Code Name: Kodiak (K19 Sentinel Cyber Team Two #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

EMMA

The deadbolt was unlocked. I never left it unlocked.

I stood frozen on my front porch with my key in my hand.

The autumn wind whipped down Georgetown’s tree-lined streets, but the chill running down my spine had nothing to do with the weather. My fingers trembled as I pulled my hand away from the door.

Had I forgotten to lock it this morning? I’d been distracted lately, buried in work. It was possible. Still, something felt off.

Then I saw it. A dark stain spread across the welcome mat and crept over the edge of the porch. Water was seeping from under the door.

I shoved it open, and the bottom edge dragged through a quarter inch of standing water.

That wasn’t all.

My living room had been ransacked. Every piece of furniture had been overturned.

Sofa cushions lay slashed open, their stuffing spilled across the waterlogged floor.

Photos were strewn everywhere, soaking in the mess, mixed with the shattered glass of frames that had belonged to my grandmother.

Whoever did this had stepped on them and ground the shards into the ruined wood.

The same water damage was in the dining room, where the chairs had been knocked over.

But that wasn’t what made my stomach drop.

It was the empty table. When I left this morning, it had been covered with printouts and handwritten notes.

Weeks of work, tracking fraud I’d found buried in disbursement records, were gone, and that meant whoever was behind it knew.

The water got deeper toward the kitchen.

It had already seeped up into the baseboards and darkened the drywall a foot from the bottom.

Cabinets gaped open, dishes lay smashed across the counters, and the refrigerator hung open.

Beneath the sink, the supply line had been ripped free, and water still pulsed from the severed pipe in weak, steady surges.

But it was the coffeemaker that stopped me cold.

Red and black wires ran from the base and connected to a small metal box with a digital display. The timer read zero, but it hadn’t detonated. Why not? Was it a dud? A delayed trigger? Or was someone watching, waiting to detonate it?

I bolted out the door and didn’t stop running until I was two blocks away.

I crouched beside a parked van and pulled out my phone. One ring. Two. My lungs wouldn’t expand. Three—

“Em! I was just wondering if you could grab lunch tomor—”

“Brenna—” My voice cracked. I pressed my back against the vehicle and forced the words out. “I need help. There’s a fucking bomb in my house.”

“Jesus—Get out of there right now!”

“I already am. I’m two blocks away.”

“Atticus is here; he overheard. On foot or in your car?”

“On foot.”

“Hang on. Don’t move.” I could hear Atticus on another call in the background. “Okay, Kodiak is on his way. Where exactly are you?”

“Corner of 34th and Q. Behind a white van.”

“He’s fifteen minutes out.”

I stayed low. The street was empty, but it didn’t feel that way.

Fourteen minutes later, a black SUV pulled up to the curb. Kodiak stepped out and checked the street as he walked toward me.

“Emma. Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Stay here. I’m going to clear the building and check the device.”

“It looked like—”

“I know.”

“The whole place is flooded too. I ran out and didn’t turn the water off.”

“Got it.” He moved toward my house with one hand on his weapon while I stood on the sidewalk and waited.

Five minutes later, Kodiak emerged with his phone pressed to his ear. He ended the call as he reached me.

“This thing is fake,” he said, holding up what I thought was a bomb. “Someone wanted to scare you, not kill you.”

I tried to wrap my head around what he was saying.

He motioned to his SUV. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere we can discuss what in the hell you’ve gotten yourself mixed up in.”

I followed him to the vehicle and climbed in. Neither of us spoke during the drive.

The door of Brenna’s brownstone was open before we reached the front steps. She wrapped me in a hug, then held me at arm’s length.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“You’re not fine. Someone put a bomb in your house.”

“It was fake,” Kodiak said, stepping past us into the foyer. “Where’s Atticus?”

“Kitchen. Luke’s here too.”

Brenna kept one hand on my arm as she steered me in that direction. Atticus closed his laptop and hugged me.

“Are you okay? Stupid question, right?”

I smiled. “I think I’m still in shock.”

“Makes sense.”

Kodiak set the device I thought was a bomb on the counter. Atticus picked it up, turned it over, and studied the wiring.

“Crude,” he said. “But convincing enough to make someone run.”

“That was the point.” Kodiak stepped back. “No explosive material. No detonator. Just wires, a timer, and a metal box designed to look like something it isn’t.”

“So this was a message,” Atticus said.

“Loud and clear.”

If my house hadn’t been flooded and my notes hadn’t disappeared, I’d feel like an idiot for overreacting. Then again, I wasn’t a damn bomb expert. What was I supposed to do? Take it apart and risk blowing myself up?

“Whatever you’re thinking, let it go, Em,” said Luke, pulling me into a hug like Atticus had.

I rested my cheek on his chest. While he was Brenna’s blood brother, he’d filled that role for me too.

I hated the hell he’d gone through lately.

During the Morrison investigation, he’d discovered he was framed by his business partner and was nearly sent to prison.

When his company folded, he’d landed at K19 Sentinel Cyber’s new DC office, working as Atticus’ second-in-command.

The easy smile I remembered didn’t appear as often, but he was definitely in better spirits than he had been six weeks ago.

Kodiak leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, Atticus poured me a drink and handed me a glass, and Brenna pulled out a chair for me to sit.

“A fake bomb, a destroyed townhouse, and a flooded main floor. That’s not a random break-in.” Atticus leaned forward. “Any idea why someone did this?”

“They were looking for something, and they found it.” I folded my hands in my lap.

“What?” Kodiak asked.

“Notes on a case I’ve been building.” I took a deep breath.

“Three weeks ago, I was reviewing VA payment disbursements at Treasury. I shouldn’t have been—I’m the acting deputy secretary, not an analyst—but I spent years running fraud cases at the FBI.

When numbers look wrong, I can’t leave them alone. ”

Atticus nodded. “Understandable. Go on.”

“What I found was money being distributed to nongovernmental organizations that supposedly support veterans—places with names like Veterans Supporting Veterans and Wounded Warrior Relief Fund. They look legitimate. Tax-exempt status, polished websites, glowing testimonials.”

“But?” Atticus said.

“The money never reaches actual veterans. It moves through the NGOs, into shell companies, gets layered through offshore accounts, and disappears.”

“How much are we talking about?”

“Close to ten million over the eighteen months I’ve been able to trace. But the infrastructure behind these shell companies—the layering, the offshore accounts—didn’t get built in that time frame. This has been going on a lot longer.”

Brenna gasped. “Jesus, Em.”

Saying it out loud made me realize this was a lot bigger than I’d initially thought.

“How’d you figure it out?” Luke asked.

“The deposit dates. Most fraud relies on randomization to avoid detection, but these transfers hit on the same day every month. Once I spotted that, I started pulling threads.”

“Who else knows?” Kodiak asked.

“No one. I’ve been building the case on my own. I didn’t want to raise any red flags until I had solid evidence.”

Atticus and Kodiak exchanged a glance.

“You said no one knows, but somebody figured it out,” said Atticus. “Who else has access to those accounts at Treasury?”

“It’s a long list,” I muttered.

“Any idea who’s behind the fraud itself?” Luke asked.

“Not yet. There are too many layers.”

Brenna squeezed my hand. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Until today, I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

Her grip tightened. “You can stay here tonight. I’ll get the guest room ready.”

“I can’t.”

Brenna frowned. “Em—”

“These people broke into my house. There’s even a good chance they followed me here.” I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Brenna. I didn’t think it through. Now, it isn’t only me who’s on their radar. You are too.”

“I agree Emma shouldn’t stay here, but not for the same reason. Until we can figure out what you’re up against, you need to remain off the grid.” Atticus turned to Kodiak, who nodded.

“I can’t just disappear. I have a job to do.”

“Right now, we have to act on the assumption that it’s someone at Treasury who’s committing this fraud and they discovered you’re digging into it. That all adds up to this being more than you can handle on your own.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“You need a team on the inside,” said Kodiak.

Atticus nodded. “Exactly.”

“Who?” I asked.

Brenna sat up straighter. “Hang on a minute. Let’s think through what Emma is actually dealing with.

” Her attention shifted from Atticus to me.

“This is federal fraud, involving Treasury disbursements, which makes it DOJ jurisdiction. I need to take this to Soledad. She’ll authorize the investigation and, eventually, the prosecution.

Without that authorization, nothing anyone here finds will be admissible and nothing I build will hold up in court. That brings us to K19’s involvement.”

“I’m following,” said Atticus. “Spell it out.”

“Investigative support and protection.”

“What does that look like?” I asked.