Street Game (GhostWalkers, #8)(47)

She swallowed hard. She’d hacked into Whitney’s files and she had several condemning files. Had Kane really been asked to get one of the women pregnant? She couldn’t imagine him doing something like that.

“I’m not discussing it, Jaimie, not yet. It’s all too raw and I haven’t quite figured out what I’m going to do yet.”

“Jaimie! Get down here now.” Javier’s voice came through the intercom. “You’re being hacked. Double-time it.”

Jaimie threw the spoon back in the sauce and pushed past Mack. She leapt across the room in two long bounds, landing at the top of the stairs in a crouch and then jumping to the landing below. She was comfortable using her enhanced genetic skills. Mack noted her body was fluid like a cat’s as she leapt the remaining distances. He didn’t use his cat skills; he used his teleportation speed, flashing from spot to spot and landing right with her.

“The alarm should have gone off upstairs. I’ve been waiting for this,” Jaimie said, seating herself beside Javier. Her eyes gleamed with satisfaction. “Did you touch anything?”

“I turned it off just now,” Javier admitted. “It scared the hell out of me.”

Her fingers raced over the keyboard at an enormous rate of speed. Javier seemed to know exactly what she was doing, his fingers were flying as well. To Mack the screen was nothing but numbers and red lines streaking in various directions.

“He’s been nosing around trying to get past my security, so I set up a nice little trap and the idiot fell for it.”

“He’s good,” Javier pointed out, his eyes glued to the data flowing across the screen.

“Yep, but I’m better,” Jaimie said. “I knew he was going to make his try soon. I put out bait and he took it. I’m going to find out exactly who he is.”

“Will he know you’ve traced him?” Mack asked.

“He’s bouncing all over the place,” Javier hissed.

“He doesn’t know we’re tracking him,” Jaimie said. “I just need another minute to get him. He’s hacking into the trap I set and if he makes it in before I get him, he’ll be gone.”

“I take it you made it difficult?”

“You bet. I want to see how skilled he really is. He’s moving through the walls fast.”

“He’s a pro with resources,” Javier added. “Only a few in the world are good enough to hack into your system, Jaimie.”

Mack marveled at the speed their fingers flew across the keyboard. Their eyes were glued to the screen. It all made sense to them, but to him it was a jumble of code and nothing more. That didn’t stop uneasiness from creeping into him. He felt hunted. Watched. Something evil moving in the room.

Twice Jaimie’s breath hissed out and once Javier hunched lower over the keys as if that small movement would increase his speed and dexterity.

The tension in the room coiled tighter and tighter, stretching nerves taut. Mack could hear breathing, feel the blood pounding in his veins, the knots forming in the pit of his stomach. He looked around, into every corner, half expecting someone to come jumping out at them. His hand actually crept toward the knife at his belt.

“I’m almost on him,” Jaimie hissed. “I’ve got you, you toad.”

Mack’s gut reacted with more knots and somewhere in his brain a warning flash went off. He cleared his throat. “Jaimie, shut it down.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Do it, Jaimie,” Kane said. “Shut it down.”

“Javier, that’s an order,” Mack snapped and caught Jaimie, jerking her away from the computer. “Pull the plug. Do it now, do it fast.”

“Whose side are you on?” Jaimie demanded, twisting around, trying to get back to her chair. Mack kept his arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground to keep her from the keyboard.

Javier shook his head. “I don’t think I’m going to shut it down before he’s in.”

“Unplug the damn thing now.”

Kane was already in motion, sprinting for the power strip.

“No!” Jaimie wailed. “You can’t do it like that. You’ll mess up my programs. He won’t find anything. He’ll only think he’s in. I put all kinds of crap data for him to find. By the time he wades through it . . .” She broke off, horrified, as the screens went black.

“He’ll know you’re on to him and he’ll know you’re coming after him. They’ll blow this place out from under you to get you, Jaimie. Right now they only know you’re after Whitney. His cover was blown a long time ago. Half the world thinks he’s dead or a myth and the other half pretends he’s dead. He’s an embarrassment, but every GhostWalker team knows he’s alive. That was the only reason they didn’t kill you. What would be the point? But if they think you know who is supporting him, that’s an entirely different ball game.”

She jerked away from him, throwing a punch at his chest as she stumbled back. “I know exactly what I’m doing. I had him.”

“You mean he almost had you.”

“He already knows who I am, Mack, or I wouldn’t have had a dead body on my doorstep to warn me off or an assassin coming to my door. I’m so close to getting him.”

“Why the hell do you think he sent you the dead body, Jaimie? Someone looked you up and studied you, tried to find the perfect thing to scare you with. They killed some poor innocent woman and threw her body on your doorstep to tell you to back the hell off.”