Page 61 of Wired Ghost

“I know who and what she is. What she’s capable of. I’ll never trust her around my child. Or Armita, given their history. Period.”

Connor nodded. “And I agree. But I trust the Master, and I don’t believe he’d let her do you any harm.”

“I hope you’re right.” Sophie got off the elliptical. “And now I have to go get ready to fly back to Honolulu. Just watch over them, will you?”

“You know I will.” Connor leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Like they were my own.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Sophie

Twenty-four hours later

Sophie walkedto her office at Security Solutions after greeting Paula, her assistant, who’d been reassigned to man the front desk in her absence.

Sophie’d slept for most of the thirteen-hour flight from Phi Ni to Honolulu. She then had taken the time to shop for food. At her Pendragon Arches apartment, she showered, dressed carefully, and put on makeup, keeping an eye on the time—and she’d arrived at the Security Solutions building early. Time enough to review her email, and see if anything required her immediate attention before the deposition was scheduled.

Her underlying grief and the pregnancy continued to sap her energy, and she looked forward to a few minutes alone as she pressed down the door handle of her office—and found it unlocked.

Sophie frowned as she pushed the portal open and stepped inside.

Seated in a chair in front of her desk, an ankle propped on a knee and a paperback open in his hands in his characteristic pose, was Raveaux.

“Pierre.” She blew out a breath of both annoyance and relief. “I told you not to come into my office without permission.”

“As Hippocrates is believed to have said, ‘desperate times call for desperate measures.’” Raveaux waved his book at her. “I wanted to be sure to let you know the schedule as soon as you arrived.”

Sophie narrowed her eyes—a note was taped inside the open pages of his Jack Reacher novel. Written in bold block letters was,“THIS OFFICE IS BUGGED WITH VISUAL AND AUDIO. SO AM I. I HAVE AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR YOU.”

Raveaux closed the book and set it on her desk. “The deposition is set up in a conference room downstairs. Do you want to go over your statement with me, first?” His dark eyes telegraphed worry, concern—and urgency.

Sophie kept her face neutral, wearing the blank mask she’d learned years ago at the hands of her sadistic ex-husband. She’d stepped off the plane into something major, and she had no idea what it was.She needed that message from Raveaux.

How long did she have before someone, from some government agency, knocked down the door and took her, or Raveaux, in for questioning? Brazening this out and pretending to detect the bugs according to their normal security procedures seemed the best way to go.

“I haven’t been in this office for a while and I always do a security check when I come back from a trip.” Sophie removed a surveillance detection wand from the front drawer of her desk. “Let me make sure we’re clear before we get started.” She stood up and walked around the room in a familiar pattern—and if she’d been observed for long, they would know that she checked her office at least monthly.

Beeps went off in the light beside her desk and a node across the room near the curtains. “This is not good, Raveaux,” she said. “I’ll have to put off our talk until I can notify Paula of a security breach and order a full check of the premises. Where’s Bix?”

“He’s still on vacation until next week.” Raveaux lowered his brows. A finger subtly pointed to one of the plain gold cufflinks holding closed the sleeve of his dark blue shirt.That’s where he was bugged.

“That’s unfortunate. I prefer him to have to deal with things like this.” Sophie sat back down at her desk and hit the intercom button. “Paula, there’s been a security breach. We need a level three sweep of the building, beginning with my office.”

“Right away, Sophie.” Paula’s voice sounded as cheerful as if she’d called to ask for a coffee.

Sophie hadn’t used the device in ages, but she had a signal jammer in the tool bag she kept in her desk. That would work to temporarily disable the equipment, including whatever was on Raveaux. She had to work fast in case her detection of the surveillance triggered a raid.

Sophie took her keys out of her pocket, found her desk’s cabinet key and unlocked it, quickly pulling out a small zippered holdall she stored there. She unzipped the black nylon bag and grabbed the jammer, flicking it on.

An indicator light went green and pulsed. Sophie held the jammer aloft but put a finger to her lips, catching Raveaux’s eye—she had to make sure everything that could be used to listen in on them was off.

She held out her hand for Raveaux’s phone. “Turn it off, please.”

Raveaux did so, and handed it over. “This seems a little extreme, Ms. Smithson.”

He was still playacting for the button mike!Whoever was making Raveaux do this had a lot of power over him. Who could it be?

“We share and keep a lot of confidential information in our offices.” Sophie got up from her desk and pulled the cord to close heavy blackout drapes over the large, plate-glass window, in case of long-distance equipment monitoring them. “I would hate for any of our clients’ data to fall into the wrong hands. That’s why I’m glad I kept the computers off, in case they’ve been breached or programmed to send a signal to some other unit.” Sophie indicated the three monitors that decorated her desk. Amara, Jinjai, and Ying were heavily encrypted, even if they could have been activated without her fob, which, as far as she knew, was impossible.

---