She growled, and her head lifted, shoulders squared, and she turned steely eyes back to her boss.
I glanced at Dallas, who was squinting at me in question. I gave him a slight shake of my head and was going to walk back out of the camera frame.
“Mr. Esca.”
Turning, I faced the bank of flat-screen monitors. “Yes, sir?”
Dobbs cleared his throat. “The hacker was looking for anything he could find on Special Agent Guzman, but when he tried to access her files, his entire system crashed like a kill switch was triggered.”
I waited.
“So was there a breach or not?” Higa asked him.
“There was,” he replied, looking at Higa as he answered. “We saw the hacker enter the system, we were powerless to stop it, but as soon as there was an attempt to access Agent Guzman’s records, or I should say, to access Lucia Diaz’s records, he was shut down. There were two more attempts from different IP addresses, with the same result. By the time the fourth hack was attempted and detected, our system had learned the signature, and the firewall was able to block the attack,” he finished, his focus back on me.
I remained silent.
“Can I assume that you’ve already been debriefed by your employer, and that you expressed your concern that Agent Guzman might be the target of a cyberattack?”
“I did, yes,” I replied, because why would I lie about that? When I had texted my boss with a status update on the way to the field office, I told him where things stood at the moment, told him Murray was the big bad, and that my friend, Ella Guzman, was in his crosshairs. The rest, I was sure, her alias, et cetera, Jared Colter could figure out for himself.
He cleared his throat. “I have it here that you work for Torus Intercession?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You have documentation that lists you as Nash Colter.”
“I do, yes. My boss felt that I needed a cover. He didn’t want Suárez, or his people, knowing who I was.”
He nodded. “That alias seems to have been created with tech that should be beyond the scope of a civilian contractor, Mr. Esca.”
“I wouldn’t know about that, sir.”
“Do you know who Jared Colter is, Mr. Esca?”
“Yes, sir, he’s my boss,” I told him flatly.
He sighed deeply. “Of course he is. Thank you, Mr. Esca.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said and then took my seat again in the corner.
Another hour later, we were told to return to the Stanton mansion with Ella, as she was remaining in Vegas overnight before she returned to Virginia for a more thorough debriefing, and before she returned home to her family in San Francisco.
I stood and moved back to her side, and as soon as I was close enough, she smacked me on the arm. “What did I do?” I asked, laughing.
“Javi?” she nearly shouted at me.
I was snickering when Dallas joined us, along with Lund.
“Who is Javi?” Lund wanted to know, looking back and forth between me and Ella.
“My brother, Javier,” she snapped out the answer, still glaring at me, talking through her teeth. “My oldest brother. He’s a major in the army, and he thinks women should get married and have babies, especially me, the only girl of five kids. He thinks I should have married––”
“That nice boy, Kent Williams,” I chimed in, doing my best impersonation of her mother from the last time I had seen her. “Such a sweetheart, so respectful, and studying to be a doctor.”
She whacked me again and then lunged, apparently changing her mind about what she needed from me, deciding on hugging me tight. “I want to see them all so badly, even my really annoying-as-shit brothers.”
I hugged her tight. “I know you do. Did you call them?”
“I called my mom and dad. I’m sure they’re talking to everyone else right now.”
Still holding her, I looked at Higa, who had just joined us. “Is there any way that we could go somewhere else tonight, and not back to that house?”
He squinted, curious. “Where did you have in mind? We already have the Stanton place wired and secured, but I won’t lie and say that it isn’t going to be a challenge to cover all the access points in a place that massive.” He thought a moment and then went on. “You just need to have at least two FBI agents inside with you, and four on duty outside, along with the VPD presence on the street. We need to ensure Agent Guzman’s safety until we put her on a plane tomorrow morning. Her safety is our primary concern.”
My eyes flicked to Dallas.
“Sir, I’d like permission to take her to my house, which will be better for everyone. It’s small, my security system is monitored, I have motion detectors inside and cameras outside, and every door and window is wired.”