Page 68 of In Shining Armor

Insomnia, Again

Dieter Schwarz

Sometimes, I knew what she needed.

Dieter lay still again on the bed and listened to Flicka breathe. He’d showered her and himself, but he’d dressed in just his boxers. They would need to buy more clothes soon.

He relaxed his body, even though every sinew was ready to leap and defend her. His breathing lengthened, slowed, and he feigned sleep in the darkness.

A few minutes later, Flicka’s cool fingers touched his shoulder.

His breathing didn’t falter as he continued to pretend to sleep.

Her hand caressed his shoulder, and the bed creaked as she moved closer. The mattress bent under him as her warmth neared his side.

Her bare arm stole across his chest, lying lightly on his skin.

Her breathing softened, and her body relaxed next to his as she fell asleep.

He had missed this.

His phone buzzed on the nightstand, and by looking at the time, he knew that Flicka’s mass text had just gone out.

He stole away from under Flicka’s arm, taking his phone with him, and closed the door to the bedroom behind himself.“Ja,Durchlaucht?”

“We received a text from Flicka,” Wulfram von Hannover said.

Good.Wulfram believed that Flicka had sent it and would believe what the code told him. “I got it, too.”

“It was sent to my phone and Reagan’s. We’re not sure how many other people, but we’ve got a lot of people calling in to tell us they received it. Can you trace it?”

“I’ve already tasked my technical staff with tracing it.”

“I’m working on it, too,” Wulf said.

Damn it.Wulf had his mobile stock trading rig with him, even when he was getting married. He could do more with a phone and two tablets than most IT professionals could do with a server farm. “Yeah, great.”

Wulf said, “It appears that the mass text bounced around the world for hours. I can’t figure out where it initiated from.”

Dieter sat in one of the dining room chairs and raked his fingers through his short hair. “Oh, too bad. I’ll have my staff look into it.”

“It’s encrypted,” Wulf said. “The encryption looks professional.”

“Well, Flicka knows everyone. She probably knows some hackers.”

“I have a friend at the Government Communication Headquarters in Britain. I can ask him to make inquiries.”

The GCHQ was Britain’s battalion of computer spies, the equivalent of the US’s NSA. “Oh, no need to do that, Wulfram. I’ll have my people look into it. Some of them used to be hackers. They’ll find her. The important thing is what she said.”

“Yes, there is that,” Wulf said, “but I’m still calling Arthur.”

They rang off a few minutes later, Dieter whispered a bunch of curses into the dark air, and then he slid back into bed with Flicka.

She wiggled closer to him and rested her hand on his chest.