Wanted (FBI Heat Book 3) (10 page)

He swore when the burner phone rang in his pocket. He’d forgotten the handy little thing was there. “What’s up, Chaos?”

“You gotta see this, Shadow. How soon can you be online?”

Kat pounded her fist into the pillow. Sobs racked her body, and tears flowed fiercely. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she gasped between sobs. How could she have ever thought making love with Dillon was a good idea? How could she have ever thought it would be no-strings sex? Their feelings for each other were still too strong for sex to be meaningless.

And even worse, Dillon had professed his love. Why the hell did he have to go and do that? Thank God she’d clung to a thin thread of sanity and not done the same. If she had, he’d never understand why she didn’t want to give “us” another try.

She’d almost blown it with her comment about “different kinds of love.” Only his machismo had saved her. Another woman? Just like a man to jump to that conclusion. But thankfully, he had.

Of course, she’d been talking about her darling Skye. Kat snorted at the irony.

Dear God, what was she going to do now? The last thing she had ever wanted was to hurt Dillon again, and yet, she’d managed to do just that. The resulting pain in his eyes had nearly crushed her. She couldn’t let things get any more out of control.

When her tears finally stopped, she knew what she needed to do. Quickly, she slipped on her gown and returned to the couch. Sighing heavily, she pulled up the sheet. With any luck, Dillon would believe she was asleep or be so angry he wouldn’t care that she’d left his bed.

She played possum when the front door burst open. Dillon barely spared her a glance as he hurried through the living room.

“Get dressed,” he snapped loudly and marched down the hall.

“What?” she called after him, and then sat up but didn’t get up. Was he throwing her out? Taking her back to her house? Was he so hurt that he couldn’t stand to have her under his roof for one night?

He stomped back into the room. “You can wear your gown and robe if you want, but we’re leaving in five minutes. Maybe sooner.”

“Seriously, Dillon? Can’t you wait until morning to take me home?”

“Home? I told you it’s not safe.”

“Aren’t you kicking me out? I thought…you know…because…” She gestured toward the bedroom, hoping he’d fill in the blanks so she wouldn’t have to say it.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not a little boy, Kat. I can handle rejection. Again.”

“If it’s not…” She blinked in confusion. “What’s going on?”

“I need to get back on the computer,” he said, glancing at his watch. “Four minutes.”

“There’s a laptop on the desk right over there.” She pointed as if he didn’t know where his desk was.

“Not that computer. The ones in the man cave.”

She closed her eyes.
Grant me patience.
“Since it’s the middle of the night, could you please, pretty please, use that one?”

Now he looked annoyed. “No. That one can be traced to me.”

Traced?
Alarm bells pealed in Kat’s head. “D-Does this have something to do with me?”

He rolled his eyes. “It has everything to do with you. Now get moving. Please.”

She threw off the sheet and stood up. “Can you at least tell—”

“I will. Later. Right now, I need to get online before—” He stopped abruptly. “Just trust me, Kat.”

Yes, she could do that. She’d always been able to trust Dillon. He was the most trustworthy person she’d even known. The intensity in his body language said she could count on him this time also.

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Three minutes.” He strode toward the kitchen. “I’ll grab us something to eat.”

When she joined him three and a half minutes later, he had filled a plastic bag with bananas, packages of trail mix, and protein bars. But what really caught her attention was the gun in the shoulder holster he’d put on, plus the one in his back waistband that he’d taken on his little walk.

“Ready?” he asked, but when he noticed her staring at his weapons, he added, “Don’t worry. They’re just insurance.”

Insurance, my ass. Something’s wrong, and he’s afraid to tell me.

He grabbed the bag and her arm. “Let’s go.”

He did a quick search of the area before leading her across the parking lot to his garage. Once they were underway, he patted his thigh to signal her to lie down out of sight. What he probably meant as reassurance freaked her out even more.

When they reached the storage facility, he went through the same process of pulling the truck inside and closing the door before he let her out. Each precaution only increased her anxiety.

She sat on the futon and watched without saying a word while he got both laptops running. When he dialed a cheap-looking cell phone, she strained to hear his whispered conversation but couldn’t. He typed furiously as he talked with it wedged between his ear and shoulder. Within a few minutes, the large monitors filled with images.

She shot off the futon when recognition registered.

Dillon braced himself. Kat wasn’t going to like this. Not one bit. But it was the only way he knew to find out what was going on at Diablo Beach.

“What the hell?” she blurted out when she landed by his side. “That’s…that’s…” Her mouth gaped as her words evaporated.

She swayed precariously, and he jumped up to steady her.

“Sit down, Kat.”

She dropped onto the chair and splayed her hand across her forehead. “I keep forgetting…”

“I know.” He knelt beside her. “Deep breaths. Try to relax.”

“How can I when I don’t know how…?” She pointed a shaky finger at one of the monitors.

“Okay. It’s time to explain. First, you need to meet someone.” He tapped a button on the burner phone he’d muted the moment he heard her leap from the futon. “You’re on speaker, man. I want to introduce you to someone…an outsider. You cool with that?”

“I am, if you are, Shadow.”

Kat turned to him and mouthed the word
shadow
, a million questions in her eyes.

He exhaled. Anonymity was so important to TSK that Chaos’s willingness to meet someone outside the group spoke volumes. He couldn’t violate the guy’s trust. “Thanks, man.” He drew another deep breath. “Chaos, meet…uh…Scotty. Scotty, this is Chaos.”

Kat’s lips moved silently as she stared at the phone.

“Scotty? As in ‘Beam me up, Scotty’?” Chaos asked.

“Not exactly.” Dillon put a comforting hand on Kat’s shoulder. “Say hello, Scotty.”

“H-hello,” she breathed.

“Damn, Shadow. It’s a woman.”

“You got a problem with that, Chaos?”

“Uh, well, I guess not.” He hesitated. “Can I still cuss?”

“Damn right, you can. Now hang on while I explain to Scotty what we’re doing.”

“Gotcha.”

Dillon gently turned Kat’s face from the phone to look at him. “Scotty,” he said, nodding at her, “Chaos and I have hacked into Diablo Beach’s computer system to help you figure out what’s been going on.”

Her eyes widened. “That…that’s illegal.”

“Yeah, we know. But this is the important part. We’ve discovered that someone else has been getting into the system from the outside. We tracked his access to this computer’s MAC.”

“Mac?” she asked, bewildered. “We use Dells, not Macs.”

“MAC, as in ‘machine address code.’ Every computer has a unique identification. Understand?”

She nodded slowly.

“Good. Chaos has been comparing information in the IT department files to personnel records and floor plans to figure out whose computer this is. We think we know, but if you recognize the office, you can confirm our conclusion.” She stared at him. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “Trust me, Kat. We’re trying to help.”

She released a shaky breath. “That’s my boss’s office.”

“Asad Farook?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you catch that, Chaos?”

“Fuck yeah, dude. That agrees with the IT records. Holy shit, is he a terrorist?”

“He sure as hell isn’t Ronald McDonald,” Dillon said.

“But D— Uh…Shadow, Farook usually wasn’t at the plant when the discrepancies occurred, and he shouldn’t be there now. Does his computer look like it’s on?”

“I think it’s in hibernate mode, but he could have remote access.”

“He’s not supposed to,” Kat explained. “None of us are.”

“I bet he’s not supposed to change the computer programs either,” Dillon said.

“He’s reprogramming the system?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah. It looks like he’s testing different things but just for a moment at a time. For example, he’ll turn off the alarms and then turn them back on. He’ll shut down the cooling system and then start it back up. Exactly what you noticed, but I bet he was hoping nobody would.”

“Why would he do such a thing?”

“I can only speculate, Scotty.”

She gulped loudly. “Do you think this is all…an experiment or a test?”

“That or worse.”

“What do you mean?”

How much bad news could Kat handle? She’d already been attacked twice; she had to be terribly scared. But since she’d been the one to spot the problem originally, and since she was being targeted, she had a right to know.

“Chaos has found several program files that have been accessed recently. I suspect that when I actually open the files and look at the code, I’m going to find that the programs have been altered for…future use.”

“You mean like permanently shutting down the cooling system instead of only stopping it for a moment.”

“Exactly. He’s practicing so, when it’s time for the real thing, he’s ready. He’s testing the code so he knows it’ll work. But he’ll embed it in the programs in a way that won’t affect operations until triggered by his command. Unless this is a suicide mission, he’ll allow himself time to escape before the shit hits the fan.”

“Hey, Shadow, look. That file just got saved again,” Chaos said.

Kat’s and Dillon’s heads swiveled at the same time toward the monitors. His gaze zeroed in on a program file with a time stamp of only seconds earlier.

She shook her head. “I don’t know…uh…Shadow.”

“You told me Farook wouldn’t believe you and blew off your concerns. Of course, he didn’t want you raising red flags. That’s also why he gave you the poor job performance reviews and reprimands.”

Her head jerked back in surprise. “What?”

“Sorry, Scotty. Southern California Edison checked your personnel file and—”

She held up her hand to stop him. “I know about the bad reviews, but I haven’t received any reprimands.”

He cocked his head. “They’re in your file.”

“They can’t be. The employee has to sign all reviews and reprimands before they go into the personnel files. I signed the reviews even though I vehemently disagreed with them because I was afraid Farook would fire me on the spot if I didn’t. To protect myself though, I included a rebuttal to his accusations. But I know I haven’t signed any reprimands. I’d damn well remember, don’t you think?”

“Chaos, see if you can get into…Shit. Never mind.” Finding Kat’s personnel file would mean giving Chaos her real name. Even though she wasn’t officially part of TSK, her anonymity was important also. “Trust me, Scotty. The reprimands are there. Farook must be falsifying the paperwork to further discredit you.”

“He’s the only one I can think of who would do such a thing. But I already evaluated him as my most likely suspect for the problems, and he doesn’t seem the type.” She rubbed the back of her neck and winced. “Something else doesn’t make sense to me now.”

Dillon stood up and stepped behind her. He massaged her neck and shoulders, loving the feel of her beneath his fingers. In addition to the soreness caused by the accident, her tense muscles had knots the size of golf balls. His caresses produced moans in appreciation. And shit, his dick started to harden. How could he get turned on so easily after what had happened earlier tonight?
You idiot.
His body only remembered the good stuff that had happened before the bad stuff.

Kat bowed her head to allow better access and groaned again.

“I can
hear
you. Get a room, you two,” Chaos said and chuckled.

She started and then giggled. “Sorry, Chaos. Nothing sexy going on here. Shadow’s rubbing my neck because it’s sore from a car accident.”

“If you say so, Scotty.”

Dillon glared down at the bulge in his pants.
Nothing sexy, my ass.
Reluctantly, he moved from behind her, planted his palms on the table, and scrutinized the data on the screens as he listened. “What did you mean ‘something else doesn’t make sense’?”

“Farook’s a shitty boss, but he’s also a great engineer. He’s been in the nuclear-generating industry for decades. But he’s not very good with regular computer stuff. Incredible, but true. I mean, his secretary told me that he asks for help with MS Word.”

Dillon frowned and looked over his shoulder at her.
Maybe…

“Could be an act,” Chaos suggested.

“But if it’s not, how could he be reprogramming something as complex as a nuclear power plant’s computer system?”

“She’s got a point,” Dillon said, straightening. “And if he’s that dumb about computers, he’d be less likely to notice that someone was using his remotely.” His brain shifted into a higher gear. “And he’d make a great tool. He’s Arab, probably Muslim, the perfect profile to be framed as the patsy.”

“So now you’re sayin’ it’s not Farook?” Chaos asked, sounding confused.

“I’m saying it could go either way.”

Kat stood up, moved next to Dillon, and leaned closer to the monitor showing Farook’s office. “Where’s the ‘MAC’ thingy you mentioned? I don’t see it.”

Chaos and Dillon snorted at the same time.

“It’s not stamped on the outside like a brand,” Dillon said.

She shrugged. “Then how do you know this is it?”

He hesitated and then frowned. “Damn. We got the MAC from the program changes and traced that ID to Farook in the IT records. Personnel department info said this was his office. But if someone switched—”

“Sonofabitch,” Chaos blurted out. “Hey, Scotty, does this computer look like anyone else’s?”

“It looks like
everyone
else’s. I mean, I’m sure IT probably has more sophisticated ones, but when the plant did an upgrade a few months ago, most of us got this exact same model.”