“This is Walt,” a gruff voice answered.

“Have the helicopter ready,” Karl ordered.

“Already is. Weston called earlier,” Walt stated.

Karl’s mouth tightened at his dead half-brother’s name. He hadn’t worked often with Weston, and if Karl hadn’t brought him in on this case back when Avilov had hired him to deal with Tansy Bell… well, Karl wouldn’t have had to shoot the weakling, would he? He’d be alive to annoy Karl another day.

“Destination?” Walt asked.

Karl’s eyes narrowed. “Cancel the order. I need a jet instead,” he replied.

“Destination?” Walt repeated, unperturbed by the sudden change in orders.

“Calais, Maine,” he replied.

“It’ll be ready at hanger C15,” Walt replied.

Karl snapped the cell phone shut and placed it in the center console. His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he took a curve faster than was recommended. The BMW M760 sports car stayed true to the road like a champ.

He focused on the next step in his plan. There were more aliens than he’d expected—at least four of them. His eyes narrowed as he took another curve and the headlights of a car flashed by him. The women in Houston had been talking about someone getting close to an alien. Perhaps it was time to catch some new bait to use.

“Avery Lennox….” he murmured.

There was little information about her, but there was a photograph and he had a location—if she was still there. He reached for his phone again. He was surprised when an American voice answered his call.

“Name?”

Karl’s brow creased as he frowned. He was normally patched through to a teen with a thick accent. Apparently he had gotten a receptionist, and she sounded like she was ten years old. For a second, he felt old.

“I need information on Avery Lennox, Head of Security for Cosmos Raines Industries,” he replied.

There was a brief pause before the woman replied. “One hundred bitcoins.”

Greedy little bitch, he thought before he answered.

“Agreed—if I get the information in one hour,” he coolly responded.

“Same terms: all information transferred upon full payment,” she said in a voice that sounded almost bored.

“Account name: Cohiba,” he replied.

“You know smoking will kill you, right?” the woman-child dryly replied.

The connection ended before he could reply. He tossed the phone back into the console and accelerated. He hated dealing with hackers, but their expertise was sometimes needed. The last time he’d tried to access information on CRI and Avery Lennox himself, he had failed miserably, and promptly set up a job with this infamous ‘Doughboy’. Karl sneered at the image that name evoked. The first job hadn’t been for what he really wanted, though. Every contact needed to be tested, no matter how highly recommended they came. The hacker had passed with flying colors, and Karl had made a mental note to use him for the real thing if Merrick disappeared again. Karl had been so sure events at the cottage would go his way, but life had taught him to always have a surprise in his back pocket.

“Trudy is going to be fine, thank goodness,” RITA said.

Rose almost dissolved in her chair. She laid her forehead on her folded arms and sniffed. Maria stood up from her position on the couch, came over, and hugged her.

“I remember what it was like when Rico was missing. I’m glad Trudy is okay,” Maria quietly said.

Rose straightened and brushed her hands across her damp cheeks. Runt remained quiet. They had all been tense ever since they had received word that Trudy had been shot.

“Me too. Otherwise Avery would kick all of our asses,” Rose joked in a trembling voice.

“Come on. Let’s go get some hot chocolate and dessert. This calls for a celebration. Runt, you coming?” Maria asked.

Runt shook her head. “I’m good,” she replied.

“Okay. If you need anything, give us a ring,” Maria said.

Runt watched the two women walk out of the elegant office. The space felt more like a living room than an office, but it was the computer that made Runt feel at home. Her fingers moved to the mouse as the door closed behind the women, and she clicked open her previous screen. Her eyes widened when she felt her headphones buzz around her neck. The hacker she’d been monitoring had gotten a hit. She pulled them on.

Doughboy, aka the twenty-three-year-old who worked at a security firm in the Philippines, was a halfway decent hacker, moonlighting as a digital thief, fence, and illegal investigator. RITA had flagged Doughboy recently when he was contacted using a number she had identified as belonging to Weston Wright, but Runt had been following him long before she joined Cosmos’ team. They’d had a few online run-ins a while ago, nothing major, but when he started getting a rep as the guy to go to if you needed a good fake id or info on someone, she’d started monitoring who he was working for and what he was doing for them.

Runt looked over her shoulder to make sure the door was closed all the way, then she looked back at the screen, swallowed, and intercepted the call. It was coming from the States.

“Name?” she answered.

There was a pause on the other end. For a second, she thought the guy was going to hang up. She wouldn’t have blamed him. She obviously wasn’t the person he’d been expecting.

“I need information on Avery Lennox, Head of Security for Cosmos Raines Industries,” the man replied.

A shiver ran through Runt. This was Karl Markham. She would bet her computer on it. She recognized his voice from the video feeds—and the restaurant when he’d placed his order with the waitress. She bit her lip before responding.

“One hundred bitcoins,” she stated, clenching her fingers around the mouse as she recorded their conversation.

She listened with growing apprehension as he agreed. She needed to warn Avery about Markham’s investigation. The man had almost killed Trudy already; obviously he was dangerous.

Runt responded to Markham before disconnecting the call. She bowed her head and pursed her lips. She shouldn’t have made that last comment. Who cared if the guy smoked? She hoped it did kill him!

“The call came from Oregon,” RITA suddenly said.

Runt sat back in her seat and looked at the screen. In front of her was a map of the world with thousands of dots flickering.

She pulled a Ziploc bag out of her pocket, opened it, and set it on the desk next to her, absently pulling out a carrot stick to nibble on while she studied the monitor.

She had been looking into Markham for a while, but nothing so far had been helpful to pin down his home base. “He likes expensive cigars. That brand costs over eighteen grand a box. That will help us. Pull up the shipping logs of those suppliers,” Runt instructed.

“Unless he is using the black-market or purchasing through an undisclosed retailer. I swear some of the older companies still use paper ledgers to do all their transactions. What do you want to do about Markham’s request? Should I alert Avery?” RITA added.

Runt’s fingers were already flying over the keyboard. She pulled up all the easy-to-find photos and information on Avery. Then she began creating a fictitious persona for her new boss.

“We give him want he wants—sort of. Does Avery look like she would carry a Coach purse?” Runt asked.

Runt looked up as RITA appeared, and reluctantly smiled when she noticed the AI had styled her hair and clothes remarkably like Avery’s. Runt returned her attention to the computer screen.

“No, she wouldn’t carry a purse,” she muttered, answering her own question.

“Well, you don’t want it to be too much like her. Let’s say she attended Harvard Law School,” RITA suggested, contributing the necessary documentation.

Runt’s expression turned skeptical. “Law School? Are you kidding? She’s the Chief of Security. She would have attended MIT or some fancy school like that, not Harvard,” she scoffed.

“Mm, perhaps you’re right. How about HavHarvardard for Law and MIT for Computer Information and Cybersecurity? This way we have everything covered,” RITA agreed, waving a hand at Runt’s computer.

Runt giggled when the screen flickered and all the data changed. Within ten minutes, she had a full history created and spread throughout the web. Runt read through the official documents RITA had helped her create.

“I wish her life had been so simple,” RITA said with a sigh. “You and Avery have a lot more in common than you realize, Amelia.”

Runt shivered and pulled the sleeves of her tattered green sweater down until only the tips of her fingers were visible. She didn’t reply. Her past was better kept hidden as well. When enough people wanted you dead, covering your tracks became pretty important.

Her palm tingled. She turned her hand over to look at the intricate design. It was growing more defined every day.

“RITA,” she murmured.

“Yes, Amelia,” RITA replied.

Runt looked up at the hologram with haunted eyes. “I don’t want to be anyone’s bond mate,” she whispered.

RITA’s softly glowing eyes gazed down at her compassionately. RITA was the closest thing to family that Runt had now. Sure Maria, Trudy, and Rose tried to make her feel like part of the team, but she couldn’t relate to the other women. They teased each other and liked to go out. She preferred the quiet of the night, the hum of a computer, and the language of code.

Runt blinked in surprise when she felt her hair move. Her mouth dropped open when she realized that she could feel RITA’s hand brushing the short, dark strands of her hair back from her cheek.

“FRED and I have been working on electrical pulses. It allows me to physically move things. Unfortunately, it is also very draining.” RITA sighed with regret when her holographic form dimmed. “I don’t think you’ll have much choice, honey. These aliens have the whole mating thing down pat. It might be good for you, though. They are very protective, and they don’t appear to have the incompatibility issues that humans have. If it is any consolation, you’ve got Derik tied up in complicated knots so tight, a veteran Navy man would be proud to have you on board his battleship.”

“You’re not helping,” Runt scowled.

She wiggled her nose when RITA faded. She knew the AI was still there. RITA was always available if there was a device connected to the internet.

Runt looked back at the information she had provided. It was at least as thorough as the info Doughboy usually gave his clients. The guy was good, but not really better than the average self-taught programmer. She had slipped into his system through weak code that he should have cleaned up right away.

Markham on the other hand was a piece of work. He was smart. He didn’t keep any electronics that weren’t encrypted with some of the most current code out there. He also only had a few regulars. He wouldn’t be using Doughboy again after she was done with the jerk.

Runt waited until Markham’s bitcoins were ready for release. Leaning forward, she clicked send and watched the exchange. Her fingers flew over the keyboard and a moment later the funds were transferred as a donation to a homeless shelter in New York. Their accountant would be having a heart attack when he or she came in the next morning.

Rising from her chair, she typed in a script that erased all trace of her transaction in Doughboy’s account. Hopefully Markham wouldn’t feel like going to the slums of the Philippines to find the hacker who had taken a nice chunk of change for fake information.

“Where are you going, love?” RITA asked.

Runt paused at the door to the office. “I wanted to let Rose and Maria know about Markham,” she said.

“I’ll ask my sis to pass on the information to Avery,” RITA replied.

“Sounds good,” Runt replied.

She pulled the door open and stepped out into the hall. After she let Rose and Maria know about the call, Runt would start planning her disappearance. She wasn’t going to stick around to become some alien’s property. She’d already dealt with one person who had thought of her that way.