Page 21 of Broken Trust
He dragged out a chair and sank to it. “What are you doing now?”
“I’m cross-referencing digital chatter with Cipher’s old networks. As soon as I nail down a handler, Con can deploy the team to take them down.”
He frowned at the slight tremor of her hands that told him she was well past the point of exhaustion and jacked up on too much caffeine. “You’ve been at this since—”
“Since you told me to get in the kitchen.”
“Correction: I never told you togetin the kitchen. You know I’m not that guy, Elin.”
She turned her head and pierced him in her stare. “I don’t know that,Mason. It turns out I didn’t know you at all.”
Her words torpedoed straight to his heart. Her use of his surname, not the one she always called him, cut deeper than it should have.
He deserved it.
“You don’t have to babysit me. I’m fine.”
“You’ve been sitting here for hours. You’ve eaten nothing. You’re shaking.”
“I’m functional.” Her gaze was locked on the code. “That’s better than fine right now.”
“Not if you pass out in the middle of saving the world. Let me get you something to eat.”
But she wasn’t listening to him. Her jaw dropped and her fingers flew over the keys in double time. “I got it! I freakin’got it!”
“Got what?” But before the words were out of his mouth, she snatched up her phone and texted madly.
Only a second passed before he heard a door slam against a wall and heavy steps echoing through the base. Con strode into the lab, looking slightly rumpled as if he’d slept in his clothes. But all trace of sleep was gone, leaving his eyes sharp. Tension radiated off him.
Con leaned over Elin. “Whattaya got?”
Sophie rushed in right behind, hair mussed and a robe cinched around her waist. She went straight to Elin and leaned in to stare at the screen.
“Oh my god! You found one.” Her hoarse whisper might as well have been the first shot fired in a war for the way Mason’s body reacted to it.
He jerked to his feet, standing behind Elin’s chair, a fist pressed to his mouth.
Con scanned the data. “Where?”
“Rural Saskatchewan. He works in a government building.”
Con’s brows furrowed. “You’re sure?”
She nodded, pulling up another window. “Positive. I hacked the system of the local branch of the government and found dailyoutgoing emails between this man”—she switched to a photo of a middle-aged guy—“and a person on the dark web who operates under the alias ‘EchoZero.’”
Mason jerked. Con rocked on his bare feet. “EchoZero,” Mason repeated.
He traded a look with his CO. Cipher was responsible for wiping out the entire Blackout Echo team years ago. The last man standing was now on Charlie—one of their brothers. Julian Chase.
Sophie’s face seemed to grow paler under the harsh glow of the screens. “That’s got to be Cipher.”
“I already sent you the coordinates, Con,” Elin said. It wouldn’t surprise Mason if she knew about Echo, but she didn’t let on.
His gaze flicked to the feed, a long stream of binary that floated by so quickly it made his eyes go blurry.
Con jumped to action. “Sophie, get me the Canadian Forces Military Police on the line. We’ll coordinate. Mason, get everyone in the war room.”
Even though he heard the command, he didn’t move. He was locked in on the faint tremor of Elin’s fingers. He’d seen her worse, in that mission where they’d first met, the one that started a bonfire between them that didn’t burn out—it ended in fire and loss.
