Submission Impossible (Masters & Mercenaries Reloaded 1)

If she did have her own MaeBe, the lady with the gun would know exactly where he was. She didn’t seem to.

“I’m fine,” the woman said, her voice quieter now. “Just out of practice and a bit paranoid. I’m on my way out, and I’ve already put the plan in motion. I’ll meet Sidirov at the time and place we agreed to. No. No one will be able to tell I was ever here. Including Jessica Layne. She’ll have to delete this chick’s lifework herself if our client decides to make a deal. I’m going to create some chaos on my way out. I have plans in place. Despite my previous issues, I’m still a pro. And yes, I intend to tie up loose ends soon.”

He stayed perfectly still, barely breathing.

“You’re clear, but you should know that she introduced a program to the system,” MaeBe began. “I’m not sure what it is but…fuck. She took out the CCTV, and I would bet anything it’s going to erase the last ten minutes. That’s going to set off an alarm. You need to get back to the lab. Now. I can’t see anything, Hutch. She was walking to the elevator, but I don’t know if she got on or not.”

She could be standing right outside, waiting for him. And he had no weapon to defend himself with.

How long before they would notice he’d been gone too long and Noelle might come looking for him? Kyle would either forbid it or come with her. Either way, she would know something was wrong.

He had to tell Noelle, but he couldn’t do it here. She had to know what was happening with her research. And he had to protect her. There was one thing he could do to help her before they needed to get somewhere safe and stay there until he could work through this problem.

As quickly as he could, he found the files where Noelle’s lab work was stored and copied it to his drive. He took a quick look around.

Madison Wallace’s research was there, too. At least the files were. Every single one of them empty.

Had Jessica Layne sold Madison’s research, too? Who had she met with before Madison’s “accident”? He had a million questions, but his first responsibility was to protect Noelle at all costs.

“I’m coming out. If anything happens to me, call Kyle and have him get Noelle out of the building. Then call Big Tag. I want Noelle under twenty-four seven guard,” he said. “And you tell him that I don’t care what deal we made. She should know what’s going on.”

“You’re going to tell her about the feds?”

MaeBe had been debriefed and was one of the only other people beside senior staff who knew about the deal they’d made.

“As soon as we’re out of this building and I can be assured no one is listening, yes.” He took a deep breath, slid the drive into his pocket, and opened the door.

Kyle was walking down the hall and stopped when he caught sight of Hutch. His gaze went from slightly concerned to steely in a heartbeat.

“What the fuck are you doing? Noelle is worried about you.”

“You’re supposed to be with her.” He didn’t like the fact that Kyle had left Noelle alone.

“It was this or bring her with me, and then she would know that you’re a liar and you’re hiding something from her.” Kyle stopped in front of him. “And me. What is going on and why am I out of the loop?”

He didn’t have time to deal with Kyle. “I saw an opportunity and I took it.”

“Is MaeBe in your ear? Because if she is, then you didn’t see an opportunity,” Kyle insisted. “You planned this. You planned it when you let Noelle stay late. You planned it because you thought I wouldn’t be here.”

Well, no one had ever said Kyle was a dummy. “We will talk about this later. We need to get Noelle out of here now. Get the car and meet us at the front of the building.”

He had to get out of this building with the information on that drive.

Kyle stared at him for a second before he nodded. “Fine. But we’re going to have a long talk, and we might need to bring Ian in because if he approved this, I have a problem with him, too.”

Hutch didn’t look back as he jogged down the hallway, praying Kyle did his job. “Have the cameras come back on yet?”

“No,” MaeBe said. “I’m blind. You should know I already sent Tag a text updating him. I thought you would be all right with that.”

“Of course, but he’s at Sanctum.” It was a play night, and Tag tried not to miss Friday nights. “I want to know the minute those cameras come back up, and I want you to check CCTV anywhere around the building. I want to identify that woman.”