Matched with a Hot SEAL (Hot SEALs)

by Cat Johnson

  Had she broken up with Will? Had Will broken up with her and that had sent her back to Jerry?

  And why hadn’t Sara said anything to her last night?

  Jessa had just opened her mouth to start asking some of those questions when Sara said, “I have to go. I’ll call you later after I get there.”

  In shock, Jessa stood with the cell in one hand long after her sister had disconnected.

  What the hell was going on?

  CHAPTER 3

  Will had stayed up much too late the night before. But standing in the front of the packed meeting room now, presenting the program he’d created for some of the richest and most powerful men in the country, woke him right up.

  “Tracking the traffic to the terrorist social media site shows they have visitors from not only all over the globe, but from all over the United States as well.”

  He flipped to the next slide.

  The meeting room was illuminated only by the light of his presentation being projected onto the whiteboard wall.

  He couldn’t see the expressions of all the people filling the darkened room but he could imagine them. Shock. Horror. Disbelief.

  That last one—the lack of belief that this could be happening—was his job to dispel.

  No problem. Nothing he loved more than a challenge.

  Actually, there was one thing he loved more. Cold hard indisputable facts. And presenting those facts to skeptics, doubters and pompous fools who dared to dispute him.

  Some of those invited to the presentation today were disbelievers. Mostly they were the CEOs. The founders of the social media platforms that had made them very wealthy and powerful men.

  The same platforms were also making ISIS and organizations like them rich and powerful by gleaning them new followers. Fresh blood. And though they didn’t believe it, a not inconsiderable portion were good old, red blooded Americans.

  Some in the room did believe Will. He saw it in their expressions as he introduced the topic of the day—terrorist recruitment on social media.

  They knew. The problem was, not being the CEOs and founders, the low level techies who’d made their bosses so much money had no power to make changes.

  Truth be told, Will didn’t have a whole lot of power either. Even for the Naval Special Warfare department, spying on Americans was a no-no. But there was plenty Will could find out legally with information readily available.

  “In 2014, Facebook refused to take down an ISIS fan page with six thousand members.” He heard the sharp intake of breath and had no doubt it came from the side of the room where executives from that very company sat. He continued, “I give you that statistic only as a point of comparison. Today, in 2017, a similar page has membership numbers and engagement levels any brand would kill for.”

  The slide up on screen now showed in detail the huge number of members, stats on their engagement, and the demographics of the visitors, including their location.

  Again there was a collective gasp, this time spread across the room. The numbers were impressive and horrifying.

  Will flipped to the next slide—a map similar to those used by the cell phone companies to show their coverage areas across the country. There was not one US state or territory that the terrorist hadn’t penetrated.

  “They’re sophisticated in their use. They hijack popular hash tags. They use memes. They exploit popular products. They run targeted ads. Some are more subtle, perception management operations, propaganda operations. Others are more overt and want to remain visible. They want to frighten good people. And they want to inspire those who seek to do harm.”

  As he spoke, Will flipped through screenshots, examples of each. It was nothing the personnel of these sites didn’t already know. But seeing their interfaces, displaying their logos, being used to promote terror had to have an impact on them and that’s exactly what Will wanted.

  He understood their dilemma. It was a slippery slope between protecting individuals’ rights and curbing the spread of terrorism. It was the same issue the FBI wrestled with while working under the constraint of the Constitution.

  But if his program could accurately identify those who knowingly assisted foreign terrorist organizations, it would drop some of the First Amendment barriers on counterintelligence operations . . . which, since beginning this project, Will now knew more about than he’d ever imagined or cared to.

  “Twitter and YouTube and Facebook have shut down accounts.” Will wanted to make sure they got credit for their efforts, but he was trying to impart to them that it wasn’t going to be enough. “That’s a start. But the reality is every user who has a smartphone also has the means to broadcast publicly to thousands, if not millions of people.”

  “So how do we combat that? We already have people watching for inappropriate content. Reporting buttons so other users can police the site. But it’s impossible to catch a hundred percent and there will always be a time delay.” The comments came from the back of the room.

  “Excellent question.” Will spun to face the room.

  “And do you have an excellent answer?” The speaker’s attitude only made Will smile.

  He’d had worse feedback from better men. One CTO who never left his desk chair wasn’t going to intimidate Will, who’d faced everyone from the commander of the Navy to Osama bin Laden.

  “I do.” Will said. “AI.”

  “We already have computers that crawl the site.”

  “Not like this, you don’t. Social networks use algorithms and track patterns to help them crack down on violations of their policies, as well as on faulty reports. But they are in a perpetual beta state because the strategies used to evade detection constantly evolve. My solution can evolve as well. This is an autonomous system based on machine learning and artificial intelligence. It detects any content in violation of site policy with ninety-seven percent accuracy and takes action in response. And in the case of identifying posts made by bots, ninety-nine percent accuracy.”

  “It can recognize and remove offensive posts and video accurately and immediately?” The man shook his head. “That kind of artificial intelligence doesn’t exist.”

  Will grinned wide. “It does now.”

  It could also accurately identify the poster’s location—down to street level. So a drone could take them out if they happened to be ISIS.

  Will kept that detail to himself and continued, “And it’s got a nice little feature that can replace the offensive posts, at the same URL, with whatever we want. So for instance a terror propaganda video can be replaced with, let’s say, a video of a Muslim youth questioning the tactics of the terror group. Or one showing the horrors of what life is really like for members inside the caliphate.”

  Enjoying the exchange, Will waited for the response.

  “Who developed this?” His opponent seemed more upset that his company couldn’t claim the honor, rather than being excited for the potential of this tool.

  Will enjoyed telling him, “I did.”

  The tech guys sat up a little straighter, some of them with hands raised.

  Feeling all-powerful at the front of the room, Will pointed to one. “Question?”

  “Which platforms did you test on?”

  Will walked to the wall and flipped on the lights. Partly because he was done using the screen. Mostly so he could enjoy the expressions on the faces of his audience.

  “Most extensively on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter since those are the bad guys’ favorites. But I also tried it out on Instagram, Periscope and Snapchat.”

  “And it worked on all platforms?”

  “It did.” Will nodded.

  The man’s eyes widened. “With the same accuracy?”

  “Yeah. Give or take a percentage point.”

  “How?” That question from the CEO was less than friendly.

  “How what, sir?”

  “How the hell did you test it?”

  “If you mean how did I get in to your networks to run the tests?” He sh
ot his commander a glance. Mike Groenning nodded, so Will answered, “The back door.”

  There was a collective look of fear amid the tech guys who knew they’d be working overtime to close that backdoor Will had found and exploited.

  They should all be glad he was the one to discover the vulnerability in their networks’ defenses. It could have easily been someone else with more nefarious intentions. The shadowy figures who operated on the Dark Net.

  Will spent a considerable portion of time in the seedy basement of the web looking for the worst of the worst as part of his work for the Navy.

  Another hand went up and the brave tech guy said, “Can we test this ourselves?”

  “That’s the plan.” As eyes widened around the room, Will continued, “Check your emails. There’s the link to the beta version, along with a user name and password.”

  That answer spurred a flurry around him as every techie in the room whipped out their cell phone.

  Will’s commander stepped closer. Groenning kept his voice low as he said, “I think you got their attention.”

  Will let out a snort. “About damn time.”

  “I agree. So what’s next?”

  “We convince them to turn over user data so we can track down the recruits?” Will asked, only half joking.

  His commander laughed. “I wish. Short of that, what do you have in mind?”

  “We turn the code over to them so they can roll it out platform wide.”

  “The terrorists will just find another way, you know.”

  “I know. But it’s gonna piss them off until they do.” Will shot his commander a sideways glance and saw him smirk.

  “Hell, yeah, it will.” He laughed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, Weber?”

  Will’s gaze swept the room, which was getting louder by the second as the chaos increased. “Oh yeah. This is the most action I’ve seen in a while. Been a little slow around here.”

  He craved the challenge of a good op, but their assignments had fallen to nothing recently.

  Not that he didn’t mind the extra time home with Sara. And the team cooling its heels stateside was one reason he’d had all that extra time on his hands to finish the beta on this project. Still, he didn’t work his ass off to get accepted into the Naval Special Warfare DEVGRU program just to ride a desk for the rest of his career.

  He was a highly trained SEAL operative. He wanted to use his skills for something other than more training.

  “Be careful what you wish for,” Groenning warned.

  Will turned. “Yeah? You got something coming?”

  “Maybe. And maybe you’ll be too busy holding tech guys’ hands as they try to test your program and you won’t be able to join us.”

  Will’s mouth fell open. “No way. You wouldn’t make me stay behind, would you?”

  Groenning grinned. “No. But I was just shitting you anyway. I got nothing. Seriously.”

  Will frowned, which only had his commander laughing as he slapped him on the back. “I think some of your new minions want to talk to you, oh computer god of Black Squadron.”

  “Hmm.” Will stroked his chin. “I like that. I think I’ll get it made into a T-shirt. Or maybe a coffee mug.”

  “You track down the location of that sleeper cell we’ve been looking for and I’ll buy them both for you myself.”

  Will tipped his head in a nod. “You got it.”

  It wasn’t until much later, after he’d answered countless questions from the techies and dodged nearly as many unhappy glances from the CEOs, that Will had time to break away.

  There were no texts waiting for him from Sara so he scrolled through his contacts to call her.

  When the automated voice came on telling him the number he’d dialed had been disconnected he frowned, hit to end the call and then redialed.

  The annoying computer generated tones followed by the standard message that the number he was trying to call was no longer in service came on again.

  What the hell?

  Were the cell towers down or something? Or, and this was more likely, had she forgotten to pay the bill? She insisted on having a month-to-month cellular plan.

  It would make sense to have it on auto-pay, but what he thought made sense and what Sara thought made sense didn’t always agree.

  Huffing out a breath, he scrolled through his contact list and found her sister Jessa’s number. After four years of being with Sara, he had her sister’s contact info in his phone.

  Sara lived with Jessa. He’d just call her and tell her Sara’s cell wasn’t working.

  He could email to tell Sara that her phone was screwed up, but she wasn’t as obsessed with a clean inbox as he was. She’d go days sometimes without checking emails.

  “Hello?” Jessa’s voice came through his cell.

  “Jessa. Hey, it’s Will. Sara’s cell phone isn’t working. She isn’t around, is she?”

  She was silent for a few seconds. Too long given the simple question he’d asked.

  Will glanced at the display. The call hadn’t dropped so he said, “Jess?”

  “She didn’t tell you?” Jessa asked, her voice weak and breathy.

  “Tell me what?”

  “Um, Will, she left.”

  “Oh, okay. Just give her the message then, when she gets back tonight. I don’t know if the cell is just not receiving calls because something’s wrong with that cheap ass carrier she uses or if it’s completely turned off because she didn’t pay—”

  “No, Will, she’s gone. She moved out.”

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “She packed her bags and left late last night. It was after ten o’clock, I guess.”

  His brow furrowed deeper. “Where did she go?”

  “You don’t know? She didn’t talk to you about this at all?”

  “No. She came over last night. Stayed about an hour then said she had to go home to be with you. Last I heard from her was a text she sent me late last night . . .” Which he got not that long after Jessa said she’d left.

  He thought back over the content of that text. Now, in light of his girlfriend’s cell being disconnected and the fact she’d left town in the middle of the night, he had to reconsider those words.

  It wasn’t her saying she loved him. It was Sara saying goodbye.

  “Jessa, where did she go?” He fought the sick feeling as he repeated the question he’d never gotten an answer to.

  “She went back home.”

  Home.

  “Alabama?” he asked, though he really didn’t have to.

  “Yes.”

  Where her ex-husband lived . . .

  “Maybe she just went to get the rest of her stuff. When is she coming back?” he asked.

  “Um . . .” Jessa’s pause said more than her words had.

  The pieces started to fall into place. Christ. How had he been so blind?

  “She’s not coming back is she?” He let out a laugh, because if he didn’t there was a good chance he’d start to cry.

  “I don’t think so.”

  Funny, Will could read people easily, except for the one woman he’d been with for years. Apparently when it came to Sara he had a big fucking blind spot. He’d had no idea that when he kissed her goodbye at the door last night, it would be the last time.

  “All right. Thanks, Jess.”

  “Will?”

  “Yeah?”

  He needed to get off the damn phone before he actually did break down right there in the middle of the hallway on base in front of all the SEALs he had to work with on a daily basis.

  “Are you gonna be okay?” Her kindness—or more accurately her pity—wasn’t helping the tenuous state of his emotions.

  “Yeah. Just fine. Thanks again.” He lowered the cell and disconnected the call before she could say anything else.

  In shock, he stood, unable to move. Too bad he was still able to feel. And think.

  His mind swirled, analyzing the facts. The clues he’d
missed. The last moments they’d spent together. The last words they spoke. The last time they’d made love, barely hours before she’d left town . . . and him.

  What the ever loving fuck?

  “Hey, Wonka!”

  He ran a shaky hand over his face as the tears really did threaten to fill his eyes, before he turned and saw his teammate Tompkins.

  “Yeah?”

  “They need you in the meeting room.”

  “On my way.”

  Jesus Christ, now he needed to go present his program, as well as his plan, to the head of the special task force in charge of terrorist internet recruiting. And since he’d been working on the project on the military’s dime for months, he’d better do a good fucking job at proving he hadn’t wasted everyone’s time and money.

  Great. Nothing like a little pressure . . .

  Fucking Sara. She could break his heart, but he’d be damned if she ruined his military career. The anger had his jaw tensing.

  The hurt and the pain were still there, but the rage made it bearable. He grabbed on to it with both hands. Embraced it. Loved it.

  Will had a feeling this anger was going to be his best friend, his constant companion, for a good long time to come. But now, he had work to do.

  Bring it on.

  CHAPTER 4

  Back teeth clenched, Jessa clutched the cell phone in her hand and fumed. There was one way to get this anger out and she knew exactly what that was.

  Scrolling through her contact list she found her sister’s name and punched the screen with one finger. Exactly as Will had said had happened when he’d tried, the automated out of service message greeted Jessa, rather than her sister’s voice.

  Lips pressed tightly together, she scrolled to the only other number she had to try, the house in Alabama. The one Sara had sworn she’d never go back to as she made a new life for herself in Virginia for the past four and a half years.

  The house she’d driven to last night.

  Usually people who changed their minds about a decision didn’t take almost five years to do it, but Sara always had been over the top.

  She was only a year younger than Jessa but sometimes she acted like a child. This was definitely one of those times.