The Decrypter: Secret of the Lost Manuscript (Calla Cress Techno Thriller Series: Book 1) (62 page)

“I’m really sorry, Calla. When I met Stan, at first glance all I wanted was the story published. But something about him reminded me of the relationship with my own father. One that’s basically non-existent.”

“You’ve always been a good liar.”

“It’s true, Calla. For a moment I saw something in your father’s eyes.” Her voice choked with emotion. “I saw grief mixed with love for a daughter he’d lost long ago. Calla, I would give anything to get that look just once from my father. I’ve never had it and I wanted you to have what neither one of us ever had growing up - the affection of a father. It was the right thing to do.”

“The games ended in the playground, Eva. We’re not sixteen anymore.”

“No darling, you are three weeks short of thirty. I remembered all your birthdays,” said Stan as he stepped forward, his luminous eyes exuding mystery. Was he really her father?

God, is he real?
“Could you please leave us? I need a moment with this. With him.”

"Of course,” Allegra said and she and Eva ambled with a backward glance towards the den.

Stan drew in a deep breath. “Eva came looking for me for all the wrong reasons, but has helped me find you again. I’m sorry I let you down, baby.”

Calla pressed her lips into a fine line. For the first time, she took in the full stature of the father who’d left her discarded at an orphanage entrance.

Abandoned.

Nash joined them by the staircase, his gaze registering shock at the sight of Stan.  “Well. I’ll be damned! SILVER X3?  The golden agent of MI6.”

Stan shook Nash’s hand.  “Nash Shields. You’ve done me a great service.  I’m indebted to you for taking care of her as promised. I know you didn’t have too.”

Calla’s eyes transferred to Nash whose face delivered no reaction.  

He grasped her hand for fear she’d hurdle to the wrong assumption. Still, strong eye contact told her he was going to tell her the truth. “I’m sorry, Calla. I couldn’t tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

His eyes glinted with credibility. Even then, he struggled to get out the right words.  “About a month after I joined the NSA, I was assigned on Operation Carillion, our code for the US’s investigations into ISTF’s practices.  This brought me in direct contact with Mason’s file, especially how he was voted into leading ISTF.  Anyway, this investigation also raised the issues surrounding the Deveron Manuscript, especially Mason’s willingness to pay ISTF agents and hit men to hunt for it.  I therefore began to explore the little we knew about the manuscript, until I ran into a colleague; Colton who was heading the CIA and knew Stan. Your father often worked with him on joint cases in the sixties.”

Stan set a hand on Nash’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring nod, his face pinched with unyielding determination.  “She needs to hear it from me.  Baby, I knew the heavy responsibility the manuscript would place on you. I did not want that for you.  I pleaded with the secret service to hide my family.  Your mother was still pregnant with you.  MI6 refused to get involved in concerns they didn’t understand, not really taking the manuscript business seriously. I had to take matters in my own hands.  So, I turned to Colton when I heard you’d joined ISTF.”

Her eyes were pools of appeal.  “How did you know I was at ISTF?”

Spiced with the bile of guilt, Stan refused to let it surface in his tone.  “I’m sorry, darling. I made it my life’s ambition to know and always kept an eye on you.”

“Everything but make my acquaintance. Why didn’t you let me find you?” she said.

“I should have, and I know I can never make up for lost years. Maybe we can start… now?”

Was it too late?

Too hard?

Too unexpected?

Did she feel anything for the stranger calling himself father?

“What did Colton do?” she said. “I mean, what did you and he agree about me?”

“He asked Nash to keep you safe when the two of you started working on cases at ISFT?” Stan answered.

She glanced Nash’s way.  “Nash?”

Nash caressed her hand.  “It’s true, beautiful. I didn’t know you then. It was a favor for an old friend. Just like any other covert assignment.”

Was this their first secret?

Would there be more to follow?

She recalled Allegra and Vortigern’s words, but brushed them away without second thought.

Nash gently squeezed Calla’s hand.  “Colton told me if you ever got too close to getting the carbonados, that I had full clearance to take Mason out.  I don’t think you needed my help with that.”

“Nash, you overlooked your own safety for hers.  You’re one of the most respectable men I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing,” Stan said patting him on the shoulder.

Nash smirked. “We just met. I only had your file to go by. But I’ll take that as compliment.” He mimicked a slight salute.

Calla sank to the bottom step and Stan took a seat on the stair beside her.  He shifted nearer, afraid to reach out and touch her. His deep voice had captured her attention as he communicated something in his tone - very close to heartbreak.  “I’m sorry I left you, baby. It was never right. Your mother and I just wanted to protect you.  When I read the papers Eva left at my doorstep, I knew you were in trouble.  That’s why I contacted her.  I had left it too late.  I had to come find you.  Even if, it meant coming back into your life, uprooting your existence a second time.”

Stan’s eyes longed for her understanding.  “Eva was the one who found the files I’d worked on for years.  She snooped for them in my house.  Together, we alerted ISTF about Mason’s criminal activity and they put us in touch with Jack. That’s how I found you.”

Jack sidled into the hallway overhearing part of the conversation.  “Stan had an exhaustive file on Mason.  It’ll help put him away for good.” 

“Calla, you were the one who knew how to overpower him all along when you suggested he could be defeated not in physical strength, but in intellect and by corruption of his own powers - a technology bug.  That’s the mark of a true leader,” Stan added.

All fell silent as she glimpsed at the gawking faces.  “Stan, father, could I speak to you alone, please?”

Calla looped an arm through his - a father she’d never known - a relationship she was beginning to understand and question, all at the same time.

They paced slowly out into the garden as an azure sky fleeced with passing clouds.  Empty in spirit, yet hopeful as the sun hit his emerald eyes, she’d never once imagined what it had meant for him to sacrifice his family for their own safety. 

He too had suffered. 

She stroked his arm in approval.  And for one who’d harbored a million questions and rehearsed the moment repeatedly, she summarized her next sentence into one thought. “Father, where’s my mother?”

EPILOGUE

Seven Months Later…

She had heard about the horrendous, kitchen fire months earlier. Several rooms had not been in use since that day. Calla strolled through the ISTF offices, clutching a set of papers as she headed to the file room.  It would be reopened for the first time today. 

She swiped her card at the entrance and found the Deveron Manuscript file along the discarded shelves.  Pulling out the file, she opened it and found the ISTF stamp in some drawers next to her. 

She stamped the file. 

CASE CLOSED

Calla set the file back on the shelf and inhaled a deep breath.  Switching off the lights, she secured the door and headed to the ISTF Archaeological labs.  A colleague waited by the door. 

“Ms. Cress.  Welcome,” smiled the cheerful woman with chestnut-colored eyes and luxurious ebony hair, worn in a dignified style. 

The assistant directed her to a bright cubicle near the floor length windows that overlooked a quiet, inside courtyard, on the third floor at Watergate House. 

Two men stood nearby sharing a joke. 

Jack turned when he saw the women approach. 

“Hi. I’m Jack Kleve.  I’m really glad we could have a professional come down and help us identify the archaeological finds in Pakistan. We like to call it the Karachi Brief.  I understand your Arabic is up to speed and your historical knowledge comes highly recommended.”

Calla smiled and shook his hand.  “Hey, Jack.”

Jack turned to the colleague seated at the desk next to him.  He had his back towards them.  “This is Nash Shields.  A senior security adviser from the US, also part of NSA.  You’ll be working with him on the brief.  Our government asked him to help us.  It’s a great sign of our two countries working well together.

Nash rose from his chair without comment and extended his hand.  “First day at ISTF?  Hope you’ll like it here.”

Calla smiled and cradled the small, wireless, electronic tablet hidden away in her shoulder bag.

I’m sure I will.

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THE DECRYPTER AND THE MIND HACKER

A Calla Cress Techno Thriller

(Previously published as Covert Interference)

A cyber crime will rewrite history… only she can stop it.

*** The second book in the explosive bestselling thriller series ***

She took down the world’s most dangerous man. She made one mistake. She let him live.
A billionaire behind bars, once the secret service’s most brilliant code breaker, is luring the world’s smartest minds into his prison cell. They leave in a coma and seconds later a lethal hack snakes through one government system after another. Meanwhile, Calla Cress, museum curator turned undercover cyber-security agent, faces the biggest dilemma of her life. She’s harboring a dangerous secret buried in the deepest vaults of technology history. In a few hours, she’ll have to make a decision that will change her life forever.
After an explosion rocks her hideout in Colorado, Calla wakes up halfway across the world at the whim of a powerful, unidentified organization demanding she produce the whereabouts of a missing MI6 agent who can disarm the billionaire’s hacks. Powerful people are prepared to kill to obtain the cryptic secret the agent kept.
There’re a few obstacles: Calla has never met the agent who has been missing for 30 years. Can Calla find the only person who ever challenged the enigmatic billionaire?

With only a handful of clues left in a mysterious sixteenth-century anagram encrypted with a sequence of codes, Calla, NSA security adviser, Nash Shields and tech entrepreneur Jack Kleve are thrust in a dangerous race across the globe. With each haunting revelation, they soon realize the key to disarming the hacks comes at an astonishing price.

THE DECRYPTER AND THE MIND HACKER
is a fast-paced, suspense thriller, charging through government secrets, world history and computer fraud that will have you wondering whether technology has progressed beyond human intelligence, changing civilization, and perhaps human nature.
˃˃˃ Acclaim for THE DECRYPTER AND THE MIND HACKER

“I found myself intrigued about what could be the next step in the evolution of cyber systems. I look forward to more stories from the author especially involving Calla Cress.”
“Calla Cress, still reeling from her recent discoveries, is thrown right back into danger. This is an exhilarating read that will have you begging for more.”
“The Decrypter and the Mind Hacker is hard to put down once you start reading it.”

“Great story line with twists and turns and a good alternation of action and scene setting which will keep you on the edge of your seat.”
“I can see how this would look on screen but it may be my wild imagination! The end will shock you!”
˃˃˃ The bestselling CALLA CRESS TECHNO THRILLER series of books in order:
BOOK 1 - THE DECRYPTER: SECRET OF THE LOST MANUSCRIPT
BOOK 2 - THE DECRYPTER AND THE MIND HACKER

Thank you for joining Calla, Nash and Jack on this adventure!