Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
O live’s thoughts continued to race after Duncan left. He’d stayed a few minutes longer—enough to express his concerns and make sure she was okay.
His visit left her feeling perplexed. She couldn’t believe he’d come all the way to her apartment just to warn her to be careful.
But he’d clearly thought this was important.
The man was obviously spooked and shaken. Did he know more than he let on?
Olive’s guess would be yes. He’d lied about not knowing why someone would target Beau. But why? Maybe he didn’t want to own up to what he knew and cause alarm.
Or maybe he’d come to her apartment to throw Olive off the trail.
Was Duncan suspicious of her?
She wasn’t sure.
One thing felt certain. He’d been one of her suspects when she started this assignment.
Now Olive was almost convinced he was innocent. His fear had been real. However, he had just lied to her.
This deal the CIA had caught wind of was supposed to go down in only a few days. She didn’t have much time.
Thankfully, she had a team behind her helping her to find answers.
She felt wide awake now. She’d never needed much sleep—four hours would usually satisfy her. She knew people said the human body needed more. But she did just fine operating on those four hours.
She sat on her couch and pulled out her laptop to see if there were any updates from the company.
There weren’t.
Others at Aegis were doing digital surveillance and monitoring. They were reviewing internal network logs to track who accessed sensitive files, setting up alerts for unusual data transfers or after-hours system access, monitoring company email patterns, especially communications with external domains.
They were also checking which employees frequently use VPNs or encryption tools, taking note of employees who lived beyond their means, and watching for people who routinely met off-site during work hours.
Another team was cross-referencing travel records with dates of known technology leaks, reviewing expense reports for unexplained meetings or purchases, checking badge access logs for unusual patterns, and examining which employees have requested access to certain restricted areas.
Olive’s job was to be in the thick of things. To get a feel for the employees. To keep an eye on them.
But she really wanted to talk to Tevin.
Plus, talking to him would distract her from her other thoughts . . . thoughts about her father.
About how her whole life may have been a lie.
And thoughts about how she was now all alone in the world.
Forty minutes later, Tevin showed up at her door, dressed like a delivery man. He came with a paper bag laden with Chinese food and wore a shirt proclaiming Café China on the lapel.
“I have a delivery for a Ms. Whiten.”
Olive glanced up and down the hallway. Saw that no one was watching. Then she nodded for him to come inside. She locked the door behind them.
“I’m so glad you brought food,” she murmured as she took the bag from him. “I’m actually starving.”
She spread the food on the coffee table. Then she and Tevin sat on the floor and used their chopsticks to eat their moo goo gai pan and General Tso’s chicken. They’d eaten together enough that Tevin knew exactly what she liked.
He’d probably created a spreadsheet to keep track of it. The thought made her smile.
She wished she could pour everything out to him. That she could tell him about her childhood. About her dad and what Tom had told her tonight about him.
About how her dad had never actually worked for the FBI.
But it was better if she kept those things private. Sharing any type of information had never proven to be fruitful in her life. The truth was that secrets could be used as a weapon. She already had enough enemies without giving anyone ammunition to use against her in moments of desperation.
Tevin’s phone rang, and he glanced at the screen. “It’s my mom. One minute.”
Olive smiled as he slipped away to answer, his voice instantly warming.
As she chewed on a mouthful of fried rice, she wondered what it would be like to have someone to talk to, someone she could share her troubles with. But vulnerability had never been her strong suit. In fact, she’d found that vulnerability made her weak.
It was better if she kept up the walls she’d so carefully built around her. Better if she simply accepted that she was meant to be a lone wolf.
Life was certainly less complicated that way.
Tevin returned and picked up his chopsticks. “She was just calling to check in.”
“That’s nice.”
“So, what’s going on?”
Olive started by telling him about Duncan’s visit.
“He doesn’t seem like the type to visit people out of mere goodwill,” Tevin murmured. “It’s not one of the qualities about him I wrote on my spreadsheet.”
“He’s more like the type to visit others when it benefits him?” Olive raised an eyebrow.
“Exactly.”
She knew, however, that people in extraordinary circumstances did sometimes act out of character. She needed to keep that in mind as well. His visit didn’t mean he was guilty.
“I also have an update,” Tevin told her. “I was able to log into the CCTV archive through Conglomerate’s internal network and retrieve a better copy of the security video, one I could analyze more thoroughly.”
Olive sat up straighter. “And?”
“Just as I suspected, the footage was altered. Whoever edited the video was good. Very good. Not as good as me, of course.” He grinned.
“Of course!”
“I was able to pinpoint where some generic footage had been spliced in.”
She tapped her chopsticks on her lips. “Can you unsplice it to see what was deleted? Is that even possible?”
“It’s complicated, but that’s what I’ve been trying to do. I’ll keep working on recovering whatever was taken out.”
Olive ate one last noodle before putting the carton down and leaning back against the couch. Her mind never seemed to stop working, and that was the case right now. Everything she knew whirred through her brain as she processed all she’d learned and tried to make sense of it.
Tevin set his empty container on the coffee table also. “So what’s your plan for tomorrow?”
She didn’t have to think about that answer for long. “Now that Duncan has moved farther down on my list, I’d like to focus on Ryan Jones.”
“Why Ryan?”
“He has the clearance needed to find this information. A few months ago, he bought a new house well out of his price range. And , according to some of his coworkers, he’s been acting stressed on the job lately.”
Tevin tilted his head. “It sounds like he could be our guy.”
“I’ll need to examine my suspects one-by-one in order to find answers—unless we get another lead that shifts the balance.”
“You’ll figure this out, Olive,” Tevin assured her. “You always do.”
She appreciated his confidence in her.
But sometimes Olive feared she’d sold her very soul for this job.
Was that something she could live with?