Countermeasure (46 page)
“No worries,” George said. “You and Cassandra can catch a ride to the airport with me. I think my flight leaves right before yours.”
“That works. We just need to stop by Cassie’s to change and grab our carry-ons and laptops.” They had packed and shipped most of their belongings to Ireland in the weeks prior to the wedding.
Robert turned to Jessica. “Ready to go? I’ll drop you off.”
Before Jessica could respond, Stephan blurted out, “I think you live close to my hotel. Can I offer you a lift?”
Jessica hesitated, “Lift…? Oh…ride, right? Sure.” She stumbled over her own words, blushing at the confused look he threw at her.
Kisses and hugs were exchanged before Trevor and Cassandra headed to George’s rental where Trevor helped Cassandra into the back seat and sat next to George for the quick trip. As they drove away, Cassandra turned to take a last look at her friends and family waving them off and sighed contently at the nice picture they made. Jessica smiled widely at Stephan—there was definitely something there to be dug out—and Robert laughed at something they had said. Even from the distance she could see a new light in his eyes.
Turning around to settle back in her seat, she caught Trevor’s eyes in the mirror smiling back at her in understanding. Cassandra grinned at him. Their adventure had just begun.
Redemption
Waiting to board their plane
to Dublin, Trevor closed the laptop and a mischievous smile played across his face. Allison had achieved her goal after all.
“Trevor Joseph, what have you done now?” Cassandra approached him with cups in her hands.
“Nothing,
a ghrá
.”
“As if I couldn’t see the cat-that-ate-the-canary look on your face,” she scoffed as she sat beside him and handed him his tea.
“I sent the email.”
“Fully encrypted and untraceable, I hope?”
“Yes, Cassie girl. That thing was rerouted so many times, they will end up in Timbuktu if they even try to trace it.”
Cassandra chuckled at his cocky attitude. “What now?”
“Not much. They have the files. Let’s hope they use them as we recommended. If so, Allison’s dream will be fulfilled. In the end, she did make a difference. Pity it had to be through us.”
Trevor took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing it softly. Cassandra studied him, and must have seen the gleam playing in his eyes. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
“The NSA refused my resignation.”
“What?! What do you mean, refused it? How are we supposed to go after information on your parents with you still working in Maryland? And what do we do with the house in Dublin?” Cassandra’s questions were shot out in rapid succession like bullets out of a machine gun.
Trevor squeezed her hand. “Hold on, let me finish. They didn’t want to lose their top infiltrations expert. So we negotiated. I agreed to be retained as a consultant instead.” Trevor lifted a finger to her lips when it looked like the machine gun was about to be go off again. “I’ll be brought in on tough cases. Apparently they like my eccentric methods. They’re calling it Operation Countermeasure.” Trevor’s smile was vibrant with enthusiasm. “There’s only one drawback. When they say ‘jump’ I’ll have to focus my efforts on the job at hand, but it means the move to Dublin is still a go.”
“What’s the upside of this arrangement, Trev? If the NSA is anything like the CIA, you could be jumping each time you close a case. Won’t that get in the way of our goal?”
“That’s the beauty of it, Cassie girl. It’ll actually help us in a big way.” Cassandra shot him a puzzled look and he rushed on excitedly. “As a consultant living in Dublin, I’m to be given full access to Echelon. Static IP address, high encryption and, get this, George is my liaison. He and I will still be working together.”
A spark of understanding appeared in her eyes when she realized what he was getting at. “You’re planning on using Echelon to find leads on your parents’ case?
“Who? Me? Use government property and resources covertly to gather information for our personal advantage? Seriously? Nah,” he joked, reminding her of her own line when they first met.
“You’re a lucky son of a gun, Trev.”
“Told ya. Luck of the Irish. What could be better Cassie girl? We’ll be based in Ireland. We’ll be able to work the cases we want, follow up on any leads we find, and have the resources at our disposal to help explore those leads.” His words held a wistful note to them even he could hear.
Cassandra wrapped her hand tighter around his. “We
will
find out what happened to them.” Trevor’s heart flipped in his chest as he heard the seriousness of her tone and saw the determination in her eyes. This was what he had always wanted—someone with whom to share his life and quest. Someone who would embrace his entire world. He knew whatever decisions he made in his search for answers, Cassandra would be by his side on the winding trail they would both explore to the very end.
THE END
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“
So, how is the new
guy doing?” Roy Denner, Chief Financial Officer of Mark Devlin Software, asked Mark Devlin, owner of MDS. They often held their casual meetings over the phone and that day was no different.
“New guy? Oh…you mean Antonín Mucha? Amazing. He had an impressive resume. Worked with some big names, including Conor Brennan.” Over the line, Roy heard Mark take a sip of his coffee.
“Brennan? Why is the name familiar?”
“Big name in biometrics. He led some major projects in the field.”
“Ah.”
“Mucha helped him with an algorithm for voice recognition some years back.”
“I see.”
“Apparently they were close for a while. Mucha mentioned he had some of Brennan’s notes. I bought them from him. They will be worth a fortune down the road—even though they look like chicken-scratch to me.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you remember? Brennan died in a boating accident some five years back—”
A knock on Mark’s door sounded over the line.
“Hi, Paul. Everything okay?” Roy overheard Mark’s question followed by a pause, then Paul’s muffled reply in the background.
“The decrypter, Mr. Devlin…I don’t know how…the files are gone.” Paul Faber, the lead developer at MDS, was in charge of their main piece of software—which was also one of his projects from inception.
“Mark, what’s going on?” Roy asked over the line.
“Roy. Grab Harold and get over here. My office. We have a situation.” His voice was thick with tension.
Mark hung up and Roy immediately called Harold Preston, MDS’s head of security, and instructed him to meet them at Mark’s office on the double. It was going to be a hell of a day.
****
George scanned the latest assignments and prioritized their order of attack for the day. It would be handled as soon as he could get a hold of Trevor.
With that in check, he scanned the latest report generated on their little keyword list—something he had been keeping an eye on for his buddy. He had to take a second pass at it to make sure he had gotten it right. When he did, a small smile played on his features.
“Trev’s going to want to hear this one…”
CHRIS ALMEIDA (C. ALMEIDA)
Chris Almeida began writing children’s stories at a very young age. Chris’ life took a totally different course when technology came into play, and the next 17years were spent delving deep into the world of programming and web design.
It was in 2010, when Chris began role playing online as a hobby, that writing wormed its way back into the picture. This time, writing storylines for a role playing group. The ideas and plots created for the game awoke the inner writer and a few months later, together with, partner in crime, Cecilia Aubrey, began writing Erotic Romance stories and Romantic Suspense.
Now, together, they have created a number of short stories, are currently working on a couple of book series and have several projects on the side lines. Through it all, they have continued to enjoy role playing their favorite characters.
CECILIA AUBREY (C. AUBREY)
Cecilia Aubrey’s writing has been included in business publications and communications for several years. A year ago, Cecilia took on the role of a character in an online role playing group, and met partner, Chris Almeida. The development of story ideas, research, writing and participation in bringing those stories to life spurred a desire to take writing to a higher level. A few months later, a new passion was formed and, together with Chris Almeida, she began writing Erotic Romance stories and Romantic Suspense.
Inspired by the works of many Romance, Paranormal and Erotic authors, the majority of Cecilia’s free time is spent in collaboration with Chris on a number of short stories and several projects including Countermeasure, a Erotic Romantic Thriller series. For fun and inspiration, they have continued to bring their favorite role play characters and stories to life.
You can find them at:
http://countermeasureseries.com/
http://www.facebook.com/Counter.Measure.Series
http://www.facebook.com/CAlmeida.CAubrey.Authors
http://twitter.com/CAlmeidaCAubrey
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