Page 72 of Cold Silence
And there she had it. She was in the same place as when she’d broken up with him.
Question was, would she react the same way?
Travis had barely begun to read Robb the riot act when he received a group text from Eryn. She’d found something concrete on White already. He left Robb behind and returned to the institute. He’d hopefully proved his point. Jackson and Coop would drill it home too. Robb had seemed properly scared. For now, anyway. But what happened when Travis and the guys went back to their own cities? Robb could easily find out they didn’t live here and pick up right where he’d left off.
Travis couldn’t let that happen. If Robb got a lenient sentence, Travis wouldn’t have any choice on whether he accepted the job Colonel Lynch offered. Travis would be here for Claire.
“Another hot one out there.” He smiled at Bethany as he scanned the key card Claire had issued to him.
“And in here too.” She used her hand with long blue nails to fan her face.
“I’ll have Claire check the air conditioning to be sure it’s working correctly.” He got her flirting reference, but he wasn’t about to encourage it.
“No need.” She frowned and turned back to her computer.
Ignoring women who came on to them was one thing Travis and most spec ops guys got used to doing. Something few of them wanted to become pros at doing.
By the time he got to the office, Claire was behind her desk. Eryn was still sitting at the small round table in the corner, and Gage was with her.
“What took you so long?” Gage asked.
“Had business to finish.”
“Let’s get down to it,” Eryn said. “White accessed the network multiple times in the past week, including the night of the software theft.”
“But how do you know?” Claire asked. “He can’t be dumb enough to use his own login to steal the software.”
“He wasn’t,” Eryn said. “He hacked the network just like I did by sending a phishing email to your receptionist.”
Claire gaped at her. “We teach the staff not to click on those, but then it’s up to them.”
Eryn nodded. “Don’t beat yourself up. I wish I could say it wasn’t a common thing, but human error is the biggest factor in network security failure.”
“So he got into the network,” Travis said. “But not using his own credentials. How do we pin the theft on him?”
“The transmissions tracked to the hotel where he’s staying.”
“But is that good enough?” Gage asked. “He could claim anyone at the hotel could’ve accessed the network.”
“He could, but he made a big mistake. He used the hotel’s guest network, and they will have logs that show access by room. We just need to get a look at those logs.”
Claire got up. “Then let’s go.”
Travis liked her enthusiasm but raised a hand. “Not you. Not only for security reasons, but because White knows you, and if he sees you at the hotel, he’ll know we’re on to him.”
“He could recognize you too from your past trials.”
Travis didn’t like being left behind, but… “Fair point.”
“Time to read Coop and Jackson in on the theft,” Gage said. “They need to know what they’re facing.”
“This is almost over,” Travis said. “So no worries.”
“Okay, then Eryn can go with Coop to get a look at those network files,” Gage said. “He shouldn’t recognize either of them. I’ll take Coop’s place outside with Robb.”
“How certain are you that you’ll get the information?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know the protocol the hotel uses. A reputable hotel will have logs, but this place is a dive and might not care about logging their access for security. So I’d say it’s fifty/fifty.”
