cissy?”