Promises in the Dark

by Stephanie Tyler

  Never one to trust, her father had installed a crucial safeguard into the program that would give him the ability to shut it down if one of the nuclear plant’s alarms was turned off illegally.

  The problem was, although the program was complete for all intents and purposes, the safeguard wasn’t working properly. She couldn’t fix it as of yet and she did not want to be responsible for what could happen if she handed it over as is. She was sure her father would not have wanted that either. Not after what happened when he was working in software development for the government, when a program of his was nearly used by a homegrown extremist group to trigger explosives in an office building in two major cities in California. Thankfully, the FBI had managed to stop the bombing, but after the dust cleared her father had been fired, even though he swore he hadn’t been the one to tweak the program to allow the sabotage. He cited a co-worker as the saboteur but had no evidence.

  From that day onward, his distrust of the government grew a thousandfold and continued to fester until the day of his death. So even though his programs were created to be secure enough to prevent any break-in, Lawrence Clare never took chances.

  She was for sure her father’s daughter, and yet, going against her instincts she took the chance and told Caleb about the safeguard—why it had been placed inside the program and how she hadn’t been able to get it to work.

  “So you’d be able to shut down InLine’s computers with that?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “But let me guess—you wouldn’t dream of doing that, you’re just doing what your father would’ve wanted for the good of the country.”

  She flushed. “I’d be more than willing to hand the safeguard information to InLine and Homeland Security. Monitoring them is not a job I would want. I don’t think the program is affected if the safeguard isn’t functioning, but I have no real way of knowing. But this is an important project—I have a real problem handing something over that isn’t perfect.”

  “You had no problem taking InLine’s money.” Caleb gave a small smile as he spoke, but his eyes were pure ice.

  Now she struggled, repeated the words she’d told the man interrogating her over and over: “As I’ve said, at the time I didn’t know that my father took half the contract’s money for the program. We didn’t work together on it. If I had the money, I would return it, but I won’t hand over incomplete software—it’s far too dangerous.”

  Cael shrugged, unconvinced. “If that helps you sleep better.”

  “I don’t sleep well,” she shot back. It was only then that the man, the one she would reluctantly call handsome, even though at the moment she hated his guts, released her.

  Not that there was anywhere for her to go. But still, the small taste of freedom energized her. “I’ve told you exactly what happened with that software. You can verify it with my lawyers. They know everything—and Homeland Security knows about my current project in development. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  Caleb didn’t say anything but his smirk seemed to say he wasn’t buying it.

  “Call them.” She rattled off the attorney’s number. “The same information’s in my BlackBerry—the one you confiscated.”

  He didn’t say anything, simply walked her back down the hallway and opened the door to the windowless room.

  It was, thankfully, empty, but that didn’t mean getting locked back in there was any easier. “Don’t I at least get a phone call?” she asked before he closed the door.

  “You’re not under arrest.”

  “So I can go?”

  “No. And trust me, you’re going to wish you were under arrest.”

  With that, the door closed and she let her head sink into her arms on the table in front of her. But she refused to cry and she held that victory tight.

  After he’d watched Kell interrogate Vivienne and get basically nowhere—a rarity for Kell—Caleb decided to do some interrogating of his own.

  He was glad he did, had a feeling she would open up to him, despite the fact he’d been the one to kidnap her.

  Armed with the new information regarding the safeguard on the software, he headed to Noah Wright’s office to share the news.

  As he knocked, he thought about Vivi’s head in his lap for the entire two-hour ride. How Mace couldn’t stop laughing and Gray tried to keep a straight face while he drove, but Cael saw the smirk anyway.

  Fuckers, both of them.

  He rubbed his wrist that was marked from the cuff, letting go to push open the door when he heard Noah’s “Enter.”

  As usual, Noah didn’t waste time. “If Lawrence Clare’s systems for InLine Energy is as good as Homeland Security says it could be, DMH is holding a ticking time bomb.”

  “I’ve got some news on that front.” He repeated what Vivi told him about the safeguard.

  Noah sat back and tapped two fingers together thoughtfully. “So there’s a back door into the program that can be accessed remotely to stop an attack on InLine’s system if need be. Lawrence thought ahead.”

  “Sounds like Lawrence was paranoid as shit,” Cael muttered, and Noah nodded.

  “I’ll have Gray look at the safeguard. Did Vivienne give any indication as to whether or not the software could be used successfully without the safeguard working?”

  “She’s pretty sure it could, although she’s not willing to stake her life on it.”

  “Smart girl,” Noah conceded.

  “What we need to find out is if DMH has found the safeguard—and whether they’re hesitating to use the program because they don’t realize the safeguard is useless.”

  “Useless right now.” Noah sat forward. “Vivienne needs to fix that safeguard. She also needs to tell us everything she knows about the program—how it can be utilized. I need every possibility and I want to hear it from her. She’ll do it under your constant watch. And she’ll do it fast.”

  Caleb should’ve seen that one coming. “Wouldn’t Gray be better off taking the lead on this one, given his proclivity for this kind of op?”

  Noah crossed his arms and stared Caleb down for questioning his order with a look that would normally have Cael shitting his pants. “Gray can work the program from here. But she responds to you. You can’t deny that.”

  “Stockholm syndrome,” he muttered.

  “It’s all we’ve got right now.” Noah’s voice remained steely. “We’re keeping her on-post so she’ll be safe.”

  Caleb caught himself before he snorted. Yeah, Vivi would surely feel safe after being kidnapped and then shoved into a house and told to work on a program in order to save her life. “She acts like she doesn’t know the program’s been stolen. She’s insisting that she told InLine Energy the program was unfinished and that they want their money back because she hasn’t honored the contract. She acts like she’s still working on it. She contacted attorneys about what the next steps should be.”

  “I heard all of that, yes.”

  “Do you believe her?”

  “Do you?” Noah asked.

  Cael hesitated briefly before nodding. With that, Noah slid the laptop across the desk and motioned for Caleb to sit and read.

  Cael did. Noah had run a check on the lawyers’ names that she’d mentioned—and had come up empty. “What the hell?”

  “According to Mace, who went to pay them a visit, the lawyers are gone—no sign of files, no sign she’d ever worked with them.”

  “You think DMH—or whoever stole the program—did that?”

  “I do now, based on the intel you’ve received regarding the safeguard.”

  “They just realized too late that they’ll need Vivienne to bypass it.” A chill ran up Cael’s spine and he realized that his team had probably gotten to Vivi just in time to save her life. The last screen on the computer proved it—a live feed run from Vivi’s house by Gray, which showed a group of men ransacking it just hours after Cael had taken her out.

  Ransacking and looking for Vivienne.

  Whether it
was DMH or not, those men had been planning on grabbing her. And she might’ve had no idea.

  Or she might know everything and this could be some elaborate scheme to keep the military and Homeland Security off the scent of a totally different but equally destructive plan to hurt the United States. “Any other family of Vivi’s we need to worry about?”

  Noah shook his head. “Both parents are dead. There are some of her mother’s ex-husbands, but Vivienne lived with her father after the divorce. Looks like her house is currently in foreclosure—it’s been that way for quite a while. She’s been attempting to make payments but she’s got a lot of debt.”

  “DMH would pay a lot more than the United States for her programs,” Caleb said.

  “Homeland Security’s aware and involved. The FBI has been interested in having her work with them in the cyber crimes division, so I’m hoping they’ll get off their asses and help.” Noah slid a set of keys across the desk. Private quarters. “For now, Delta’s involved, charged with keeping her safe. Whatever you need, I’ll get it for you.”

  Caleb stood, pocketed the keys. “Do I tell her all of this?”

  “Yes. She needs to know, has to know the extent of the ramifications, whether she’s responsible or not,” Noah said before he dismissed Cael and picked up his phone.

  Caleb left, closed the door behind him and stood there for a few moments to let the weight of all he’d learned settle in. In reality, Vivi could well be in collusion with DMH, yet he couldn’t reconcile that with the earnestness of the woman he’d spoken to earlier. They would believe her with a great deal of caution. And then he headed back to the room Vivi was being held in.

  Mace had joined Gray at the door, and both men were waiting silently for his return.

  “I’m taking her to one of the private quarters. Which I’m sure you already know,” Caleb said, and Mace nodded.

  “It’s spooky, man. The lawyers’ offices were stripped bare. There’s no record of either attorney,” Mace said quietly, although there was no way Vivi could hear anything. “Kell and Reid dusted her house for prints earlier—Noah sent them back for another round to see if the guys who broke in left any behind.”

  “Think she’s got any idea of what’s happened?” Gray asked.

  Cael could see through Vivi the way he could see through glass—she was telling the truth. Had no idea that the lawyers she mentioned were gone and that her father’s software had been stolen out from under her. “I think she’s clueless.”

  But not for long.

  Gray shrugged. “If someone had access to her computers, they could’ve copied the program. I’d go with that rather than a hack—she’d be protected from a hacker. But she lives alone, has no real social life. She wouldn’t be expecting someone to sit down at her computer and download from it.”

  “How do we know her staying here doesn’t put the post in jeopardy?” Mace asked.

  “DMH would be crazy to try to grab her here,” Caleb said, although that didn’t convince any of them—if DMH needed her that badly, they would go to any lengths. But Noah had to have weighed both the risks and the consequences before making his decision.

  “What about clearance protocol?” Mace asked.

  “I’m keeping her computers here—I’ll give her a couple of brand-new ones with a program installed that lets me monitor what she’s doing. I’ll give you a copy of her program on a Zip drive for her to load. Put her on a separate network and you’re good to go,” Gray explained.

  “She could still hack into the base’s security, if she’s as good as you say,” Mace argued.

  “She’s in a shitload of trouble. She’s going to cooperate if she wants to get out of this mess,” Caleb said grimly.

  “If she’s not DMH’s decoy,” Mace muttered, and if Vivi wasn’t, for sure she had a large target painted on her back.

  Reid and Kell had spent half an hour going through her place, gathering all the computers and files and backup equipment. Everything electronic. They also found a lockbox that contained her birth certificate and social security card, passport too, and they’d grabbed her purse, with her wallet and checkbook.

  But they’d left everything else behind. And, from the looks of the surveillance tapes, they’d gotten out with little time to spare. Better not to let the enemy know what the military was up to. As of now, DMH had no idea that Delta had taken Vivienne out from under them.

  “You ready?” Mace asked.

  “Yeah, you guys can go,” Cael said, but before he could enter the room, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

  He pulled it out. His older brother’s name flashed on the screen. He flipped open the phone and Dylan was talking before Caleb could say anything.

  “Cael, have you heard from Zane?”

  Those words hit Cael like a punch to the gut. “Not for a couple of weeks. Why?”

  A pause, and then, “He’s missing.”

  Cael turned and put his forehead against the file cabinet, the cool metal soothing him. Even though the door was closed between them, he kept his voice low so Vivienne wouldn’t hear anything. “He’s MIA?”

  A long silence and then his brother Dylan admitted, “It’s not an official mission.”

  Excellent. Even worse. “Tell me everything.”

  “He went to get Olivia.”

  “The doctor? D, that was your mission.” But even as he spoke the words, he knew that wasn’t true. Zane had been as much a part of Dylan’s search, if not more so. But this was beyond.

  “He wanted to go in and get her so we wouldn’t lose her while I was delayed tying up some loose ends in … well, that’s not important. Look, I’m sure he’ll check in—probably just got a little off course.”

  “Off course and DMH don’t go in the same sentence.” Cael had followed the intel on Olivia through Dylan, knew about the clinic bombings and the woman’s possible escape. “What’s his last known location?”

  Another unnaturally long pause. “He’s … ah, near Freetown.”

  Freetown. If Dylan were here in front of him … “He’s back in Africa by himself?”

  “He’s been before.”

  “With his team.”

  “He’s the one who insisted, Cael. I didn’t force this on him.”

  Caleb broke out in a fine sweat. As many bad dreams as Zane had experienced in his first years with the Scott family were as many waking nightmare scenarios Caleb thought about when it came to protecting his younger brother. “Find him, D.”

  “I will. I’ll keep you posted. Call me if you hear first.”

  “Same.” Cael shut the phone, knowing arguing would get them nowhere. Dylan’s energy was better spent looking for Zane.

  He leaned against the outside of the locked door and wondered if he should be as worried as he was about Zane.

  His gut told him yes. Definitely yes, if past experience played any role. Zane could find trouble more quickly than anyone he knew—and Cael knew a hell of a lot of troublemakers, present company included.

  He also knew how shitty this trip could be for Zane’s psyche, because as well as his brother hid it with an “I don’t care” attitude, Cael knew differently. Zane wanted to believe in something, wanted to belong so badly and for a long time refused to let it happen.

  Cael believed in God and country and the Army, knew that his parents loved adventure seeking and that it was in his blood.

  So far, he got his adrenaline pumping the legal way, through Delta Force. And then he came home and he acted domestic, tried his best to keep track of his youngest brother because he’d lost that fight with Dylan years earlier.

  “Leave the boy alone.”

  “He’s not a boy and he’s better off working for me than the other trouble you know he’ll find,” Dylan told him. Dylan, who was running some bullshit operation like spies for hire. “I’m not a spy,” Dylan would tell him through gritted teeth, “And you’re just pissed Zane went Navy instead of Army.”

  Well, sure, he was damned annoyed
at that, didn’t understand why Zane had to break the family tradition.

  Bad enough Dylan had gotten out so fast, but at least he’d served. Zane was breaking a tradition of years of service to the Army—dating back to their great-great-grandfather.

  “Maybe Zane didn’t feel as connected to our traditions,” Dylan reminded Cael. “Or maybe he knew you wanted him close—to keep an eye on him.”

  “Someone had to. You were gone,” Cael pointed out, going for the jugular, because that was always most effective.

  “Yeah, getting a job, dammit. Or else we couldn’t have stayed together. You and Zane rode roughshod over Aunt Lynn.”

  They had. Their aunt, and only living relative on Dad’s side, had been like one hundred and nine when they’d moved in. She’d nurtured them but never worried about things like homework or curfews.

  It had been up to Caleb to keep Zane in line. And he had, barely. Most of the time it was like balancing a fine tightrope.

  Zane always had a wild streak, coupled with an inherent wariness, because of the way he’d lived until Mom and Dad brought him home.

  For a while, Zane was almost … feral. Living off instincts and fear. Not wanting to hang out with the family. Not trusting. Hoarding food. And it continued for the better part of two years, until Caleb decided to follow him home from school one day instead of hanging out with his friends the way he normally did. He witnessed at least ten boys circling Zane, knocking down his books. Taunting him.

  Zane had done nothing but stand there and take it.

  “Why don’t you fight back?” Cael asked his brother after they’d gotten home.

  Zane had stared down at the ground in their front yard, kicked the dirt and didn’t answer. Cael figured he was embarrassed that his older brother had seen what happened.

  “Zane, I’ll teach you how to fight,” he’d offered, and Zane finally looked him in the eye.

  “You think I don’t know how to fight, asshole? I could kill those motherfuckers. That’s why I don’t fight.” And then he turned and walked away.