Page 53 of The B-Team

There were murmurs of agreement as Katrina’s own intuition told her the pieces fit.

“Which means,” Ryan continued, “that Fitz isn’t looking for evidence on the server; he’s looking for incriminating information that could damage his family. Which explains why he wants everyone out of the way for fourteen days. He needs time to find the info.” He let out an exasperated huff. “I can’t believe this is all about making sure some stupid wedding takes place.”

“Never underestimate the aristocracy’s desire to protect their good name,” Rachel said with heavy cynicism. “Personally, I never understood that part of being titled.”

Katrina smiled at the thought of Rachel even remotely caring what people thought of her.

“We need to tell Ms. Patel,” Julia said. “This information has to be passed on to the team, especially Elle. She might have some idea where we can search for the information the Fitzwaters want so desperately.”

“If we even have it,” Isobel said. “I mean, how do they know for sure?”

“They know,” Ryan said. “Nobody goes to this much trouble and risks everything to follow a hunch.”

“I’ll call the lawyer now,” Rachel said.

“Is this it?” Claire asked. “Have we found the magic button that will end all this? Because I really need to get Grunt out of there. I can’t handle my kids as a single mother. We’re already seriously outnumbered as a couple.”

Katrina grinned, remembering all the times she’d babysat for the couple when she lived in Invertary. It required someone the size of Grunt to corral their brood. She’d barely escaped with her life.

“It might be theget-out-of-jailcard we’ve been looking for,” Ryan said. “But we still have to find it.”

Katrina’s computer started to flash in front of her, and she clicked on the pop-up window that appeared. Her stomach lurched. “Whatever we do,” she said, “we have to hurry. I just received an alert that an unauthorized person’s in our system.”

“Should it have happened that fast?” Isobel’s voice had risen. “As a security company, shouldn’t we have better server security?”

“We do have good security,” Harvard drawled in his gentle southern accent. “We have a whole building full of it—in a country that generally doesn’t allow the UK access to its facility. But nobody could have predicted that someone would find a way into the server farm. With that kind of access, any goodhacker wouldn’t have a problem getting onto our server. This is the perfect storm of security weakness. You can’t prepare for something like this.”

“The Fitzwaters did,” Ryan said. “They knew the British police would get into that facility and knew our files were stored there, and they jumped at the opportunity. They’ve been planning this for a while. Probably ever since the minister was briefed on the police having limited access to the server farm.”

“Gotta agree,” Harvard said with a hint of admiration. “Once they knew this was coming, they moved the commander into place so he could round up our team and isolate the people who could delete our servers. It’s pretty damn smart when you think about it.”

“What they’re looking for must be really incriminating to go to all this trouble,” Julia said. “If you’re right, this plan puts the careers and reputations of three members of their family on the line. Neither the minister nor Fitzwater and his aunt would survive the fallout if this came out. They’d all be fired and charged. It would ruin their precious name forever.”

“Makes you wonder what they’re looking for,” Ryan said. “Claire, call Katy, and get her to do a background on Darian. Hopefully, she’ll dig up something that will narrow our search down. In the meantime, we’ll take shifts hunting through the server. At least that way, we can all get some sleep. Buckle up, people; it’s going to be a long night.”

Katrina couldn’t agree more.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“How am I supposed to remember where I saved a single piece of information about some guy I don’t know? It’s not like I’ve memorized the entire contents of our server.”

It was late. Elle was tired, and instead of her comfortable bed at home, she had a hard platform with a thin mattress to look forward to. At least she wasn’t sharing her cell; otherwise, it would’ve been a night of taking turns to sleep. Or worse, snuggling with her cellmate.

Which made her wonder. “Who was I meant to share a cell with?”

Ms. Patel, who somehow managed to look completely put together despite being at the station all day, just stared at her.

“Fine, don’t tell me.” Elle threw up her hands. It’d been twelve hours since she’d touched a computer, and she was seriously twitchy.

“Think, Elle,” the lawyer said unhelpfully. “According to Rachel, it’s something incriminating to do with the Fitzwater family, and Darian in particular.”

“Trust me, that doesn’t help.” Realization slammed into her, and she smacked a palm on the worn table. “Rachel! That’s who I was meant to share with. Well, that answers one question. Withthe size of her belly, there wouldn’t have been enough space on the platform for two.”

They were in yet another generic beige room, sparsely furnished with a table and two chairs. Ms. Patel had told her it was a client meeting room and completely secure. It also had no windows.

“Are there any rooms in this bloody building with windows?” Elle barked.

Ms. Patel folded her arms. “Are you late taking some meds? Can I send someone to fetch them for you?”