He was still working hours later when he heard Dawn stirring in her room over the intercom and went in to rock her back to sleep. He sat down with her in the rocking chair in her room and let the deep peace of the night and her sweet baby smell pass over him. How could something so innocent exist in the evil world he knew it to be? How was he ever going to manage to keep her safe from it all? The weight of the responsibility pressed down on him until he struggled to breathe. He laid the sleeping baby in her crib and went back to work grimly.
He took a break to doze on the leather sofa in his office while some particularly large files uploaded. But he lurched awake as an alarm sounded abruptly. He raced over to his computer and was stunned to see a warning that one of his bank accounts had just recorded an attempted hack-in. He sat down and typed quickly, locking down the account and his other accounts while he was at it.
Hed barely finished before the phone on his desk rang. What the hell? It was 4:00 a.m.
Go, he snapped.
Mr. Peters? This is Advanced Security Systems. Im sorry to disturb you at this hour. But weve just gotten notification on our internet server that there has been an attempt to break in to your houses alarm protocols. A note on your file said you wanted to be notified immediately of any such incidents.
Sonofabitch. Who was coming after him like this? Surely, it had something to do with Cold Intent. Thanks. Lock it down for now. Ill be in touch in a few hours with further instructions.
Will do, sir.
He grabbed a jacket and headed out of the condo. Time to get the hell away from his home and his family to continue this search. He headed for an internet café, but not just any café. The Flaming Frog catered to hackers specifically. The firewalls and other protections in the café made its systems nearly impossible to trace. And even if a hack was traced, the café kept no records of whod sat at which terminal. The FBI and NSA hated the place, but so far had failed to shut it down despite repeated visits to local courts on various trumped-up charges.
Hey, dude. Havent seen you in a while. The night manager waved cheerfully at him. Store policy: no names got used. Ever. He waved back at the girl, who looked about twelve but was probably closer to thirty. She was also a top-notch hacker.
Hey, Blondie, he murmured across the counter. Feel like taking on one of the big boys?
Sure. Which alphabet agency we goin after?
Ive got a name. I need more on it.
Her face fell. Just a vanilla research job, huh?
An aggressively defended name, he corrected. Nearly killed my home system earlier.
She perked up. Well, then. Thats better. Lets have this name.
Cold Intent.
What the hell is that? Blondie demanded.
Thats what Im trying to find out, he retorted.
Race ya, she challenged.
The bet?
Loser buys me a tattoo.
He grinned. What if I win?
You aint gonna win, old man.
If I do, I want a copy of the algorithm you used to hack the IRS last year.
She sucked in a sharp breath, but she eventually shrugged. Youre gonna lose, so what the hell. Deal.
He threaded past a half dozen people staring at computer screens and sat down at a terminal in the back where no one could look over his shoulder. He started to type. Come to papa, Cold Intent.
CHAPTER THREE
KATIE WOKE UP SLOWLY. The sun was shining in around the edges of the heavy curtains too brightly. She lurched up out of bed and raced down the hall to Dawns bedroom. The baby was still asleep. Wow. Nearly 7:00 a.m.
She tiptoed down the hall to Alexs office. What on earth had he been working on so hard yesterday? She poked her head in the door to ask
Huh. He wasnt there. She backed out and headed for the kitchen. His car keys were gone from the hook on the wall. That was weird. Where would he go this early? Particularly without telling her?
Alarmed, she headed back to his office. His computer was running some sort of diagnostic that she probably couldnt interrupt. She spied a legal pad on his desk. What looked like rows of random numbers covered it. Although knowing Alex and his huge background in math, the numbers werent random at all. The rows of digits were interrupted by a single pair of words tucked off to one side of the pad. Cold Intent. What was that?
She heard the front door unlocking and moved out of his office before he could catch her snooping. She greeted Alex. You look exhausted. Have you been working all night?
He made an affirmative sound.
Coffee or sleep? she asked sympathetically.
Sleep.
By all means. Shed heard that doctors spouses had to get used to some weird working hours. Not that Alex had hinted in any way about marriage, of course. The poor guy was barely getting used to the idea of having a girlfriend, let alone a daughter. Of course , the obvious questionexactly how long was she planning to wait for him to get used to having a familylingered in the back of her mind, a grenade without a pin in it. But for now, she kept her fingers wrapped around the handle and the bomb deactivated.
She heard Alexs shower running while she dressed Dawn and fed her breakfast. The baby was starting to feed herself, which entailed much hilarity with flying food and lots of cleaning up. After breakfast, Dawn settled down to play with a pile of stuffed animals in need of chewing and tossing while Katie flipped on the television to check out the news. Ever since shed hooked up with a spy, she paid much closer attention to world events than before.
Not that she was exactly sure what Alex was anymore. Supposedly, now that his training was finished, he would go back to work as a humanitarian aid doctor.
The morning news focused mostly on a hurricane entering the Caribbean. It was forecasted to grow into a major storm. Current storm tracks had it pointed at Cuba. Too bad. The impoverished nation needed a natural disaster like it needed a hole in the head. The news moved on to a shooting in a shopping mall somewhere on the west coast, and Dawn squalled. Katie picked her up quickly and shushed her lest she wake Alex. Sensing a bout of baby squeals and babble coming on, she bundled Dawn up and took her out onto the terrace for some fresh air.
Dawn bounced up and down excitedly in her walker, and Katie pulled out her cell phone to check her texts and email. Nothing much was happening with her friends or family. Bored, she pulled up a search engine and typed in the phrase shed seen on Alexs desk.
Her phone took a long time doing the search, and when the results finally flashed up on the small screen, they were worthless. Every hit had both of the words in it, but not together. It was a bust. She would have to wait until Alex woke up to ask him what it meant. She shrugged and strolled along behind Dawn, enjoying the early-springtime sun. Winter in Washington, D.C., was a gray, wet affair, and she was ready for some decent weather.
After nearly an hour outside, Dawn caught one of the wheels of her walker on a pavement joint, and without warning the whole thing started to tip over. Katie dived for the baby and walker just as the waist-high ceramic planter beside her exploded. Black dirt flew everywhere. What the heck? The baby started and let out a howl while Katie brushed dirt off both of them.
Get inside, Alex barked from the sliding glass door to his bedroom.
Katie looked up, shocked to see the blunt shape of a pistol in his fist. Keeping her head down, she raced through the door behind him. Dawn started to cry in earnest, no doubt sensing Katies panic. Alex slipped outside, closing the door behind him, while Katie tried to calm the baby. But Dawn was having no part of it.
Had the sharp warm-up overnight caused the cold ceramic to crack? Alex was going to be annoyed if that was what woke him up. He was so jumpy since he got back. Was he going to whip out a gun at every loud noise?
The outside door slid open, and she tensed. Okay, so she was jumpy, too. Hard not to be after all the crap last year. A bunch of people had made a good-faith effort to kill the three of them and nearly succeeded. And for the first time, they were all back together.
Shooters gone, Alex bit out.
It was just a big pot cracking
He dropped something small and irregular on the bedspread. It looked like a pebble. She picked it up to examine it.
Medium caliber slug, he said tersely.
Youre saying someone shot at you out there?
No. Someone shot at you. I dug that out of the dirt from the big planter that broke right beside you.
She lurched. Are we under attack? Do I need to get Dawn to the safe room?
He shook his head briefly in the negative. Shooters fled the area. Were clear. His syllables were clipped but stripped of any actual emotion.
Wasnt he the slightest bit freaked out that someone had just shot at her? Who was it?
He shrugged. I got no visual. Ive called Langley, though, to have them pull satellite telemetry.
Now what? she asked nervously. What do we do?
Do? Nothing. Its over. Youre safe. Ill investigate who shot at you. When I know the source of the threat, Ill eliminate it.
God, not even a bump of emotion entered his voice as he casually talked about killing someone. A chill rattled across her skin. Who was this man? What had they turned him into? She stared at him in dismay. But I thought we were done with all of that. The people who came after us before are all dead or in custody. Its finished. They told me it was all over. And no ones tried to kill me and Dawn since you left. Why now? If someone wants to kill me, why wait until the person who can best protect me comes home?
He exhaled hard. I kicked a hornets nest yesterday. This is my fault.
She stared at him, wide-eyed. He hadnt been the only one kicking at hornets. Yesterday, shed asked for information on his mother from the CIA. Had that provoked someone to take a potshot at her? If so, who? And why? What was the big deal about his mother?
What kind of hornets did you kick? she asked him.
Cant say, he bit out.
Dammit. Shed forgotten how fiercely he guarded his secrets. She should have known hed be worse than ever about not sharing when he got home.
Im sorry, Katie, he murmured, gathering her and Dawn close in a protective hug. I swear, I wont let anything bad happen to either one of you.
She ought to tell him about the hornets nest of her own that shed kicked. Let him off the guilt hook. But shed really been hoping to surprise him with the information on his mother. The moment passed when it wouldnt have been awkward to say anything. Great. Now she was keeping secrets from him, too. The guys bad habit of not sharing was contagious apparently.
The windows are all bullet resistant and coated so heat-seeking equipment cant see through them. The walls are treated the same way. Stay in here while I close the blinds throughout the house. And then you should be safe to move around inside the condo.
As if that solved everything! Whod just shot at her? And why?
Alex came back to report that the blinds were closed, and then he retreated to his office and closed the door. How could he go in there and poke at his laptop like someone hadnt just narrowly missed killing her? She was completely freaked out! Were it not for Dawn already being upset, she would march in there and give him a piece of her mind.
Was he napping on the sofa or maybe doing something with Cold Intent and all those numbers on his computer? Curiosity would be the death of her yet.
Speaking of which, she called Uncle Charlies cell phone number and left a message in his voice mail asking if thered been any progress on her request. She added that there had been some interest shown in her query this afternoon.
Trapped in the house by possible snipers outside, she plopped down in front of the television. She was intrigued that Alex hadnt attempted to give chase to the shooter or in some way report the guy to the police. Were such occurrences so commonplace in his world they didnt even register as worthy of response?
Although now that she thought about it, if shed just taken a shot at someone, she would leave the area quickly so she didnt get caught. Alex must have figured the shooter had too big a head start in fleeing to make a chase worthwhile. Still. What a lousy way to live. Was this what she had to look forward to for the next fifty years or so?
Despair washed over her. Shed thought theyd left all this stuff behind last year. How in the world were they supposed to raise a child in this insanity?
She vaguely heard Alexs cell phone ring.
Maybe ten seconds passed before his office door burst open. Turn on the news, Katie. Now.
He sounded strange. Tense. She turned on the TV and asked him quickly, Local, national or international?
Local.
He moved to stand behind the sofa, and she swiveled around to stare at him. Whats happened?
Someone has been murdered.
Who?
Hacker. I dont know her real name. She was young, late twenties. It would likely be associated with something innocuous, like the theft of computer equipment. Have you seen anything like that today? he asked urgently.
No. Nothing, she replied, alarmed. They havent reported on any women being murdered or dying in some sort of accident. Theyre talking mostly about the hurricane heading into the Caribbean.
He swore under his breath.
Whats going on? Who was she? Youre scaring me.
Theyre covering up her death. Which speaks volumes about who killed her.
They who? What wasnt he telling her? Volumes about who? she demanded.
Theyre powerful. Connected. Probably government.
Our government? Youre saying an American citizen was killed right here in Washington by our government and its being covered up? Holy crap.
You really have to get over the whole Mom and apple pie thing when it comes to the United States, Katie. All governments work for their own best interest by whatever means they have at their disposal. None of them are nice about it.
Sometimes she forgot what a cynic he was. The uncomfortable thing was that he might be right. Still, her patriotic upbringing ran deep. Hey. You work for the U.S., too.
He scowled and muttered, Dont remind me.
True alarm speared through her. He was having second thoughts about hitching his fate to the CIA and not to his fathers FSB? She shuddered to think what hell would be unleashed at them if he changed his mind about working for Uncle Sam at this late date. No way was she raising Dawn in Moscow.