Page 79 of The B-Team

Ryan swallowed hard. “What did he say exactly?”

“That this is about a sex scandal in the minister’s past. You need to search for info and files on the minister guy.” Harvard sounded dead serious now. “But, crap, if the server’s being wiped…”

Ryan hung his head. This couldnotbe happening. “I’m going to be sick.”

“Damn, man,” Harvard said. “I shoulda called. I’m so sorry, Ryan.”

“It’s not your fault,” Ryan managed to say. But hell. Just hell.

Rodrigo grabbed his arm, and when Ryan looked up, he found him pointing at the computer screen. “Look!”

He turned back to read the words on the screen:Are you sure you want to wipe this server?

Relief swept through him before bursting out in the form of hysterical laughter. Slowly, cautiously, afraid he might click the wrong button, Ryan clickedno.

The screen changed, returning him to the original page that asked him to enter the wipe code.

“Am I reading this right?” Ryan asked.

Katrina came up beside him and, with a grin, placed her hand on his shoulder. The touch was so out of the ordinary that his heart skipped a beat. “It didn’t wipe. The information’s still all there.”

“Did you screw it up?” Rachel’s voice said, loud and clear.

“Looks like we’re on speaker too.” Rodrigo slapped Ryan on the back before returning to his seat at the table.

“No,” Ryan said, his heart pounding fast. “I didn’t screw it up. I just didn’t see the final pop-up asking if I was sure. I’ve canceled the command to delete everything.” And he might need to lie down for an hour to recover from the past few minutes.

“Thank Gucci for that,” Rachel said. “Now you can find what we have on Minister Fitzwater so we can ruin his miserable life.”

“Or at least get our people out of jail,” Ryan said with a shake of his head.

“No.” Rachel’s voice made him shiver. “They tried to ruin us, which means we do at least that in return.”

“I see motherhood has mellowed you,” Ryan said, causing Rodrigo to choke on his coffee.

“We don’t have a lot of time here, Rachel,” Katrina said. “There’s a hacker wandering around inside our server. I don’t think we can afford to spend another day looking for the information we need.”

“Can you tell how far the hacker has made it through our files?” Rachel asked sharply.

“Not really,” Katrina said. “I know he’s been searching in folders that clearly relate to London and ignoring anything related to missions in other countries.”

“I say spend an hour looking for information on the minister,” Rachel said. “And if you don’t find anything in that time, go ahead and delete it all.”

It was an executive decision, given in a tone that brooked no argument.

“Those birth hormones must be awesome,” Ryan said. “You sound like you’re totally on the ball.”

“Ryan, must you show everyone how ignorant you are?” Rachel said coolly. “Women give birth every day and then get on with running things. What were you expecting, exactly? That I’d take to my fainting couch as soon as the baby was out?”

“I was kinda expecting you’d avoid pregnancy altogether,” Ryan said. “I always assumed your baby would be birthed by a surrogate and go straight to a nanny.”

Katrina gave him a look of reprimand.

But Rachel just sighed. “That’s exactly how I wanted to do it. Unfortunately, Harvard’s sperm had other ideas.”

“In other words, she got knocked up,” Harvard said, clearly grinning.

Another cry rang out on the other end of the line, and Rachel made soft, reassuring sounds that Ryan would have guessed were impossible for her to make. He stared at the phone in wonder.