by Paula Graves
“So what do you suggest?” Jesse asked.
“Let me try to contact him online,” she said. “Like I told Shannon, I know some of the places he’d go. If I can reach him that way and regain his trust, we might be able to get him to meet us.”
“If he has evidence that can bring down the Espera Group, we have to get our hands on it,” Jesse said flatly. “You can’t let him hold on to his cards. Understand?”
She nodded. “I can do this.” Her voice came out strong and sure, far more sure than she actually felt. Her gut muscles quivered with unease as she started to feel the full impact of what she’d just agreed to do.
Endrex was wily and smarter than she could ever hope to be. He knew the internet as intimately as a lover, and there was no way she could catch him there if he decided to run.
They’d stayed in touch for a few years after he left Quantico and she and her family had relocated to Alabama, but by the time Evie was in college, life and constraints on her time had gotten in the way of their virtual friendship. They hadn’t communicated in over a year, and that had been a brief, unexpected “Hi, how are you” instant message initiated by Endrex.
Thinking back, she wondered now at the timing of his message. Her father’s retirement from the Marine Corps had made the news, mostly because of his high-profile involvement in later years with the politically volatile peacekeeping mission in Kaziristan. Endrex had contacted her shortly after the retirement hit the news.
Had he wanted something in particular? He’d seemed guarded, although for a guy like him, a hint of paranoia wasn’t unusual.
“I’ll need to go to my apartment,” she told Jesse. “He’ll be able to trace my location, so it’s better if I’m on a computer that tracks back to me.”
“I’ll take you there,” he said with a short nod.
“I want to go with you,” her father said.
Evie smiled at him. “Dad, Jesse will protect me. You and Mom are still targets. You really need to stay here and let Cooper Security protect you.”
“It’s hard for a Marine to do that,” he grumbled.
She crossed to give him a fierce hug. “Okay, then you stay here and protect them. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
As she and Jesse left the conference room, the buzz of renewed discussion cut off abruptly with the closing of the door, leaving them alone in a silent, semidark inner corridor.
Evie’s steps faltered to a halt, and she leaned against the hallway wall, her knees trembling.
Jesse moved closer, concern darkening his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“What am I doing?” she asked. “I’m not a secret agent. I just made everybody in there think I know what I’m doing.”
His brow furrowed. “And you don’t?”
“I don’t know.” She covered her face with her hands. “I didn’t lie about knowing Endrex. And I do think he’ll talk to me. But you all think I can make him turn over the evidence to you just because I mooned over him when I was fifteen and he indulged me, and I don’t know if I can.”
Jesse gently pulled her hands away from her face and tilted her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “Everybody in there knows you’ll do your best. That’s all you can do. Do you think we don’t screw up sometimes? You know we do. I blew the surveillance of Gamble back in D.C. I should have known there was a possibility we’d run into the guys who kidnapped you. I mean, we went to D.C. to find out who’d sent them, so I should have known there was a chance Gamble would be meeting with them instead of his girlfriend. We were too exposed. I never should have let that happen.”
“You couldn’t plan for every possibility,” she protested, closing her hands over his where they rested on her shoulders.
“I should have planned better,” he argued. “But my point is, we know you’ll do the best you can. That’s all we could possibly ask of you.” He tugged one hand free from hers and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “You’ve already gone so far beyond the call of your duties here, I don’t know whether to sack you or give you a bloody promotion.”
“How about you just hold me a minute?” she whispered, her heart squeezing into a painful knot. She hated herself for being so needy, so unable to distance herself from him once and for all. But she couldn’t regret it when he wrapped her in his arms, molding her body against his until she felt as if she was irrevocably a part of him.
The tearing sensation when he finally let her go was more painful than she’d anticipated.
“Let’s get out of here.” Flattening his hand against the small of her back, he guided her toward the underground parking garage where Cooper Security kept its fleet of company vehicles.
* * *
IT HAD BEEN A LONG TIME since he’d thought of himself as Nolan Cavanaugh. That was a normal name. A little upper-crust. A better name for his real-estate-mogul father and his day-trader brother than a guy like him.
He was Endrex. Single name, like Cher or Elvis. In his neck of cyberspace, he was bigger than either.
He used to get a kick out of the notoriety, especially when he thought about how appalled his father would be at the idea. His son the subculture net head. The old man had never understood him. Never really tried.
It had been years since they’d spoken, although he kept track of his family on the net. Checked Drake’s emails now and then to make sure he wasn’t gambling away his fortune. Tapped into his father’s business to make sure everything was going well. His parents were still together—he knew that much because he’d recently listened in on the email conversation between his brother and his mother regarding his parents’ fortieth-anniversary party at the country club in November.
Good for the old folks. That kind of commitment was rare in the world these days.
Dawn was a rosy hint in the window across the room, a reminder that he hadn’t slept at all the night before. He never got close to the windows these days. Way too risky considering what all had been going down for the past few months.
He’d been smart. Taken precautions and prepared for this day. He’d known it was coming.
Breakfast would be dry cereal and milk he’d made from powder. Lunch would be something out of a can. So would dinner. He’d streamlined his life to the basics since he’d read the news about Edward Ross’s death online a few months ago.
He wondered if the other two generals had any idea who he was. General Ross had promised to keep his existence their little secret, but the general had been establishment to the core. People like him weren’t nearly as good at keeping secrets as they thought they were.
He’d taken the place in Birmingham because it was safely anonymous. He didn’t stick out much here in Southside, among the artsy iconoclasts and sloppy college crowd. Nobody gave him a second look. And even the people who’d heard of Endrex couldn’t have picked him out from a crowd.
He should get some shut-eye, but he couldn’t shake the feeling he needed to stay awake. He’d been taking some chances over the past few days, sniffing around some areas of the net where he might not be the biggest, baddest dog on the block. It was a chance he’d felt he had to take after the mercs had gone after Marsh’s youngest daughter. He needed to know if anyone out there knew who he was or what he had in his possession.
He hadn’t turned it over to anyone yet. General Ross had agreed with him that it was too soon. Even the old soldier hadn’t known who the good guys and bad guys were. That’s what he’d been working on when the bastards got him.
So Endrex was still sitting on the files he’d stolen off a handful of government networks. Really, the idiots should have better info security these days. The Chinese would never put up with this kind of crummy security, but they’d sure as hell exploit it.
He wondered if there were Chicom agents out there with their hands on the same stuff he’d found. He wondered what they were doing with it, who they were putting pressure on right this very minute.
A pinging noise drew his attention back to his computer screen. Someon
e had just entered an old chat area he hadn’t visited in years. It had fallen into disuse after some cracker idiot tried to use the room for an illegal bank hack. The feds had swarmed the place and run off all the legit hacks. He didn’t know who’d have stumbled into that place again after all this time.
Curiosity nudged at him, and he pulled up that program. There was a lone screen moniker listed in the user box. Leatherbrat.
He released a huff of disbelief. Little Evie Marsh? After all this time?
Or was it a trick?
Text popped up in the chat area. Long time no type.
His lips curved. Little dork. Couldn’t even come up with an original opener. But his smile faded quickly. It could be a trick. Her father had said he didn’t know where she was, although the police view was that she’d disappeared under her own steam.
But what if they were wrong? What if she was with her captors right now and somehow they’d learned about him?
What if they were using her to smoke him out?
Chapter Seventeen
“He’s just sitting there.” Jesse was growing impatient as they waited for Endrex to answer her overture. “Are you even sure it’s really him? Couldn’t anyone call himself Endrex?”
“He wouldn’t put up with identity theft for long, and anyone with half a brain and even passing knowledge of the hacker world would know the kinds of things Endrex could do to their lives without even breaking a sweat.”
Text popped up on the screen suddenly.
Safe word.
“Safe word?” Jesse asked aloud, his gaze snapping away from the screen to search hers.
She laughed, her eyes widening. “Not that kind of safe word. He’s asking for verification that I’m who I say I am.”
“You barely said anything at all.”
“He’ll recognize the screen name. He’s the one who gave it to me.”
“Leatherbrat?”
“Leatherneck’s Brat.”
“Well, yeah, I figured that—”
She just smiled at him and typed in a word. Snickerdoodle.
Jesse leaned closer, laying his hands on her shoulders. As her muscles trembled beneath his fingers, he tamped down a surge of raw male triumph at her feminine reaction to his touch.
When this was all over, he and Evie Marsh were going to have to have a long, serious talk about what was happening between them. Work through all the obstacles between them that she seemed to think were immovable. Because there was no way he was going to let her walk out of his life the way Rita had. He’d make any sacrifice, give in to any demand she might have, to keep her around.
His hands trembled as the full meaning of his thoughts hit him like a brick bat. He’d never been willing to make those concessions for Rita. All she’d asked of him was to find a different job, and he couldn’t do it. But if Evie asked him to sell his shares of Cooper Security and follow her across the globe doing charity work, he’d do it without hesitation, just to be with her.
Oh, my God, he thought. I love her. I really love her.
“Here we go,” Evie said.
Jesse looked at the laptop. Words had popped onto the screen. Are you okay? Heard about your ordeal. “Which ordeal?” he asked. “The attempted kidnappings or the accident in D.C.?”
“Not sure,” she answered. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, her answer appearing on the screen. I’m fine, but I need to see you. In person. Where are you now?
A few seconds later, Endrex typed back, Closer than you think.
“Does he know where you’re living now?” Jesse asked.
“Yeah, I talked to him briefly a while back and mentioned I’d moved here permanently.” Evie typed in a new message. Tell me where to find you and I’ll come to you. We need to talk.
“How do you think he’ll respond to that?” Jesse murmured, pulling up a chair before his shaking knees betrayed him.
“I don’t know. He tends to paranoia.”
The wait for an answer seemed interminable. When it finally came, it was brief. They’re here. Can’t talk.
“What?” Jesse asked.
Who’s there? Evie typed in.
Come visit came the response. Look for the Storyteller. Noon.
“Who the hell is the Storyteller?” Jesse asked.
“I don’t know. She typed in a request for more information, but Endrex’s name disappeared from the chat list. “I think he’s gone.”
“How paranoid is this guy? Paranoid enough to imagine people are after him when they’re not?”
“Possibly. But if General Ross’s journal was right and Endrex has actual evidence that could bring down the Espera Group, do you think they’d hesitate for a moment to try to take him out?”
“But how would they know he has it? As far as we know, the only record of that is the general’s journal, and we only just now deciphered the code. Even if we had a mole standing right there in the room with us this morning, there hasn’t been enough time for anyone to figure out who he really is and how to find him.”
“I don’t know,” Evie said, looking worried. “I have a really bad feeling about this. What if someone’s found him? They might be taking him captive right now and torturing him to find out what he has on them.”
Jesse hoped not. If the SSU got the information from Endrex that they wanted, they wouldn’t leave him alive. Their best hope to bring down the Espera Group would be gone.
“He said he was closer than I thought. Could he be in Alabama?”
“I don’t know.” Frustration drove him to his feet, and he started pacing the floor of her small living room, trying to focus his mind on nothing but the question of where to find Endrex. But focus was hard to come by when he was surrounded by Evie’s light, fresh fragrance. The apartment seemed to be permeated by the scent. “If he was here in the state, where would he settle? Did he have any connections here?”
“Not that I know of, but I didn’t know very much about his personal life. I don’t even know his real name. My dad might be able to find out.”
Definitely a place to start, Jesse thought, pulling out his cell phone. He got his sister Megan on the line. “Megan, I need to talk to General Marsh. Is he anywhere around?”
“Sure, he’s right here.” Megan passed the phone to the general.
“Have you learned something?” Marsh asked gruffly, skipping the greetings.
“We’re not sure. Evie doesn’t know Endrex’s real name. Do you have any contacts who might have known his given name? It would help us track him down much more quickly.”
“Sure, I can make a call or two.”
“Thank you, sir. Call me back when you have it.” Jesse hung up and turned back to Evie, who sat tense and hunched at the computer as she scrolled through search-engine results. The screen changed, bringing up a page with a large photo of a fountain in the middle.
She straightened suddenly and twisted to look at him. “Look at this.”
He sat beside her again and looked at the computer screen. The photo that filled the screen featured a fountain in Birmingham, Alabama. Inside the fountain, a bronze statue of a man with a ram’s head was reading a book to an assortment of animals situated on bronze circles, while bronze frogs shot streams of water from their mouths.
The caption under the picture read, “The Storyteller, a bronze sculpture by artist Frank Fleming, sits in the fountain in Five Points South.”
“The Storyteller,” Evie murmured, her eyes wide with excitement.
* * *
“WHAT IF IT’S THE OTHER Storyteller?”
Evie looked away from the fountain visible across Magnolia Avenue and met Jesse’s dark gaze. “The other one was in Buckhead outside Atlanta. Definitely not an Endrex sort of place.”
“And Five Points South is?”
“Absolutely.” She ticked off the reasons. “Artsy, bohemian, popular with the college crowd, has a thriving slacker-chic underground—”
“And?”
“He’d want to blend in. Hi
s notoriety was all in cyberspace. In the normal world, he’d want to stay as low-key as possible. Not attract attention.”
He didn’t answer, just stared back at her through those dark, mysterious eyes that made her stomach tighten and her heart race.
He hadn’t wanted her to come with him to Birmingham, but she’d made him see the need. Endrex knew her. He’d trusted her enough to give her a clue where to find him.
Even with Jesse stopping at the office to pick up extra weapons and ammo and brief the others on their plans, they’d reached Birmingham well before noon. After driving around Five Points South a couple of times to scope out the area, they’d parked in the back lot of a restaurant near the Storyteller fountain on Highland Avenue. The mid-October weather was still mild, warm enough to lure a handful of patrons onto the outdoor patio across the street from the fountain. Jesse and Evie had joined them, ordering from the brunch menu.
Evie wasn’t hungry, even though she’d skipped breakfast. Too much nervous energy, she supposed. But she tried to eat a little of the cheese omelet Jesse had coaxed her to order as she kept an eye on the fountain.
“Are you sure you’ll recognize him?” Jesse asked quietly.
“I don’t know. It’s been eleven years.” He had been in his early twenties when she’d known him back in Virginia. In a decade he could have added weight. Started to lose his hair or go gray. For all she knew, he’d gone establishment, at least on the outside. Suit, tie, haircut and all. Had she been crazy to convince Jesse to rush down to Birmingham to meet a man she hadn’t seen in years who could be hundreds of miles from here?
Ten o’clock ticked over to eleven, and the waiter started to eye them resentfully. Jesse ordered another orange juice for each of them, buying them a little extra patience from the server.
“What if they’ve captured him?” she asked quietly, her stomach in knots. “Or worse? Maybe I should go wait by the fountain.”
His mouth tightened. “By yourself?”
“You’d spook him off.”
She could tell by the look in his dark eyes that he knew she was right—and didn’t like it one bit. “Okay,” he said, reluctance oozing from his voice. “But the second anything gets the least bit hinky—”
