Stefanie laughed through her tears. “You seemed so nice when you were a bridesmaid. No way I’m backing out – don’t even think about kicking me off the team.”
“I am incredibly nice.” Alexis grinned. “Being sympathetic and understanding would have sent you into another spiral. Telling you to knock it off will help you. So, knock it off so we can get to work. And you’re welcome.” Alexis cracked her knuckles. “Now, I’ve already called Parker and Ree to let them know what’s up. We’re also monitoring Nash’s calls and emails. His activity is normal, but he called his brother to see if a guy named Joey Trenton is actually in the Navy. His brother said he’ll check and let him know if anything is fishy. Cam is reaching out to the brother’s superior officer and the brother. He’ll tell them just enough to keep Nash on our side. We won’t tell him the full story until we’re sure he’s not working with Dmitri.”
Stefanie eyed her. “Please. If Nash was working for Dmitri, he would never have told us they’re monitoring our subs. Nash is just really freaking smart. So what do we do?”
Alexis looked at Joey. Joey rubbed his chin. “We let them do it, but this time we’ll be watching. We’ll take them on their fancy tour, convince them we don’t know anything, and then let them drop their equipment this weekend.”
“We just let them?” Stefanie’s gaze alternated between Joey and Alexis. “That’s it?”
Alexis held up a hand. “Oh, and don’t get hurt. Your sister will kill me.”
“What if it isn’t enough to stop Dmitri?” Stefanie rubbed her temples.
The silence was deafening.
20
Stefanie returned to the harbor for the first time since launching her research platform. It felt like months instead of weeks had passed. Maybe being on the ocean would be good for her. She almost convinced herself that being on the water would help her stress until she spotted her three newest customers waiting to get on the small boat they used to collect data. It wasn’t nearly as spacious as The Dog House but was perfect for the task at hand. She swallowed hard, straightened her back, and greeted them with a friendly smile and a quick tour. Ten minutes later, Nash arrived, giving her a knowing nod behind their backs. Even with Joey on board, her heart started racing immediately. She was barely managing to hold a conversation; her brain was so overloaded with information. Joey had cameras on the boat and would be watching to see if the three men spoke with Nash. That part was handled, so she focused on the task at hand. It was going to be a quick run, with no ROVs to deploy. She’d also be showing her newest customers how to pull up the data from the transmission buoy on her phone.
While departing from the harbor always took longer than she expected, today time had fully stopped. She kept her small band of customers entertained, and no one raised any red flags. Nash asked a number of probing questions of their customers until she shot him a look. Joey hung back, mostly listening to her talk endlessly about marine wildlife, even dropping a hydrophone in the water near where they normally saw dolphins. Fredrick did a poor job of appearing interested. She was almost relieved when his phone rang and he stepped away to answer it. Then, all of a sudden, the earpiece she’d forgotten she was wearing crackled.
Joey’s voice was quiet, and she suddenly noticed he wasn’t in sight anymore. “Patching you in, Stef. You need to hear this.”
Fredrick’s voice came through, along with a fair amount of wind. “We are on the boat now, so I can’t talk long. We’ve had the tour and I think they can handle it.”
A man with a smooth voice and just a hint of a Boston accent came through the line. “You may proceed. As you know, the project is urgent. Our competitors are quite interested as well. This will give us the head start that we need.”
Stefanie found a quiet place and spotted Joey across the boat. She leaned over the railing as if looking for the wildlife she’d described to their passengers. She hissed into the microphone. “So, they’re legitimate?”
Joey gave a slight shake of his head. “That’s a simulated voice – and I recognize it. Dmitri’s used it before. Just warning you to be careful, okay? We don’t know what he means by proceed.”
Stefanie looked around her. Tony had stopped to talk to Fredrick and was now headed her way. She pointed out to the waves to cover her startled jump. “Well, Tony, I was hoping for more wildlife, but you’ll have to settle for some sunshine and pleasant company.” She was glad to be wearing her sunglasses. The wind kept her voice from sounding obviously nervous, but her eyes kept darting around the boat, trying to watch three people at once.
“We have pictures. Our organization will be happy we did our due diligence, and we’re ready to make a commitment to the project. I think that’s a day well spent, don’t you?” Tony looked out over the
