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Twitch

Bishop Security Headquarters

Beaufort, South Carolina

T he lower level of the Bishop Security office was the cyber center of their operation. Charlotte “Twitch” Devlin sat at her desk surrounded by screens, studying the data from the program she was running until a distraction across the room pulled her attention.

Twitch laughed at the sight in front of her. Tox and Finn, two badass Navy SEALs, stood with toddlers in strollers, swapping plush toys.

“No, dude, Rainbow Dragon is Trev’s.” Finn took the stuffed animal from his friend.

“Okay, okay. Jane’s is the chipmunk?” Tox asked.

“It’s not a chipmunk. It’s a beaver,” Finn said, tossing the tattered animal back.

Tox examined the object and then smelled it. “He clearly isn’t spending enough time in the water.”

Finn sniffed behind the child at Tox’s legs. “Uh, I’m not sure that smell is the beaver.”

Tox glanced down at the head of dark curls. “Right. Be right back.”

Finn chuckled as his son watched Tox and Jane leave with his little arms extended. “I think someone has a crush.” He walked over to Twitch and kissed her neck. “What’s this?”

“It’s an AI program I’m running. When Ren was trying to track down Sofria, or I guess her real name is Stella, I did a facial recognition scan for airline passengers with the initials S.K.

That was how Ren was able to find Stella Keen in London.

When he told us he thought someone was trying to kill her, I created another search for people with the same travel pattern. What do you think of this?”

She froze the video running airport security footage and moved the still shot to a separate screen with five other photos—six photos of men of varying heights, hair color, and appearance.

“It’s not the same guy,” Finn said.

“I think it is.” She tipped Finn’s chin up from kissing her neck. “Don’t look at what you see. Look at what you don’t see.”

Finn pulled the rolling chair from the adjacent desk beside her and sat. “Charlotte, you’re brilliant.”

“Every indicator for facial recognition is masked or altered. His ears are covered in every pic: headphones, hats, and a headscarf. The jawline is altered. It also looks like he’s covering a tattoo on his hand.”

Finn peered closer. “I see it. It’s not enough to make it out, but it’s definitely a tat. I don’t know how much help it will be. His face is unrecognizable.”

“I’ll send it to Ren. Maybe Stella will see something we don’t.”