He shared one story with her that he hadn’t told anyone. Not even Willy.
He’d stood up to a sadistic supervisor, refusing to take orders from the bastard. Charlie knew bullying for what it was and being a supervisor didn’t make it okay to screw with innocent lives. Charlie wouldn’t do it. Instead, he blew the whistle, and got a bright red target painted on his back. In his field, no one ratted on teammates. Of course, he left out the fact the supervisor was the C.O. of a bad-ass elite group of sadistic SEALs who’d take him out with one shot given the chance. He also didn’t say how ashamed he was that he’d respected those guys, at first. Trusted them.
In a strange way, Hot Girl had become his closest friend. Lately, she was his only friend outside of the SEALs. So yeah, he missed her. A hell of a lot. He had a bag of Cheetos in his cabinet now because of her, even though he didn’t eat junk food.
He turned the computer off. Computer games weren’t any fun without her. Tightening his cellular watch, he grabbed his surf board. With his toes in the sand on Ehukai Beach, he assessed the wind and water conditions. Sweet. The Banzai Pipeline was breaking nicely over the reef. He might just get to surf a big Kahuna yet. He was dying to ride a thirty-footer at one of the most dangerous surf spots in the world before going back to duty.
“Excuse me,” a woman tapped his shoulder. “Are you really going out there?”
He turned around to see two bikinied babes ogling him—one in red, the other blue.
The one in blue tossed her long brown hair over her shoulder. “Those waves look dangerous.” By the hunger in her eye, he knew that the Kahuna wasn’t the only dangerous thing on the North Shore.
“They are,” he said. “Unless you know what you’re doing.”
Red sized him up. Her gaze traveled from his chest, down his abs, and stayed a beat too long at his swim trunks before she looked him in the face. She had short dark hair and a killer figure that was almost as stunning as Blue’s. “Are you a pro?”
He grinned. “Not at surfing.”
Red dragged a long fingernail down his bicep, drawing a heart on his skin. “Stay and party with us?”
“Please?” Blue waved a half-empty bottle at him. Wouldn’t you know it? Belgian beer.
“We’re lonely.” Red pouted. “We’ve been in Hawaii for a whole day and haven’t met anyone as good-looking as you are.”
“You won’t be sorry.” Blue lifted her shoulders which had the desired effect of lifting her boobs higher. She might as well have put them on a plate and handed them to him.
These two were hot, even if the breasts were fake and their tummies had been tuned-up by a plastic surgeon or two. His hard-on was lifting his shorts, but his head wasn’t in the game.
“Sorry ladies. I’ve got to go. Enjoy your vacation.”
Tucking his board under his arm, he took off at a jog down the sand. Willy would smack him for letting two sex kittens go. But Charlie wasn’t his brother. Those fun, no-strings attached sex-capades were losing their spark for him. He paddled on his board toward the rising swell. The longer he was on leave from the SEALs, the less he desired one-night stands. Was being out of combat screwing with his need to get it on with a stranger, or two?
At this point in his life he was thinking about long-term things—relationships, love, marriage. He wanted someone who loved him all the time, not just in bed.
Shit, was he finally growing up? Handlys didn’t mature, did they?
He needed combat. Or a real woman. Hot Girl’s avatar pop into his head, which was beyond nuts. An avatar wasn’t real. Maybe he needed serious counseling, or a good right cross to his jaw before he lost his mind completely and went totally celibate.
He stood on the board, tossed the blond hair out of his eyes, and rode the wave.
CHAPTER TWO
The heels of Amber’s newly-purchased pumps resonated like a hammer on nails through the lobby of the tallest skyscraper in Kowloon, China. Tipping her head up as she walked, she took in the massive chandelier sparkling back at her. Real diamonds? Probably. Three men with pistols on their hips guarded the lobby. Make that four. She’d missed the guard lurking by the elevator.
Jacques squeezed her elbow. “Nervous?”
Amber lifted her chin. “Of course not.” But her smoky voice came out raspier than normal, giving her emotions away.
This was it. She was facing her make-it or break-it grab at her dream job. More than anything, she wanted to work for Global Games, Inc., one of the biggest video gaming companies in the world. Two months ago, she’d sold everything she’d owned and flown to Hong Kong to get a computer job. But she quickly found that gweilos, the slang term for non-Chinese people, had a tough time breaking in. Especially an American gweilo with her past. No one would hire her and she’d had to take less-than-stellar jobs to make ends meet. She needed someone to open the glass doors to Global Games for her. By some miracle, Jacques had stepped into her life holding the keys.
She still couldn’t believe how it happened. Miracles didn’t happen in her world. And yet, a couple months ago, he had bumped into her in a crowded bar just as two college students had handed her a wad of bills that she shoved in her bra. It had been a simple wager, nothing really. The two students had bet she couldn’t beat both of them in an online war game. Stupid boys. She never lost that game.
He’d raised an eyebrow, his dark eyes riveted to the bit of white lace still exposed. Based on how quickly the students had left the scene, she worried the guy was an undercover cop. She’d heard horror stories about Chinese prisons.
She lifted her chin, faced him. “Keep your eyes in their sockets, buddy. I’m not a prostitute.”
“Good. In that case, my name is Jacques. Let me buy you a beer.” The man’s accent was sexy. French?
“Beer?” She took a long moment to gaze at his lean, tan frame. He was older than she was by a good ten to fifteen years, but he was handsome with intelligent near-black eyes. By the look of his perfectly tailored, expensive suit and his diamond-encrusted watch, he was rich. And she was feeling lucky. “How’d you know it was my favorite drink?”
Jacques was attractive, especially when he’d spoken the language she loved, not French or English—computer language. He dabbled in writing computer software. He’d been hired by Director Lau, the man who owned Global Games, to plug security holes in the company’s system. The coincidence floored her. She admitted to taking odds-and-ends security jobs as well. She tried not to tear up. “I’m not hacking anymore. I need a paying job. Badly. But more than that, I want to do something good with my life.”
“Let me assist you, belle. I’ll keep my eye out for the perfect job for you.”
She didn’t say no. They had several beers that night and the next. They struck up a friendship and dated occasionally. Not exclusively. She saw him with other women and it didn’t bother her because she wasn’t in love with Jacques. Did she have the ability to fall in love anymore? Probably not. Her wiring for it had been ripped out of her heart years ago. Still, she liked Jacques. It was nice to know someone in the huge city. She didn’t feel so alone.
Two nights earlier, he’d called her in a panic. “I cannot do it, chère. For four months I have been trying to penetrate the firewall for Global Games. It is impossible. Director Lau does not agree. He says Sega has broken in before and he does not want them to see his new virtual weaponry. What am I to do? I must get through the firewall this week, or the director will fire me and have me deported. I cannot go back to France. I owe money in Paris to…unsavory men. Please help me.”
Her heart plummeted. “How much money do you owe?”
“Enough to get a man doused in oil and set on fire.”
“Oh, Jacques.”
“I know, chère. I made a bad decision long ago and am still paying for it. Help me do this and Director Lau promises to pay my debts. I’ll be free.”
She exhaled softly. She’d made her share of bad decisions and was still paying too.
“There
’s more!” Jacques’s voice was perking up. “The director said if you could help me with this last step, he’d give you a legitimate gamer’s job. No more hacking.”
Hacking had gotten her into trouble more times than not and hurt innocent people. She’d promised she wouldn’t do it again and she kept her promises. But this was different. She’d hack for a good company like Global Games, which could land her a decent, paying job. Most importantly, she’d help Jacques.
“I’ll do it,” she’d said that night.
“You’ll need new clothes. Tasteful blouse, skirt, pumps.”
She’d rolled her eyes at the phone. She hated when people told her what to wear, but she’d do this for Jacques. “Fine.”
She spent the last dollars in her bank account to buy a tasteful suit. The soles of the new pumps were still slippery on the marble floor as she walked with Jacques through the lobby up to the receptionist’s counter at Global Games. The armed guards seemed to be watching her every move.
Nodded at Jacques, she found her voice. “I’m ready for this.”
He winked. “That’s my girl.” Pulling a pen out of his suit pocket, he wrote Amber’s name on the guest list. He flashed a smile at the pretty receptionist behind the counter. “Jóusàhn, leng lui.”
Amber cocked an eyebrow at him. Good morning, pretty lady? Did he have to flirt with everything in a skirt?
The receptionist was young and cute with short bangs and wire-rimmed glasses. Dipping her head, she smiled coyly at him and her round cheeks flushed. Amber didn’t feel a flash of jealousy. The young Chinese woman was just another female smitten by the charming rich Frenchman. The list was long and Amber wasn’t on it.
“You’re signed in. Let’s go,” he said to Amber.
With long graceful strides he moved toward the elevators. She hustled to keep up. The fourth guard stepped out of the shadows and drew his gun.
She gasped. It felt like all of her blood pooled to her feet.
“Put that away, asshole!” Fluent Cantonese rolled off Jacques’s tongue with only the slightest hint of his native French. “Director Lau asked for her.”
The guard’s gaze flicked toward the receptionist.
Nodding, the girl said, “She’s expected.”
Amber held perfectly still while perspiration ran between her cleavage. The guard grunted, apparently unable to form actual words, holstered his weapon and ordered her to lift her arms. He waved a metal detection wand slowly over her body, coming perilously close to her breasts.
“Hey! Watch it!” She pushed his wand hand back.
The guard went for his weapon again. The barrel was inches from her nose.
“Merde! Let him search you, Amber. It’s protocol," Jacques snapped at her.
Weapon-search protocol? What kind of company was this? The one you’re dying to work for, she reminded herself. She took a stuttering breath. “Fine. But someone’s going to owe me dinner after this.”
The guard got up close and personal again. Too personal. When he ran that wand over her skirt, Amber gritted her teeth to keep from kneeing him in the groin. Satisfied that she wasn’t packing, the guard pressed the elevator button. The doors opened and he cocked his head for them to step inside and got on with them.
Amber scanned Jaques’s face. He went to work like this every morning?
He shook his head. No, he was surprised too. Weapon search of visitors at the front yes, guard escort in the elevator, definitely not. This was not a typical morning. The elevator stopped on the twenty-second floor, doors opening to a view of a nondescript office space full of cubicles. People busily answered phones and worked on computers at their desks. Soon she could be one of them.
“Come.” Jacques took her hand and led her down a long corridor. “My office is this way.”
The smell of Cha Chaan Teng assaulted her nose. Cantonese noodles for breakfast with a fried egg were okay, but who could drink silk-stocking milk tea in the morning? Amber could barely get out of bed without a strong cup of coffee. She wondered if the director would allow her to have a coffee pot plugged in at her desk. When she passed a man slurping noodles, he didn’t lift his head from his bowl. Was he avoiding eye-contact with her, or the asshole guard that followed closely on her heels?
Jacques unlocked double doors and ushered her into his office. Mahogany, leather, and a view of Kowloon greeted her.
“Impressive,” she said.
He shrugged “It’s a living.” He closed the door, keeping the guard outside his office.
“Why is Ugly following us?” Amber whispered.
Jacques put a finger to his lip and pointed up. Was his office bugged? Who was listening?
“You can sit here.” He motioned to his desk. “Get comfortable, this might take a while.”
Her lips twitched. He didn’t know how good she was, did he? “I’ll do my best.” She sat on his soft leather chair and squinted at the computer monitor. “You just need me to break through a firewall?”
“Yes,” he said while shaking his head no. Lowering his voice, he rubbed her shoulders. “I believe it will be apparent once you break through. Get started.”
Her instincts told her something was not right here. What had Jacques gotten himself into? She leaned against him and closed her eyes. “This is important to you?”
“Yes, little one. It means the world to me. To us.”
Facing the monitor, she saw her own frown reflecting back at her. Should she follow her instincts and march her new sensible pumps right out the door? Walking would lose the only real friend she had in Hong Kong. Could she do that to Jacques? No.
She drummed her red painted fingernails on the mouse. “You’ve done a lot of work here. Do you want me to go back to the beginning? See if you have errors in your entry point?”
“No. We are on the clock. Do not go back.”
“All right.” She tried her favorite go-to codes and got shut out. “Well, that didn’t break it. This firewall is complex. They’ve been hit by hackers before. Good ones.”
“Take all the time you need. Just do it right. Don’t let me down.”
She shot him a dirty look. “Great. No pressure.”
He winked and settled back into a leather love seat to read a magazine.
No pressure for him. She went to work.
Hours later she linked her fingers over her head. She was in. That bad boy firewall cleared like smoke and she could see the plans for the first virtual weapon. Holy hot tamales! She’d never seen anything like it. Was it a plane, ship, or some high-tech hybrid? She turned it 360 degrees and then rotated it upside down studying all the angles, vertices and planes. There wasn’t a cockpit, per se, and no space for a virtual player to sit. A drone, then. And the weaponry on it! Missile launchers, lasers, and some jagged-slicer thingy.
Global Games was light-years beyond the competition with this realistic high-tech weaponry. A fangirl thrill rolled through her. The games were going to rock so hard. She studied the 3-D plans for the next weapon—a sort of mini-rocket that could hover and maneuver like a helicopter, also a drone. The next was a motorcycle-type vehicle that formed a virtual bubble around the player and shielded him from gunfire, explosions and…water! This thing could dive to depths of a thousand feet, or more. All the stats, dimensions, and capabilities were there. Wow, they looked so real.
“You need to see this.” Her husky voice was back.
Jacques’s feet hit the floor and he moved quickly behind her. “I am disappointed. I thought you could do it. I will inform the director that I was wrong.”
“You don’t get it. I’m in—”
He cut her off by digging his fingernails into her shoulder. “In trouble? No, do not worry your pretty head about it. However, I am afraid the director will not hire you now.”
“What are you talking about?” She tipped her face up toward his.
His dark eyes pierced hers. Dead serious. “Try one more time before you give up.”
Give up? Had he lost
his mind? She was in deep. Her heart pounded with the excitement of what she’d seen.
Slipping a note into her hand, Jacques gently turned her around to face the monitor. Copy everything. Quickly. Then crash the system.
She narrowed her eyes. So this is how he wanted to play it?
Jacques would copy the coding she’d used and add it to what he’d done for the past four months to create a complete system break-in pathway. Later, when Director Lau was present, Jacques could restart the system, break through the many firewalls, and point out ways to fix the holes. Jacques would take all the credit. She’d get none.
Over her shoulder, she locked eyes with him. “Are you sure about this?”
A line of sweat beaded on his upper lip. He handed her a memory card. “Yes, I am sure. It will mean financial freedom for both of us. I promise. Do your best.”
He was working an angle, some deal to pay off his debts.
“Trust me,” he whispered.
Trust. That was a hard thing when it seemed like he was trying to burn her. And she’d been burned many times before and the last one still hurt. It was funny, but there was only one person she really trusted. Unfortunately, he wasn’t here.
She looked into Jacques’s dark eyes and saw desperation. “I’ll try.”
He nodded, as if he understood the war going on in her head.
“But this firewall is really tough,” She said louder than normal as she popped the memory card in. The download began immediately.
“A few more minutes. That’s all we need.”
A number on the rocket ship caught her eye. She zoomed closer. There! In a circle around the nose cone—U.S. Department of Defense and a serial number. Wow, Global Games was really going for authenticity. Who would think to add such fine details in a video game? Man, I’m going to create killer games with this stuff.
Jacques snagged the memory card out of the machine and whispered in her ear, “Now!”
She crashed the server and the computer went black. The guard threw open the door and complaining voices drifted in.
“Whoops.” Amber tried not to smile. “Must have hit the wrong button.”
Lock and Load (SEAL EXtreme Team) Page 2
