Page 1 of The Honeymoon Hack

Chapter 1

Brie

I drummedmy fingers against my empty coffee mug, staring at the confusing email I’d received from our head of security. I’d already read it ten times, run it through three of my steganographic programs, a translator, and even printed it out to see if I could find a visual pattern.

The right choice would have been to walk away and let it process in my subconscious.

But beating my head against this wall was better than staring at the workspace next to mine in my big open office—Will’s old desk, where Ashley had been stationed for the past two months. She was clearing out because he was coming home.

Today.

Ashley’s voice came from the top of the stairs. “You realize that’s your fourth cup today, right?”

“Fifth,” I corrected without turning around. “But who’s counting?”

“Apparently, I am.” She dropped into the chair beside me, resting her tablet on my desk. “Still haven’t figured out the email?”

“No.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, pushing my glasses up in the process. “Either he coded something in here about the data center, or it’s a deliberate misdirection because hecouldn’tcode something into it.”

Two months of searching for the Mnemis Digital Preservation Facility, then two months of preparing to break in. But still, every day felt like solving a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

Rav had gone undercover with their security team two days ago. His job was to identify any risks we weren’t aware of yet and pull the plug if needed. This email had to be a message about their security. It was a warning of some sort.

But what?

Nothing drastic enough to warrant an abort—otherwise he would have left the facility already.

Instead, he’d sent the email to one of our fake addresses, the one set up to appear as if it were his mother’s. Sending it to that address meant he couldn’t communicate openly. In the body, he’d said he was settling in to his new job, the facility was impressive, and his cell phone coverage was spotty. That was it.

“Maybe it just means they have security on the outgoing email.”

“Possible.” Ashley tapped her tablet. “Not to change the subject, but… can I confess I’m a little nervous about going in?”

“Nervous?” I closed the email and leaned back in my chair.Let your subconscious do its thing. “The cover itself is tech support, and you can do that blindfolded.”

Her gaze cut to the floor.

“Or is this about going in with Will?”

“Little bit of column A, little bit of column B?” Ashley had left the FBI to be with our team’s tactical driver. Her hacking and surveillance skills were strong, and she’d made an excellent addition to my team over the past six months. But she’d startedmonths after Will had left and hadn’t met him in person. “Mostly column B.”

“You’ll like him. He’s easy to work with.”

“Easy to work with is very different from going undercover as his wife.” She chuckled and stood, crossing to her temporary desk. Hands on her hips, she let out a long sigh. “I should have cleared my stuff out last week. When’s he getting in?”

“The jet touched down four hours ago.” I joined her, crawling under the desk to unplug her power supply. “He said he’d get his mother settled, then come straight here.”

“How’s she doing?” She stepped over me, closing her laptop and shuffling papers.

“Overall, not good.” I dumped the power supply into a bin next to the desk, which she’d brought up for moving day. A tiny drone sat under the desk—must have knocked that off at some point over the past year. I grabbed it and sat up. “But Mum swears the memory care facility is perfect for her, which will take a load off his shoulders.”

“Family first.” Ashley offered me a hand, but I waved it off. “It would have been nice if he’d come back earlier, so we could have gotten comfortable around each other.”

The drone was four inches across, one of the many he’d built during hisI can make it smallerphase. The first one had been a foot wide, carrying a camera far too large for stealth recon. It had taken twenty prototypes to arrive at his precious two-incher. Then he’d blown two of them up in Monaco. “He smiles a lot. Makes dumb jokes. He’ll put you at ease right away.”

“At ease is one thing.” Ashley raised an eyebrow. “He and I are going to be sharing a room.”

I placed the drone on the desk above me and accepted a stack of binders from her, adding them to the bin. “It’s just a cover story.”