Chapter Twenty-One

Ghost

"F ucking Twin," Echo muttered. "Let me guess, you hacked Hacker Boy, then decided to show up to this shitshow because no one will let you pound their faces in anymore at that fucking fight club you pretend is a gym."

"First of all, it's not my fault if you step in the ring with me unprepared. And for the record, it's not a fight club." Conlon winked at me before throwing Echo an arrogant glance. "It's a training facility for boxing."

Echo snorted. "Where you have to sign NDAs and waivers just to walk through the door. Don't bullshit a bullshitter, Twin."

"Right." Conlon chuckled. "Wouldn't dream of it." He looked from Trefor to me, then tipped his chin toward my stab wound. "Speaking of boxing, looks like you went a few rounds. Who got the jump on you?" He held up a hand. "Wait. Let me guess." His smile gained traction. "A brunette? About five-five? Has a propensity for profiling? Happened to be at a farmer's market early this morning?" The smug prick crossed his arms, leaned against a desk and raised an eyebrow. "Any of this ring a bell?"

I looked at Alpha. "Clear your command room."

Trefor didn't react.

My gaze locked on the former Team Leader, I drew on his Marine. "Clear it, or I will."

Drawing a split second after me, Echo aimed his Glock at my head. "How about I just put another hole in you and solve all our problems?"

"Echo, Victor, out," Trefor ordered.

"The hacker too," I demanded.

"No." Alpha tipped his chin at Echo before looking back at me. "November stays."

" Right ," Conlon drew the word out in his bullshit accent. "Do I get a say in this? Because I found—"

"Fucking Christ." Cutting off the Marine, Echo holstered his 9mm. "Know when to quit, asshole." Striding to the command room door, he held it open. "Let's go before I change my mind and let that dead motherfucker take you out."

"I wouldn't constitute vertical and speaking as dead," the Marine argued as he started after Echo. "And for the record, he wasn't looking where he was aiming."

"If you're too stupid to realize that motherfucker could've pierced your skull while blindfolded with both hands tied behind his back, then I can't fucking help you." Echo glanced back with a look of disgust before letting the command room door slam shut.

"There's only one female profiler we both know." Trefor crossed his arms. "What did you do to her?"

I held Alpha's stare. "The same thing she did to me."

"Is she dead?"

"Are you going to save sixteen innocent women?"

"Are you saying the profiler wasn't innocent?"

I didn't fucking comment.

Addressing his hacker, Alpha rattled off a list of aliases the brunette used in the field. "Do a search on those names along with farmer's markets. Run down any incidents you find that happened in the past twenty-four hours."

"Copy that." The Airman started typing.

"You're wasting time," I warned.

"Then tell November where to look."

"Why don't you ask your Marine?" Because I'd like to know how the fuck he knew those details and what other intel he had.

"November, track Victor's activity for the same time period."

"Already on it."

"Anything?"

The hacker stopped typing and looked up.

Alpha held my stare for a pointed beat before glancing at his employee. "What?"

Swallowing once, the best hacker USCYBERCOM ever had looked from me to Alpha. Then he fucking burned me with a single code name. "Baccalaureate."