Page 46 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Would be obliged, Chief,” Nolan smiled.
“He screwed up while I was getting food?” Ryker said.
“Drop it,” Gideon ordered as he looked around the sparsely filled cafeteria. There was nobody close to them, but he still intended to speak softly.
“Okay, where are we?” Ryker asked.
“We’ll get more when Jada wakes up, but right now I sent Nolan and Linc a summary of what we knew up to the point when you got on the plane, so here’s the latest.”
Nolan and Ryker leaned forward.
“I found out there’s another woman who’s her sister, a man named Luke, and a guy called Miles Albright. I didn’t share that info with the authorities. She’s being held based on my testimony that I saw her assault my girlfriend, and that she had a weapon and that’s why I put her in restraints.”
“What’s Jada’s prognosis? I mean she seems with it, but you could tell she was in a lot of pain,” Ryker stated.
“That’s because she’s refusing pain meds until she absolutely needs them. She was pissed when she found out they were giving some via IV. She thinks she should be able to handle the pain without having to rely on narcotics. She’s stubborn as hell. I mean she’s the definition of stubborn. Her father was a Marine and two of her older brothers are Marines. She shares their attitudes.”
“Lovely. So, she really is a wildcard,” Nolan grimaced.
Gideon nodded and grabbed a cinnamon roll.
“What else you got?”
“Of course, we weren’t allowed anywhere near the questioning of Naomi Sims, they didn’t get the info I did. Of course, they didn’t put a knife to her neck.”
“You researched him?” Nolan asked.
“Yep, I did a deep dive on him. He got his start at MIT, then started with the Department of Defense when he got out of college with his Ph.D. There isn’t a lot of information on his time with the DoD; he spent twenty-five years there though. It must have been some top secret shit he had clearance for, because I still haven’t been able to crack through the walls of what exactly he’d been working on. Four years ago he just up and left, and became Chief Technology Officer for Reynolds, Inc. Man kept a very low profile until he joined Risk Guard’s Board of Directors, then things changed.”
“How?” Nolan asked.
“He started digging deep into Risk Guard’s business. It was clear that the CEO of Risk Guard was pushing back. I still don’t know what anomaly Jada found, but it had to have been something directly involving Miles, otherwise, why would he have her kidnapped?”
“Do we question him?” Nolan asked softly, his tone deadly.
Gideon knew what he meant. This definitely could be done off the books. Nobody would know who had touched him, and theywouldget their answers.
“No, that’s not the play I want to make right now. Miles waving a flag is too big of a risk, he has too high of a profile. I know he’s guilty, but blowing up that mansion, kidnapping Jada, and hell, just putting something like this in play, means he has an ego. He’d report our questioning.”
“Putting what into play? Did I miss something?” Ryker turned to Nolan who shrugged.
“If you missed it, so did I,” Nolan agreed.
“Sorry, you’re right, I wasn’t clear. I’ve been talking more to Clint, Dex, and Kane. Here’s the deal. We think the companies that hire Risk Guard to evaluate their systems, are in essence, clean. However, we’ve been thinking someone at Risk Guard doesn’t want to inform them of their findings. They instead want a big fat client who will think they do in fact need to hire Risk Guard. Therefore, they insert malware into their client’s software, or better yet, into their firmware, and voila. They now have a huge contract that will last indefinitely.”
For the first time, Nolan actually grinned. “Sounds like you’ve figured it all out. So, why not just make this Miles guy confess?”
“Because that’s not even close to being enough. There were three bodies found in the house, so that’s three unsolved murders alone, right there. Right now the police haven’t been able to identify them, but Jada told me some names. She said one was named Luke, who set the explosives. One’s name was Butch, he’s the motherfucker who’d dared to put bruises on her body. There was also another guy they’d been torturing. She didn’t get his name, but they’d referred to him as a leak at Risk Guard. What I don’t know, and what Jada isn’t sharing, is what made her suspect Risk Guard to begin with, and how that brought her to Tillamook.”
“Ah, she’s holding out until you promise you’ll let her in on the op, right? Nolan asked.
Gideon nodded. “So until Jada gives me the info, or we figure it out on our own, we’re in a holding pattern.”
“Are you telling me, you brought these two in and we’re just going to sit here with our thumbs up our asses in the cheese capital of the world?” Ryker asked impatiently.
“No, I’m not telling you that. Our girl Naomi said Miles and her sister were due to arrive back at the ship, so they were, and maybe still are, around here. I want to track them down and watch them. First off though, I want eyes on Jada at all times. I’ll figure out where we’re going to set up home base for a while.”
He looked over at Nolan. “How’d you and Linc get away? What’d you tell Commander Clark?”
