Chapter Eighteen

Ghost

I dling a block away, I hacked into the security feeds at Alpha Elite Security. Disabling their cameras and opening the gate to the underground parking of their high-rise, I quickly pulled into early morning traffic in South Beach and drove to the garage.

Parking the late-model sedan I'd stolen after landing at a small regional airstrip, I took the elevator to the top floor. Another quick hack, and I was walking into Alpha Elite Security's command room.

Adam "Alpha" Trefor, owner and former SEAL Team leader, was going to be pissed.

He was also going to know I was here, if he didn't already.

Alpha had managed to get US Cyber Command's most infamous hacker on staff as his in-house tech and security expert. Nathan "November" Rhys had been a teen prodigy when he'd first hacked into the NSA. One of the few things the alphabet soup fucks had done right was enlisting November in the Air Force and putting him in USCYBERCOM instead of prison. Except Rhys wasn't his real name, and neither was the name he'd enlisted under all those years ago. The military and about half a dozen US Government agencies had never figured out all of Rhys's names were aliases, but I had.

Which was how I knew November had either let me hack his system in order to get in here, or he was already working to shut me down.

Knowing I only had minutes, I quickly woke up November's three-screen setup and typed, accessing my own company's satellite feeds.

The wall of screens that took up one end of the command room came to life, and I stood when I heard it. The click of the door unlocking as someone accessed it from the outside with a key card.

Not bothering to draw or take a defensive position, I moved to the first of two dozen workstations that had a secured computer.

My back to the door, I typed as someone entered the command room.

When steps sounded on the specialized antistatic flooring and no one spoke, I knew it was November.

Alpha wouldn't have let himself be heard, and he would've immediately asked what the fuck I was doing. Every other former SEAL who worked for Alpha would've entered with stealth, and every one of them except for Whiskey, Delta, and Kilo would've drawn on me already.

I glanced back as I typed.

With his gaze locked on me, the hacker set a messenger bag and motorcycle helmet at his feet.

I tipped my chin and lied. "Good system." It'd taken me less than two minutes to hack it.

"I allowed you to enter." November took a seat behind his desk and started typing. Three seconds later, all the screens on the wall and the computer I was working at went blank.

My hands froze over the keyboard, and I looked back at him.

Eyeing me, November hit one key.

My computer and all the monitors on the wall came back online—logged into my security network under a username I'd never seen.

I looked from the wall of monitors to the computer in front of me to November.

His gaze unreadable, the hacker didn't blink. "I know you own the satellite company Paradigm."

Fuck.

Not commenting, I resumed typing on the machine in front of me.

"I also know you buried Paradigm under enough layers to be virtually untraceable."

Moving to the next setup, ignoring the pain from my stab wound, I started typing. "Virtually?"

"Yes," November confirmed unnecessarily, considering he'd just shown me with his own hacker skills exactly how vulnerable my satellites were. "And out of the world's top programmers, coders, penetration testers, certified ethical hackers and cybersecurity specialists—including CYBERCOM—less than one percent of them would be able to get through your firewalls. Of that small percentage, an even smaller number would be able to hack through your network security infrastructure, decode your encryptions, and follow the trail of your shell corporations."

"Is this a friendly warning or calculated intel drop about new cybersecurity you can already breach?" The answer was neither, but I was fishing.

Trefor's hacker didn't broadcast intel any more than I did. If there was new software or hardware, he'd most likely written the code or programming language himself. He was either setting me up to ask who those less than one percenters were so he could download the names of hackers he knew I'd eliminate or recruit, or he had an ulterior motive. If it was the latter, I could only guess what he was after.

Ignoring the question, he instead gave a number. "Two people would be able to get in, decipher the encryption, and trace the false trail you set up to make it look like Paradigm is an Air Force contractor exclusively operating for the US Military."

Making a mental note to never underestimate Rhys again, I asked, "Assuming the first person is you, who's the second?"

Typing on his own setup, he didn't look up. "I'm the third. Or first, depending on your perspective."

Pausing between the second and third machine, I glanced at him. "I know everyone who has access to my network." Or I had until a few minutes ago. "Who'd you bring in?" I should've fucking seen this coming. He didn't want me to kill some criminal hackers. He wanted to protect them.

"I didn't bring anyone in." November looked from his screens to the wall as a few new images populated. "Conlon's been mirroring me for months, and Alpha would know immediately if he saw what I did."

That gave me pause. Alpha wasn't completely unexpected, but there were two Conlon brothers. Identical twins. Both Marines. One, cagey as fuck, worked for AES. The other was a former EOD who worked for the Miami-based personal security firm, Luna and Associates, owned by a former Marine sniper, André Luna. I didn't see the explosives ordnance demolition guy hacking, he didn't fit the profile, but his brother did. "Vance?"

"Victor," November confirmed, using Vance "Victor" Conlon's call sign.

Fucking great. "Noted." Alpha's capabilities didn't surprise me. His skills were unmatched, but in general, he was too damn busy building and running AES to track down my company. Also, the only time the shit had truly hit the fan for him, he'd called in the one favor I'd given him before I'd gone off the grid.

At least I'd thought I'd gone off the grid.

But every fucked thing about today was proving me wrong.

Ignoring the stab wound, I moved to the third computer and typed. "When's Alpha coming in?" I wasn't under any illusion that November didn't call him the second he knew I was hacking into his system.

"Two minutes behind Echo." November glanced up at one of the monitors on the wall that flipped from the garage to the elevators.

Following his glance, I silently cursed. With more kills than anyone I knew, the inked-up former SEAL coming up in the elevator had a lethal past that I wasn't sure even November knew about. "You called in Echo." It wasn't a question.

"I called Alpha." November spun in his chair to use the setup behind him. "Echo's coming in on his own."

I moved to the fourth computer. "Why?" Everyone at AES should've been off the clock or on assignment this morning. I'd fucking checked. Twice.

November didn't have a chance to answer.

The command room door opened, and Echo strode in before stopping short. " Jesus fucking Christ ." He glared at me before glancing at November. "What the fuck is this traitor doing here?"

Echo, and most of the Team guys I'd served with, hated me. Speculation and rumors hit the Tier One community faster than the bad press eight years ago that'd blamed the death toll in Safiya's village on a rogue US operative. I'd been the only SEAL unaccounted for at the time, and Team guys made assumptions. I'd purposely never addressed them.

"Leave," I ordered Echo, moving to a fifth computer and quickly typing.

"Make me, motherfucker." Crossing his arms, he took in the screens. "Shouldn't you be dead by now?"

"Can't kill a ghost." I woke up a sixth computer.

Echo snorted. "I'm calling bullshit. November know you're bleeding out all over his command room floor?"

I glanced down at my shirt.

Then a dozen computers lit up at once, populating with addresses that no one should've known. No one except me.

My reaction time honed to a fraction of a second, I drew both Glocks from my back waistband.