Page 29 of Beyond the Rules
“Son of a bitch.” Zar raked his fingers through his short, bristly hair. “When and how did you realize you had to run fromDimayev?”
“I got a call from Lina. She hadn’t heard from Hannah in two weeks. Dimayev told her that Hannah and he had reconciled and Hannah had traveled to Russia. Lina didn’t believe him. She told me to watch my back, so I decided to skip town for a few days. I was packing my bag when several thugs barged in.” My hands went reflexively to my neck. “I ran but they caught up with me in Kalispell. The restyouknow.”
“You said you hid three things on that dark net site,” Zar said, “The rootkit to get into Dimayev servers andwhatelse?”
“Copies of the encrypted lists and the communications that went with it. I don’t speak Russian or any of the Middle Eastern dialects, so the whole thing was abitch.”
“No problem.” Tanner wrote something on his tablet, punctuating it with a thick underline. “I’ll give the communications acrack.”
“You speakRussian?”
“And some of those Middle Eastern dialectsaswell.”
I’d forgotten what it was like to work with people who knew what they weredoing.
“What’s the third thing hidden in the dark net site?” Zarasked.
“The access codes for the Trojan horse I planted in Calamity’ssystem.”
The men exchanged startledstares.
“Are you telling us thatyoustuck a Trojan on Calamity?” Zar’s Adam’s apple bounced in his muscular neck. “Are you telling us thatyou’vegot back door access toCalamity?”
Why did they look so surprised? “It’s how I got thelists.”
Zar, Tanner, and Aiden stared at me as if I was an alien from a differentplanet.
“Unbelievable,” Zarmuttered.
Aiden leaned back on his chair and beamed at me like a smitten fool. “Kickassbrilliant.”
Tanner squeezed my shoulder. “Awesome work, Nina.Yourule.”
I gave him a silly grin, but I swear, for a whole minute, I basked in their adoration. Having the admiration of three good looking guys? Great. Having the respect of a bunch of hot, badass SEALs who knew what the hell I was talking about?Outstanding.
“I’m gonna take on the Dimayev angle,” Zar said. “Tanner, the profiles, the lists and encryptions are allyours.”
Tanner gave acurtnod.
“Aiden, vet those links and recreate Nina’s processes before wegoin.”
“Onit.”
“I’ll need to buy us some time,” Zar said. “If anyone gets wind of what we’re doing here, Dimayev will break the connection and Calamitywillrun.”
“What about me?” Excitement bubbled up in my body. “What do you want metodo?”
“I want you to stand down,” Zar said. “I want you to stay off line and go dark on all of your accounts and devices until furthernotice.”
My stomach plummeted to myfeet. “But—”
“No buts, Nina.” Zar cut me off. “You’re offline while the hunt is ongoing. You’re restricted to off-network duties. Until we catch these creeps, your laptop goes away, so does your cell and the rest. You don’t venture online without my express consent. Under any of your aliases. You give us your devices. However long this takes, you can’t connect.Period.”
I pushed up from my chair. “I never agreedtothat!”
“Nina, listen to me,” he said. “Weknowthey’re tracking you. They are actively hunting you online and for real. If theyfindyou…”
“I’m not an idiot.” I hadn’t survived this long on my own for nothing. “I can protectmyself!”