Guarding Sierra: (Soldiering On #2)
Page 18
A voice sounded from the doorway. “Are we interrupting?”
Sierra reared back. Mandy and Duncan stood in the doorway. Paul loitered a little behind them. All three looked rumpled and worn.
Mandy rushed into the room and gathered Sierra in a gentle hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
Duncan was slower, but, he too looked relieved as he got close enough to see that Blake was awake and lucid.
“You need to stop making a habit of this,” Duncan told him. Blake smiled as Mandy let go of Sierra and turned.
“I can’t believe you managed to get shot twice in one month. That must be a record,” she scolded him.
Paul wheeled himself up next to Duncan, looking between each member of the group.
Blake smiled at Mandy. “I always like a challenge. Just you wait, and I’ll beat that record.”
Mandy rolled her eyes and settled her hand on Sierra’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she told him. “For saving Sierra.”
“Why do people keep thanking me for doing my job?” he grumbled, but he didn’t look particularly put out.
Paul cleared his throat. “Sorry we’re so late in coming. I only just managed to get our systems on line, so we hadn’t heard the news. We rushed straight over.”
“It’s okay, we were asleep anyway,” Sierra reassured him. “Did you fix the systems?”
He shrugged. “I think. Hard to tell.”
“We’re so sorry we couldn’t help last night. I can’t believe he found you out there.” Mandy squeezed her shoulder, comforting.
A frown tugged at Duncan’s brow. “How did he find you? Do either of you know?”
Sierra shook her head. Blake, too, confirmed the negative.
“Walk me through what happened. Just in case it was related to our breach,” Paul told her.
Sierra nodded and began explaining the sequence of events from when Grant had attacked her in her apartment. When she got to the live stream on social media, Paul stopped her.
“Did anything happen during the stream? Any glitches or other unusual things?”
“No, uh—” she paused. “Hang on, a chat window popped up while we were doing the video. It was from Grant.”
Paul groaned. “The netstat command.” He muttered it with such contempt.
“What’s that?” she asked him.
“It’s a way to find out people’s location via peer to peer chats. It’s a little convoluted, but there are plenty of step-by-step tutorials on the internet that tell you how. Unfortunately.”
“They can do that?”
“Apparently.”
Sierra sighed. “I thought I was doing the right thing with that video.” She turned to Blake. “I’m sorry. It looks like it’s my fault you’re in here.”
Blake shrugged, his eyes dropping. “People need to stop apologising for getting me shot. It’s not like I wouldn’t have gotten shot on my own merits somehow, anyway.”
His words were slurred, lacking their usual sharp timing. Duncan and Mandy shared a glance.
“We should go,” Mandy announced. She bent down to hug Sierra. “Look after yourself,” she told her sternly.
The three said their goodbyes. They were halfway to the door when Mandy turned back. “Oh, and Blake? You hurt her, I kill you.”
Sierra thought she was only partially joking. Her heart warmed. Blake gave Mandy a thumbs up. Mandy waved him off affectionately and left.
Sierra turned back to Blake. His eyes were shutting, despite his valiant efforts to keep them open.
“Rest,” she whispered. “I’ll watch over you.”
And, on a peaceful sigh, he slept.
Tomorrow, Sierra would deal with the fallout from Grant’s actions. She hoped it would lead to changes at Livingston, Hastings and Winslow. And if it didn’t, she’d make it happen. Eventually.
She was just as confident in Blake. He’d answered her concerns more than satisfactorily. They made a good team, and she trusted in him.
And in their future.
Epilogue
Mandy was writing up some reports about the events of the previous few days—including what had happened on Zack’s assignment, which she was only just hearing about—trying to make sense of all the many threads. She wasn’t particularly successful.
The phone rang, lighting up with Sierra’s name and photo. She grinned, snatching it up, grateful for the interruption.
“How did it go?” she asked as soon as she accepted the call. Sierra had had her big presentation earlier. In fact, it had probably just ended. The client had been happy to reschedule, especially after Sierra had been on the news with her ordeal. Much to her distaste.
“I aced it!” Sierra replied, her huge grin obvious from the shape of her words.
Mandy let out a breath of relief. “I’m so glad. I hope now your father will see how valuable you are.”
Sierra cleared her throat. “Actually, I called him first. To gloat, of course.”
“And?”
“He mentioned that Percy had been fired. Not for his gross behaviour with women, but for manipulating my father into thinking I was in danger. Apparently, he and Grant cooked up that scheme together.”
Mandy made a sound of disgust. “At least it’s something.”
“I’m not going to look the gift horse in the mouth.”
“So, what’s he going to do about the empty slot for partner? Or both slots, I suppose.”
“Well,” Sierra murmured, drawing the word out. “I did happen to mention that the letters in Hastings and Winslow rearranged pretty nicely into Livingston. He’d only have to get a V.”
“And how did he react?”
“He said it sounded like a cost-effective manoeuvre.” Sierra laughed, joyous and infectious. She seemed more amused by her father’s treatment of her than upset.
“That man. He’s even worse than my father.”
“Well, as long as I get the promotion I deserve, then I’m happy.”
Mandy congratulated her wholeheartedly, meaning every word. They hung up as Mandy’s office door creaked open. When she saw it was Duncan, she slumped back in her chair.
“What’s going on?” she asked. He never visited her if he could help it.
He shut the door behind himself. “Paul thinks he’s figured out who planted the bugs and the spyware in our systems.” He slid into one of the lime green chairs opposite her.
Mandy perked up. “How?”
“We used the bugs to lure them out. They fell for the trap.” His grin was smug.
“Anyone I know?”
Duncan cleared his throat. “It’s possible that it was Beaton Security.”
The pen slipped out of Mandy’s hand. “Our rivals? The heavily funded, more experienced, better networked version of us?”
Duncan nodded. “It seems that they weren’t satisfied with their meeting with you the other day.”
Mandy narrowed her eyes. He just had to take that little jab, didn’t he?
“Well, it was a shame your hand-picked security system didn’t keep them out.” She raised her eyebrow in challenge. “Might I remind you that the only reason we’re on their radar is because you let Blake go off half-cocked.”
“Well, maybe if you—”
Mandy held up a hand to cut him off.
“Look, let’s just be mature about this. What’s our next step?”
Duncan glared at her. She kept her face impassive. Eventually, he relented on a sigh. “Obviously, we’ve got on their shitlist, so we’re going to need to be really careful. We can’t afford for them to shut us down.”
“Agreed,” she told him. The only thing that she and Duncan saw eye to eye on. “Do you think it could be a test? Or a warning?” she asked.
Duncan mulled it over. “Could be. But for what?”
Mandy couldn’t fathom. “They’re going to make for tough opponents. We’ll need a strategy to manage them.”
“How so?”
“We need to beat them at thei
r own game,” she replied with a grin.
The End
For more adventures of the Soldiering On crew, click below:
Soldiering On Series
Soldiering On (Soldiering On #0.5) – See where it all began
Station Alpha (Soldiering On #1) – Paul and Christine’s story
Christmas Tango – a Duncan and Mandy novella – Coming Soon!
About the Author
Aislinn is an Australian Expat living in Qatar. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in English and History, which she loved, and then went on to do a Masters in an unrelated field. She now largely pretends that last degree never happened.
She enjoys reading, writing, travelling, and fantasising about her future cottage in a forest. Now that she’s published, her next life dream is to own a dog.
Visit her at https://aislinnkearns.com/