Page 39 of Pressure

He eyed her for a minute, and she worried he would object to her taking charge of the situation. After a beat, he nodded and opened his computer.

And just like that, they were chasing down a hacker. They’d done it countless times. They’d also been on the other side—being the hackers being chased.

“Can you get me access to a TOR network on your server?”

His nod was subtle as his fingers continued moving across his keyboard. A chat window popped up on her screen with access to the network she needed. She couldn’t help but grin as the energy in the room shifted. This is what they were best at.

When she was into the dark web forum she was after, she started her search.

An hour later, they were both deep in their work.

“Well that doesn’t make any sense,” she muttered as she picked up a pen and wrote down a name.

“What doesn’t make sense?” Lance said, adjusting his glasses.

“I think I found our hacker, but it can’t be.”

Lance stood and came around to her side of the table. “What do you mean?”

“If my research is correct, he’s in prison.”

Lance hummed. “Interesting. I love a good mystery. What’s his name?”

“Sebastian Forcythe.”

Lance lifted an eyebrow before he looked away and back again. “I’ve heard of him. I wasn’t aware he’d been arrested again. What’d he do?”

“Looks like some sort of cryptocurrency scam.”

“OK. But some prisoners get access to computers. Maybe he’s doing it from the inside. Or maybe he has partners and proteges.”

Marissa nodded. “I was thinking the same thing, but so far everyone is saying he’s the only one with this specific signature. I don’t know what he has to do with any of your members. We can run his name against all of your background information on your membership roster and see if we can find a connection.”

“Do it. Can you find out which prison he’s in?”

“Already done,” she said as she pulled a sticky note off the pad she’d been using.

He picked it up and went back to his computer.

Ten minutes later, he cursed and pulled out his phone. She watched him type out a text and set the device next to his laptop.

Less than three minutes later, Patrick Yates poked his head in the door.

“What’s up?”

“Where is your dad?”

“Holly keeps track of that. I’m doing my best to forget him.”

Lance glared. “Seriously? Well then get her. I need to know. I can dig it up but if I can get the information faster from you that would be helpful.”

“One sec.”

Patrick disappeared.

“What does his dad have to do with this?”

Lance whistled. “How long do you have? It’s a long twisted story.”

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