Sophie cracked her knuckles as Amara, Jinjai, and Ying, her faithful computer friends, replicated through several incarnations now, whirred into life in the little computer lab Connor had set up. The streets of Hilo had been quiet and deserted on the way into the office; she hadn’t seen a soul. She’d already verified that the Security Solutions outer office door was locked and alarmed, but she could still hear Marcella’s voice in her head, scolding her for coming in alone, at night, with Akane still on the loose.

Still, she felt safe in the locked, armed, quiet office—and a loaded Glock rested on the desk beside her in case of surprises.

Sophie needed her wired world. Craved it.

A lumpy white envelope marked SOPHIE in Jake’s bold handwriting was set beside her inbox tray. Sophie ripped it open and took out a stick drive.

Must be some data she needed to analyze for one of their cases.

Shaking off the angst about Jake, she plugged in the drive and loaded her programs. She put on her headphones, piping in a Mozart concerto to get herself in the right mental space. When the computers were done activating, the first order of business was checking DAVID, her rogue data analysis program, for any evidence collected on Akane’s whereabouts.

DAVID came online. The rogue data mining software had been set to monitor keywords related to Akane Chang. She was disappointed to see that the collection cache was empty. That psychopath knew about Security Solutions’ strength with online and computer monitoring. He had been staying off the grid and out of public view, likely hidden by his allies. He must be using only cash and seldom going anywhere.

Sophie opened the contents of the stick drive and discovered a spreadsheet of names and addresses. The whole document revolved around a family tree focusing on Terry and Healani Chang and their siblings and descendants. The spreadsheet included not only the Chang family clan, complete with full names, addresses and contact information, but allies and associates. Colors and symbols in a key on the side, designated affiliations and functions within the family business.

Sophie grinned—this information was going to be invaluable in tracking Akane’s whereabouts and the Chang operation in general.

Sophie dug in, dragging and dropping names into DAVID for more data mining. By the time she was done sorting the contents of this stick drive, she’d know more about the Chang operation on the Big Island than anyone ever had.

A terrible shattering of glass as the window near her broke was Sophie’s first inkling that something was amiss. The air filled with the sharp smell of a canister of tear gas. Yellowish smoke belched from the canister as it rolled across the floor to bump into the wheels of her office chair.

Sophie tore off her headphones, grabbed the Glock, and rolled out of her chair to take cover beside her desk. Vapor belched out into the small space of the room, stinging her eyes and filling the air in billowing clouds. Sophie held her breath, shutting her eyes, trying to remember the distance to the door. She had to get it open and get out!

Sophie ripped off her shirt and covered her nose and mouth, blinking burning eyes as she crawled toward the door, the Glock in one hand and the shirt held over her face with the other.

The louvered covering over the window flew inward. Glass sprayed Sophie as the rest of the window was bashed in. Sophie shut her eyes, held her breath, and got her cloth-covered hand on the lever-style door handle. She heaved downward desperately, hearing the thud of boots landing on the floor behind her.

“Where do you think you’re going, bitch?” Akane. She’d recognize that voice anywhere, even when muffled by a gas mask.

A hand in Sophie’s hair yanked her back from the door and another yank landed her on her ass.

Sophie brought the Glock up and fired, aiming backward, shooting blind.

The report in the enclosed space deafened her, and the grip on her hair, straining her neck as her head was pulled back, didn’t loosen. She’d missed!

Sophie inadvertently inhaled. Instantly coughing, her lungs felt on fire. Her eyes stung in spite of being closed, and a blow to her head stunned her. The weapon was wrenched out of her hand.

“I should just shoot you right now, but that would be too easy. I want to finish what we started in the jungle,” Akane said. “You’ve caused me a lot of hassles, and it’s payback time.”

She could breathe later.

Now was time for an all-out effort to escape, or die trying.

Sophie drew her feet underneath her buttocks and threw herself forward to stand, ripping her hair out of Akane’s hand. She was scarcely aware of her stinging scalp as she pitched forward, crashing against the door, her hands scrabbling for the handle. This time it opened. Sophie fell through the doorway, landing to roll to her feet. Her diaphragm spasmed, demanding a breath, and she cracked her eyes open enough to aim herself in a dive, landing behind Felicia’s desk in the main reception area.

Foul vapor billowed out of the computer lab in pursuit, but Sophie pulled Felicia’s sweater down off of her chair and grabbed a couple of gasping breaths. Holding the fabric over her face, she groped for the alarm button they’d had installed on the bottom of the receptionist’s desk. She pressed it repeatedly.

Akane cursed and his boots thundered as he followed her out of the computer lab. She shut her eyes against the tear gas and wedged herself in under the desk, preparing to make him work to get her out.

“You must be Akane Chang.” Pim Wat’s cool, composed voice came from the main office doorway. “I’ve been looking for you.”

Pim Wat? Here? Now? Sophie couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Sophie pulled the sweater away from her face enough to squint through streaming eyes at a small, dark figure standing silhouetted in the doorway.

“Who the hell are you?” Akane sounded outraged.

“Sophie’s mother. You’ve been a problem for her long enough.” A unique sound: bap! bap! bap!

Shots from a silenced weapon.

Even with her eyes shut, Sophie could picture where Pim Wat had shot Akane: two to the chest, one to the head. Her mother was a pro.

“He’s probably wearing a vest, Mother,” Sophie rasped between coughs. “Make sure you get him.”

“Oh, I got him. And now, let’s clear the air in this place.” Pim Wat ran forward and shut the computer lab door, trapping most of the gas inside the small room, turned on an overhead fan, and opened the windows of the other offices as Sophie kept her eyes shut and focused on breathing through the sweater.

Sophie waited until she felt her mother’s cool hand on her shoulder. “Sophie Malee. Are you injured?”

“Just some gas inhalation.” Now that the crisis was passing, Sophie could also feel her scalp burning—she’d definitely lost a patch of hair to Akane’s grip. “I pressed an alarm. The police are on their way.” She could already hear the wail of sirens in the distance.

“We’ll catch up later, then.” Pim Wat dropped the weapon, a silenced SIG, into Sophie’s lap. “You can thank me and return my weapon when the police are done with it. I was never here.”

Sophie blinked stinging eyes until she could make out Akane, flat on his back, his arms sprawled. Red pulp filled the gas mask where his face had been. Yes, Pim Wat had got him.

When she looked up, Pim Wat had vanished, shutting the office door behind her.