SEAL’S Secret Vows

12. Nora

Chapter twelve

Nora

I stare at the monitor screen, lines of code scrolling past in a blur. In an attempt to make sense of the jumble of information before me, I pick up a pen hoping to scribble down my thoughts.

The kiss keeps replaying in my mind, and I suppress a frustrated groan. That's the second kiss, Nora. That's not good, but what's worse is that I want a third.

I run the codes again, taking a sip of my tea, which is now lukewarm. My fingers fly across the keyboard as I zoom into the location indicated by the blinking cursor. California . What could they be hiding there? But as the map fills the screen, my heart sinks at the sight of the weather forecast displayed in the corner.

“The weather is not looking friendly,” I murmur, my voice barely above a whisper. “There's a storm brewing.”

Emma mutters some incoherent words in agreement without looking up. I hold back an eye roll. She gets so into the work that she doesn’t even listen.

I'll have to keep my emotions in check, and I focus solely on the mission at hand. But ever since that second kiss, I find myself struggling to maintain that pledge. We're supposed to be working on a mission! Maybe he's forgotten that he might be charged in court if we don't know who leaked the information, but here he is acting like anything at all matters besides clearing his name.

I'm just as guilty as he is, though. Every time I look at him, I feel something stir deep within me.

I'll need to have a word with him about this.

I look at the screen for a few minutes, but I'm unable to draw a conclusion. I should call Sarah, maybe she'll have some advice that'll keep me grounded or, better still, a way to solve the communication issues. I grab my phone, and her warm and energetic voice cheers me up after the third ring.

“Hey, girl, what's up?” Her liveliness eases some of my frustration. I'm glad I called her.

“Sarah, we have an issue, and I was wondering if you'd have any idea how to solve it.”

“What's that?” She’s invested instantly. “Is it about the wedding you threw together and then refused to text me back about?”

I grimace. “No. It’s actually work and it’s important.”

She sighs heavily. “Fine. Go.”

“If there were to be a breach in the system, so subtle it's almost undetectable, how do I handle it? The only evidence I have is that our communication was intercepted, and they were able to listen to our conversations.”

“Hmmm... let me think, we've encountered something similar before. They hacked into our system, they listened in, and left like they never came.”

“Exactly how it has been here,” I say with relief. I’m glad we’re not the only ones encountering this issue.

“But no matter how stealthy they are, there are always loopholes somewhere. Run through everything you can find and keep your eyes open for any further breaches. They know you'll come for them, so they'll always try to listen in on your plans.”

“They can't know what we're up to. Something has to be done to stop them, and we can't keep communication links open.”

“Yes, I understand. But sometimes, you have to lure the enemy in. Use a false mission or something that looks like you're coming for them. They won't be able to resist and will come running after it. You can latch on to that and hack into their system to listen to their conversations, plans, calls, etc.”

“I'll do that and see if I can come up with something. Thanks, girl. I knew you'd be able to help me.”

“Anytime.” She pauses. “ Now are we going to talk about this wedding?”

I sigh. “I’m sorry, Sarah, I can’t right now. I know I’ve been MIA. But we’ll get together as soon as work cools down, yeah?”

She makes an annoyed sound, but gives in. “Okay. So do your thing and let me know what's up.”

“Sure, I'll get back to you.” I end the call and drop my phone beside the now empty mug. I'm going to need another cup.

I type some code into the signal intelligence software and listen to the radio waves hoping for some coded message, but there's nothing there.

“Hey, look at this.” Emma points to unsteady waves on the screen. “I think it's a call. We can use the voice-recognition algorithm to detect the voice, and scan through our database. Maybe we'll find something.”

“I'm trying to get into their system, but they're offline.”

“Launch a keyboard vibration attack. With portable continuous wave generators, keyboard activities on offline computers can be monitored through a keyboard vibration attack.”

“We're in!” she says, fist pumping the air. Suddenly, voices speaking in foreign languages fill the room, and we stare at each other puzzled.

“I'm picking up on a bit of Dari and Spanish. I can interpret the latter, but not the former.”

“What are they saying?” We listen for a few more minutes—the tension in the room growing thicker—a dreary sensation hanging in the air. Some English voices join the conversation, and the connection is blocked again.

“Oh, no.” Emma tries to connect again but nothing happens. “They know someone connected; we have to be careful from now on.”

“We should alert Chase and his team; he'll interpret the other language.” I pick up the phone to call his office, hesitating when I remember that I had planned to avoid him, which now seems impossible. We have to keep working together. I'll just try my best to ignore him in the hope he doesn't notice anything, but avoiding him seems like an already failed plan; we're going to be working together for a long time. Sucking air through my teeth, I discard any emotions I'm feeling and dial the number. What's the worst that could happen?