Leverage

by Janie Crouch

  “You can do it, sweetheart. Hang on.” Dylan whispered the words in her ear. He felt her lean against him, so he wrapped both arms around her. He could feel her weakening.

  Her fingers abruptly stopped their movement. Shelby’s eyes opened. Her breathing was labored as she looked over at Megan, then Dylan.

  “Done.” Her voice was nothing more than the hoarsest whisper.

  Dylan caught her as she fell to the side, completely unconscious. As gently as he could, he swung her up in his arms. Megan quickly sat down in the seat Shelby had vacated at the main computer terminal.

  “She got it all in. Amazing.” The wonder was clear in Megan’s voice. “Is she okay, Dylan?”

  Dylan sat in one of the other chairs, keeping Shelby clutched against his chest. There was no way in hell he was letting her go. “Her breathing is less labored, a little bit of color coming back into her cheeks.” Evan handed Dylan a tissue and he used it to wipe the blood from Shelby’s nose.

  “Now I just need to allow the software to run the configurations of the data Shelby entered. It won’t take long and we’ll know what the countdown was leading to and where.”

  Shelby’s eyes began to blink and then opened. “Did I finish?” Her voice was still a whisper.

  “Yes. You were amazing.” Dylan kissed her forehead, thankful that she wasn’t trying to get out of his arms. Because he didn’t think he could let her go. “Megan is running the configurations now.”

  Shelby nodded wearily. “Good, because there’s more.”

  “More what?”

  “It doesn’t matter, they’re later. We’ve got to worry about the imminent countdown right now.”

  Dylan wasn’t sure what Shelby was talking about. He wasn’t sure she knew what she was talking about. So he didn’t push it, just held her.

  Shelby brought the hand she’d used on the number pad up and cradled it to her chest. Her fingers were extended at odd angles.

  “My fingers are cramping.”

  Dylan took her fingers between both of his and began rubbing gently. He wasn’t surprised they were cramping at the rate she had been using them. She whimpered a tiny bit at his ministrations, but didn’t pull away.

  Megan was busy at the keyboard providing further instruction to the software she had created, feeding info back in when it was needed. Dylan just held Shelby while all this went on and watched as strength began to creep slowly back to her body.

  Dylan could feel the exact moment when that strength tipped the scales and caused Shelby to remember that she shouldn’t be sitting in his lap. He watched as her green eyes went from soft to shuttered right in front of him.

  For the first time in a very long time, Dylan remembered what it was like to feel his heart crack. He hadn’t let anyone close enough to do that sort of damage in years.

  Shelby stiffened and began to sit up and move away. Dylan let go of the fingers he was rubbing and didn’t try to stop her, although he stayed close by in case her sudden strength deserted her.

  Shelby walked over to the terminal where Megan sat. Numbers were scrolling across the screen like something out of The Matrix. Dylan had no idea what any of it meant. He could tell Evan and Cameron didn’t either.

  Shelby put her hand on Megan’s shoulder and Megan touched her hand gently in acknowledgment, but neither woman took their eyes from the screen.

  “There.”

  Both women said it in unison. Shelby pointed to a group of numbers on the screen and Megan nodded. Megan began typing something else.

  Across the room a phone rang. Cameron went to answer it, but Dylan knew it was bad news. Nobody would be calling this room at this hour except a member of his family with information they didn’t want to hear.

  “We’re running out of time, ladies,” Dylan told them.

  “We’re almost there.” Megan kept typing as she spoke.

  And then, as suddenly as Shelby’s had, Megan’s fingers stopped moving. Both stared at the screen, then looked at each other, horror clear on their faces.

  “What?” Evan barked. “What is it?”

  “The countdown is for a bombing here in Washington, DC.” Shelby’s voice was once again hoarse as she turned to look at Dylan. “Set to go off at eight thirty this morning.”

  That was a little less than two and a half hours from now.

  “Where in DC? Do you know?” Dylan crossed to Shelby and put his hands on her upper arms. She looked as if she might collapse again.

  “On the Mall, right in front of the Lincoln Memorial, in a maintenance tunnel.”

  A monument, even the Lincoln Memorial monument, wasn’t too bad. An artifact, even one as important as this, could be rebuilt. Lives couldn’t.

  “Okay,” Evan said. “That’s not as bad as it could be.”

  Now Megan spoke up. “No, it’s much worse. There are children’s groups, elementary schools from all over the country performing at the Mall this morning. It’s been all over the news. It’s called Celebrating America’s Future.”

  Dylan’s jaw clenched. It was the most perverse and perfect target a group like DS-13 could think of. Attacking a celebration of America’s future. DS-13 had probably been waiting a long time for something with such a degree of poetic justice.

  “We’ll stop the kids from coming in, keep them all out of the Mall area,” Evan said.

  Shelby shook her head, looking at Dylan. “The kids are already there, most of them have been there since three or four o’clock this morning. Part of the program begins at sunrise.” Shelby grasped onto Dylan’s arms. “They’re planning to attack our children.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Okay, things just got more complicated.” Cameron hung up the phone he was on and ran over. “Burgamy just arrived at Omega. Juliet’s calling in the bomb squad and FBI. We’ll meet them at the site.”

  “What the hell is Burgamy doing here so early?” Dylan asked. It was highly suspicious. Especially when taking into consideration the DS-13 plans they’d just discovered. Did he want to be here so he could have a front-row seat to the destruction and death his organization was attempting to cause?

  “There’s more, in the codes, more information,” Shelby said. “Did you see it?” she asked Megan.

  “No, it was going by too fast.”

  “Was it stuff about today, Shelby?” Cameron asked. “We can’t waste any more time. Unless there is more information about today, we’ve got to get to that bomb.”

  “Yes, I think. Maybe a way to disarm the bomb. I’ll keep checking.” Shelby’s face was pinched.

  Dylan walked to Evan and Cameron by the door. Evan was already back on the phone with Juliet providing her with all the info Shelby and Megan had given them.

  “You guys need to be careful about any mass evacuation of those kids,” Dylan told Cameron. “DS-13 could be watching and might trigger the bomb early if you try something like that.”

  Cameron nodded. “You need to stay here with Shelby and Megan, Dylan. Buy them the time they need to access whatever they can from those codes. Them finding a disarm code may be our only chance.”

  Dylan nodded. He knew he could do more good here than at the bomb site. There would be other people, much more qualified people, who would take care of that situation. And if the mole knew Megan and Shelby were pulling info about DS-13 from this computer location, he would be coming to eliminate them.

  Dylan had no intention of letting that happen.

  But Dylan also knew he was sending all his siblings, and one of his best friends, Evan, into potentially the deadliest situation they’d ever faced.

  Dylan hugged Cameron. “You be careful and get everyone out of there alive.”

  “You do the same, big brother.”

  Evan slapped Dylan on the shoulder and followed C
ameron out of the room.

  Dylan turned back to the women. It was just a matter of time before they were found in this room. Who they were found by would determine the next course of action.

  Megan was staring at the door Cameron and Evan had just run out of. Her face was ashen. “They’re all going, aren’t they? To the bomb site.”

  Megan meant Sawyer. She didn’t say his name, but Dylan knew who she meant.

  “I didn’t even get to say good-morning to him,” Megan said softly. “We always find each other whenever the later one gets to the building. To say good-morning. Always. We’ve never missed even once.”

  Dylan met Shelby’s eyes just for a moment. Shelby was concerned about her friend’s distress. Dylan was, too. Since Megan had a genius IQ, Dylan would try to appeal to her reason.

  “Megan, it’s an emergency. I’m sure if Sawyer could’ve—”

  Dylan’s words were cut off by the door flying open. It was Sawyer. He rushed over to his wife and put his hands on both her cheeks.

  “Good morning.” He kissed her tenderly, briefly, then put his hands on her pregnant belly for just a moment. “I’ll see you later tonight at home. I promise.”

  Sawyer said nothing else, just turned and ran out of the room, slapping Dylan’s back on the way out.

  Dylan saw Shelby wipe away tears at the tender scene between his brother and Megan. Megan, who a moment ago seemed distraught, now was focused and secure.

  “Let’s get back to work,” she told Shelby, pulling up another chair at the terminal. They immediately began sorting through numbers and information on the screen. Dylan didn’t even pretend to understand what they were doing, just let them work.

  Dylan knew what his job was. Protecting them from whoever walked through that door next, although he wasn’t sure how he would do that with no weapon, no credentials and no authority. But the person who came through the door a few minutes later was not who Dylan was expecting.

  Chantelle DiMuzio, Dennis Burgamy’s personal assistant, walked in. Her head, as it almost always tended to be, was stuck in her electronic organizer.

  “Oh, sorry, am I in the right room?”

  Chantelle had started working at Omega after Dylan had left, so he didn’t know her well. But he had met her a couple of times, most recently last year when helping out on a mission involving Juliet and Evan.

  “Hi, Chantelle, I’m in here.” Megan threw up her arm and waved, but didn’t get up from her seat at the computer terminal.

  “I’m Dylan Branson, we’ve met before,” Dylan said to the woman.

  She seemed a little harried. Although she worked day in and day out with Dennis Burgamy, Dylan was a little surprised she wasn’t constantly pulling all her hair out. Not only did Dylan think the man was the mole, Burgamy was also just a jerk in general. Nobody got along with him.

  “Yes, I remember,” Chantelle told him. “And you look just like your brothers.”

  She flushed a little at that. Evidently Burgamy’s secretary had a little crush on one or both of Dylan’s brothers. She wasn’t the first, Dylan was sure. He decided to up the flirt factor, keep Chantelle talking about nothing for as long as possible.

  “You’re here early. I hope they pay you overtime for hours like this.”

  Chantelle rolled her eyes. “I wish. I’m salary, so no overtime no matter what.”

  “And you have to work with Burgamy all the time? That’s a little cruel and unusual.”

  Chantelle looked down again. “I thought you had been in a plane crash.”

  Damn. “Yes, I was, but fortunately made it out alive.”

  “Oh, well, that’s good. I didn’t know that, but here you are.” She gave him a smile, but didn’t look him all the way in the eyes. “Mr. Burgamy said you had a woman with you, too, that she was bringing in some sort of numbers on a hard drive or something. Is she okay?”

  “She was fine, too. Unfortunately, the hard drive was destroyed.” Dylan hoped that information would be passed along to Burgamy. Give him a false sense of security about Dylan’s being here.

  “It was destroyed? I don’t think that was reported to Mr. Burgamy’s office yet.”

  “Sorry. One of my siblings was supposed to have done it yesterday, I think. They’re such slackers.” Dylan gave her his most engaging smile.

  Poor Chantelle didn’t seem to know what to do with Dylan’s charm. She looked back down at her computer tablet. “Um, the computer log showed this room as being used by Cameron and Evan with guests. But then the front-door log showed that they just left the building. So I was just trying to figure out what was going on.”

  Now Megan stood up and walked over. Dylan didn’t know how they would explain any of this. They didn’t want to tell Chantelle anything about the bomb because that information would go straight to Burgamy.

  “Evan and Cameron were here, but they had to leave. So I came in here,” Megan told the other woman.

  Chantelle really looked confused now. “Oh. Because the system says you’re logged in to the cybercrimes offices with a Dr. Wonder. It doesn’t have any record of you in here.”

  Megan caught Dylan’s eye. Neither of them were sure what to say. “Yeah, the system must be glitching or something. I can look into that. I’m multitasking right now. Back and forth everywhere.”

  Something beeped on Chantelle’s computer. “Okay, that’s Mr. Burgamy. He’s already here and on a rampage about something.” She typed furiously. Then looked over at Shelby at the computer. “You guys didn’t bring any hard drives in here, right?”

  For just a second, Chantelle wasn’t a frazzled, worn-down employee. She was taking in and weighing everything in this room.

  “Are you kidding, Chantelle?” Megan laughed and linked arms with the other woman. “Nobody can get in here with any drive of any sort. Have you seen the new crazy security machine they have at the front doors? I felt violated just walking through it.”

  At Megan’s words, whatever Dylan had thought he saw in Chantelle was gone. She was back to frazzled, overworked employee with a terrible boss, barely able to take her eyes off her computer tablet.

  “All right, if you guys are okay in here I’ll just leave you to it. But I’ll have to call a couple more agents to come in, Megan, because of the rules about visitors.”

  “No problem, Chantelle. Thanks. Sorry for your early morning.”

  Chantelle nodded and was already walking out the door, answering her phone and typing at the same time.

  “Well?” Dylan asked.

  “I think it’s only a matter of time before Burgamy knows we’re here. I didn’t want to ask Chantelle to lie to him. It didn’t seem right and would look suspicious since we don’t have solid proof about Burgamy.”

  “I agree.” Dylan looked over at Shelby, who was still frantically working on the computer. She was slowed down by having to use her left hand to type and enter data. Her right hand was still clutched against her chest.

  “There’s a lot more information in there than we thought,” Megan said. “Shelby’s looking for stuff concerning the bombing specifically right now, but there’s other info, too. Important intel on DS-13. It’s a huge breakthrough, Dylan.”

  Dylan nodded. “But right now, we’ve got to focus on the bomb. Anything that you can find to help them.”

  “Believe me, I know.” Megan nodded and made her way back to where Shelby worked.

  A few minutes later, four Omega employees entered the room. All size large. None of them looking personable.

  The muscle had arrived. If Burgamy decided to put an end to the work Shelby and Megan were doing, Dylan wouldn’t be able to stop all four men before they stopped the women.

  Dylan gave a half grin at no one in particular. He may not be able to stop them, but he’d damn well try. Dylan slipped off his sui
t jacket so it wouldn’t hinder his movements if quick action became necessary.

  “I’m sorry, but I need to ask all of you to allow us to do a scan of your clothing and possessions,” Big Guy Number One said.

  Shelby looked over at Dylan for the first time. He nodded. She stood up so the man could use the scanner to eliminate any doubt that she had any electronics on her person. The same was done to Megan and Dylan.

  One of the other guys reported in the finds—that all of them were clean—but Dylan didn’t know to whom. Burgamy? Chantelle? Did it mean anything? The men then scattered around the room, casually but strategically.

  Dylan doubted he’d be allowed to leave the room now even if he wanted to.

  A few minutes later, a smaller man, obviously not muscle, entered the room. Where Megan had pretty much ignored the big guys except to submit to their scans, this person she paid attention to.

  “Hello, Dr. Fuller-Branson. You’re working early this morning,” the man said in a singsongy voice, ignoring Dylan and the other men and crossing directly to the computer terminal. Everything about him screamed computer geek. Dylan was surprised he didn’t have a pocket protector.

  “You, too, Dr. Miller. I’m surprised to see you here.” Megan’s response was clipped. It was the first time Dylan had ever heard Megan be less than overtly friendly with someone.

  There was no lost love here.

  “I’ve been asked to come in and check that there are no contraband hard drives being used in the system.”

  “Asked by whom?” Megan demanded.

  “Burgamy’s office. If you must know.” Miller’s voice was just as rigid as Megan’s.

  Megan glanced over at Dylan, one eyebrow raised. Dylan gave her a small nod. He was becoming more and more convinced that Burgamy was the mole. They just needed to figure out a way to prove it.

  “Fine, Dr. Miller. Check away. We have no external drives.”

  Miller thoroughly vetted the computer. Looked in places Dylan had no idea you could even attach an external drive. The man seemed genuinely shocked not to find one.