Page 29 of The Last Morgan

Corey chuckled. "Slow down, champ. The food’s not going anywhere."

After breakfast, they piled into the car. Barnaby practically vibrated with energy in the backseat.

"I’m going to find them today," he said, eyes wide. "I designed this new program. It’s like a tracker and a snare mixed into one. I left it running back at the estate. Once I connect it to the mainframe in the office, it’ll sweep through the entire network and flag any anomalies. We’ll find whoever tried to get in."

Lucy smiled. His enthusiasm was infectious. "I’m sure you will." She said matching his energy.

For a moment, the car ride felt like home again. She missed the Oxley's. Even though it had only been a few days, it already felt like a life time.

When they arrived at Morgan Group headquarters, the front lobby was buzzing with morning activity. David Roan was already waiting by the elevator.

"Barnaby," he greeted with a respectful nod. "Follow me. Let’s get you set up."

He led Barnaby through the east corridor and down into the private security operations center. It was a stark contrast to the ornate halls above. Sleek. Metallic. Humming with data.

Barnaby took one look at the setup and beamed. "I like it."

David gestured to a reserved desk. "Everything you need should be here. You’ll have full access to internal logs, firewalls, and encrypted layers. Just let me know if anything is missing."

Barnaby nodded, already powering up the machines. "Thanks. I’ll start syncing my tracker now. Shouldn’t take long."

David left him to it. Barnaby sat, placed his backpack beside him, and slid on his noise-cancelling headset. His fingers danced over the keyboard. His eyes scanned the lines of scrolling data. He checked the sync status.

Complete.

He ran the program.

Instantly, a 3D web map formed on the screen, pulsing with colored nodes representing data flow across the network.He adjusted filters, narrowed focus to abnormal signals, and watched the map respond like a living organism.

Now we wait, he thought.

Barnaby leaned back, satisfaction on his face.

The trap was set.

And someone, somewhere, was bound to trigger it.

Back in Lucy's office, he returned and flopped onto the couch, his bag tossed beside him.

"It’s running," he said proudly.

"Already?" Lucy asked.

"I don’t waste time."

Corey raised an eyebrow. "Let’s hope the intruders don’t either."

They all exchanged looks.

Barnaby didn't get comfortable for long.

The warm, easy atmosphere that had settled in Lucy's office while they shared old memories cracked like thin glass.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Chapter 15

Disguised as nothing more than a standard fitness tracker, Barnaby’s device flashed aggressively. He shot upright, the chair scraping sharp against the polished floors.