Sabotage

by Jessica Linden

  “Good morning,” Jonathan said. He withheld his smile, going for a more somber approach. Smart. Abbie was no public relations expert, but falling back on his charm in such a serious situation would make him appear flippant, like he didn’t take the allegations seriously. Which she knew he did. He could easily handle people attacking his policies, but his character? That wounded him.

  And goddamnit, Abbie would wound whoever had done this to him. She clenched her fists as she watched his speech before he took questions from reporters.

  “How does this affect your bid for the presidency?”

  “It doesn’t,” Jonathan said bluntly, “because I did not embezzle campaign funds, but rest assured I am cooperating with detectives to find out who compromised our systems and perpetrated this crime.”

  “How do we know your ‘friend’ at a certain agency won’t cover this up for you?”

  Jonathan’s jaw tightened. Most people probably wouldn’t notice it, but Abbie did. He was pissed. And so was she. It didn’t take a genius to insinuate who that “friend” was.

  She couldn’t watch anymore.

  “Turn it off,” Abbie commanded. “And get back to work.” The agent holding the remote glanced at her briefly before complying.

  She narrowed her eyes at the agent—Taylor Rickford. She was new. Could she be the one responsible for the reporters showing up? After all, she was the one who had apparently known about the press conference and turned on the TV. Maybe she—

  No. What the hell am I thinking?

  She rubbed her temples. She was not accusing her coworkers of sabotage.

  Director Oliver appeared in the doorway to her office. “Whitmore. My office.”

  Shit. Now what?

  Abbie had barely stepped through the door when Director Oliver spoke. “Close the door.”

  She did as she was told and sat in the uncomfortable chair across from the director’s desk.

  “I have a short-term assignment for you. The Ruby 38 mission is almost complete. The last step is to retrieve the intel that is being kept in a warehouse in Falls Church.”

  A smile threatened to take over Abbie’s face before she schooled it to a more neutral—and professional—expression. But damn, this was exactly what she needed—a chance to get out in the field on a real assignment.

  Part of her felt guilty for the joy coursing through her, but the truth was that she was basically twiddling her thumbs and getting in Sophie’s way. Sophie had skills that Abbie didn’t, and she knew it was better to let the other agent work her magic.

  But damn, it galled her to let someone else take the lead. And that was if she could trust Sophie. The woman even had the skills needed to hack—

  Stop. Jesus, what the hell is wrong with me?

  “When will I deploy?”

  Director Oliver shook her head. “Oh, no. You’ll be overseeing the operation from here.”

  Abbie’s heart sank. “Excuse me?”

  “Agent Hurst is already in position. She’s determining the optimal time to go in, which will most likely be in two days.” Oliver passed a file across the desk. “Familiarize yourself with the target and assemble a team. The building is bugged and has many security cameras. You’ll be the agent’s eyes and ears.”

  “Ma’am, Agent Hurst is still a junior agent. Perhaps she would benefit from—”

  “No. I know what you’re about to say—you want to go in with her—but it has already been determined that she’s better off on her own. She’s spent the last six months undercover on this assignment and introducing a new individual on the scene would warrant unneeded attention.”

  Abbie closed her eyes briefly and bit her tongue. “I see.” No matter how much she was dying to go on a mission, her selfish desires were not worth jeopardizing the mission—or an agent’s safety. “I’ll review the materials and report back shortly.”

  Director Oliver leaned back in her chair and chuckled. “Cheer up, Agent. You look as if I just ran over your dog—which I know you don’t have, because that would require too much maintenance. You remind me of myself in that way. So I’ll do you a favor and tell you something that took me way too long to learn—sometimes being the best agent means knowing when to hand over the reins to someone else.”

  Abbie nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  After she left the director’s office, she thought about her words. She wasn’t a glory hog, was she? True, she did subscribe to the “if you want something done right, do it yourself” motto, but she had let Sophie take the lead searching for the hacker. She could be a team player if the situation warranted it.

  She stubbornly ignored the fact that she’d spent the morning breathing down the other woman’s neck. But that was on a personal case. If it were a regular case, she’d act differently.

  Sure, keep telling yourself that.

  Goddamnit, they’d better find this hacker soon. This case had her completely unhinged and questioning everything. She needed things to get back to normal.

  Except she wasn’t sure what normal was anymore.

  Chapter 19

  Jonathan handed the copy of the speech to Earl and sighed. “Well, that couldn’t have gone any worse.”

  Earl tucked the paper into his briefcase. “That’s not true. Things can always be worse.”

  “You’re right.” Since when had Jonathan become the “woe is me” type? It wasn’t like him to wallow. He was a solution-oriented kind of guy, which is how he’d gotten this far. “You’re right,” he said again, more to convince himself of that fact.

  Two months from now, this would be behind him. Hell, it’s not like it was Watergate. Soon, the newspapers running the embezzlement story would be long recycled and no one would even remember it.

  He rolled his shoulders and rotated his neck, trying to work out the kinks. He needed a break. Maybe he’d call Abbie and see if she was free for lunch. She was probably planning to eat at her desk—they both did that most days—and it would benefit both of them to go out. Maybe the Chinese restaurant again. Surely, reporters wouldn’t find them there a second time.

  He pulled his new phone out to make the call, but his fingers paused over the Send button when he caught sight of his buddy Steve outside his office. Based on the expression on his face, this wasn’t a friendly visit.

  “Hey, Steve,” he said.

  Steve nodded, but didn’t say anything else until they were safely behind the closed door of Jonathan’s office. “Things aren’t looking good.”

  His friend never was one to beat around the bush.

  “I know.” Jonathan sighed. “My people aren’t getting anywhere. Whoever did this is good.”

  “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but charges are going to be brought against you.”

  “When?”

  “I’m not exactly sure, but soon. Some of your ‘friends’ in Congress have contacts high up in the bureau. They have it out for you.”

  None of the other congressmen had spoken out against him publicly, but politics wasn’t a dirty word for nothing. He was surprised it’d taken some of them this long to go for his jugular. It was certainly exposed.

  “Thanks for letting me know,” Jonathan said.

  Steve shook his head bitterly before pulling himself to his feet. “And you said politics was safer than law enforcement.”

  Chapter 20

  Abbie flipped through Agent Hurst’s painstakingly detailed file, admitting reluctantly to herself that the agent had covered all her bases. There wasn’t a single thing she would have done differently.

  Good. That should make the operation smooth and routine, with little risk of injury. If things went according to plan, the entire ordeal would take less than twenty minutes.

  Sophie would appropriate the security cameras already in place for their use. Abbie would be the point of contact for the team, and would provide direction to Agent Hurst through her earpiece.

  Even though she’d much rather be on the other end of things, Abbie’s adren
aline had kicked up a notch as she’d pored through the file, taking notes on strategy and contingency plans.

  This sure as hell beat playing receptionist.

  Out of breath, Sophie came skidding to a halt in front of her desk. “We’ve got something on the case tracking you and Jonathan.”

  “The hacker?”

  Sophie nodded, and Abbie shot out of her chair. She knew he would mess up.

  Abbie followed Sophie to her desk, where Sophie brought up a screen that looked like something out of The Matrix.

  “This here—”

  Abbie put her hand up before the other agent could get into a spiel. “None of the technical crap. Tell me in layman’s terms. And quickly.”

  Sophie was thorough—that was one of the things Abbie liked about her, but sometimes when Sophie got into a technical diatribe, there was no stopping her.

  “Someone is skimming credit cards at a café as we speak. I pulled up the security camera feed, but it’s partially obscured. But I’d bet anything it’s him. Whoever is doing this is good. If I hadn’t already been looking, I never would have found it. It might be a long shot, but we know this guy’s close, right?”

  Abbie nodded. Technically, he could hack from the other side of the world if he wanted, but it didn’t fit the profile. His ego would require him to be close.

  “Where?”

  “Bonum Café in Georgetown.”

  That was right across the Potomac. Abbie could be there in minutes. Finally. This was the break they needed.

  “Let’s go,” Abbie said. She hightailed it to the stairwell, not wanting to waste time waiting for the elevator. It was only four flights. She took the steps two at a time, her heels clicking on the concrete while Sophie tried to keep up. She already had the engine running in the sleek black Cartwright Agency sedan by the time Sophie opened the passenger door. They were peeling out of the parking lot before Sophie could buckle her seat belt.

  Abbie tapped her thumb on the smooth leather of the steering wheel as she navigated through traffic to the Key Bridge. It wasn’t rush hour yet, and they were going into DC, not out. Traffic shouldn’t be an issue. So what was the holdup?

  She contemplated pulling out the siren and slapping it on the roof of the car, but they were gridlocked. There would be no way for her to get through.

  “Sophie, find out what the hell the deal is.”

  Sophie’s fingers tapped on her phone and she grimaced. “Left lane on the bridge is blocked by a broken-down vehicle.”

  Abbie pounded her fist on the steering wheel. “Dammit!” Just when she thought they’d caught a break. She could pull a U-turn and take the Theodore Roosevelt, but that might take even more time than waiting it out here.

  She sighed. “Call the locals. See how quickly they can get there.”

  She hadn’t wanted to do that, hadn’t wanted to do anything that might tip him off. She and Sophie could blend in in a way that uniforms simply couldn’t. The likelihood of a plainclothes cop being the first responder was slim.

  Sophie made the call. “ETA is six minutes.” She grinned. “We got a plainclothes.”

  “Yes!”

  This situation might be salvageable after all.

  Thirteen minutes later, she pulled to a stop in front of the café and double parked. The owner of the Jaguar beside her would be pissed, but such was life.

  Out front, she met a man in a suit. Though he was in plainclothes, she pegged him as a cop the second she saw him.

  The fact that he was out front instead of inside could only mean one thing: the hacker wasn’t there.

  He held out his hand. “Agent Whitmore, I presume? I’m Detective Carnes.”

  Abbie took his hand and then gestured to Sophie. “This is Agent Walters.”

  The detective shook her hand as well. “I got here in five minutes flat, but your man wasn’t there. The place is empty except for an elderly couple and they only arrived recently. There was no one with a laptop in there all day.”

  Abbie’s shoulders slumped. “Thank you for getting here so quickly.”

  “No problem. Sorry I don’t have better news.”

  Abbie glanced over at Sophie, who was shaking her head.

  “He was here,” Sophie said adamantly.

  Abbie pulled open the front door and a bell tied to the handle with blue yarn jingled. The café was quaint, with worn wooden tables and chairs that had seen better days. Miscellaneous art hung on the wall, everything from professional-looking watercolors to drawings that looked like they’d been done by a five-year-old.

  Abbie gestured toward the barista and Sophie nodded, striding over to talk to her. Abbie headed toward the elderly couple.

  She smiled, hoping to come off more like a patron than an agent. “This place is so cute! Are you a regular?”

  “Yes, we’re here every afternoon,” the woman replied.

  “I usually stick to Starbucks, but lately, it’s become so busy, you know? I need a quiet place to work. Maybe this can be my spot. Is it usually this empty here in the afternoons?”

  The elderly man nodded. “It’s almost always just us sitting down, but people come and go. Except the last week or two, there’s been that one fella.” He nodded toward the other side of the room. “But he’s quiet. Don’t say hello to nobody or nothing. Almost unfriendly.”

  Unfriendly. That description would fit a hacker. They weren’t known to be the most social sort.

  Abbie nodded. “Thanks.” She wandered over to the seat the man had indicated. Sophie met her there and handed her a warm cup.

  “Coffee’s actually pretty good,” Sophie commented.

  Abbie murmured, barely paying attention. She set her cup down and ran her fingers along the scarred tabletop. “He’s been here. At least once.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  Abbie traced her fingers over faintly carved words on the table. Though they were fresh, they weren’t obvious in the mix of all the deep scratches.

  But she saw them, all right.

  I see you, Abbie.

  Chapter 21

  “Oh, shit.”

  Abbie cocked her head. That phrase never meant good news. “What’s up, Sophie?”

  “Oh, shit. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”

  Abbie rose and walked over to Sophie’s workstation. On her screen was what appeared to be the guts of the systems software—lines and lines of code that made no sense to Abbie’s untrained eye.

  “Sophie?”

  “Shit, shit, shit. This is bad.” The look in her eyes was murderous and her hands shook.

  Now Abbie was really concerned. Sophie didn’t get rattled easily.

  “The son of a bitch got in,” Sophie whispered. “He shouldn’t have been able to do that.” She did a few keystrokes, then cursed again.

  “Sophie,” Abbie said sharply. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  Sophie’s eyes met hers and they cleared. “We need to shut the systems down. All of them.”

  As long as she’d been at the agency, their systems had run twenty-four seven, but Abbie didn’t hesitate. Sophie knew her shit.

  “Ladies!” Abbie called out, moving to her own computer. “Save your work and shut the units down. Now.”

  Though the other agents’ eyes showed surprise, they did as they were told. Sophie paced and wrung her hands the entire sixty-four seconds it took.

  “The computers are off,” Abbie said. “Now can you tell us what’s going on?”

  “Our security has been breached,” Sophie said flatly.

  Abbie closed her eyes briefly, letting it sink in. A security breach for an agency such as theirs was second only to the death of an agent. In other words, it was one of the worst-case scenarios.

  “How bad is it?”

  “I won’t know until I get in there, but it looks bad. Really bad. This shouldn’t have happened. It’s never happened before.” Sophie was visibly shaken. “He could have taken everything.”

  Abbie didn’t need to ask
who the “he” was.

  “Find proof so we can nail his ass.”

  “Count on it,” Sophie said.

  Abbie pulled her phone out to complete the unenviable task of contacting Director Oliver to let her know about the breach.

  Agents in the field were contacted and instructed not to log into the system remotely. Then Abbie sent most of the on-site agents packing. There was no point keeping them at the office if there was nothing they could do. Their hovering and murmuring put Sophie on edge.

  Though Abbie had to check herself to keep from doing the same. She racked her mind, trying to figure out what the hacker could do with the data that had been compromised. A sick feeling came over her as the answer hit her.

  Whatever the hell he wanted.

  Chapter 22

  Abbie was surprised to see Jonathan already at home when she arrived. It was a quarter after six, early for both of them. He met her at the door and took her jacket and briefcase from her, leaning in for a kiss.

  “Has hell frozen over?” she asked.

  “I wish,” he retorted, not needing to ask what she was referring to. “I had to get out of there. I needed a break.”

  Abbie could say the same, but for different reasons. She was more bored at work these days than anything else. She could use a break from the boredom.

  Although today had been less than boring. She would have preferred boring.

  She quickly filled Jonathan in on the security breach. “Sophie’s been working on it all day. She won’t let anyone else near the computers, so I finally left. I think my hovering was annoying her.”

  “And you think the person responsible was…” Jonathan left his sentence unfinished as they moved into the kitchen.

  “Of course.” Abbie rubbed at a knot in her neck. “But there’s no proof yet that ties everything together. He’s good. If he weren’t such an asshole, I’d admire him. Sophie says he’s easily one of the best hackers she’s ever come across, which pisses me off more.”

  Jonathan uncorked a bottle of white. “Wine?”