Page 54 of Broken Trust
“The Pentagon lead?” Sophie asked, and there was understanding in her eyes that had nothing to do with hacking.
“Yeah. We need to jump on it before the trail goes cold.”
She didn’t look at Liam as she left. Didn’t check to see if he watched her go.
Dante was already in the lab, fingers flying across his keyboard. “Morning, sunshine,” he said without looking up.
She dropped into the chair next to him and booted her own system. While she waited for the system to load, she got straight to the point. “I’ve been thinking about the link to Kent—I want to trace it back further. See if there’s a pattern.”
“Financial records?”
She nodded. “And communication logs. If this guy’s been funneling intel, there has to be a trail.”
Sophie appeared in the doorway twenty minutes later, carrying three bottled waters and a look of determination. “Okay, guys, bring me up to speed.”
Elin accepted the drink with a smile of thanks. “We traced Silverton’s emails to a source.”
Dante cleared his throat. “You mean you traced the emails.”
She shot him a small smile for the credit he gave her.
Sophie drew out a chair and sank to it. “Ryan mentioned the suspect is working in the Pentagon.”
Elin nodded. “His name is Adrian Douglas Kent. We’re going to dig into finances and communications. Have you ever encountered his name before?”
Sophie’s lips tightened. “No. But if I know what I’m looking for, I might find something in one of the ciphers.” Sophie settled in, and Dante and Elin got back to work.
They worked in focused silence, broken only by the click of keys and occasional muttered curses. Elin loved this—the puzzle of it, the hunt. Code made sense in ways people didn’t. Variables had predictable outcomes.
Algorithms didn’t wake up one morning and decide you weren’t worth sticking around for.
“Got something!” Dante’s tone burned with excitement. “Wire transfer to Kent, three months ago. Routed through four different accounts, but the origin point…” He pulled up a file. “The sender has Pentagon clearance.”
Elin’s pulse quickened. “Can you trace the sender?”
“Working on it.”
Sophie leaned forward, studying her own screen. “This encryption key—it’s military grade. Not something a terrorist cell would have access to unless someone gave it to them.”
“Someone with Pentagon access,” Elin said slowly.
“Exactly.”
They were close. She could feel it. Kent was just the middleman between Cipher and the bomb handlers. If they could connect the sender with Cipher, they were one step closer to tracking him down.
The pieces were coming together, forming a picture that made her skin crawl. Someone—most likely Cipher—had an active terrorist network inside the Pentagon.
Elin’s focus narrowed to the code on her screen. Unlike the mess of feelings currently threatening to drown her, this she could fix. This, she could control.
Sophie’s phone buzzed on the desktop. She picked it up and skimmed the words, then turned the screen for Elin to read the text from May.
Doctor’s here. We’re handling it. Stay focused.
Right. Focus. She had a job to do. A terrorist handler to unmask. Eleven bomb handlers to locate. A purpose beyond being just a woman in Liam’s bed.
She straightened in her seat and dove back into the code.
Hours passed. Coffee appeared at her elbow, courtesy of Dante. Sophie took a break to stretch and came back with sandwiches. For Elin, the work consumed her, pushing everything else to the background.
