To Russia With Love (Countermeasure Series) (7 page)

C
ASSANDRA'S FOOTSTEPS WERE SOFT AS she made her way to their bedroom. The sight of Trevor standing by the window looking out on St. Stephen’s Green, lost in thought, halted her approach. She stood by the door and studied him in silence. His set face, grim mouth, and fixed eyes spoke volumes about his frame of mind. She quietly stepped up behind him, circled his waist with her arms, and hugged him tight before slipping her hands down into his front pockets. Silence descended upon them like a thick blanket as she stood pressed against his back. Whatever was weighing heavily on him she was confident he’d tell her when he was ready.

His concentration implied he was thinking through scenarios regarding the next phase of their current project. As the details of the case filled her own thoughts, they tossed her straight into the memory of Trevor bursting into the room the day of the meet, and the quick, hard love that followed. A slow burn crept up from her chest to her cheeks. Her world had bottomed out in that moment. It had narrowed to only him and the play of his hands and mouth on her body.

Cassandra rubbed her cheek against his back and dropped a kiss between his shoulders. After a few more minutes, his hand drew hers from his pocket and, with a light squeeze, pulled it to his lips, placing a tender kiss in the center of her palm before resting it over his heart. The strong steady beat under her hand was reassuring. Taking his action as a sign that he was ready to talk, Cassandra moved around to face him. She kept her gaze steady and locked on his as she cupped his cheek, his shaved skin soft under her hand. “What’s up love?” she asked, rubbing her thumb back and forth where it rested.

Trevor’s eyes held a grim determination. “Devlin called. He wanted an update.” He flicked his gaze to the street beyond. “I told him everything is still on schedule.”

Trevor’s hand covered hers again and pressed it tighter against his cheek. She watched a frown crease his brow. “George will be online soon. Hate the five-hour difference. If only we could convince him to move here. We would be able to bounce things off each other easier,” Trevor sighed. “But then we would lose the ability to access certain features of Echelon only available to us because he’s in Cryptocity. We need to pick his brain and give him what we have so that he can set the taps.”

Cassandra drew his attention back to her, searching his troubled eyes for a clue as to what he was really thinking. “When you’ve worked through it, share what’s bugging you with me. Maybe I can help. Two brains
are
better than one, you know,” she teased, hoping to turn his mood. She dropped her glance to the watch gracing her wrist and rose on tiptoes, placing a peck on his lips. “It’s almost time for George. I better get everything ready.”

She slipped away from him and crossed the hall to their office. Sitting in his chair, she booted his computer. Trevor followed. While she waited for the security login window, she twisted the chair to face him. “Do you think he’s made any progress with Jennifer?” she chuckled.

A smile hovered on Trevor’s lips and her insides did a small flip-flop. “The way those two dance around each other, they may never get to first base.”

Cassandra burst out laughing. “What is it with guys, baseball, and the obsession with bases?” Trevor’s wicked smile and wiggling eyebrows melted her insides. She spun to the screen, seeking activity to clear the image of pushing him back to their room and jumping him out of her mind. She swallowed hard a couple of times to dislodge the lump that had formed in her throat. He always had that effect on her. Even after all those months, he could steal the breath from her lungs with just a flash of his crooked smile.

Cassandra squared her shoulders, pulled up the summary of the details they’d captured, and opened the online chat. “Okay. All logged in and set up for the call.”

She stood, handing the seat over to Trevor and scooting her own closer. A comfortable silence stretched between them, each lost in their own musings as they waited for George.

Trevor struggled to wrap his head around the next steps to trace the decrypter’s location. In the back of his mind, something was niggling at him, making his hair stand on end and his gut clench. Finding the link to the mole had been too easy. Maybe not to an average sysadmin, but to Trevor it had been a piece of cake. Almost as if whoever had taken the decrypter couldn’t have cared less if they’d been found. He mulled over the facts, hoping a light would go off, but instead he kept hitting a brick wall. It was seriously pissing him off that he’d not been able to pinpoint the glitch in his theory.

He glossed over Cassandra’s notes. The woman could easily get by without taking any—her mind was like an organic file cabinet; but she liked having the notes and records at hand. All details associated with the contact as well as the suspected mole were listed for easy copy and paste. As he read through the background check on Andrey Tomlin the niggling grew stronger—things fit just a little too nicely.
Way too easy.
The online chat beep sounded in the background. Trevor toggled the window.

Are you there?
George had typed on the screen.

Yes. Cassie is here, too. Video call?

Has to be quick today. I have a meeting in about 15 minutes. Something big might be coming our way down the pike.

Not a problem, George. Just let me know if it does and if we’ll be needed.

You know how it is when someone wants something yesterday. Oh, wait. That’s you most of the time. LOL.

Initiating the video call, George’s face appeared on the screen. “Hey, Cassie! Still putting up with this foul-mouthed jerk husband of yours?”

Cassandra laughed, turned her head, and frowned as she looked Trevor over appraisingly. “Yeah. What can I say? He’s a keeper. Hot geek, don’t you know.” She flashed a cheeky grin at Trevor and shrugged. “Just saying.”

Trevor shot George a stern look. “Stop ganging up on me or I’ll email Jennifer the pictures I have of you from when you came to Dublin and we partied at the Temple Bar.”

A clack of teeth sounded as George snapped his mouth shut abruptly, drawing a soft chuckle from Trevor.
The man is head over heels.
George got down to business. “What do you have for me?”

Trevor nodded at Cassandra to take the lead. “Georgie,” Cassandra grinned when he scowled at the play on his name. “The MDS project is getting a little sticky.” Her grin faded and her expression grew solemn. “We uncovered some interesting information on one employee in particular: Tomlin, Andrey.”

Trevor dragged the file into the chat window so George could download the full background check. He watched a crease form between George’s brows as he skimmed it.

Cassandra continued with the briefing. “He’s single. No current love interests. A fast-tracker within the Company. Used to be a golden boy. That image was tarnished after he was busted and disciplined for corporate credit card misuse. It could have been the catalyst to his involvement in the theft. A good percentage of his personal credit card accounts are maxed out. Possible cash-flow issues. Other than that, he’s clean.”

George rubbed his chin as he eyed the file. “Still, you never know.” His gaze shifted to the camera, “What’s this about Russian extensions?”

Cassandra glanced at Trevor. “I’ll let Trevor give you the deets on that little nugget. It’s his find.”

Trevor took over the debriefing and talked about on the many sites Mr. Tomlin was visiting from his work computer. “It’s a very weak lead, I know, but so far it’s all we’ve got.” He crossed his arms and eased back in his chair. “This is a small company. Not many workers to screen. We had one other potential culprit, but Cassie was able to eliminate him.”

“Any clue on the path of extraction?” George’s eyes were shrewd and Trevor knew the signs. George’s inquiring mind was already working the lead, just as he had.

“It didn’t leave the company through the network or I would’ve found traces of the files being removed via remote access or FTP in the logs. I didn’t find any port scans, DNS queries, trace route, or telnet attempts in the logs. No exploits, either.”

George’s gaze bounced between Cassandra and Trevor. “Sounds like an inside job to me. Someone could’ve moved the files to an external device and walked out with it.”

“That’s what we think.” Trevor paused, trying to find the right words to express his concern. “The real question is why this was so damn easy to trace.”

Cassandra looked at him, her eyes sharp and assessing. “So that’s what’s been bothering you.”

Trevor sighed and nodded. “Why is it that an employee can extract highly confidential data, walk out of the building on a Monday night, and the company not notice it’s missing until three days later when the lead developer returns from a business trip and can’t find any trace of the files? It’s just bizarre. You’d think MDS had better security measures in place.”

George nodded and scrubbed his fingers through his hair “Do you think there’s someone else involved?”

George hit the bull’s eye—the reason Trevor was so puzzled. “There’s no activity on his computer to indicate any accomplice within the company. That’s why I inputted new keywords in the Echelon library. Keep an eye on it for us, will you? Also, if you can initiate some taps based on the background check Cassie ran, that would help a great deal.”

George relaxed back in his chair with his arms crossed at his chest and a smirk like a Cheshire cat curving his lips. “Easy peasy. What do I get in return?” His eyes narrowed speculatively. “You know what I want—”

Trevor sighed deeply. “You’re an
eejit
, George. Fine. We’ll help you woo your lass.
But
—” Trevor stressed as a grin of anticipation overtook George’s features. “No guarantee she’ll fall for your ugly ass, even with our help.”

George rubbed his hands together, grinning like a child at Christmas. “Hey, something is better than nothing! I’ll place the taps and let you know as soon as I have anything.” He looked over the top of his monitor and flicked his gaze back to them. “Gotta go.”

When the call abruptly terminated, Trevor reached for the mouse and logged them off the chat window.

Cassandra swiveled her chair to face him and frowned as she studied his face. Trevor must have felt her scrutiny because he glanced at her. “What?”

Cassandra searched his eyes and then sighed deeply. “You tell me. Why didn’t you mention your suspicions? Did it ever occur to you that I might have had similar questions running around in my head? You should have mentioned it to me, Trev. We could have sounded each other out.”

He stared at her sheepishly. “Shite! You’re right. Have to remember there is an
us
in the equation, not just
me
now.”

“Next time you have one of these gut feelings, spill, okay?”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “Yes,
a ghrá
.”

Cassandra squeezed his back. “Don’t let it happen again. I have a gun and I
will
use it.”

His mouth twitched with amusement and she flashed a wicked grin, chuckling to herself. “Damn if George didn’t have the ‘I am stalking prey’ look at the thought of setting the taps.”

She plopped her feet in his lap. “Any thoughts on how we are supposed to help him with Jennifer?” she asked, noticing the rise of his eyebrows. “What? You’re my personal footstool. Get over it.”

Trevor threw back his head, letting out a hearty laugh. “Glad to be of service.”

Cassandra’s heart sang on seeing his first real smile of the day.

Trevor took advantage of the little downtime to touch on casual conversation. “Any news from Jessica?”

“Yes! She’ll be arriving in four days. I can’t wait!”

“It’ll be interesting to see you girls in action.” He tried to hide his chuckle, but it was an impossible feat. She could see the humor glittering in his eyes.

“You’re jealous cause George isn’t here to geek out with you. Oh, yeah…George. Where was I?”

Trevor loved watching the wheels spinning out of control in that mind of hers. “I can see you’re going to use your big guns on setting up George with Jennifer. I truly hope he doesn’t hold me liable for your Machiavellian tactics to hook him up.” He leaned back, crossed his hands over his stomach, and looked at her pensively.

“I don’t like that look on your face, Trev. It usually means you’re up to no good.”

He grinned playfully. “What?! Jeez.” Feigning hurt, he shook his head. “I wasn’t planning anything bad. Just trying to decide on how to properly use your skills on this job.”

Cassandra quirked an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

Trevor sighed at her lack of faith and continued. “I’m thinking we should try to secure some video of our Mr. Tomlin. I’ll see if I can track something via the building’s security system so you can work your magic.”

Cassandra’s eyes twinkled. As ex-CIA, Cassandra had a wide range of skills. As much as Trevor’s instinct was to protect her, he knew she was more than capable of handling herself if complications arose. Monte Carlo had been proof of that. But the apple of her eye was psychoanalysis and how they connected with facial expressions. “More facial analysis?” Excitement and a hopeful glint shone in her eyes.

“Possibly. I was thinking we might need to tap into the CIA tactical video feed. I’m not sure it’ll be necessary, though. It’ll depend on George and whether or not he comes up with something soon.”

Cassandra expelled a soft breath. With George working that case, chances were good he would have new information pretty quickly and she wouldn’t have a chance to sink her feet further.

Humoring her, Trevor added, “You mentioned something about a leak the other day?” They had been bantering about the fact she was always wet for him. He craved to validate that claim of hers.

A smile widened across her face and it reminded him of sunshine after a rainy day in Sligo, his hometown. His heart did a little roll in his chest and wreaked havoc on his senses, melting him on the spot. “Or…we could work on something more serious,” he said somberly. His words grabbed her attention for a millisecond until she recognized the wicked gleam in his eyes.