Chapter 5
Chapter Five
San Jose, California
Ramon Santiago ducked behind the tree, hiding in the shadows where he could see the ten-story office building. A square structure on the corner between two usually busy streets. This time of night, there was only the occasional car and more vagrants on the street than vehicles.
He listened, watching the building and the area around it. An older man had hunkered down for the night in an alcove away from the front door, where the security guard wouldn’t have seen him.
Ramon needed to avoid both of them—while attracting the notice of the private security team when they got here.
When he was satisfied no one would see him, Ramon moved silently along the tree line that ran perpendicular to the building, skirting a courtyard where office workers spent their lunch break.
He reached the exterior locked closet, where utilities connected to the building, and then jimmied the lock open with two picks. Once he had found the right connection point, Ramon unplugged the building’s internet connection for a second. Just long enough to add his own into the mix.
Maizie had explained the whole thing to him, but somewhere shortly after she’d started, his eyes had glazed over, and he realized he had no idea what she was talking about.
But the bottom line was that he had to add his connector between the signal coming into the building and the building itself so that he could get through the building’s firewall and be able to monitor the activity.
Otherwise, he would never get in without the security guard seeing him on one of the monitors.
She had written a program that would spoof the surveillance cameras and allow him to move around inside undetected.
Ramon checked that app on his phone, confirmed that the whole thing was up and running, said a silent thank you to Maizie, and headed for the door on the side of the building that the employees used when they needed to duck outside without being noticed.
Or so they thought, anyway. Security monitored the whole thing—just not right now.
The lock on the side door took a little longer, but he got inside. Once he connected to the network in the building, he would be able to download everything on it. Hopefully, with that, he could trade the information for what he wanted. But not if he didn’t get there in time.
He crept along the hallway, found the stairs, and went up three floors to the level where the server room would be.
Sure, this whole thing would’ve been much easier with Maizie and the rest of the team here.
But the point was that he had to fly solo in this.
Whether or not he was more used to being part of a group on operations these days wasn’t the point.
Just because something was normal now didn’t mean it was the best place to be.
Ramon had been on his own plenty of times in his life. Even when he was part of a group or supposed to feel as if he was.
The FBI. A cartel. Now Kenna and her team.
He had landed in the best of those three, but given everything, it was time to solve this problem his way instead of watching them all face danger.
Like seeing her standing in front of that table on a military base on the other side of the country.
Facing off with dangerous men who thought they could do whatever they wanted.
All Ramon had been able to do was sit on the floor against the wall, his hands tied behind his back.
So helpless while he had to witness Kenna, an expectant mother, and her husband be the ones to take all the risk.
This was a gamble, sure. But everything in his life had been a game of chance for so long that he didn’t know any other way to play the game.
He emerged onto the third floor and immediately heard a voice.
Ramon stayed by the door to the stairs, listening intently.
The voice grew louder. A janitor in overalls pushing a cart turned the corner at the end and headed toward him, earbuds in.
Ramon ducked back into the stairwell and held the door cracked, listening to the janitor speak in rapid Spanish—presumably talking to whoever was on the other end of his call.
The janitor told the story of how his girlfriend was currently acting loca, and Ramon found himself smiling at the normalcy of the conversation.
As soon as the janitor passed him and moved far enough away that he wouldn’t hear Ramon behind him, Ramon slipped out and held the door so that it didn’t click shut or make a noise. He headed down the hallway, the rubber soles of his shoes silent on the floor, and found the server room.
The connection he’d added outside should have wormed its way into the system by now, and he’d be able to access the network without being noticed. He checked his phone and pulled the tablet and cable from his backpack.
Later, he was going to tease Maizie that her job wasn’t so hard. But right now, he was grateful she knew what she did about tech because without her gear, he would never be able to pull this off.
Ramon watched the signal bar move from left to right, the percentage rising as his tablet downloaded the entire database this company had on their network. It got to 72% before he heard them coming.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
Ramon looked at the open door and saw it was Bear staring back at him.
“Isn’t that how the saying goes?”
The tablet in his hands vibrated to indicate the download was complete, and Ramon pulled out the cord. “Is it?”
Half of the team stared at him from the doorway, keeping him contained in the server room with nowhere to go. Ramon didn’t mind facing off with them—in fact, it was the entire point of him being here.
Bear seemed confused, not that the guy let any emotion be obvious on his face. “Please tell me you didn’t wipe the system.”
“I only copied it. And I’m willing to share.” Ramon motioned with a lift of his chin. “Did you guys see the janitor on your way in?”
“We took care of him.” That was Hollace, looking over Bear’s shoulder.
Ramon flinched. “Tell me you didn’t kill him.”
Bear shook his head. “We just knocked him out. You hacked the surveillance?”
“I’m guessing that’s Maizie’s handiwork?” Hollace asked.
“You’re welcome.”
Bear looked around, not that there was anything in this closet out of view. Or anyone. “Where is the rest of the team?”
“This isn’t a Banbury Investigations operation. I’m doing this on my own,” Ramon said. “Trying to find out more about Dominatus from this system.”
They knew as well as he did that this company was connected to that group. After all, it was why they were here.
Hollace looked at Bear, but neither of them said anything. If they weren’t going to be forthcoming, then Ramon was going to have a hard time convincing them to let him in on their plans.
“Kenna is busy with Jax, getting ready to have their baby. Zeyla and Maizie are working cases together. Who knows what Amara and Bruce are doing.” Ramon shrugged.
He needed to convince them to let him be a part of their team. “That leaves me floating around, trying to figure out how to fix this. Because there’s got to be a more decisive way to take care of the threat than waiting to see what Dominatus is going to do next.”
He waved the tablet a little bit so they would know he was the one who had the information. Hopefully, they would guess that he had only come here and retrieved it first to force them to accept the fact that he was capable of being an asset to their group.
That was true, even if the rest of what he said was somewhat more dubious.
Ramon said, “But maybe we could have this conversation somewhere other than in the closet?”
Hollace grinned. Bear backed up, his expression a little more inscrutable, given the beard that covered the lower half of his face. Most of his team was more clean-cut than he was, but he had that Special Forces air to him, where grooming standards were more relaxed.
Bear looked one way down the hall, then the other, and finally motioned for Ramon to exit the closet.
Was he supposed to call the guy sir?
Ramon walked out into the hall. “You guys were here for this, right?” He waved the tablet again.
Hollace reached for it, and Ramon turned, moving it out of the other man’s reach. There was a third member of the team in this hallway as well. All of them bristled, apparently unaccustomed to Hollace not getting whatever he wanted.
“I’m willing to trade if you’re open to coming to an agreement.” Ramon looked around.
Bear was clearly in charge, no matter that all the guys on his team were alpha males. But Ramon still wanted to get a read on what they all thought.
What he needed was for them to invite him to be a part of their team.
Hollace glanced to the side. “Copy that.” He looked at Bear. “Security is about to start their rounds.”
“Let’s go,” the team leader ordered.
Ramon walked with the group to the same stairwell door he had used. He wanted to comment that it seemed like they had a lot of people to steal just one copy of the network but didn’t think that would endear him to them.
On the ground floor, the team confirmed it was clear before heading outside. Ramon said, “I need to get my connector from the exterior connection box.”
“That’s how you did it.” Bear shot him a look. “Hazel was wondering how you managed to spoof their security system. She was hoping to see Maizie again.”
Ramon shrugged. It would be easier if they believed there was a wedge between him and the rest of the Banbury Investigations team. “When did you guys figure out that this company was connected to Dominatus?”
Ramon crouched in front of the connection box and retrieved his tech, not wanting anything Maizie had come up with to be left behind. Traced back to her. Stolen by someone else who wanted to re-create the same technology.
Who knew what might happen these days, given all their enemies and the way the president had exposed the team.
All the while, these guys had been doing their own thing.
Former members of Miami Security International, Bear’s team was something much different after their boss had been exposed as a Dominatus operative. They had gone underground, taking control of the research platform off the coast of Alaska.
Bear led them down the street to a van. “It isn’t the whole company. Just one guy whose name is in those files you just copied. That’s all we were after.”
“One guy?”
Bear stopped by the van and nodded. “We only need his name. You can have everything else on the network.”
“Listen.” Ramon ducked his head, as if he didn’t know how to broach the subject.
Hearing that they were chasing one specific person was interesting.
It seemed as if they might be a few steps ahead of Kenna—not that she was actively seeking out Dominatus.
Who was the one person they wanted to dig up?
Ramon lifted his head. “You probably already guessed I didn’t come here to get something for Kenna.” He shook his head. “I came here to talk to you guys about joining the team.”
“Things aren’t going well at Banbury Investigations?” Bear studied him.
Ramon had worked undercover plenty of times in his life, and this would be no different. He shrugged. “It’s time for me to move on and work with a team who knows how to get things done.”
Bear slid open the door on the van.
The janitor lay on the floor inside, bound at the hands and feet and with a gag over his mouth.
“You want in?” Bear asked. “Then get in.”