Breathing Space (Ellis McFadden Mysteries #1)

Chapter 20

F rank didn’t have a second office chair, so he tried to give me his. “I can stand.”

“No, you can’t,” I said. “You’re the one who has to be on the computer. I can use a chair from your dining table. If that’s all right.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Be right back.” He carried in one of the leather-padded, bronze-riveted wooden chairs from his small table and set it next to his chair. “There you go.”

“Thanks.” I sat while he got settled at his desk. I moved the chair to the side a little so that I wasn’t breathing down his neck. I wouldn’t have been comfortable working that way, so I didn’t think he would be either.

He waved a hand over the desktop, and a keyboard appeared on the desk’s surface, which was basically a screen table. Across from us, the viewing screen lit up. A computerized voice requested, “Retina scan required.”

Frank held a small device up to his eye. It looked like a remote control with no buttons. Light from a tiny lens flashed across his face.

The computer spoke again. “Access granted.”

I was used to high-tech. I lived on a starliner, after all. But this was … not like anything I’d seen in anyone’s private quarters. “This is quite a setup.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I designed it myself.”

I glanced at him slyly, reassessing the man next to me. There was no way he was just an engineer. Or just a guy who’d worked on the tech for companion droids. So who was he? Really? Okay, not Bruce Wayne, but if someone had told me he was actually James Bond, I probably would have just nodded and gone with it.

He tapped away at the desktop, and a new screen appeared before us. It looked nothing like the screens I dealt with at work. More like the screen that was used to build the screens I used at work.

I sat back and let him do his thing, content to sit and watch even though I didn’t have a clue what he was doing.

After a few minutes of him typing, looking up at the screen, then typing something else, he finally said, “Okay. Found it.”

I leaned forward. “Found what?”

“The ASF server. It was more layers in than I thought it would be. Makes sense that it would be hidden away like that, though.”

“So randos don’t go digging around in it?”

With a chuckle, he looked at me, the light from the screen glinting in his eyes. “Probably.”

“What now?”

“Well, I’ve found it, but I haven’t gained access yet. I’m going to set up a crawler to look for a back door. While that does its job, we can have dessert.”

“You didn’t really need me for this, did you?”

He looked taken aback, but the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth gave him away. “I can’t eat all that cake myself.”