by Rachel Grant
She kissed his chest. “And I’m a woman, the senior programmer who spearheaded the Peacemaker project, which has led to the biggest holiday sales for any toy drone manufacturer ever. We’re the it toy this year. I’m at the top of my field—one in which men actively try to exclude women. I didn’t get where I am because of my brains—there are plenty of women in tech who are smarter than me. It’s because I learned how to navigate HR and management every time someone tried to slam a door in my face.”
He kissed her temple. “That is so badass.” He loved that she wasn’t shy about her success. She didn’t assume his ego couldn’t handle being with a woman who was older, smarter, and richer than him. Maybe that was what had drawn him to her from the start. She’d carried herself like the powerful woman she was—even when fired and escorted through the gate. “Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll tell Keith I want a raise and better assignments.”
She ran a hand over his ass. “I hate to mention it, but your negotiation position will probably be weakened thanks to your association with me.”
“And if Keith doesn’t see that you’re being set up, he’s not the man he’s supposed to be. Josh will go to bat for you—he’s Keith’s best friend—and Chase is on Team Leah too.”
“I have a team?”
“Hell yeah. I’m your head cheerleader.”
She laughed, then tucked her head against his chest and whispered, “I don’t deserve you, Nate Sifuentes.”
“No, what you don’t deserve is what’s happened to you in the last twenty-four hours.” He kissed her cheek. “You know how to navigate in the business world, but private security and ops—that’s my thing. We’re going to figure out what’s going on, starting with finding out who died in the townhouse and who sent you that email.”
9
Leah hit the End button on the cell phone, then held it in her lap as they sped down the highway. “Arlington police isolated the Trojan. Frankly, I’m irritated that whoever sent the email didn’t realize I’d suspect spyware. Do they not realize I’m head of the frigging coding team?”
“Well, they also screwed up in not considering you’d give the Arlington police access to your account.”
She frowned. “I feel like such a fool. I was ready to run to Philly and question everyone in the company instead of talking to the police and letting them conduct the interviews. Thank you for stopping me.”
“That email was designed to send you into a panic. It’s hard to think in that situation. My whole job is to train people how to work through panic and chaos.”
“This isn’t combat, though.”
“No, but the principle is the same. You felt the threat, and fight or flight kicked in.”
“I chose flight.”
“And my job is to teach people to fight.”
She gazed out the window at the fresh snow. The morning storm had been light, and now, in the early afternoon, the roads were clear and dry as they headed to the nearest superstore to buy a laptop, another cell phone, and, if they could, a Hathaway-Hollis drone.
She’d spent hours this morning on the phone with investigators, telling everything she knew about the fire at the townhouse—which wasn’t much considering she hadn’t been inside—and explained that she’d left because after being nearly run down at Mt. Vernon, she feared for her life. Thankfully, she’d been able to give them the number of the police report filed by Josh, and Detective Brown confirmed other witnesses had reported the incident.
The email from the unknown sender raised more questions than it answered. It said nothing about the fire but claimed Ainsley was missing—a detail the police were looking into. If Ainsley was the woman who died in the fire, what had she been doing in the townhouse after the NSA had seized it? No one outside the NSA should have been allowed inside until it was cleared by officials.
The idea that Ainsley might be gone made Leah’s heart ache. She didn’t have many friends—a hazard of being a workaholic—but Ainsley was a workaholic too, so their friendship had developed along lines that fit them both.
Twelve miles from their cabin hideaway, they reached the store, which was packed with people finishing up their holiday shopping. They made their way to the back, where the electronics department was located. Leah chose the best laptop they had in stock, and Nate put it on his credit card. “We also want to get one of those HH drones. You know the ones—the Peacemaker—”
“Sold our last one days ago,” the saleswoman said. “We might get another shipment tomorrow, but you’d probably have to line up at five a.m. And we might not get any. Virginia Beach has been hogging the shipments, and the DC-area stores have gotten the rest.”
She’d expected that response, but it had been worth a try. Plus, it gave her a little thrill knowing the thing she’d helped create was this year’s sensation.
This week was supposed to be her finest hour.
As they grabbed more groceries, Nate said, “I’m sorry we couldn’t get a drone.”
She’d wanted the drone so she could test the Peacemaker protocol she’d uploaded at two a.m. on Sunday, but it wasn’t vital. It was just one of the tests she’d planned to run this week with the half dozen drones she’d had in the HH townhouse.
She shrugged. “I guess it means I don’t have a Christmas present for you now.”
“I haven’t gotten you a Hanukkah present either.”
She patted the laptop. “You got me a very good present.” She winked at him. The computer had cost nearly four thousand dollars, and she planned to transfer the money to him when they got back to the cabin.
He laughed. “Well then, aren’t I the extremely generous new boyfriend?”
She cocked her head. “So, you’re my boyfriend now?”
“Do you want to continue seeing each other once all this is over?”
“Yes.” Absolutely. Maybe even desperately.
“Do you want to date anyone else?”
“No. And I don’t share.”
“Good. Me either. So yeah, based on those criteria, it sounds like we’re officially a couple.”
“Then I really need to find you a Christmas present. Or a Hanukkah present. Or whatever we decide to call it.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist. “I just thought of something you can give me. It’s like, one of my favorite things in the world. Doesn’t cost a thing.”
She brushed her lips over his. “I gave you that this morning already. And last night.”
“Yeah, but isn’t Hanukkah an eight-day event?”
She laughed. “This mixed-holiday relationship thing really is the best of all worlds, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Yes, it is.” He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I’m really quite crazy about you, Leah Ellis.”
Her body went all fluttery. Standing in the middle of a packed store with shoppers in a holiday frenzy shoving their way past on all sides, she was having a moment. Like a she-might-melt kind of moment. She found her voice. “I’m pretty crazy about you too, Hawk.”
He grinned at her use of his nickname.
She leaned into him and whispered, “And by the way, Hawk might be the sexiest nickname ever.”
“Let’s get the rest of the things we need and get out of here.”
They picked up more food—enough for a few days plus a leg of lamb for Christmas dinner—and condoms, and she managed to slip a few small puzzles and games in the cart that would serve as presents on Christmas Day.
Resupplied, they returned to the cozy cabin. As much as she wanted to relax and play and make love, now that she had a computer, she had work to do. She couldn’t access the HH servers with this machine, but she knew of a few back doors she could exploit.
Nate took over cooking, and she planted herself in front of the keyboard. She was immersed in the work, oblivious to everything as she hacked the HH email system. She lost all track of time until Nate placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s almost thirty minutes after sunset.”
Warmth flooded her at his re
minder. She placed her hand over his and squeezed. “Thank you. I’d have missed it and then been so mad at myself.”
He kissed her temple. “My pleasure.”
Nate stood by her side again as she said the blessing, then lit the menorah and set it in the window. They sat together on the couch with glasses of wine, watching the candles burn. She leaned against him, feeling so damn comfortable, it defied logic. But she’d decided to lean in and enjoy.
After a while, he asked, “Have you found anything on the computer?”
“A lot of bureaucratic emails. Nothing about me or why I was fired yet. A few alarming emails about problems with Peacemaker and some questions about who would fix it now that I’m out of the picture. Naturally, Dex stepped up to the plate. He’s wanted my job for three years now.”
“Could that be what this is about? A coup?”
“Maybe, but I don’t understand how Ainsley fits in. Or the fire. Or the car at Mt. Vernon. But I could totally see Dex doing something to make it look like I jeopardized national security to get me fired if he could.”
“Tell me about Peacemaker. Given the timing, it feels like this must relate somehow.”
“Peacemaker is the AI part of the drone. I—and my team, which includes Dex—finished the basic coding for it a year ago so we could roll it out for this holiday season. The events that are happening on Christmas Day are a special element—a specific Peacemaker dance that will only happen at three o’clock Eastern, noon Pacific on December twenty-fifth. That’s the piece I had to fix last week because Dex screwed it up. Each dance will be unique—depending on the number of drones at each event—but there’s a basic kaleidoscope pattern I created at the start. It will follow the laws of mirrors and flow into other patterns I set up. The flight is based on models developed to account for wind, velocity, battery life, and other variables.”
“So, just when I think I’ve wrapped my brain around how smart you are, you say something like that and my mind is blown again. I never considered that you can’t just write code like the kind that makes a computer or smartphone work. It has to work on a physical level with variables you can predict but can’t control. And you need…every combination. Wind, rain, heat.”
“Yes. But that’s the beauty of algorithms. They do the heavy lifting.”
“But you have to write the algorithm.”
She nodded. “Yes. That part is me. And my team.”
“So in two days, the big simultaneous Christmas Day events, that’s basically the pinnacle of everything you’ve been working on.”
“Yes. I spent four years developing the AI and most of the last year refining it. When all those drones take flight at three on Wednesday, that will be because of me. The Peacemaker concept was Tim Hathaway and Michelle Hollis’s idea, and they paid me the big bucks to make it work. Ainsley came up with the genius marketing plan, but no one would have anything to sell without me.”
She closed her eyes, thinking of all the long hours. The arguments. The celebrations when they finally nailed it. “Dex would have been reduced to little more than blubbering ego two years ago. Michelle—she’s got a strong programming background—knew it was beyond her ability, so she brought me in. The only other person in the company who might have the brains for it is Kevin Marks, but he’s young and a bit too blinded by his own greatness to know when to listen to others and how to work with a team.”
“Had you planned to go to one of the events?”
She nodded. “Wouldn’t miss it.” Then she frowned. “Except I guess I will.”
“You don’t have to miss it. We can go to one here or in the DC area. Which one had you planned to go to?”
“The one at the ballpark in DC. With the restrictions on flying drones in the district, it was hard to find a venue in the capital, so it’s the one event that HH is actually sponsoring. We got special permission given the proximity to Reagan National Airport for the drones to fly no higher than three hundred and fifty feet for twenty minutes on the twenty-fifth as long as they stay within the boundary of Nationals Park. It cost HH a fortune to rent the stadium on Christmas Day for an open, nonticketed event.”
“With sales through the roof, I have a feeling HH can afford it.”
“Yeah. Ainsley really was a genius.”
“You’re using past tense.”
“I feel sick at the possibility. She was my friend. Is my friend. God. I don’t know what tense to use.”
“How could she get into the townhouse?”
“She had a key. She used the townhouse when she traveled to the DC area—and she’d been there a lot to plan the stadium event. She’d asked if she could stay even when I was living there. Considering I’m barely there, I said sure. But she never stayed with me. I don’t know if she came down and stayed in a hotel or not. I was too busy with the Navy Yard contract and fixing Dex’s mess with Peacemaker.”
“Could she have been planting evidence for the NSA to find?”
“She worked in marketing, so it’s hard to imagine she’d have access to anything like that—or why she’d do it. We were friends.”
“It’s possible you aren’t the target, but HH is. It’s a cutthroat business, and HH is the current leader. Maybe a competitor wanted to bring the company down before the big event that seals your place in the top spot.”
“It would make sense to target Ainsley and me if that’s the motive. She and I are the two prongs of the company’s success this year. Her genius marketing, my coding. HH needs us both.”
“But you were fired and she went missing right as both your jobs were essentially complete.”
“Yes.” She considered HH’s competitors, many of whom had offered her jobs in the last two years, but even without a no-compete clause, Leah would have been loyal. She sat up straight. “A year ago, I fired a programmer who’d been working on Peacemaker. He was copying the code to either start his own company or take a job with a competitor.”
“How did you find out what he was doing?”
“Actually, it was Ainsley who caught him. She was working late one night and saw my office light on. My mother had just died, and she was surprised to see me working late, so she barged in to tell me to go home and discovered Rick Carson copying my files. He gave her some excuse—that I’d asked him to fill in, he was just helping out, but Ainsley knows me too well and called to confirm his story. I showed up twenty minutes later with security and fired him on the spot.”
“Sounds like a pretty strong suspect for revenge. He has a beef with you and Ainsley.”
“Yeah. A week later, he sent Ainsley a strobing gif in an email—Ainsley is epileptic and extremely photosensitive, and everyone in the office knew it. The lights on our drones don’t flash—they flow from one color to another—out of respect for her and others with photo sensitivities. She suffered a seizure in the office after opening the email. He was arrested and charged with assault. He pled guilty last summer to a misdemeanor.”
“Where is Rick Carson now?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll email Detective Brown and ask him to find out.” She shook her head. “If Rick tried to run me down yesterday and went after Ainsley, he must know he’d be the first suspect.”
“Which is why we can’t stop there. How big is HH?”
“We’re pretty small, at least on the technical end. A few dozen employees in the main office. There’s warehouse and distribution too, but China does all our manufacturing.”
“You know everyone?”
“In the main office, yes.”
“And you liked working there until yesterday?”
“Yes. It’s a diverse company with several women executives. Plus the co-owner, Michelle Hollis, is Black. So the atmosphere was good for women—which can be really hard to find in tech. My issues with Dex weren’t actually a big deal, because in the end, I was the boss and he knew he had to listen to me.
“What are your thoughts on Tim Hathaway?”
“He’s not as smart as Michelle, b
ut he was smart enough to team with her. He can be something of a blowhard, but he surrounds himself with good people and listens when it matters. He’s always wanted Dex to run the AI development team—and he made it clear he thought the fiasco with Rick was my fault. Michelle insisted I stay on as head of AI, and that was that. But now, with my firing, he—and Dex—got their wish, and there isn’t anything Michelle can do about it, because the military made the call.”
“What did Tim and Michelle think of you taking the military contract? I would think losing a key player as sales were skyrocketing would be a problem.”
“I think Tim wanted to send Dex to Washington, but the Navy wanted me. My work on Peacemaker was supposed to be done once the product shipped, so there was no reason to keep me in Philly when I could earn far more for HH if my military prototype could do half of what we promised.”
“Was Dex mad you got the job?”
“Probably, but it was the military’s choice. They wanted the Peacemaker coder, and that was me.”
“Who else works under you?”
“Dex Lowery, Kevin Marks, Jessica Griggs, Raju Singh, and Piper Lee.”
“Any of them have a beef with you or the company? Aside from Dex and Rick?”
“I don’t know. Kevin has a giant ego—like so many white twenty-seven-year-old males in tech—but in general, he can back it up. He really is that smart. But he makes mistakes and can be pretty whiney instead of acknowledging it and moving on. I’ve worked with dozens of guys like him over the years, and they usually improve with age and experience, but not always. I hope I’m not wrong about Kevin, because I was the one who hired him.”
“Any of the others a problem?”
“Not really. Raju has only been with HH about eighteen months. He works hard, meets his deadlines. Jessica has been there for three years. She and Dex bicker. He’ll lose it if she advances ahead of him, but she’s easier to work with even if she doesn’t quite have his skills. Piper is good. She’s young—only twenty-two—but she knows her stuff. She was hired to replace Rick and started about ten months ago. Peacemaker was in the bag, so she never worked on it. She’s working on next year’s big thing with Raju and Kevin.”