Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
He wanted the admiral’s daughter. The soon-to-be Secretary of Defense’s daughter, no less.
Actually, it was more than want. It was a need that raced through him at a nearly unstoppable speed. Not even his strong-willed determination and set-in-stone policy about staying single could block out his desire for her.
“Where’s the rest of the team?” They were inside Harper’s hotel suite after he’d divulged the truth about his work to Natasha, and Echo Team was nowhere in sight.
Harper turned in her swivel chair at the desk in the living room, and her gaze moved to Natasha standing quietly at his side. “They’re getting some shut-eye. I didn’t think we needed them here right now, anyway.” She stood and strode to greet Natasha. “It’s been a while. You remember me?”
“Harper.” Natasha smiled and let go of her bag. A firm handshake between two badass operatives instead of a hug. “I heard you went into the private sector, but I guess you never really got out, did you?”
“More like a transfer.” Harper nodded at Wyatt. “And it sounds like Wyatt had a chance to fill you in on what we really do.”
“I always wondered why you left the Agency. I’d figured you for a lifer like me,” she said.
Natasha slipped into “operative” mode, taking a quick tour of their temporary command center and more than likely cataloging every detail. There were 1,000 square feet, which included the bedroom off to their right.
Only one bed, which Harper slept in, but the suite was big enough to serve as their command center while in town. It was hard to cram a bunch of military guys in a small, single hotel room, so the money was worth it.
“Looks like this gig pays better than mine,” Natasha joked while stealing a glimpse of the view of Victoria Square outside the two-story windows.
“We’re mostly self-funded,” Wyatt explained. “It’s one of the benefits of running Scott and Scott. We make decent money there, and it helps pay for ops like these.”
“That’s pretty selfless of you all.” Her focus winged Harper’s way, who was now back at the desk.
Wyatt stood in the middle of the room so he could look back and forth between the two women.
“Natasha went to the factory today.” He dropped the news like he was ripping off a bandage, wanting to get it over with, not looking to tangle with her again about a decision that still had his heart palpitating.
He trusted her instincts, yes, but that didn’t have him worrying about her any less.
“You did what?” Harper shot her a glaring look.
“And you wouldn’t have done the same?” Natasha challenged with a knowing smile, then pointed to the backpack she’d set down by the door when entering the room. “There was a camera, modem, and router there. A phone and chess piece, too. Everything is in my bag.”
“This hacker person anticipated you’d show.” Harper’s lips tightened.
“That hacker person is The Knight,” Natasha grumbled, clearly frustrated from being questioned for the past sixteen months on her beliefs about that fact.
She blinked a few times. “But, um, what brought your team here? Was it the weapons facility hack? Or the other hack, the one I’m not aware of because I went on vacation? ”
“How’d you know about another hack, then?” Harper tipped her head to the side. “It wasn’t made public. Not yet, at least.”
“The Knight,” she said, adding a little extra bite to her tone. “We had a little chat on the iPhone he left for me today. He told me there were two hacks recently.”
Wyatt tucked his hands into his back pockets. “The second hack is the one that got our attention.”
“I’m not sure if you saw in the news about the American security specialist dying in a helo crash in Svalbard?” Harper grabbed her laptop and sat next to Natasha. “He was kidnapped and taken to Pyramiden.”
“You’re saying The Knight was involved?” Her green eyes lifted and glided straight to Wyatt.
“Or a copycat,” Harper casually tossed out, and Natasha appeared to ignore her words, her attention remaining on Wyatt.
“He must have done it to get my attention. He basically confessed to me today.”
Wyatt watched as guilt crossed Natasha’s face. Blame for Roland Nilsson’s death. “Don’t,” was all he said, knowing she’d understand him.
Harper cleared her throat as if to redirect their attention.
“Originally, it was believed the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was the target, but it turns out the Pionen Data Center in Sweden was hacked. One of Cyber X’s security specialists, Roland Nilsson, was tortured for information, at least that’s what we assume happened before he was killed.
No idea what, if anything, he told them.
The men who did it were hired on the Dark Net.
We’re still trying to trace the payment, but we managed to ping a location to the factory here. ”
“Do we know what was stolen from the data center during the hack? What The Knight was after?” Natasha asked.
“We’re still trying to get the Swedes to talk, but while we were en route here, Jessica did manage to hear some chatter,” Harper began, her tone steady.
“It looks like it was a virtual account belonging to one person and not a corporation or organization. As for who it belonged to and what was stolen, we’re still working on finding out. ”
Wyatt looked to the windows blocked by the floor-to-ceiling drapes, a silvery gray color filling his line of sight.
He couldn’t stop his thoughts from wandering to the possibility of his daughter getting caught in the crosshairs of this madness—the danger she could be in.
A dull, achy throb bloomed in his chest, and his hand moved to his heart.
“Obviously, I didn’t work the case when I was back at the Agency,” Harper spoke up, “but CIA Director Spenser provided Jessica Scott with all the case files going back to the end of twenty-fifteen when The Knight first popped onto the radar. What’s not mentioned is the source name of who discovered The Knight’s location in Romania. It’s been redacted.”
“After the CIA’s files were hacked by The Knight in twenty-eighteen, I couldn’t risk having my source’s name listed in any record,” Natasha responded.
“And how’d you find this source?” Wyatt faced the room and squared his legs, firming up his stance as he waited for her to share intel. The pain in his chest remained, so he continued applying pressure with his palm.
“My source, Jasper Kenyon, was on loan from MI6,” Natasha answered. “It took a hefty payout to convince him to help us given what happened to my agents in twenty-eighteen, but he’s one of the best hackers in the world. Possibly better than The Knight since he managed to locate him in Romania.”
“And he’s British?” A decent assumption if MI6 had their hands on him.
“Yeah. He got himself into a lot of trouble by exposing secrets from the House of Lords, among other things. A whistleblower of sorts.” Natasha’s eyes drifted his way.
“His online moniker was The Smoking Gun. He became known for providing the best evidence to take down corrupt leaders—Sherlock Holmes’s infamous ‘smoking gun’ kind of thing. ”
“So, a white-hat hacker who pissed off the nobles?” Harper clarified.
“Exactly, but his tactics were still illegal, which was how MI6 managed to acquire his talents,” Natasha explained. “He worked the case with me for five months before he tracked The Knight to Romania.”
“But when our people showed, he blew up the house.” A memory of his team preparing to infil flashed to mind. The explosion had sent his guys flying. They’d had luck on their side that night since no one on Echo got hurt, minus his burns from going in to try and get their target out.
“If he had his home rigged with explosives, he would’ve been long gone before detonating.
He’d never choose to go out that way. Too stubborn.
” She’d probably gone over the Romania op in her head even more than he had, which had led her to believe The Knight didn’t die that day.
“I think he paid off a Romanian official to say a body was found to hide the fact he was still alive.”
“Maybe, but what if he wasn’t expecting our guys? It’s possible he panicked. Maybe hit the button early.” Harper was clearly playing devil’s advocate, still suggesting The Knight was dead and they were dealing with a copycat in Montreal. “Or someone else hacked his fail-safe and it was murder?”
“Is that possible?” But then, he knew of cars being hacked remotely, why not a home rigged with thermite?
“What about a setup? Someone knew our team was en route, and they waited for you guys to show to blow the place up,” Harper pitched another possibility while standing, and Natasha, surprisingly, remained fairly steady this time during Harper’s line of questioning.
“If that were the case, and someone else wanted him dead, and all evidence destroyed, who else knew about the location?” Wyatt asked.
Aside from Natasha’s people and source, only Wyatt’s team had been read in on the classified details of the operation.
“You suggesting an inside job?” A sudden look of insult crossed Natasha’s face. “I didn’t even know the op had taken place until after the fact. No one did, except the president and your people from the sounds of it.”
“What about Jasper?” Harper asked before Wyatt could manage a response. “He gave you the location. He have any reason to want him dead?”
“Jasper has a long track record of taking down bad people. But murder? No.” Natasha closed her eyes and sat back down. “But Jasper is in town. He was at the party tonight.”
“The guy you were talking to upstairs right before you came down? I don’t remember his name on the competitor list.” The guy had grabbed his jacket and blown past Wyatt before Natasha had come down those spiral stairs looking like a dream moments later.
“A late add. Today, in fact,” Natasha explained. “I was shocked to see his name on the list when I got into Montreal earlier.”
“I only registered today as well. I better get our competitor list updated in case there were any other late adds,” Harper said, and Natasha nodded in agreement.
“But yeah, that was Jasper at the party. And when I confronted him, he claimed he’d decided to enter the competition for the bounty since he ran out of funds while in hiding.”
“You’re shitting me.” Wyatt’s hand fell from his chest in one heavy swoop of motion.
“I think Jasper’s lying about why he’s here. He says MI6 agreed to let him enter the competition if he promised to return to London after. But he must know The Knight didn’t die that day in Romania, and that’s why he went into hiding. He’s worried The Knight is out for blood.”
“And yet, he’s willing to put himself out in the open now?” Wyatt shook his head. “That doesn’t add up.”
“I can try and reach out to my contacts at MI6 and make sure he’s telling the truth,” Harper proposed. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit this one out, though? Since you aren’t here with operational authority, don’t you think it might be best to let us handle things?”
“The Knight killed people I cared about, people who were my responsibility to keep safe. I can’t walk away.
But also, he wants me in this sick, twisted game, and if I bow out, that’ll only piss him off, and he might hurt more innocent people because of it.
So no, I’m not backing down. And I promise you, Harper, this isn’t a copycat.
The Knight is alive.” Natasha pivoted toward Wyatt.
“I should get going. If he’s watching my moves . . .” A sudden curse slipped free.
“What’s wrong?” He stalked closer but resisted latching on to her with Harper’s eyes on them.
“I painted a target on you tonight without even thinking,” she began when her eyes slowly journeyed up to his face.
“That’s not like me. I thought it’d make sense for everyone at the party to think you’re a past lover.
But whether or not The Knight believes the cover story, he may still come after you to try and get to me. ”
Wyatt reached for her arms, decidedly not caring Harper was watching, and he gently gripped her biceps.
“There’s no chance he can ID you from the op in Romania, right?” Natasha asked before he could speak up.
“No, he wouldn’t be able to recognize me. And we’re not officially working for the president, so if he hacked a government server, he would find a retired SEAL,” he added, hoping to reassure her.
“But he’s good.” Worry filled Natasha’s eyes.
“Yeah, and even if The Knight’s alive, and he purchased facial recognition software on the Dark Net to try and put a name to Wyatt’s face while we’re here, well, we’ve got that covered.” Harper added a confident nod. “This is what we do.”
“And besides, the last thing you need to do is worry about me, I promise,” he said in all sincerity. “And if he does come after me, I’ll be ready.”