Page 91 of Critical Alliance (Rocky Mountain Courage 3)

He drove the car right up to the cabin and insisted that he clear the place first, ignoring Mackenzie’s obvious impatience. Back in the cabin she sat at the small table and focused on her laptop. He didn’t think she was going to have enough time to find anything because it could take days, weeks, or months without a whole team—according to her. Except in her case, she thought she knew the potential cybercriminal suspect.

He itched to call his superior or Keenan.

“Quit pacing,” she said. “You’re nervous, and you’re making me nervous.”

She was on to him. He eyed his cell and looked at his boss’s number.

These actions he’d taken with Mackenzie could break him or make him, but of course, it wasn’t about him. Sometimes the door God opened for a person to walk through had more to do with the greater good.

“I’m going to go outside so I won’t disturb you.”

“I can imagine who you’re calling at this hour, so don’t. Besides, I already know stuff.”

That got his attention. He stopped pacing. Did he want to know? “Like what?”

“DARPA.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. “I could see them working with Hanstech. Drones. AI. But what’s the project?”

He moved to sit next to her and looked at her screen. She turned it away. “You can’t call your people, Alex. You call them, the cybercriminal will find out, and I don’t have a handle on this yet. I need to shut this hacker down before he can hurt anyone else.”

Alex tucked his cell away—for the moment. He would learn as much as he could first. Then ... Sorry, Mackenzie, I have to inform the authorities. Why did it feel like he was using her instead of helping her?

She would hate him when this was over.