The B-Team (Benson Security)

Chapter 28

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“I can’t get hold of Rachel,” Ryan said to Rodrigo and Katrina.

It’d been an hour since he’d finished breakfast, and they were still in the panic room, watching the police roam the building while they waited for the lawyer to talk to Callum and Lake before calling them back.

“I’m getting worried,” he told them. “I’ve left a couple of messages and sent a few texts. She should have replied by now. Something must have happened.”

“It’s only been an hour,” Rodrigo said. “Maybe she’s in the shower or still asleep or away from her phone.”

Ryan almost fell off his chair, but then he remembered that Rodrigo barely knew Rachel. “That woman is never away from her phone. I swear she’s part cyborg, and the phone’s jacked into her somehow. You saw her yesterday when the cops tried to take it off her. She’d rather die than let it go. No, something’s very wrong. I’m calling Julia.” He smacked his palm to his forehead. “I can’t. I have her phone.” He rolled his eyes at himself. “I’m calling Sarah.”

He dialed his wife, who picked up straight away. “Are you okay?” she asked, sounding worried.

“I’m fine; the guys dosed me up with pain meds, and my head’s not too bad now. Could sleep for a week though. What about you?”

“We’re all just waiting,” Sarah said. “Have you heard from the lawyer yet?”

“Nope. And I haven’t got through to Rachel either. Has she contacted anyone there?”

Sarah addressed the room before speaking to him again. “We haven’t heard from her either. You don’t think she actually was in labor yesterday, do you?”

“I don’t know what labor would look like for someone like Rachel.”

“Um, the same as it would for any woman?”

“Rachel isn’t any woman. There are days when I’m not sure she’s a woman at all. Do demons give birth like normal people?”

“Ryan!” Katrina smacked him on the arm.

“What?” He shrugged. “We’re all thinking it.”

“How about I call the hospital and see if she’s been admitted?” Sarah said, sounding reasonable. “In the meantime, if you hear from her, let me know. Okay?”

“Okay,” he said before lowering his voice to whisper, “I love you.”

“Love you too, you numpty,” she said before hanging up.

“Aw, cute,” Rodrigo said with a grin.

Ryan responded with a hand gesture.

Katrina’s phone rang, and she put it on speaker. “Ms. Patel. Have you managed to speak to the partners?”

“Yes, and both Callum and Lake have given the order to wipe the server.”

Ryan felt as though they were all holding their breath.

“You’re sure about that?” Katrina said.

“They agree it’s the best decision under the circumstances. I’ve got to run,” Ms. Patel said. “Good luck.”

She ended the call, and the three of them looked at each other.

“Is it weird that I’m nervous?” Katrina rubbed her hands on her denim-covered thighs. “My palms are sweaty.”

“I get it,” Rodrigo said. “In trying to save Benson Security, it’s possible we’ll kill it.”

“I feel nauseous.” She placed a hand over her stomach.

Rodrigo glanced at the computer screen. “We can’t put this off much longer. Our friendly hacker’s back in our system.”

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Katrina said. “I owe Benson Security my life. Literally. How can I wipe it out for everyone else?”

“We’re not killing the company,” Ryan said firmly. “Lake started it from scratch once, and he can do it again. Plus, we all remember stuff, all have contacts, and we have the resources we need to rebuild.”

“If the partners decide they want to rebuild,” Rodrigo said.

The room fell silent, heavy with thought.

“Gimme the code,” Ryan said to Katrina. “I’ll do it.”

She passed it to him with a shaky hand. “You’re sure?”

“We’ve got orders, and we know this has to be done. At the end of the day, Benson Security isn’t the files; it’s the people. And we need to get our people out of holding before someone presses charges and things get a whole lot worse.”

Rodrigo stepped aside to let Ryan sit in front of the computer. He pulled the keyboard toward him and typed in his login information. “Damn it,” he said. “It wants to send a code to my phone as an extra security precaution, but I don’t have my phone.” He gave Katrina a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry, Kat. It will have to be you. Or we can do it together. You log in and answer the questions, then I’ll do the rest.”

Looking queasy, she joined him. “I hate everything about this,” she said as she typed in her login details.

“We all do,” Ryan told her.

Nobody spoke while Katrina jumped through the login hoops until, at last, they were signed into the server.

“I’ll take it from here,” Ryan said.

Katrina didn’t argue. Instead, she walked to the far side of the room and sat on one of the lower bunks. She wrapped her arms around herself as though needing the comfort of a hug.

Ryan navigated to the management window and brought up the panel that asked for the code to wipe the server.

Are you sure you want to wipe this server? the screen prompted.

He hit yes.

This action cannot be undone.

Ryan clicked okay.

Please enter your twenty-four-digit code to authorize this function.

He began typing in the code, careful to copy it exactly from the note, grateful that Callum had typed it out instead of writing it because his penmanship was terrible.

Behind him, a phone rang, and Rodrigo answered. “Oh hey, Harvard, this isn’t Julia; it’s Rodrigo. We’ve been trying to get in touch with you and Rachel.”

Ryan concentrated on his task. Even if Rachel disagreed with what they were doing, she’d been outvoted by the other two partners.

“Sure,” Rodrigo said. “I’ll put you on speaker. What’s up?”

Harvard’s voice, as solid and deep as the man himself, resonated through the room. “I’m a father! Rachel gave birth to a healthy baby girl an hour ago. We’re parents!!”

That made Ryan stop mid-typing. He turned toward the table where the phone sat, only to see Rodrigo and Katrina grinning at each other.

“Congratulations, man,” Rodrigo said. “So, she really was in labor, huh?”

“Don’t even get me started on that,” Harvard said. “It was a helluva fight getting her to the hospital.”

“A woman has the right to act unreasonable when she’s giving birth,” Rachel shouted in the background.

“There’s unreasonable, Princess, and then there’s certifiable,” Harvard said.

“Did you two call us just to argue with each other?” Ryan asked with a grin. He glanced back at the computer screen to see a countdown had popped up, telling him he had only a few seconds to enter the code or he’d have to start again. He hurried to input the rest of the code. Then, taking a deep breath, he hit enter.

For a second, he found it hard to breathe. That was it. He’d done it. He’d entered the command to delete everything Benson Security had gathered since its start in Invertary.

It was over.

His stomach clenched, and then a baby’s cries made him turn back to the phone.

“Aw, listen to her wee voice,” Katrina said. “She’s got her mother’s lungs on her.”

“Stubborn as her mom too,” Harvard said proudly.

“Is it done?” Rodrigo asked Ryan.

“Yeah, it’s done.”

“What’s done?” Harvard asked.

“I’ve just entered the code to wipe the server.” The words stuck in his throat.

“Wait. What? You’re wiping the server?” Harvard asked. “So you couldn’t find anything on the minister?”

An icy chill ran through Ryan, and his mouth became suddenly dry.

“The minister?” Rodrigo said. “What do you mean? We’ve been investigating the cousin, Darian.”

“Damn, sorry, guys,” Harvard said. “With everything that’s been going on, I forgot to call. Shit. David rang me last night. He’s interrogated the commander and is sure this is all about his uncle, the government minister.”

Ryan swallowed hard. “What did he say exactly?”

“That this is about a sex scandal in the minister’s past. You need to search for info and files on the minister guy.” Harvard sounded dead serious now. “But, crap, if the server’s being wiped…”

Ryan hung his head. This could not be happening. “I’m going to be sick.”

“Damn, man,” Harvard said. “I shoulda called. I’m so sorry, Ryan.”

“It’s not your fault,” Ryan managed to say. But hell. Just hell.

Rodrigo grabbed his arm, and when Ryan looked up, he found him pointing at the computer screen. “Look!”

He turned back to read the words on the screen: Are you sure you want to wipe this server?

Relief swept through him before bursting out in the form of hysterical laughter. Slowly, cautiously, afraid he might click the wrong button, Ryan clicked no .

The screen changed, returning him to the original page that asked him to enter the wipe code.

“Am I reading this right?” Ryan asked.

Katrina came up beside him and, with a grin, placed her hand on his shoulder. The touch was so out of the ordinary that his heart skipped a beat. “It didn’t wipe. The information’s still all there.”

“Did you screw it up?” Rachel’s voice said, loud and clear.

“Looks like we’re on speaker too.” Rodrigo slapped Ryan on the back before returning to his seat at the table.

“No,” Ryan said, his heart pounding fast. “I didn’t screw it up. I just didn’t see the final pop-up asking if I was sure. I’ve canceled the command to delete everything.” And he might need to lie down for an hour to recover from the past few minutes.

“Thank Gucci for that,” Rachel said. “Now you can find what we have on Minister Fitzwater so we can ruin his miserable life.”

“Or at least get our people out of jail,” Ryan said with a shake of his head.

“No.” Rachel’s voice made him shiver. “They tried to ruin us, which means we do at least that in return.”

“I see motherhood has mellowed you,” Ryan said, causing Rodrigo to choke on his coffee.

“We don’t have a lot of time here, Rachel,” Katrina said. “There’s a hacker wandering around inside our server. I don’t think we can afford to spend another day looking for the information we need.”

“Can you tell how far the hacker has made it through our files?” Rachel asked sharply.

“Not really,” Katrina said. “I know he’s been searching in folders that clearly relate to London and ignoring anything related to missions in other countries.”

“I say spend an hour looking for information on the minister,” Rachel said. “And if you don’t find anything in that time, go ahead and delete it all.”

It was an executive decision, given in a tone that brooked no argument.

“Those birth hormones must be awesome,” Ryan said. “You sound like you’re totally on the ball.”

“Ryan, must you show everyone how ignorant you are?” Rachel said coolly. “Women give birth every day and then get on with running things. What were you expecting, exactly? That I’d take to my fainting couch as soon as the baby was out?”

“I was kinda expecting you’d avoid pregnancy altogether,” Ryan said. “I always assumed your baby would be birthed by a surrogate and go straight to a nanny.”

Katrina gave him a look of reprimand.

But Rachel just sighed. “That’s exactly how I wanted to do it. Unfortunately, Harvard’s sperm had other ideas.”

“In other words, she got knocked up,” Harvard said, clearly grinning.

Another cry rang out on the other end of the line, and Rachel made soft, reassuring sounds that Ryan would have guessed were impossible for her to make. He stared at the phone in wonder.

“What are you calling her?” Katrina asked, a soft smile on her face.

“Gwendolyn Anne Ford-Talbot Carter,” Harvard said with pride. “Now hurry up and get this server stuff done so you can come to the hospital and meet our daughter.”

“But don’t hurry too fast,” Rachel said. “I arranged for my hairdresser to pop in this morning, and we’re moving into our suite before lunch too. It’s about time.”

“Got it.” Katrina laughed. “Come after you get your hair done.”

“She’s still a work in progress,” Harvard muttered.

“I heard that,” Rachel said. “Katrina, make sure you search for the minister’s nickname too. It might be saved under that.”

Katrina sat up straight. “He has a nickname?”

“Of course. It’s a rite of passage for every public schoolboy. His is Humpty Dumpty. Apparently, he had a reputation for bouncing back from whatever befell him in school. The upper class does enjoy keeping their ridiculous childhood nicknames long into adulthood, so you may well find it.”

“What was your nickname, Rachel?” Katrina asked with a smile as she took notes.

“None of your business,” Rachel said haughtily before the line went dead.

“I can’t believe Rachel’s a mother,” Katrina said with wonder.

Ryan ran a hand over his jaw, feeling day-old stubble and wishing he could shave. His hair never grew in like other guys’. It came in patches. “I can’t believe she hasn’t already eaten the baby. I’ll call the rest of the team and tell them what to look for.”

“And we’ll start hunting through the files.” Katrina tapped the piece of paper on which she’d made the note. “Something about this nickname rings a bell… I’ll figure it out.”

With that, she signaled to Ryan that she needed the computer.

It was Katrina who found the file. Labeled “fairy tale endings that didn’t go as planned,” it contained a lifetime’s worth of information from a London madam called Carla, one of Lake’s connections. Carla, who’d run a brothel, The Enchanted Wood, in Soho for many years, had tried to recruit Megan at one point. When she retired a year earlier, she passed every secret she’d gathered to Lake for safekeeping, something she’d mentioned to several clients. Which was how the minister had known where to find his dirty little secrets.

As far as they could tell, Carla was on some no-name tropical island enjoying her retirement and had no idea of the trouble her information had caused. Ryan hoped she was happy. After reading about all the pompous, entitled assholes she’d called clients, he figured the poor woman deserved some peace.

“It was his nickname,” Katrina explained. “It made me think about nursery rhymes, which led to fairy tales, and hey presto— there he was! Tucked away in the brothel files, along with all his dirty little secrets.”

“You did good,” Ryan told her, meaning every word. “And you made sense of Elle’s filing system. For that alone, you get champagne.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “You buying?”

“I think this round should be on the owners.” He thought about it. “And there should be food included too.”

Katrina laughed as she downloaded the file before permanently deleting it from their server, so that the hacker couldn’t stumble across it before they were done. They then sent it to the team at Julia’s house, to be printed out and passed on to Lake’s lawyers.

“You got it?” Ryan asked Rochelle over speakerphone.

“We’re printing it off now.” Rochelle’s tone was icy. “Once we have a hard copy, I’ll take it to Ms. Patel myself. After that, it’s up to Lake what he does with the information.”

“Whatever he does, he’d better do it fast,” Katrina reminded her boss. “There’s still someone wandering around in our files, and we either need to stop him or go ahead and wipe the server like we planned.”

“Don’t worry,” Rochelle said evenly. “I don’t think Lake will take his time sorting this out. I’ll check in with you later.” The line went dead.

“Have you noticed,” Ryan said, “that nobody says goodbye anymore? It’s like we’ve given up on being polite. I miss the good old days. People had manners; they thought about others. They were more civilized times.”

“Hey, Mr. Manners?” Rodrigo called from the tiny kitchen area. “Did you eat all the chips?”