Page 189 of Mine Again
“That’s my guess. He wants me out of the picture, and what better way than framing me for this and cashing in big time?”
I switch windows, dragging routes into a sprawling map of red lines and blinking dots, each one representing a bounce point, a mask.
“Trace the chatter. Scrub every route he used, every node he touched, every packet he piggybacked. I want the ghost.”
“Already on it. And, Boss… this isn’t just noise. They’re going to hunt you. Hard.”
I hang up and keep typing at lightning speed. Each keystroke is likea punch, each new line of data another twist of the knife.
My screens flash as data streams in and shifts under my commands. I catch fragments, altered headers, spoofed geotags. Hale’s handiwork wrapped tight around mine.
The code sears into my vision, a brand I can’t blink away.
“Fuck.”
“What is it?” Isa asks quietly, as if she’s afraid to break whatever is holding my focus together.
“He used my breach methodology from Brazil,” I say, eyes locked on the code unraveling in front of me. “Rerouted through a maze of VPNs and false routes so it points straight back to me. Anyone who knows my work will think I did this.
“And this is only his opening move.”
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Luca
“Hale stole your work?”
“No… yes.” My jaw tightens until it hurts. “It was a trap, and I walked right into it.”
Isa’s brow draws in. “What do you mean?”
The realization grinds like grit between my teeth.
“He must have been behind the Brazil job. Hale set an impossible task to get the blueprint, knowing I wouldn’t be able to resist proving it could be done.
“He let me lay the groundwork for exactly what he wanted, then waited. Now he’s using it, moving his pieces into place. Delaware is him testing his new toy, watching how fast I’ll react.”
I shift to another window, watching the trail of falsified access points spin a web across the map as red dots multiply.
“And he’s showing me how far he’s willing to go.”
I rub a hand over my chin, staring at her.
“This isn’t just about destroying my reputation, though, in the underground, what happened is practically a gold-embossed calling card. He’s making sure every U.S. agency, and probably half the international ones, are hunting me. And knowing him, he’ll give themsomething tangible to identify me with.”
Isa’s face drains of color. Her lips part, but no sound comes out. Her eyes flick to the screens, then back to me, like she’s trying to measure how much danger is crawling toward us through those lines of code.
“You’ll never be able to go anywhere again? Will they find us here?”
Us.
In the middle of all this chaos, her sayinguscuts through everything.
I stop, turn my chair to face her, and take her face in my hands. Her skin is warm against my palms. I kiss her hard enough to make the rest of the world fall away. She responds instantly, clutching my shirt like she needs the contact as much as I do.
“They won’t find us here. I’ll make sure of it.”
Her throat works as she swallows.
