CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Balor
I receive a download link from Corvin Snow late Friday night.
Fuck, he’s going to disappear again. He has to know I’m Maverick and that I know he’s Iceman. This erratic behavior can’t be because of Ella.
In an emergency meeting I called at my command center, Shane and I confirm Snow did what we asked in Tokyo.
Hacking into the network he corrupted, I analyze the code he used with Shane looking over my shoulder.
“Fuck, he’s sophisticated,” my second-in-command says.
“It’s old-school Russian cyber warfare,” I mutter, but smile. “Here. Right fucking here.”
Like a bombmaker, cyber terrorists leave a signature in their destruction. Asking Snow to fuck with an adversary, I tricked him into revealing his secret ingredients. Which he did to show off.
“That’s it,” Shane says after receiving it from me. “But holy fucking shit, Balor. It wiped out my test network.”
“What?” I jump from my seat. “It got past your firewall?”
“This one did.” Shane sounds rattled.
“That means he’s made his code more powerful.” I pace back and forth. “I want everyone looking at that code. How does it compare to his December ransom hack? How did he fuel it to make it worse?”
This is what I’ll be doing all weekend. Fuck...
“And shields up, every one of them. I pissed off a madman.” Knocking up his daughter might have been the least of it.
Lachlan and Riordan stroll into my office .
“Who did you piss off?” Lachlan asks.
“Snow.” I look at Riordan. “Tell Kieran all our systems will be slow this weekend. I’m throwing up as many layers of protection as I can.”
“And when were you going to tell me Michael Brennan is Ella’s ex?” Riordan folds his arms.
My eyes slip closed. “I’m dealing with a lot here, Riordan. I’m dealing with a madman who can crash fucking planes, or land them on my townhouse, a man whose daughter I got pregnant, a woman I’m crazy about, who was beaten, burned, and stabbed by a man you trusted to be an informant.”
“ You vetted him,” Riordan bites out, then exhales. “And I’m sorry for all you’re going through. What can I do to help?”
I sit back down and shove my hands into my hair. “Nothing. Shane and I have the network protection covered. I have something resembling the ransomware code. It will take all weekend to break it down. You and Lachlan need a way to cut Brennan loose without him retaliating. I caught him watching Ella at her school. I charged at him like a damn bull, but he took off. He had to know who I was.”
“Then he knows how fucked he is?” Lachlan shakes his head. “The prick is dead. I’ll do it tonight. Do you want Snow iced, too?”
“We’re not killing Snow,” I mutter.
“Why? He can destroy everything we’ve worked for,” Lachlan argues.
“Riordan!” I snap. “Help me out. What the fuck do I do?”
I truly don’t know anymore. I only know that I love Ella. I want to marry her and raise our baby. But her father will be a dark shadow I have to keep looking for over my shoulder for the rest of my life .
Riordan glances at the large monitor Shane and I use to share screens. “We agreed, Snow doesn’t die. We send him to Dunbar to let the animals there teach him a lesson. Brennan doesn’t die either, not this weekend. Can you get another team to unmask all his shit, and find out what secrets he has buried that can hurt us?”
“Aye,” I say.
“You two know how to kill a guy’s boner.” Lachlan stomps out the door.
Riordan shakes his head at our brother. “I’ll piss him off even more when we do execute Brennan.”
“How?”
“I’ll have my wife do it. She’s been aching to kill a scumbag like Michael Wesley Brennan again.”