Had Ryan come back in? Struck with guilt? Calling a managerial meeting to praise her for her dedication.

Nicole stopped in her tracks when she heard what was definitely… another language?

She tucked her water bottled in the crook of her arm and cocked her head to the left to listen closely. Although the sun was teasing through the tinted windows of the building, it provided just enough light for her to make out the figures of two… three… four… five men inside the conference room. Each was overdressed for o-dark-thirty on a Saturday morning, as if they had an important business conference to attend.

Leaning back into the doorframe, she held her breath. The hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention as her female intuition kicked into high gear. Not over anything maternal or sensual or physical, just that something was… off. Terratech dealt strictly and exclusively in US military clients, but these guys in the boardroom certainly weren’t spit shined and polished in dress blues or camouflage or sporting any ribbons, stripes, or medals. These men were more off the pages of an Armani ad.

She understood having high-ranking brass up here to schmooze during office hours by the VPs and other pricks around here. However, this pre-dawn gathering veered toward the clandestine end of things. She thought for a moment of being helpful, going back to the kitchen area and maybe putting on a pot of coffee for the meeting attendees. That would only come off as a suck-up move, and just wasn’t in her DNA. She was all about doing the job, doing it right, and taking the praise for doing it well and delivered on time. Just like the data project she was working all night.

Which, by the way, she thought, she should just get back to her cube, get her things, and go home to crash. She’d done more than her fair share of not only her own work, but fucking Ryan’s, as well. Maybe she’d throw some shade at the executives on her way out, letting them know who really did the work around here.

She snickered at herself as she straightened and began to ease out quietly into the hallway.

Something stopped her dead in her tracks, though.

In the board room, the three dark-haired men with their backs to her spoke in low tones. She could swear that she heard one phrase clearly.

Zuìgāo jīm.

Nicole gasped and furrowed her brows as she rolled the Mandarin Chinese words around in her head. To an ordinary person, Zuìgāo jīm sounded like something you’d ordered off the dim sum cart in Chinatown on the weekend, but Nicole knew better. She’s spent the first semester of her junior year abroad working in Shenzhen, a Chinese city connecting the mainland to Hong Kong, and home to a veritable shopper’s paradise, as well as a tech analyst intern’s dream resume-builder for eight months. She’d also made great friends with a local and co-worker named Mei-Ling, who took Nicole under her wing, introduced her to the culture, food, and nightlife. In fact, Mei-Ling had been the one to point out the job opening at Terratech, which put her back in the here and now. Nicole had studied Mandarin and Japanese before her trip. Honestly, her goal was mainly so she’d know what she was eating, where to find good brands of Japanese sake, and how to tell overly grabby men to fuck off when they got too up close and personal with her. She’d also kept current with both languages, so she knew exactly well what Zuìgāo jīm meant.

“Top secret,” she barely whispered under her breath.

That phrase “top secret” certainly wasn’t an oddity around this office since Terratech dealt in some pretty high-end shit for the military. Her team members had varying levels of security clearances, depending on the project du jour. Still, something about these three Chinese men in expensive suits in Terratech’s board room didn’t settle well in her already growling stomach.

Speaking of dim sum…

Her hunger pangs rang out again. It was time to make tracks, even though her interest in eavesdropping got the better of her. It was growing up a military kid with a father who was away a lot and let her play “spy” with him when she was home. She’d literally consumed mystery, thriller and spy novels as a teen. Damn did she love a good whodunit back then. Just not this early in the morning when her lids felt glued to her eyeballs, and her body ached from lack of sleep, food, and human touch.

Maybe she’d go home and pull out her left drawer bedroom friend and relax a bit, provided the batteries were still good.

She slid down the carpeted corridor, hoping to ease unnoticed by the boardroom as she made her way back to her cube. She’d snag a handful of AAs from the supply cabinet on her way out the door.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Bob Worthington, Executive Vice President of Development, and eventually her top boss up the food chain of the org chart. He paced back and forth while inside the board room, and eventually stopped in front of the three well-fashioned Chinese men. Nicole ducked back into the shadows once again.

“I assure you, Mr. Wu, we are very aware of what we need to do,” she heard a familiar voice say. It was Luis Moreno, one of the Senior Vice Presidents over sales and product marketing.

“For your sake, I hope you do,” said the tallest of the three Mandarins.

She saw Bob let out a long sigh and then lower his voice. Nicole strained to make out what he was saying when she definitely picked up on him mentioning something very hush-hush her programming team was working on—what she’d been toiling over all night.

“TDE-5X,” Bob said.

The three Chinese men nodded as Bob continued.

Nicole gnawed on the fingernail of her index finger as she tossed this around in her brain. This conversation was strange—fishy, in fact—because TDE-5X was a Level 3 adaptive data encryption device—including both hardware and software—Terratech was developing under an exclusive contract for the US government, orders direct from the Pentagon. She’d been working on all the backdoor firewalls to help secure the device’s safety from hackers, espionage, and…

Who knows who else?

Even though her curiosity was piqued, Nicole didn’t like the kick up of adrenalin her heart had started pumping out. Her own breathing rang out in her ears, and she was breathless as she waited for more. Was TDE-5X actually something the US military was working in tandem with the Chinese? Certainly not. We weren’t sworn enemies of the country, but the US wasn’t BFFs with them, either.

The man identified as Mr. Wu withdrew a cell phone from his coat pocket and presented it to Bob. “This is what we agreed to,” he said succinctly. “No others will know.”

Nicole’s pulse picked up. All thoughts of hearing office gossip or even nabbing free supplies to power her vibrator later were all lost. She set her water bottle down at her feet and dug into the pocket of her pants for her cell phone. She could record this interaction on video and play it back at home when her brain was more alert, to figure out what was going on.

“Son of a bitch,” she hissed to herself. Her battery had died at some point, on account of working full steam through this long night of working.

Of course. Wasn’t that always the case? Just when you actually needed it…

Luis’ voice brought her back in. “We understand the importance of TDE-5X.”

There it was again. She cringed at the second reference. TDE-5X was not something the Chinese—or anyone for that matter—should have any knowledge of. It was a military project and a military project alone. She highly doubted these guys were some sort of off-duty US military in for a weekend briefing.

This wasn’t right.

Damn her stupid phone.

Terratech Incorporated had no Chinese officials, expats, or anyone so related working on TDE-5X. Neither did the Pentagon team they coordinated with.

No conversation should land anywhere near the vicinity of the neighborhood of TDE-5X, and for that reason, she shook with fear.

Fuck.

She tried to swallow, but her throat was too tense to even get out a word, not that she wanted to because she’d be discovered. Like a firm slap, the veracity of the situation hit her. This wasn’t some backyard game she might play with her father, resulting in well-earned soda, chips, and cookies. This was real.

And, that was a problem. As was their discussion about the TDE-5X.

It was time for her to get the hell out of here. Sure, she worked on the project, but she shouldn’t have a dog in whatever this fight was, if it were a fight or anything nefarious. Her intuition to flee was spot on.

She pressed herself back into the darkness of the corridor where the sun had yet to reach and glided stealthily past the board room opening headed back to her area. She was ninety-nine percent sure the five men inside didn’t see her, so she was in the clear.

Going Home.

Food. Sleep.

Forget all of this.

It was none of her damn business.