Chapter Four
Phoenix
Angling the tender around, I reversed into the covered boathouse not attached to my property. Scanning the water one more time, I cut the engine, then tied down the Art of Kinetik speedboat.
Stepping off the deck into the boathouse, I pulled out my burner and brought up satellite imagery. Before I had time to check the property for any breaches, a call came through.
I swiped to answer but didn’t speak.
“It’s Cypher.”
“I know.” Only he, Helios, and Ares had this current burner’s number, but Cypher, my resident hacker, was the only one who ever called. Ares texted, and Helios didn’t communicate with anyone except his stepsister.
“You’ve got a problem.”
Cypher was a lot of things—former SEAL, then Delta Force, then Ground Branch and Counter Intelligence before landing in cybersecurity—but he wasn’t an alarmist. After five deployments as a SEAL, he’d transitioned from DEVGRU to the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, where he’d served two more deployments.
Then he was recruited out of 1st SFOD-D by the CIA for their paramilitary operations.
They discovered Cypher was more than an assaulter when his penchant for hacking landed him neck-deep in shit with Brass, the NSA, and every other alphabet-soup agency you could name when he’d hijacked a strike drone to assist his former SEAL Team.
That’s when I approached him. Seemingly unconcerned about a one-way ticket to GITMO, Cypher had reluctantly taken the out I’d offered. After a week of training him on my tech, he knew it better than I did.
He also probably knew what I’d done at our last refuel. “I’m offline for the next twenty-four hours.”
“You’re never offline.”
Once a year I was. But this time was for another reason. “Sitrep,” I demanded, putting the call on speaker as I used sat comms to check the property’s only access road. Clear. No vehicle or foot traffic.
“Getting off the Paragon in Barcelona was your first mistake,” Cypher replied.
“Not erasing your digital footprint was your second. You know there’re security cameras all over Marina Port Vell, but you stood on the dock for eight minutes.
Exactly enough time for one of the security patrols to see you, not to mention those eight minutes on camera. ”
I walked out of the boathouse. “I’m sure you already handled my digital footprint.” More than competent, Cypher was compulsively consistent.
“Only because you didn’t, but that’s not your biggest problem.
Minus your dock exposure stunt in Spain that was live in cyberspace for two minutes before I caught it, the Paragon’s now being tracked.
I’ve managed to block all attempts so far, but they’re coming fast and furious.
You need to shut down the electronics on the ship until I contain this. ”
“I’m not on board.”
“I know where you are. Tell Helios to answer his fucking cell.”
I played this out. “Text Ares.”
“Already did. No response.”
Because I’d temporarily disabled incoming calls and texts to both brothers’ cell phones. “Do it remotely.”
“Pissing off Helios while he’s piloting isn’t on my short list. You handle it. Or don’t. You seemed mission intent when you created this cluster.”
Glancing across the five terraces of the estate, I kept up the front. “We’re on a skeleton crew. I was overwatch for the refuel.”
“Bullshit. I’m reconfiguring the firewall, but if you want to stopgap this, shut down the Paragon’s electronics.” Cypher hung up.
No intention of stopping the hack on the ship’s location, I scanned the grounds one more time as I approached the side entrance to the villa, and that’s when I caught it.
A slight movement down by the dock.
My hand automatically going to my Sig, I palmed the grips and moved into the shade.
Rescanning the dock, I didn’t see anything at first.
Then I spotted her on my second pass of the lowest terrace.
Light brown-blonde hair, green bikini, ninety percent concealed by a hedge, a young woman stood in front of one of the lemon trees.
Before I could pull up the exterior camera feeds on my cell to find out why the hell I hadn’t gotten any security breach alerts for the property—let alone seen any approaches on sat comms—the phone was vibrating with an incoming call from a blocked number.
Watching the woman as her hair blew in the wind, I answered but didn’t speak.
“You hacked my sat comms again.”
Ghost. Former SEAL, owner of said satellites, and the most lethal operator I’d ever served with.
He was also the one personal contact I’d kept from my past. Except nothing about our interactions over the last decade had been personal.
Neither of us walked that line anymore. “You hacked my security to get this number. And if you’d taken my offer, they’d no longer be your satellites to worry about. ”
“I told you I wasn’t selling.”
“So you said, multiple times, right after feeding me a line about retirement.” He was na?ve to think he’d ever fully detach. Operators like us didn’t give up the fight until we were six feet under. But that didn’t mean he needed over half a dozen satellites for himself.
“My active status isn’t open for discussion. Hack my satellites again, and I’m coming for you.”
“Now it’s active status?” Wondering how the hell the woman had gotten onto my property unseen, I watched her stretch her lithe body as she went on her toes to reach into the tree. “You said you were retired.”
Slight but toned, a few inches over five feet, I’d never seen the little trespasser before, but there was something almost familiar about her.
“Test me again, and I’ll make an exception,” Ghost warned.
Keeping an eye on the woman, I focused up on the distraction at hand because I couldn’t afford any missteps or additional threats right now. “If you wanted me dead, you would’ve killed me by now.”
“Did I say dead?”
“No.” Which was a problem. Ghost was creative. He could afford to be. “Regardless, you know I don’t have to hack your satellites. I have backdoor access because of the link AES created between their servers and your satellites.” The crucial part of that comment being AES.
Alpha Elite Security.
The sole reason I was here now.
Not only was the preeminent military defense contractor and private security firm widely known, AES was owned by Adam “Alpha” Trefor—my former best friend and Team leader, and the man who’d married my sister.
AES was also who was currently trying to hack the Heesen’s location.
Specifically, AES’s in-house hacker, November. The former Air Force Cyberspace Operations Officer was considered the best hacker in the world by the select few who knew of his existence—me being one of them because I kept a close eye on AES.
“That access wasn’t intended for you,” Ghost warned.
I watched my little trespasser reach higher. “Take it up with November.” She picked a lemon.
“November’s not the problem.”
“How many years have we been locked in?” I knew the answer. Twenty for him, nineteen for me. We’d both enlisted at eighteen, and we’d both left the Teams. As far as the world was concerned, we were ghosts. But neither of us was off the chessboard.
“Too goddamn long. Your point?”
“Why hold on to the satellites?” I could procure my own, but not without significant exposure.
“Because no one civilian needs that much control. Alpha has AES, you have Paragon Operations, and I have Paradigm Holdings. Division of assets. That’s why this works.”
“It could work better.” I gave him fair warning. “I’m looking to expand.”
“I know. You’re in France by way of Spain, fucking over a decade’s worth of covert operations to get Alpha’s attention. You should’ve saved yourself the effort and approached him on his own turf.”
Alpha didn’t trust or respect anything he didn’t have to work for. “I’m not compromising any operations.”
“Just yourself. Which still won’t get you my satellites.” Ghost hung up.
The woman brought the lemon to her face and inhaled.
Pocketing my cell, sticking to the tree line, I crossed the upper terrace until I was out of her field of sight.
Then I silently moved in on her position.