Page 42 of It’s Always Been You (Always #1)

The minute she stepped into the kitchen though, she picked up her glass of water and padded straight to the TV room. That had been two hours ago. She’d been frustrated ever since.

“Hey . . .”

It was Nate.

He and Sam slept over tonight. Going forward, Sam would be occupying one of the guest rooms until all the threats against her were eliminated.

“Can’t sleep either?”

“Yeah. Any progress?” Nate nodded to her laptop.

“Nope.”

He sat down beside her. “That’s some fucked up shit.”

“That’s just hex code.”

“Tell me you don’t read that.”

“Not really. But I can identify patterns and headers to identify encryption.”

“Then what do you do?”

“Try to guess the password or figure out the cipher?”

“That simple?”

Caitlin giggled, “Not really. Sometimes I try to write an algorithm to guess the passwords.”

“Fascinating.” Nate yawned.

There was a movement by the door. Travis walked in, an unreadable expression on his face. “I didn’t know there was a party.”

“Caitlin was educating me on hacking. Turns out it’s just a guessing game. ”

Caitlin rolled her eyes. “No, it’s not. It’s more of an educated guess.”

“Exactly, a guessing game.”

“If it were that simple, no one would keep their money in banks.”

Nate shrugged. “Show me your magic, sweetie.”

Caitlin was about to retort when she caught Travis’s eyes observing the exchange between her and Nate. He was not pleased.

She cleared her throat. “So, have I told you guys . . . about the words Hephaestus and Carpathian?”

Travis insinuated himself on the opposite side of Caitlin, forcing her to nudge Nate over to make room. Warm bodies on both sides; she never felt more secure.

“What about them?” Travis stretched his arm across the back of the couch and touched his lips to the side of her head.

“Hephaestus is the God of smithing, metal works etc. So this is telling me we’re dealing with some kind of metal,” Caitlin shrugged. “Maybe even precious metal.”

Nate sat up straight. “Gold?”

“Probably.”

“The other word, ‘Carpathian,’” Travis asked. “Isn’t that a group of people?”

“Or the mountain ranges that span Central and Eastern Europe.”

Caitlin brought up a three-dimensional map of the mountain ranges that also showed their depth and contour.

“It encompasses the countries of Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, and the majority of Romania. I’m thinking the information encrypted is either coordinates or an old-fashioned map itself.”

“Getting a warm fuzzy about it?” Nate asked.

“Sure am.”

“Are we talking about gold bullion?” Travis asked. “Are we talking pallets of them? ”

“We’re not even sure it’s gold,” Caitlin said. “So let’s not jump the line.”

“The gun,” Nate murmured. “It’s ‘jump the gun’.”

Nate got up, stretched, and began to pace the room. “We’re thinking the CIA is involved. It may not be gold. Unless it’s some kind of agency money laundering again.”

“I’m beginning to lose faith in the agency,” Travis muttered.

“They’ve been cutting funding for covert ops; they’re probably finding more creative ways to sustain whatever operations are already in play. Some of them take years to plan. Imagine if you lose the resources to finish the job,” Nate said.

“I find it hard to believe Porter is dirty, but my gut’s telling me he’s somewhat involved, and we’re not considering the bigger picture.”

“National security?” Nate said.

“Exactly.”

“Why not just bring us in the loop?” Caitlin asked.

“Sometimes they’ve got agents who are deeply embedded,” Travis said. “The fewer who know about them, the less likely their agents will get compromised.”

“Or they can throw their agents to the wolves,” Caitlin said sadly, remembering what happened to Project Infinity.

“Son of a bitch,” Travis snarled and jumped to his feet.

Nate eyed him warily; so did Caitlin.

“What?” Nate asked when Travis didn’t say anything, yet his face was mottling in fury.

“He approached me about that security job,” Travis could barely get the words out of his mouth. “The one to protect the senator.”

Nate’s eyes widened in understanding. “Son of a bitch.”

Travis was breathing hard. “The fucker set me up.”

“What, Travis?” Caitlin asked anxiously.

“He arranged it so I would encounter that specter agent, planting the seed that you may be alive. He was the one who encouraged me to open a security company. Stuck close to me.” The words tumbled out even as bitterness flashed through his face.

“Became my mentor . . . friend.” Travis stared at Caitlin.

“He was waiting for me to find you. He planned this all to find you, Caitlin.”

Caitlin felt goose bumps rise on her skin as she tried to comprehend the enormity of it all. “Travis, that’s just too absurd. I may not even figure out the whole cipher. He really may be only trying to help you. Look at where you are now.”

“Or he may be involved in the specter agent program and was feeling guilty about you losing Caitlin,” Nate said. “But if you’re right, man, that’s a long con to pull. Talk about patience.”

“Porter is a master strategist,” Travis said. “Which makes him a dangerous adversary.”

“Are you going to confront him?” Nate asked.

“Everything is circumstantial right now. He’s too cunning to leave hard evidence behind,” Travis said. “I can’t trust him until I know his fucking agenda.”

“How do we play this?”

“We’ll pretend we’re not suspecting a damn thing.”

“Oh, boy,” Caitlin whispered.

“Two can play his game.” A hard gleam entered Travis’s eyes.

Travis drew the blanket over Caitlin and quietly left their bedroom. He descended the stairs and walked straight into his study. Nate, who was waiting for him, handed him a mug of coffee. Sam was up and about doing a perimeter check.

It was 6:30 a.m. Caitlin managed to fall asleep during their discussions when Travis and Nate started rehashing some of their missions that might have been manipulations on Porter’s part.

So far, none really incriminated the admiral.

But Nate being in Germany when all the shit went down with John Cooper was too much of a coincidence.

The admiral specifically requested a BSI security detail for Perot who was a CIA civilian asset.

That gave Nate access to the CIA stations in Germany at that time.

BSI did have limited access to the agency’s database, but it was expanded on a case-to-case basis.

“I’ve got to hand it to Porter,” Travis said. “Even with Caitlin, he didn’t push. He’ll let you believe you were in control.”

“We’re still operating on assumptions here,” Nate reminded him. “We think they have a tracker on Caitlin’s laptop. Are they recording her activities? Would they know if she had finally broken into the files they need?”

“That’s why Porter is playing it so cool. They may not even bother Cat at all if she gives them what they want,” Travis said.

“Can Caitlin figure it out by herself if they’ve installed some backdoor software on her laptop? Or should we call in a specialist?”

“Calling in someone else outside the agency might trip some alarms and could put Caitlin at risk.”

“I wonder what Porter would do if Caitlin returned the laptop?” Nate asked.

Travis gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to think what Porter would do. But he said it anyway. “He’d probably take Caitlin by force, but let us think that some other group did it. Fucking misdirection is his game. I should just take Caitlin and disappear.”

“And have her on the run again?” Nate challenged.

Travis slammed the mug down on the table and glared at Nate. His friend winced, but held his eyes.

“I am not John Cooper,” Travis bit off. “I’m not going to do a piss-poor job of disappearing.”

“Do you think that’s the life Caitlin wants? Another assumed identity? ”

Travis turned around and faced the wall of books before him, but not really focusing on anything.

“No. Caitlin wouldn’t want to be someone else again.

I think she’s comfortable being who she is and learning more about herself.

I saw how peaceful and happy she was when we were in Iron Ridge.

” He faced Nate. “That’s the life I want for her.

Free of people wanting to use her for their own schemes, or people wanting to kill her for things she doesn’t even remember. ”

“You’re giving Porter what he wants this time?” Nate asked.

Conflicted emotions warred within him. “Yes. I have to remember he did help her during her time at the NEST. I think that gave Caitlin a purpose and returned some of her self-worth that had disappeared with her amnesia. She got her skills back. In some twisted way, we do owe him something.”

“But what if he keeps on asking?”

“A part of me thinks he won’t. He helped us with Komarov to get him off our backs. The unforeseen kink in that plan was Komarov’s sister. They appear to have eliminated that threat as well. So they’re clearing the path for Caitlin—”

“Her ticket to freedom.”

“That’s what I’m hoping,” Travis said as he sunk in his chair. He was so damned tired. “Part of me just refuses to acknowledge that a man I’ve depended on and trusted for over two years could play me this way. His daughter is my best friend, damn it.”

“Our best friend,” Nate corrected. “Bee wasn’t that tight with her old man when we met her.”

“I think they were working through some shit during that time. Imagine my surprise when she was the redhead my buddy Gabe hooked up with.”

“You think the admiral had a hand in breaking them up?”

Travis snorted. “I wouldn’t put it past him. He may not show much affection to Bee, but I pity the man who’d finally get the balls to date her. Porter would probably intimidate the man with a rolling car meeting.”

“ Get in the car, punk. So you wanna date my daughter? ” Nate said in his best rendition of Porter’s voice. “Whatever happened to him?”

“Gabe?”

“Yes.”

“He quit the SEALs before I did. I thought he went private. I was so detached after Caitlin’s death; I didn’t give a shit about anyone,” Travis said with much regret. “Haven’t heard from him in three years.”

“Well, he’s certainly not on the security circuit in DC. You think he went private in South Africa?”

“Who knows?” Travis tipped back his head to finish his coffee. “I’m making you guys breakfast. After that, I want you to catch me up on what’s going on at BSI.”