Promises in the Dark (7 page)

Armed with the new information regarding the safeguard on the software, he headed to Noah Wright’s office to share the news.

As he knocked, he thought about Vivi’s head in his lap for the entire two-hour ride. How Mace couldn’t stop laughing and Gray tried to keep a straight face while he drove, but Cael saw the smirk anyway.

Fuckers, both of them.

He rubbed his wrist that was marked from the cuff, letting go to push open the door when he heard Noah’s “Enter.”

As usual, Noah didn’t waste time. “If Lawrence Clare’s systems for InLine Energy is as good as Homeland Security says it could be, DMH is holding a ticking time bomb.”

“I’ve got some news on that front.” He repeated what Vivi told him about the safeguard.

Noah sat back and tapped two fingers together thoughtfully. “So there’s a back door into the program that can be accessed remotely to stop an attack on InLine’s system if need be. Lawrence thought ahead.”

“Sounds like Lawrence was paranoid as shit,” Cael muttered, and Noah nodded.

“I’ll have Gray look at the safeguard. Did Vivienne give any indication as to whether or not the software could be used successfully without the safeguard working?”

“She’s pretty sure it could, although she’s not willing to stake her life on it.”

“Smart girl,” Noah conceded.

“What we need to find out is if DMH has found the safeguard—and whether they’re hesitating to use the program because they don’t realize the safeguard is useless.”

“Useless right now.” Noah sat forward. “Vivienne needs to fix that safeguard. She also needs to tell us everything she knows about the program—how it can be utilized. I need every possibility and I want to hear it from her. She’ll do it under your constant watch. And she’ll do it fast.”

Caleb should’ve seen that one coming. “Wouldn’t Gray be better off taking the lead on this one, given his proclivity for this kind of op?”

Noah crossed his arms and stared Caleb down for questioning his order with a look that would normally have Cael shitting his pants. “Gray can work the program from here. But she responds to you. You can’t deny that.”

“Stockholm syndrome,” he muttered.

“It’s all we’ve got right now.” Noah’s voice remained steely. “We’re keeping her on-post so she’ll be safe.”

Caleb caught himself before he snorted. Yeah, Vivi would surely feel safe after being kidnapped and then shoved into a house and told to work on a program in order to save her life. “She acts like she doesn’t know the program’s been stolen. She’s insisting that she told InLine Energy the program was unfinished and that they want their money back because she hasn’t honored the contract. She acts like she’s still working on it. She contacted attorneys about what the next steps should be.”

“I heard all of that, yes.”

“Do you believe her?”

“Do you?” Noah asked.

Cael hesitated briefly before nodding. With that, Noah slid the laptop across the desk and motioned for Caleb to sit and read.

Cael did. Noah had run a check on the lawyers’ names that she’d mentioned—and had come up empty. “What the hell?”

“According to Mace, who went to pay them a visit, the lawyers are gone—no sign of files, no sign she’d ever worked with them.”

“You think DMH—or whoever stole the program—did that?”

“I do now, based on the intel you’ve received regarding the safeguard.”

“They just realized too late that they’ll need Vivienne to bypass it.” A chill ran up Cael’s spine and he realized that his team had probably gotten to Vivi just in time to save her life. The last screen on the computer proved it—a live feed run from Vivi’s house by Gray, which showed a group of men ransacking it just hours after Cael had taken her out.

Ransacking and looking for Vivienne.

Whether it was DMH or not, those men had been planning on grabbing her. And she might’ve had no idea.

Or she might know everything and this could be some elaborate scheme to keep the military and Homeland Security off the scent of a totally different but equally destructive plan to hurt the United States. “Any other family of Vivi’s we need to worry about?”

Noah shook his head. “Both parents are dead. There are some of her mother’s ex-husbands, but Vivienne lived with her father after the divorce. Looks like her house is currently in foreclosure—it’s been that way for quite a while. She’s been attempting to make payments but she’s got a lot of debt.”

“DMH would pay a lot more than the United States for her programs,” Caleb said.

“Homeland Security’s aware and involved. The FBI has been interested in having her work with them in the cyber crimes division, so I’m hoping they’ll get off their asses and help.” Noah slid a set of keys across the desk. Private quarters. “For now, Delta’s involved, charged with keeping her safe. Whatever you need, I’ll get it for you.”

Caleb stood, pocketed the keys. “Do I tell her all of this?”

“Yes. She needs to know, has to know the extent of the ramifications, whether she’s responsible or not,” Noah said before he dismissed Cael and picked up his phone.

Caleb left, closed the door behind him and stood there for a few moments to let the weight of all he’d learned settle in. In reality, Vivi could well be in collusion with DMH, yet he couldn’t reconcile that with the earnestness of the woman he’d spoken to earlier. They would believe her with a great deal of caution. And then he headed back to the room Vivi was being held in.

Mace had joined Gray at the door, and both men were waiting silently for his return.

“I’m taking her to one of the private quarters. Which I’m sure you already know,” Caleb said, and Mace nodded.

“It’s spooky, man. The lawyers’ offices were stripped bare. There’s no record of either attorney,” Mace said quietly, although there was no way Vivi could hear anything. “Kell and Reid dusted her house for prints earlier—Noah sent them back for another round to see if the guys who broke in left any behind.”

“Think she’s got any idea of what’s happened?” Gray asked.

Cael could see through Vivi the way he could see through glass—she was telling the truth. Had no idea that the lawyers she mentioned were gone and that her father’s software had been stolen out from under her. “I think she’s clueless.”

But not for long.

Gray shrugged. “If someone had access to her computers, they could’ve copied the program. I’d go with that rather than a hack—she’d be protected from a hacker. But she lives alone, has no real social life. She wouldn’t be expecting someone to sit down at her computer and download from it.”

“How do we know her staying here doesn’t put the post in jeopardy?” Mace asked.

“DMH would be crazy to try to grab her here,” Caleb said, although that didn’t convince any of them—if DMH needed her that badly, they would go to any lengths. But Noah had to have weighed both the risks and the consequences before making his decision.

“What about clearance protocol?” Mace asked.

“I’m keeping her computers here—I’ll give her a couple of brand-new ones with a program installed that lets me monitor what she’s doing. I’ll give you a copy of her program on a Zip drive for her to load. Put her on a separate network and you’re good to go,” Gray explained.

“She could still hack into the base’s security, if she’s as good as you say,” Mace argued.

“She’s in a shitload of trouble. She’s going to cooperate if she wants to get out of this mess,” Caleb said grimly.

“If she’s not DMH’s decoy,” Mace muttered, and if Vivi wasn’t, for sure she had a large target painted on her back.

Reid and Kell had spent half an hour going through her place, gathering all the computers and files and backup equipment. Everything electronic. They also found a lockbox that contained her birth certificate and social security card, passport too, and they’d grabbed her purse, with her wallet and checkbook.

But they’d left everything else behind. And, from the looks of the surveillance tapes, they’d gotten out with little time to spare. Better not to let the enemy know what the military was up to. As of now, DMH had no idea that Delta had taken Vivienne out from under them.

“You ready?” Mace asked.

“Yeah, you guys can go,” Cael said, but before he could enter the room, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

He pulled it out. His older brother’s name flashed on the screen. He flipped open the phone and Dylan was talking before Caleb could say anything.

“Cael, have you heard from Zane?”

Those words hit Cael like a punch to the gut. “Not for a couple of weeks. Why?”

A pause, and then, “He’s missing.”

Cael turned and put his forehead against the file cabinet, the cool metal soothing him. Even though the door was closed between them, he kept his voice low so Vivienne wouldn’t hear anything. “He’s MIA?”

A long silence and then his brother Dylan admitted, “It’s not an official mission.”

Excellent. Even worse. “Tell me everything.”

“He went to get Olivia.”

“The doctor? D, that was your mission.” But even as he spoke the words, he knew that wasn’t true. Zane had been as much a part of Dylan’s search, if not more so. But this was beyond.

“He wanted to go in and get her so we wouldn’t lose her while I was delayed tying up some loose ends in … well, that’s not important. Look, I’m sure he’ll check in—probably just got a little off course.”

“
Off course
and
DMH
don’t go in the same sentence.” Cael had followed the intel on Olivia through Dylan, knew about the clinic bombings and the woman’s possible escape. “What’s his last known location?”

Another unnaturally long pause. “He’s … ah, near Freetown.”

Freetown. If Dylan were here in front of him … “He’s back in Africa by himself?”

“He’s been before.”

“With his team.”

“He’s the one who insisted, Cael. I didn’t force this on him.”

Caleb broke out in a fine sweat. As many bad dreams as Zane had experienced in his first years with the Scott family were as many waking nightmare scenarios Caleb thought about when it came to protecting his younger brother. “Find him, D.”

“I will. I’ll keep you posted. Call me if you hear first.”

“Same.” Cael shut the phone, knowing arguing would get them nowhere. Dylan’s energy was better spent looking for Zane.

He leaned against the outside of the locked door and wondered if he should be as worried as he was about Zane.

His gut told him yes. Definitely yes, if past experience played any role. Zane could find trouble more quickly than anyone he knew—and Cael knew a hell of a lot of troublemakers, present company included.

He also knew how shitty this trip could be for Zane’s psyche, because as well as his brother hid it with an “I don’t care” attitude, Cael knew differently. Zane wanted to believe in something, wanted to belong so badly and for a long time refused to let it happen.

Cael believed in God and country and the Army, knew that his parents loved adventure seeking and that it was in his blood.

So far, he got his adrenaline pumping the legal way, through Delta Force. And then he came home and he acted domestic, tried his best to keep track of his youngest brother because he’d lost that fight with Dylan years earlier.

“
Leave the boy alone.
”

“
He’s not a boy and he’s better off working for me than the other trouble you know he’ll find,” Dylan told him. Dylan, who was running some bullshit operation like spies for hire. “I’m not a spy,” Dylan would tell him through gritted teeth, “And you’re just pissed Zane went Navy instead of Army.
”

Well, sure, he was damned annoyed at that, didn’t understand why Zane had to break the family tradition
.

Bad enough Dylan had gotten out so fast, but at least he’d served. Zane was breaking a tradition of years of service to the Army—dating back to their great-great-grandfather
.

“
Maybe Zane didn’t feel as connected to our traditions,” Dylan reminded Cael. “Or maybe he knew you wanted him close—to keep an eye on him.
”

“
Someone had to. You were gone,” Cael pointed out, going for the jugular, because that was always most effective
.

“
Yeah, getting a job, dammit. Or else we couldn’t have stayed together. You and Zane rode roughshod over Aunt Lynn.
”

They had. Their aunt, and only living relative on Dad’s side, had been like one hundred and nine when they’d moved in. She’d nurtured them but never worried about things like homework or curfews.

It had been up to Caleb to keep Zane in line. And he had, barely. Most of the time it was like balancing a fine tightrope.

Zane always had a wild streak, coupled with an inherent wariness, because of the way he’d lived until Mom and Dad brought him home.

For a while, Zane was almost … feral. Living off instincts and fear. Not wanting to hang out with the family. Not trusting. Hoarding food. And it continued for the better part of two years, until Caleb decided to follow him home from school one day instead of hanging out with his friends the way he normally did. He witnessed at least ten boys circling Zane, knocking down his books. Taunting him.