SWNOVELS Chance: Chapter 35
Chance enteredsome numbers on the keypad and then he was inside the secure lab where GRL scientists and engineers were working on components and software for the Athena Project. He’d secured the access codes and breezed in while most everyone was on lunch break. One lone woman sat a desk with a computer screen in front of her. She lifted her head and blinked at him like he was a unicorn riding into her lab on a rainbow cloud, trailing glitter.
“You aren’t supposed to be in here,” she said, her brows drawing together once she’d composed herself.
Chance glanced at the name on her lab coat. Crowell.
Caroline Crowell. Interesting. He flipped a page on his clipboard and made a check mark. Not for any reason other than to make her wonder.
“Well, Ms. Crowell, I am in fact supposed to be here. Chance Hughes with One Shot Tactical and Security.” He held out his hand. She took it, but she wasn’t pleased about it. As soon as she could, she let go. “We’re testing the security procedures for Griffin Research. I’m here to make sure the system is operating as it should.”
Her expression didn’t change, but he could sense her nervousness. “The system?”
“The security system.”
“Oh, yes, of course.”
“I don’t want to keep you, ma’am. I’m just going to do a random check and then be on my way.”
Caroline nodded. “Fine with me.”
She bent to her work again and Chance made a circuit of the lab. He made sure Caroline wasn’t watching him, exchanged a couple of charging cables with the ones that Seth had given him, pocketed the real cables, and made his way to the door.
He wasn’t worried about Caroline reporting him. If she did, then Griffin Research Labs’ security personnel would likely be called to the carpet again. Not his problem.
Seth and Kane were waiting in the conference room where they’d set up their own little HQ. There was a question in Seth’s eyes as Chance walked in. He took the real cables from his pocket and set them in front of Seth who picked them up and examined the ends.
“You did it,” he said, a grin breaking over his face.
“You doubted?”
“Hell no. Anybody there when you went in?”
“In fact, yes. Caroline Crowell. She seemed intent on her computer screen. Once I explained I was authorized to be there, she went back to work.”
“Huh. Not a crime to work through lunch,” Kane said.
“Nope.” Seth opened his laptop. “Let me just check we have connectivity.”
“That’s scary, dude,” Kane said. “A USB cable with built-in WiFi and a keystroke logger? Who the fuck knew?”
“Yep, sure is. Leave it to hackers to figure out how to steal your shit. And yep, we’re connected.”
They weren’t worried about anyone listening to their conversation because Seth had deployed an audio jammer. Not the level of security they’d need to talk to anyone outside this room, but enough they could talk a bit more openly than they otherwise would while hanging out in their target’s building.
“I still don’t get how this is gonna work,” Kane said. “It’s not hooked to her computer. It’s hooked to a random terminal.”
“Doesn’t matter. The system in that room is interconnected with the secure internal system the company uses. It’s all accessible now.”
“How do we know somebody else—the Russians, for instance—don’t already have access?” Chance asked. “What if someone inside that room already swapped in one of these cables? How would anyone know?”
Because he couldn’t stop thinking about the danger. This was end of the world shit, and he was finally in a place where he cared too much about living. He wanted to make love to Rory, hold his child the day it was born, talk Rory into marrying him, and maybe learn how to bale hay and renovate an old farmhouse in his off time.
He wanted to live and grow old in Sutton’s Creek more than he’d wanted anything in his life. Even more than he’d wanted to rewind the clock the day his dad died and stop his mother from shooting. That’d been an angry, lonely child’s fantasy. It had never been possible. Living life with Rory was.
But first they had to complete their mission and keep Athena safe.
“They wouldn’t know,” Seth said. “That’s the problem. And yeah, it’s possible. All we can do is follow the trail and hope we get there first. But even if we don’t, we’ll know what their plan is. Then we’ll stop it before Athena can be used against us.”
Chance wanted to march back down to that secure lab and pull Caroline Crowell up by her lapels. Then he wanted answers. But what if she didn’t know the answers? What if she was exactly what she said she was, a software engineer who spoke Polish and Russian and was trying to take care of her sister after a tragedy?
Ghost Ops didn’t operate on assumptions. The mission was too critical. Get it wrong and the consequences would be catastrophic.
“Hey, man,” Kane said. “How’s it going with Rory? She still hate your guts?”
Chance’s gaze jerked to his teammate. Kane was watching him with an arched eyebrow. Chance understood that his friend was trying to distract him from dark thoughts.
“I think it’s mild dislike now,” he said. “I’m growing on her.”
“Dude, when you told us she was pregnant, I thought Ghost was going to stick his boot up your ass before ripping out your guts with his bare hands.”
Chance snorted. “Yeah, he took it a whole lot better than I thought he would. Thank God.”
Kane looked thoughtful. “I think she’s a good woman who’s afraid of getting hurt. Somebody must have done her wrong in the past.”
Chance wasn’t going to talk about Rory’s business to anyone else, but Kane was perceptive. “Maybe so.”
“I told him he needs to fight for her,” Seth said. “Make her see he’s good for her. Because the woman’s pregnant and they’re gonna be around each other for the rest of their lives. Why not give it a go?”
“Good advice,” Kane said, tipping his head at Seth. “Can’t say it’s not.”
Chance put his feet on the table and picked up the sandwich he’d ordered for lunch. “What about you, Kane? You’ve got the hots for Daphne so why not just ask her out?”
Kane started shaking his head like he’d been told a bee had landed on him. “I do not have the hots for Daphne Bryant. Why do you guys keep saying that? She’s too young for one thing. And she’s not my type for another. I’m protective because of the way we found her. She was legit scared to death. Bothered me, and I don’t want her to feel like that again. I want her to know she’s okay with us, that’s all.”
Seth glanced at him. “So you’re fine with her going out with Warren Trigg?”
Kane’s frown grew. “She could do better. That dude is creepy. Always staring at her. Holding her hand. Talking too soft. She needs somebody who can protect her. He’s the kind who’ll piss his pants and cry at the first sign of trouble.”
“Maybe not,” Chance said. “Still waters run deep and all that. Dude might be a badass when it counts.”
Kane snorted. “Doubt that. So long as he doesn’t hurt Daphne, nothing I can say about it. She picked him. Must be something about him she likes. Can’t see what that might be though.”
“He loaned her a car, for one thing. You might want to get off your ass and help her find one of her own so she doesn’t feel obligated to him. Not good for a woman to feel like she owes a man something.”
“I’m already on it,” Kane said. “Taking her to look at something after work tomorrow. I don’t want her driving his car any longer than she has to.”
Chance figured Daphne had probably accepted the loan of the car to get Kane to act. Not that she couldn’t go on her own, but she’d admitted early on that she didn’t know anything about cars. Kane did. He’d worked as a mechanic before he’d joined the military, which was why he was the logical choice to help her find a used car that wasn’t a lemon.
“Your new camera system’s in,” Seth said, looking up from his computer. “Just got the delivery notice. Now you can count Ronnie Davis’s nose hairs from a hundred yards away if you want.”
“Good. Gonna install them after work. I wouldn’t say no to some help if y’all are inclined.” He could install them himself but it’d go faster with more people.
“I got nothing else going,” Seth said.
“Me neither. You think the Dawg’ll be open today? I really need some fried chicken soon.”
“Health inspector was coming this morning. Unless the Davises are bribing government employees, I think they’ve got a good shot at opening.”
Kane’s look was not friendly. “If those assholes are bribing health inspectors and I don’t get Theo’s fried chicken because of it, I’m gonna make your little speech to those two jerks look like a friendly visit from the Sutton’s Creek welcoming committee.”
Chance couldn’t have agreed more.