Rich (Benson Security 5)

“I’m not flirting, Rachel. I’m teasing. There’s a difference. Anyway, my heart belongs to mystery man. Even though I still can’t find him. He’s disappeared off the information grid entirely, and the last thing he did was warn me not to look for him.” She smiled evilly. “Of course, I totally listened to his warning, which means it’s just a matter of time before I pinpoint his location.”

“You don’t even know which security agency he works for,” Rachel pointed out. “It could be the Chinese or the Russians. If you keep looking for him, you’ll end up waking one day to find yourself in a Russian cell, being interrogated about a man you’ve barely even kissed. Ask yourself, is he worth it?”

“It was a spectacular kiss, Rachel. Spectacular.”

It was clear that there was no saving the woman from herself.

Elle took a small signal jammer out of the pocket of her circular skirt, which today was a shocking blue with applique images of white poodles. “Okeydokey,” she said once she’d activated it. “Ryan swept our offices this morning as usual, but I say better paranoid than sorry.”

“What’s happening with the trap? Is it set?” Rachel tapped the end of a pen on the glass top of her desk, hating the sound it made.

“We’re activating it now. Basically, we’re setting it up to look like IT is having issues. An email will go out to everyone shortly, telling them not to transfer any sensitive data between buildings or to the main backup server until the issue’s fixed. We’re letting them think the transfer system’s been compromised and isn’t as secure as it should be. We’ll tell them that we’re adjusting the download protocols to make them more secure, but over the next hour, downloading of information from any server is forbidden. It’s the perfect scenario for a thief. Anything that goes missing within the next hour would be chalked up to a security breach from outside the building.”

“And if they do, your ghost program will find them.”

Elle tapped at her keyboard and didn’t look up. “Fingers crossed. We really need a new name for the program; it sounds like we’re carrying out a paranormal investigation.” She looked at Rachel. “Do you think ghosts are real?”

“I think that if you don’t get to the point quickly, I may kill you, and we’ll find out when you haunt me.”

Elle beamed at her. “And the bitch is back.”

“She never left. Now tell me what’s happening.”

“She might not have left, but she’s been pretty distant for the past few days. Anyway, Ryan’s in security, monitoring the camera feeds from around the building. Harvard is stationed outside, so he can run for whatever building trips our alarm. And we’re in here, setting it all in motion.” She cracked her knuckles. “Ready?”

Rachel lifted her phone, her thumb poised over the ‘go’ message she’d already typed, ready to send it to Harvard and Ryan. “Ready.”

Elle hit the keys. “Then we are Go. The email has been sent.”

Rachel sent the text to tell the boys. And then…

Nothing.

“Well, that was a bit anticlimactic,” she said to Elle.

“People need time to read the email, Rach,” Elle said with a sigh.

“Still, this isn’t the most exciting of missions, is it?”

Elle’s eyebrows shot up. “Better this than people shooting at us.”

Rachel wasn’t so sure. She liked her enemies where she could see them.

Chapter Ten

One hour and forty-three minutes after the email went out, Harvard’s phone buzzed an alarm.

“West Building, second floor,” he snapped into the comm unit attached to his lapel.

“Bringing up all the cameras now,” Ryan said through Harvard’s earpiece as he ran for the building.

They were lucky. It was the closest one to the main office, where he’d been waiting.

Ryan cursed. “One of the cameras is out in that building.”

“Where?” Harvard snapped as he raced through the door.

“The connecting office to the second-floor research lab.”