Third Hour

by Lisa Phillips

  Mason said, “Eleven months ago we took a man into custody. This man had been running an operation across several states. He recruited foot soldiers and was preparing an attack on Air Force One. I was read in when I transferred here because of my clearance level. I’ve confirmed with your respective agencies as to each of yours and was unsurprised to find your clearance suddenly at the same level.”

  He shot Talia a glance.

  She lifted her hands. The picture of innocence. “It wasn’t me.”

  He wanted to smile, but there was nothing amusing about what’d happened today. “We think the bomb that exploded in the house was a booby trap left behind for whoever came around. We’ve put in a call to an ATF response team to head the investigation, but essentially the damage is done.”

  Alvarez said, “Bodies?”

  “All six of our agents that had been on the detail were found in the rubble, gunshot wounds sustained before the explosion. They were all executed.”

  No one moved or said anything. The loss of agents from any branch of law enforcement was a blow they all felt.

  Mason pulled out a chair and sat.

  “Who was it?” Dakota’s tone was hard. From grief or impatience, he didn’t know. Maybe both.

  He grabbed the remote and clicked the screen behind him as he turned the chair to the side. “This is Ethan Yewell. He is the only child of the current Secretary of State and his late wife, though you won’t find that information on any official record dug up from anywhere at any time. The man’s identity has been comprehensively scrubbed from existence.”

  He took a breath. “Yewell is thirty-nine and has been in private hospitals most of his life. The list of disorders he suffers from is…extensive. Basically, he’s an extremely persuasive sociopath, like the worst kind of cult leader wrapped up in a bow, making even Hitler look like the mail man. And you’d be right to consider my opinion not based on medical science.”

  “Great.” Dakota leaned back in her chair. “I love it when they’re psychos.”

  Josh squeezed her hand.

  Across the table from them, Talia said, “Is he the hacker?”

  Mason shook his head. “Until yesterday, he was in our custody. No contact with the outside world and no access to technology. Not even a television or radio. He was on total lockdown.”

  “But not in a federal prison?” Alvarez shot him a pointed look.

  “Requests from the very top were passed down. We had to keep this quiet. We couldn’t even risk witness protection within the prison system, and he couldn’t be among general population. Solitary was deemed not an option.”

  Alvarez made a sound like a snort.

  “It was not my decision to make.”

  The marshal leaned forward in his chair. “Yewell wouldn’t have been broken out of federal prison. He’d still be there, and you wouldn’t have dead agents and a big problem on your hands.”

  Mason lifted his hands. There was nothing he could’ve done about that. “The Secret Service is on high alert, and the FBI has been pulled in. Those on the search have been read in. But this has to stay under wraps until found. Then he will be locked down, and I’ve no doubt alternative measures will be taken.”

  “But y’all are just going to deal with the fallout?” Alvarez sat back in his chair.

  Victoria waved her agent off. “Any idea what his plans are?”

  “The President was due to visit Seattle next week. We’d moved Prometheus to a new location in preparation, but Browne wanted to go meet with him.”

  Alvarez made another sound.

  Mason continued. “President Browne considered it worth his time to attempt to speak with Prometheus. See if he could reason with him.”

  Josh shook his head. “Too risky.”

  “Regardless, it’s not going to happen now. If Browne was at risk, Prometheus would have held off and had his people break him out at a time when he could’ve killed the President and then escaped. But he cut out early.” Mason shrugged. “Either way, it’s moot now since the President called off the trip. He isn’t coming anywhere near the Northwest until this situation is…resolved.”

  “Why is Yewell such a threat?” Dakota’s frown pulled her Native American features in.

  “Along with being mentally, uh…challenged.” Someone snorted, but Mason ignored it. “Ethan Yewell is also extremely persuasive. He can basically talk anyone into doing anything. Prior to his arrest, Yewell was actively engaged in recruiting an army of his own in order to stage a coup. His plan was to first take over state government in Texas, after which he would have proceeded to Washington D.C.”

  Alvarez sighed and shook his head.

  “He had four hundred men.”

  The marshal’s brows rose. “How many are left now?”

  “At least a hundred, maybe more. The takedown was a bloodbath due to the quality of intel we received. A man we had on the inside fed us back information we later learned was only a drop in the bucket of what was going on. He was arrested, along with dozens of Yewell’s men. We’ve been running down more over the weeks since. And we managed to keep the whole thing from getting out to the media.”

  “How you did that is astounding.” Victoria shook her head. “All this has been going on under everyone’s noses?”

  Mason nodded. “The administration wants it to stay that way.”

  Victoria’s mouth worked side to side as she processed that information.

  “Which is why I need all of your help to aid in bringing this guy in before he can meet up with what’s left of his army.”

  Dakota said, “What about the ones you have in prison?”

  “They’re all on lockdown, and we’re interviewing them one by one. But they’re true believers. They’re never going to give up his location, or his plans.” Mason took a breath. This was bad, and he couldn’t let his emotions get the better of him. That wasn’t going to help the manhunt. Nor would it keep people from being hurt.

  The threat was present and very real. This country was in danger.

  “Domestic terrorism is what you guys fight against.” He looked at each of them again. “I can say with some certainty that this is the toughest battle you’ll ever face.”

  Alvarez got up and walked out.

  “You’ll call in!” Victoria yelled after him.

  The marshal waved over his shoulder as he strode to the elevator.

  Talia got up as well, gathered her purse and the electronics she’d placed on the table in front of her, and turned to the door.

  She was leaving?

  He stood. “We need your help.”

  It was all hands on deck and would be, until Yewell was brought in—again—and the threat neutralized.

  Alvarez had left. If she went as well, he would lose the chance to get Victoria’s whole team assisting the Secret Service on this.

  “I know.” She took a step toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Didn’t she know staying, and helping, would literally save lives? He didn’t want to sound desperate, but that was the truth. He was desperate. The Secret Service needed all their help.

  And he needed Talia.

  The woman who had risked her whole career to keep him alive.

  She frowned, her gaze softening. “I’ve got an idea.”

  Chapter 17

  Talia pulled the network cable from their router and plugged it into the one for the accountant’s office upstairs.

  “What are we doing?”

  She jumped, startled from figuring out if this was even going to work. Mason stood just outside the door in the hallway of the office building where the Northwest Counter-Terrorism Task Force had set up shop.

  “Borrowing the Wi-Fi from upstairs so the hacker won’t see us coming.” There were about six additional steps in that process, but it was a good start.

  “And this?” Mason looked behind her, at the racks of hardware.

  “A network closet.” She edged past him. “So when you report back to
the Secret Service on exactly what we did here, you can tell them the CPA office upstairs pays for super-fast Wi-Fi so their partners can stream Netflix while they work.”

  She strode past him.

  “Talia.”

  She glanced back, over her shoulder. “What?”

  She could see the “what” all over his face. Mason didn’t like being relegated to the sidelines because he still wasn’t a hundred percent, considering his injuries. She didn’t have time to explain enough for him to help her. He didn’t like not being at his office in the middle of a major crisis. And he didn’t like babysitting their task force—the assignment he’d been given by Stanton.

  Meanwhile, his whole office back at the Secret Service were deeply engaged in hunting for Yewell and his men. Stopping a terrorist attack.

  Talia had a new angle, one of her own.

  If she could find the hacker, then maybe he would lead them to Yewell.

  “Come on.” She felt herself soften toward him, and decided to just go with it. Why not cut him some slack? They’d all had a rough couple of days. “I’ll show you where the coffee pot is.”

  Mason took two steps and caught up with her as they headed back into the office. “You really think you can find this guy?”

  “If I can’t, that means he’s nowhere to be found.”

  The open plan office had a wall of windows down one side, light streaming in over the killer view of downtown Seattle. Haley had told Victoria they needed blinds to cut down the glare on their computer screens.

  No one had bought them.

  No one wanted to cover up that view.

  Though, Talia figured it was more about the fact she’d told them all she liked the light. After hours of being swallowed in the darkest of black, she needed to see it.

  Haley looked over from her computer. “Done?”

  “Yup.” Talia strode to her desk, face-to-face with Haley’s. Both of them sat at right angles to the door with Talia facing the window. “You should be able to log in now.”

  Niall wandered over and handed Mason a coffee mug. “You’re really going after him?”

  Talia got to work on her computer. “Yes.”

  Her co-worker moved to her. Out the corner of her eye she saw Niall sit one hip on the edge of her desk. “Honey.”

  She looked up. “Don’t.”

  “We’re just worried about you. That’s all.”

  “Last time, I was alone.” She didn’t look past Niall, where Mason stood. She couldn’t, or he would see the plain truth on her face. He’d see she didn’t believe one word of what she was saying. The team already knew, but she couldn’t let Mason see the one thing she couldn’t let go of.

  Talia was scared out of her mind.

  Niall tried again. “Hon—”

  “Don’t.”

  “We know who that girl was.”

  Talia’s fingers tripped on the keys. The screen blurred. She shut her eyes. They were going to do this now?

  “I got an email this morning from one of your old team members at the NSA.” Haley’s voice was soft. “They ran her DNA through every database and got a match. They know who she was.”

  Was. Because the teen girl Talia had been trapped in that dark room with had been young. God. So young.

  Talia shoved the memories away. “I need you to tell me that later.” She glanced up at Niall and repeated herself. “I need you to tell me that later.”

  He said, “Okay, honey.”

  “Does your girlfriend know you call me honey?”

  Haley giggled. “It was my idea. Anyway, he calls Siobhan that.”

  Niall’s niece was about the same age as Rayna. “Okay.”

  He squeezed her shoulder. “Okay.”

  “Dinner’s here!” Dakota strode in, the dog trotting close to her side. Josh followed her, carrying an open cardboard box. The smell of barbecue floated in with them.

  Talia’s stomach rumbled.

  Haley giggled again.

  “We have work to do.” Talia pinned her co-worker, roommate and friend with a look.

  “I’ll get you both some food.” Niall wandered off.

  The heaviness that had been sitting on her shoulders for weeks was eased by the fact all of them were there together. And they all knew it. Despite that, the fear lay dormant underneath. A great beast waiting to rear its head and strike.

  They’d moved the office from Portland to Seattle. She didn’t have to work in the place she’d been kidnapped from. Talia had constructed her own firewalled office in their Portland location, in a storage closet. She’d turned it into a fully-loaded haven for her to work, complete with security measures that included a retinal scan. She’d also blasted her music as loud as she wanted. Without any of them asking if she was done yet.

  Now she liked this much better.

  Haley was going to help. Niall was going to feed her. Mason was going to… She looked over. Stand there staring at her?

  A tiny smile curled his lips. She said, “You look awful, you know.”

  The words came out before she could stop them. It was true, considering his face was a mess of bruises. She imagined his ribs didn’t look much better. But thinking about his bare chest wasn’t going to help her get any work done.

  Mason’s lips widened into a smile. A very nice smile. He placed a palm on the desk and leaned down so his face was close to hers.

  Was he going to…

  Kiss her?

  She sucked in a breath, her mind racing as she tried to figure out whether she wanted him to or not.

  His eyes smiled. “Water or lemonade?”

  Talia tried to hide her disappointment. “Water is fine.”

  Mason leaned in the last two inches and touched his lips to hers. “Okay.”

  Then he was gone, striding across the room like he hadn’t just rocked her entire world. No, she wasn’t oblivious to the fact there were serious sparks between them. They just hadn’t had the chance to have a regular conversation or even do something normal, like go to coffee. Let alone actually talk about it.

  Talia got back to work, ignoring the smirk on Haley’s face. Though she had to say, “Now you know what the rest of us saw when you met Niall.”

  “I didn’t meet you until later.”

  “Surveillance video. From the lab.”

  Hailey’s jaw dropped. “I went crazy.”

  “Yeah, but I kept the footage of you sneaking into the ward where they kept him, and then him nearly beaning you with that pipe.” Talia kept her gaze on the computer. “I’m going to play it at your wedding.”

  “What?”

  Talia shrugged. “It was a nice hug. I’ll get the still image framed; it’ll be your favorite photo.”

  Haley tipped her head back and laughed.

  Talia grinned at the team, who all turned back from the barbecue. She was about to say something when her phone buzzed. She looked at the screen. “Victoria just landed in DC.”

  The director was having a meeting with the Secretary of State, Aaron Yewell. A chat that was essentially going to be a pleasant interrogation. Victoria was determined to find out if he knew where his son Ethan might be or what he was intending to do.

  Dakota lowered the corn bread muffin from her mouth before she could take a bite. “If it hadn’t saved our lives more than once, it would worry me that you monitor all our communications and have a lock on our GPS locations every second of every day.”

  Mason actually looked impressed, but Talia couldn’t let that affect her.

  She said, “When you stop getting kidnapped, I’ll stop keeping tabs on you.”

  “Okay, but…” Dakota shrugged. “Maybe not, though. Yeah?”

  “Agreed.” Josh kissed his fiancé on the forehead.

  Talia turned back to her computer.

  Haley said, “The anonymizer is all set and ready to go.”

  . . .

  Everyone had the food they needed. Even the dog got a plate of chicken pieces and raw carrot sticks. Mason
took a seat at what looked like an empty desk, but for the computer. Either the person who sat here had no personal items at work, or it was unoccupied. He wanted to be close enough to hear what Talia and her coworker—apparently Niall’s girlfriend—were doing.

  “You guys do this often?”

  Josh glanced over. “Dinner?”

  It was Niall who answered. “Couple of times a month, when we need to be on standby.”

  “What about Alvarez?”

  Niall said, “Talia?”

  She tensed a second. Agitated that he’d disturbed her? Then she looked at her tablet and swiped the screen. “He’s a hundred miles from here.”

  “Doing what?”

  She glanced over at Niall, tightness lining her face. “Maybe you should call and ask him?”

  “Maybe I will.” He fired back.

  Dakota pulled out her phone, sat on the office couch beside Josh. The dog was eyeing her plate. “I’ll do it.”

  Talia turned back to her computer, more tension in her shoulders than had been there before. Mason figured Niall realized he’d been bothering her. Niall said, “So what’s that anonymous thing you guys are doing?”

  Before Talia could answer, Haley said, “It’s a way to move about the dark web without this hacker figuring out it’s us.”

  Us. Because Haley knew how Talia felt about being alone.

  Niall opened his mouth to say something else.

  Mason spoke before he could. “An anonymizer masks your IP address, so someone trying to locate you can’t see what computer you’re accessing the internet from.”

  Talia turned around, wide eyed.

  “I assume you used a series of proxies?”

  “Yes.” It was like he’d asked her to dinner. That was the level of happiness on her face.

  “So the hacker, if he’s looking for Talia, will have his eyes on the IP addresses this office uses. Because he wants to know what she’s up to. That’s why she connected to the CPA office’s internet connection. She’s using their network, so anyone who does figure it out and comes looking for her—or us—will literally go upstairs first because they’ll think she’s up there.” He paused. “Then, for added security, Talia and Haley will use a series of servers set up on the dark web to further cover their tracks. They’ll be able to snoop around and look for evidence of the hacker. And Yewell. Virtually undetected.”