“Green.” He lowered the binoculars. “Try the firewall next.”
Excitement mingled with the adrenaline rush of breaking into such a highly guarded establishment. Fingers trembling, she punched in the password again.
ACCESS DENIED flashed on the screen in bold black letters, and she expected to hear alarms blaring next.
“It didn’t work!” she cried.
“No, no, your hands are shaking. You might have punched an incorrect sequence. Try again.”
Heart hammering, she keyed in the code much more slowly, taking her time to get everything right.
“Hit enter. It’s going to be okay, Rose.” The calm in his voice infused her with enough of her own to do his bidding.
ACCESS DENIED.
“It. Didn’t. Work! And now they’re going to be alerted that someone is attempting to get in!” she cried.
He held up a finger. “I hear something.” His face took on a faraway expression, as if he focused somewhere outside of not only this Humvee but his own body. The man possessed enough skills that she wouldn’t put it past him to have some paranormal traits as well.
Silently, he opened the door. No way was she sitting here waiting for him to return, unable to see anything but the darkness closing in around her. Rose shoved open the door and jumped out too.
At that moment, Oz grabbed a man by the nape, twisted one arm ruthlessly behind his back and shoved him into the concrete.
Oz’s gritty growl sounded like a deadly predator’s as he leaned close to the big man. “Who the hell are you?”
“Why should I tell you?” He sounded so calm, she wondered if they were even on the same planet, let alone discussing the same subject.
“Do you seek confession?” Oz’s question had her mind whirling through the possibilities of the meaning. Everything Oz said sounded like code.
“I don’t know what that means. I’m not religious.”
Clearly, this man didn’t understand any better than she did.
“Who sent you?” Oz demanded.
“No one. But you’ve got enough pings coming off your equipment to get you fucking killed, man.”
“How did you get past my guard?”
“Didn’t see any guard. You need to fly under the radar better if you want to keep from being detected.”
“Give me your name—your real name.” Oz yanked the man’s arm, and she saw the elbow flex, nearly breaking.
Still, the man didn’t make a sound of pain, and his voice projected calm. “Sanders. They call me the Sandman.”
“I don’t know anybody by that name. Are you intelligence?”
He chuckled. “I should be insulted to be connected to one of those idiots.”
“Then who sent you?”
“I told you—no one. My equipment is going off the charts with your attempts to access the system. You’ve made two, right? A third will raise an alarm that will get you waterboarded. Both of you.” From his position with his cheek pressed into the concrete, he sliced a look at Rose.
“Why should we believe anything you say? I can strip your memory so goddamn fast—”
“Go on and try. I have training like you. I’m trying to get into the system too and thought I’d help a couple newbies out.”
“Jesus Christ.” Oz hauled the man to his feet. They glared at each other, eyes glinting in the minimal lights coming from the far-off runway. He lifted a fingertip to his ear and spoke. “Come and get this motherfucker. I don’t know who the hell he is, but we need to find out. And if you get the truth from him, hold him for me. I’m going to fucking induct him.”
The man narrowed his eyes. Thirty seconds later, two men walked out of the shadows and gripped the guy between them. They disappeared again before Rose could blink.
Oz reached out and gripped her upper arm, grounding her in reality again.
“Have we been detected?” she whispered.
“No. I’m pretty sure that guy didn’t want to be caught either.”
“What did you mean by inducting him?”
“He got past me and three of my best guards. If he can walk like a ghost through Hangar 45 and fly past my guard, he is a goddamn diamond in the rough.”
“After we get through this, you’re going to explain everything about induction to me. But right now…I don’t know if we should try the password again.” She waited for Oz’s reply.
He waved to the Humvee that looked like every other vehicle on the premises. “We have to try.”
With wobbly knees, she managed to get back into the vehicle and pick up the laptop again.
“I don’t know what he means by flying under the radar, Oz.”
“I do. We need to break down that firewall, enter through the back door. I was stupid to miss that. Give me the laptop.”
She passed him the device and stared on in stunned shock as he quickly busted down a government-installed firewall that protected classified information. Was there nothing the man couldn’t handle? She shouldn’t be surprised—she’d never seen him anything but in control.
He passed the laptop back to her. “Try again, Rose.”
They exchanged a look. The question must have been in her eyes, because he said, “If shit goes bad, we throw a match into that gas can in the back seat, abandon the Hummer and run for the chopper, remember?”
She nodded at his plan, which would also burn the laptop and any DNA or fingerprints left behind.
“Go on, sweetheart,” he said more softly.
Her skin prickled at his tone, but she hit the keys with a confidence that came from breaching two systems already. Home stretch.
She entered the password.
The screens popping open to her contained classified headings and she stifled a cry of triumph. “If you tell me we can find out who killed Kennedy from this system, I won’t be surprised.” She breathed out a sigh of awe.
Oz nudged her out of her nerdy thrill. “Give me the laptop. I’ll find him.”
“Find who?” She held onto the device.
“Rose, I’ll take it from here.”
“You don’t trust me. You just used me, but you don’t trust me.”
He stared at her for a long heartbeat. Finally, he said, “Vladislav. He’s a counterintelligence officer that Lars and I ran across once before. He’s my only hope. If the officer reached out to Lars for help, then I can clear his name and he won’t be killed for being a traitor.”
Oh my God. Killed. She had to find this guy and help Oz clear his name.
“First name spelling,” she prompted.
“B-O-G-D-A-N.”
“I got it. Oh shit.” The man’s face on the screen bore enough of a scowl to scare a scream from a person’s throat. She barely held hers back. “You’re sure this person checks out? He’s really on our side?”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover. Yes. Let me have the laptop now.” He reached out, and she passed the small unit into his hands. Seconds later, Oz’s gaze skimmed over the contents of the file. The way he ticked his eyes down over the words on several pages had her wondering if he was committing every word to memory.
Then he closed the window and snapped the laptop shut.
He started the Humvee, but she could barely detect the engine over the heavy thump of her own heart.