As much as he hoped Charlie would let him off the hook and put him back on the task force, Dyrk knew it was a long shot. And he was right.
“What information do you need?”
“Not information, but permission. To access his accounts, I need verbal verification from him, at the very least. He might have hired us, but I can’t just pop open his vaults and snoop around. I don’t think there’s a celebrity on the planet who’d trust anyone that much.”
“Isn’t that what financial managers do?” Tessa asked quietly, pausing her tip-tap typing for a moment to smile up at him. Charlie spoke up before Dyrk could decide whether he should return the smile.
“Yes, you mentioned a financial manager in one of your reports,” Charlie said.
“Xavier Manchester,” he said with a nod. “I’ve called several times. Seems he’s also on vacation.”
Elektra leaned forward, smelling a clue. “Seriously? That can’t be a coincidence.”
“Relax,” Dyrk said. “Assuming Stark Bradford is his biggest client—or his only client—it makes sense he’d take his vacation at the same time. It’s not like Stark’s going to be doing anything with his money right now except spending it.”
“So, your hands are tied.” Charlie stroked his chin, deep in thought.
“Legally speaking.”
“What about illegally speaking?” Ragan asked with a wickedly quirked eyebrow. “We could try to hack his accounts.”
While Dyrk’s specialty was anything to do with banking or money, Ragan’s was cybersecurity.
“Hack our own client?” Grizz asked with a frown.
“It’s only a problem if he presses charges,” Ragan said with wide eyes. “Do we think he’d mind, under the circumstances?”
“From the worry in Wyntir’s voice, I’d say he would want us do whatever it takes to figure this out before they hit port again. Good idea, Ragan. Charlie, what do you think?”
Charlie thought hard for a long moment before nodding. “I agree. Ragan, Dyrk, you two work together and see what you can find out.”
Chapter Two
Dyrk twirled a pen in his fingers as he sat across from Ragan’s desk with his own laptop and work materials unpacked nearby. He peered up at what looked like an old sci-fi movie poster hanging on the cubicle wall behind his fellow agent.
“Have you ever actually tried kombucha?” Dyrk murmured after a few moments of silence.
Ragan’s rapidly typing fingers paused before he glanced over at him. “Come again?”
Dyrk shrugged.
“Tastes kind of sour to me,” Ragan answered. “I don’t really like that vinegar smell, so— wait, why?”
“Never mind.” Dyrk gave his head a shake. “Any luck?”
“I hate to break it to you, but your short conversation with Wyntir was too short to give me much to work with here. You’re sure you can’t get back in touch with them?”
“They probably don’t even know the problem is this complicated. I’m sure they’re just using Wyntir’s cards until they get somewhere with signal and listen to the thousand or so voicemails I left them.”
“I guess we have to sit on our hands for the time being, then.” Ragan frowned. “I hate to disappoint after getting the energy up in the meeting, but there are just too many financial companies out there he could be using. We can’t exactly sift through the global financial economy for him. And he doesn’t turn up on any of the database searches I’m able to run, so I’m guessing Stark Bradford isn’t his full legal name.”
“Golden needle in a haystack, got it.” Dyrk nodded and peered up at the ceiling as he thought over their options. “What about Manchester?”
“Nasty weather this time of year,” Ragan drawled as if he had been waiting all morning to make that joke.
“Ragan.”
He sighed. “What about him?”
“Could we hack into his system? He’ll have all of Stark’s financial info in a database somewhere.”
“That’s brilliant!” Ragan perked up. “And he’s on vacation, so he’ll never know.”
Dyrk grinned broadly as he scooted his chair around to Ragan’s side, ready to roll up his sleeves and dig into the hunt. Of course, Charlie had approved their plan to hack Stark’s accounts, not Xavier’s but if it yielded results, no one should be too pissed off. With this new direction, it didn’t take long for the two to make headway. Once Ragan tracked down Xavier, it was just a matter of letting him work his magic and find a backdoor entrance to the guy’s system. Dyrk had a loose idea of how Ragan’s skills worked, but he was mainly just happy he didn’t have to interpret all the mumbo jumbo scrolling down the screen.
“Uh-oh,” Ragan murmured.
“Uh-oh?”
Ragan turned the screen so that Dyrk could see it better. A large red security message was splashed across the screen that read ACCESS DENIED in big letters.
“Looks like Mr. Manchester doesn’t screw around when it comes to cybersecurity,” Ragan said with more than a hint of admiration in his voice.
“What’s it mean?”
“He’s got his system locked down tight, and if I’m not careful, it’ll shut me out of everything. Permanently. Stark must have known what he was doing when he hired this guy.”
“Don’t tell me we’ve hit another wall,” Dyrk practically snarled, his jaw tight.
“Firewall, is more like it. But don’t despair, my friend.” A glimmer of an idea sparkled in Ragan’s hazel eyes. “It’s not going to be easy or fast, but I think I can crack it. I’m sure I can. I just need time.”
“And coffee, no doubt.”
Ragan snorted. “Lots of it!”
Dyrk groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt the dull throb of a headache coming on. “Watch, Wyntir will call me back right at the end of all this crap and give us the shortcut when it’s too late.”
“Don’t jinx it, dude.”
“I don’t think we could jinx ourselves any more, honestly. Let me get that coffee. Maybe that’ll give us a better chance at cracking this mystery before dark.”
“You don’t need to stick around for this part,” Ragan said as he stared at his screen, totally engrossed. “It’s gonna be a while. Hours, maybe even days.”
Dyrk’s shoulders tensed. He wanted this silly task to be over so he could get back on the task force. “It’s okay, I’m up for an all-nighter.”
Dyrk suddenly became aware he was being watched. He slowly turned his head to find Tessa standing behind him, peering at him with an annoyingly worried expression.
“Can I help you?” He cursed himself for asking when he didn’t really want to know.
She smiled softly, concern oozing from her. “You’re never going to solve any mysteries with your chakras blocked.”
“My…what?”
“Your chakras.”
Dyrk pushed out of his chair and brushed past her, heading for the break room to grab those coffees.