Midnight’s Queen (Stroke of Midnight #3)

Chapter 23

“I found the original file I sent you. The short version is that it was an implant anti-rejection drug that showed promise, only to have devastating side effects.”

Portia placed a hand on the back of her chair and leaned over Ash’s shoulder. Staring at the screen, she quickly read the first page of the document. “And?” She waited for him to turn to the next page.

“It gets pretty grim from there. Want your chair back?”

“Yes, please.” Reading over Ash’s shoulder was too much like peering over her father’s on the rare occasions he actually spent time with her. She didn’t have time for bittersweet memories right now.

Relief swept through her after she and Ash changed places. This was where she belonged.

Her fingers danced over the keyboard—not as quickly as Ash, but she could hold her own. Tapping out a command, she turned one of the floor-to-ceiling windows opaque, transferring the file to the makeshift screen.

Ash whistled. “That’s a cool trick. Why didn’t you ever use it when I was here?”

“Because you didn’t need to see it.” Ash had access to way too many Tremaine secrets already. Not to mention, she’d had the experimental tech installed a few months ago after she’d purchased a small tech company. It saved her eyes when she was tired of staring at a small screen.

As she flipped through the file, she struggled to keep her breathing calm and her stomach steady. Ash hadn’t lied when he warned that the file contained gruesome images of the failed trial subjects.

According to the file, Vyne had been created several years ago as an anti-rejection drug for augmentations. It was designed to prevent the body from rejecting some of the more intrusive mechanical modifications, as well as computer–brain interfaces. Portia shuddered. Thankfully, she didn’t think that Aleks had received something like this after his surgery.

While the drug had been moderately successful at preventing rejection, the side effects had been too severe to keep it on the market.

“‘Drug produces unfortunate side effects.’” Mendez approached the window-screen and read the note just before the photos. “Yikes. That’s one way of putting it.”

The images showed a variety of limbs, all with green, vine-like patterns marring the skin. Some were just thin threads, while others showed excessive pigmentation. Once the vines appeared, generally users had a few weeks before their veins weakened and they died.

“‘Test subjects report euphoric highs,’” Ash read. “This is really fucked up, Portia.”

“I know.” She could barely speak. “Forty people died during the trials. That’s more than the statistics from the implants themselves.” Her voice was hushed.

“The file says that the program was shut down,” Mendez pointed out.

Portia thought of the broken glass littering the alleys. “Obviously, someone saw the money-making potential of the drug on the black market and didn’t care how many more people it killed.”

“Do you think it was your father?” Ash addressed the elephant in the room.

Rubbing her temples, Portia glanced at Mendez. She hated airing her dirty laundry like this. She’d have to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn’t spill any of the secrets he was learning. “Probably,” she admitted. “Or maybe someone in the lab going rogue.”

Her father seemed a more likely candidate, but he hadn’t been seen in months. According to Aleks, there’d been a recent spike in Vyne sales. What did that mean?

She flipped through the rest of the file, hoping for more clues to what was happening with the drug now, but it was thin on details. “Can you dig up more information on the program? I need to know what lab created this and its current status. I also want to know how easy it is to get the ingredients to make the drug. And figure out where the money is going.”

Ash whistled. “You don’t want much, do you?”

She glared at him and he laughed. “I’m just kidding,” he said. “I’ve already got those queries running. I’ve set it up so both of us will receive alerts when there are results.”

“The files will come directly to me?”

“Yes, via the email encryption I set up for you.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Portia swiveled around in her chair and studied the two men. “Keep an eye on hacks that you think are coming from the Solveig Consortium,” she directed Mendez. “And help Ash however he needs. Just remember, whatever you find goes no further.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mendez said.

Ash just rolled his eyes. “Wait for me outside,” he told the other man. “I need to talk to Ms. Tremaine about something else.”

They both watched as Mendez left the room.

“Can I trust him?” Portia asked.

“As much as you can anyone,” Ash said.

She sagged back in her chair. “Well, that’s a no then.” At this rate, she wasn’t entirely sure that she could trust anyone in the company. Not for the first time, she wondered what would happen if she let it all burn down.

But she couldn’t. This was her inheritance, good or bad.

“He’s probably more trustworthy than most,” Ash said. “I’ve worked with him for years. He was actually a really good teammate. Which is wild, since hackers tend to be a bit on the antisocial side.”

She looked at him incredulously. “You’re the least antisocial person I’ve ever met. You talk constantly.”

His smile was bright. “Well, sure, that’s because I’m the best of the best.” She rolled her eyes and he laughed. “Seriously, though, I think he’ll keep quiet. You don’t mess with him, he won’t mess with you.”

That made a bit more sense to Portia than someone keeping quiet out of the good of their heart. “What do you know about him?”

Ash leaned against the side of her desk. “He’s been here about as long as I was. Never really got his story, but that’s not unusual. Most of us don’t want to reveal how we got caught.”

“Is he good?” It felt like a valid question. After all, Mendez had been caught, just like Ash had.

“Yes, he’s good. Almost as good as I am,” he said with a wink. “He’s right about the potential incursions from the Solveig Consortium. They made it in once, years ago, before either of us were here, and they were cut off quickly. Nowadays, even if they pay for help, they’re unlikely to get in.”

That eased some, but not all of her concerns. “What did you find on the outside?”

“Basically what the other analyst told you. The consortium sold some patents and have funneled some of that money to the cyber team. But they haven’t bought the best talent.”

“Okay,” Portia said slowly. She hated that she didn’t know enough about the cybersecurity side to do this research herself.

“So, the Solveig Consortium.” Ash leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “That got anything to do with the guy from the bar?”

“What guy from the bar?” Her cheeks warmed and panic fluttered in her stomach. She’d been sure Taryn wouldn’t say anything. She’d trusted the other woman. “Thank you for the update, Mr. Cutter. You should go now.”

“Taryn didn’t say anything, Portia.”

She should reprimand him for using her first name, but she was too embarrassed at how easily he’d read her.

“I live there too, in case you’ve forgotten. Some of the waitstaff are chatty. They mentioned you left with a hot guy, so I found his tab and did a little poking around.”

“Aw, were you worried about me?” She fell back on sarcasm because his concern—and the way it warmed a piece of her lonely heart—was disconcerting.

It was his turn to blush. “Maybe a little,” he said defensively. “It was out of character for you.”

If only he knew how out of character it had been.

“This guy from the Solveig Consortium, Aleksander Lind. They send him to deal with problems.” He held her gaze. “Are you a problem to them?”

Portia sighed. How much to tell him?

Not all of it, but some.

“He’s here for Dizzie,” she said. “Her grandparents want to meet her.”

“That can’t be all they want.” His tone said he wasn’t buying it.

“No, they want revenge on my father. Since he’s not here, they’ve decided the company is an acceptable substitute.”

“Just the company?” Ash’s voice was hard.

She leaned back in her chair. That was the kind of question Killian would have asked. The absence of his friendship had left a bigger hole in her life than she’d realized, if Ash’s concern was affecting her like this. Maybe they had been on the way to becoming friends.

“Aleks told me that they want me out of the way so Dizzie can take over the company.”

“Aleks?” His brow rose. “No, never mind. We’ll deal with the first-name basis later. He threatened you?”

She shook her head vehemently. “No. It wasn’t a threat. He was warning me that they won’t stop. They physically want to hurt me, but he suggested that maybe they could just discredit me if the information about Vyne got out.”

“That’s seriously fucked up, Portia.” He stared at her and she looked away.

“I know,” she said. Oh, how she knew.

“That’s why you wanted us to dig into Vyne.” Ash pushed off from the desk and crossed to the window they’d used as a screen. He peered at it closely.

“Yes. We need to uncover who’s running the program and shut it down before they can use it against me.” Saying it out loud made the scope of the plan seem much larger.

“Do you want us to dig up dirt on them? Mendez penetrated their system last night. The security isn’t great, so it wasn’t hard.”

“You did what?” Portia jolted out of her chair and joined him at the window.

“Hackers gonna hack, Portia.” He shrugged. “It was untraceable. You asked us to explore their capabilities. Knowing their system’s weaknesses is part of that.”

Her head dropped against the glass. “Leave their system alone for now.” What could she do with access right now? She had no idea.

“You can’t take on the Solveig Consortium alone, Portia.”

She raised her head. Exhaustion washed over her. She was so damn tired of fighting alone. “Who else is there?” She gestured around the office. “Everything ends up here.”

Ash patted her on the shoulder. “You’re not alone,” he said quietly. “Let us know when you figure that out.”

He exited her office, leaving Portia staring down at the city, considering his words.