Page 29 of Ground Zero

“Extensive access.”

Sheridan nodded thoughtfully. “What about Jake Laudner?”

“Jake’s . . . complicated.” Maverick chose his words carefully. “He’s our team leader, and I just can’t see him doing something like this. He loves his country, and he loves his job.”

“Who else?” She took another bite of her pizza as she waited for his answer.

“There’s Atlas, but if he wanted to ruin Blackout he had the opportunity a couple of months ago when Sigma tried to lasso a hurricane.”

She frowned. “I heard about that. It was some crazy stuff happening.”

“Tell me about it.” His eyes widened at the memories.

Sigma had come so close to actually succeeding and manipulating a storm, turning it into a monster that would have killed thousands. Thankfully, they’d been stopped.

“Keep going,” Sheridan said.

He paused, picking up his half-eaten piece of pizza. “Then there are Hudson and Kyle.”

“Anything suspicious about them?”

Maverick blew out a breath. “Nothing major, but I suppose there have been little things. Hudson has been late for briefings more than once. Kyle has forgotten to file a couple of reports—the kinds of things that suggest their heads aren’t fully in the game.”

“Or that suggests one of them could be distracted by outside obligations,” Sheridan pointed out. “Like working for a terrorist organization.”

Maverick wanted to deny her words but couldn’t.

“Are any of them capable of creating digital bombs? Of hacking into the system to make you look guilty?”

“Not that they’ve ever indicated. If I had to pick someone . . . I guess it would have to be Jake. He would be the most knowledgeable about technology. But I just can’t see him doing this. Like I said—I can’t see any of them doing this.”

“Who are you closest to out of the group?” she asked.

He blew out another breath. “Probably Hudson and Kyle. We spend the most time together outside work. I taught them to surf—tried to, at least. Neither were very good at it.”

He smiled at the memory. Both men were generally so capable. But trying to surf had humbled them. However, they’d both taken their failure in stride.

It was nothing a good hearty meal at The Crazy Chefette afterward couldn’t make better.

They finished eating while discussing each team member’s background, access levels, and recent behavior patterns.

By the time they cleared away the empty pizza box, Maverick felt like they’d dissected his entire professional life.

“There’s something else.” He moved to the laptop. “I’ve been working on those encrypted messages I found. I think I’m close to cracking them.”

He opened the computer and pulled up the Ground Zero communications folder.

“Want to take a look?” he asked. “Fresh eyes might help.”

A grin spread across Sheridan’s face as she ate her last bite of crust. “Do I ever.”

Sheridan sat at the kitchen table and studied the encrypted messages on Maverick’s laptop screen, trying to work through the patterns in the jumbled text. She had enough exposure to recognize certain signatures.

“This encryption method.” She pointed to a string of characters. “I’ve seen something similar before.”

Maverick glanced back at her from his seat at the table. “Where?”

“Internal FBI communications. Not the standard stuff—the high-security channels used for counterterrorism operations.” She looked at him with growing alarm. “Maverick, I’m nearly certain that whoever wrote these messages has access to federal encryption protocols.”