“What? How?” Ben asked in shock. “He was surrounded by guards.”
“All the guards were killed, and the Commander was strangled to death. It’s a warning Midas.”
“From who?”
“Alejandro. Security footage shows a man we believe to be him, and a large army, in the hospital.”
Ben answered slowly. “He knew the commander was going to talk and so he silenced him a day before he was supposed to be interrogated. Convenient.”
“He might have more spies in the area. Higher than the ex-commander.”
“Yeah, but who?”
“That’s the million-dollar question.”
“I want to keep Hannah up here but I have a feeling she’s going to want to be there to see the end of things.”
“Good luck, one more thing, Alejandro looks like he’s setting up shop down here in California.”
“I’ll head back tomorrow, and we’ll take the son of a bitch out for good.”
Hound hung up and turned and faced the team. “Midas is heading back tomorrow. He’s going to try and leave Hannah up there, so she stays out of this. The last thing Alejandro needs is leverage. I thought we would need her to ID Alejandro, but with the footage at the hospital we won’t have to. We have enough that we could ID him ourselves.”
“We know he’s here,” Liam said taking back over. Until Midas got home, he was still in charge. “Hound use every available security camera in town and on base to try and find out exactly where he is at. He couldn’t have gone far.” Hound’s computer started beeping, and a small warning message came across the screen.
“What is it?” Liam was almost afraid to find out. Nothing else seemed to be going right in the past hour.
“I learned from Commander Brady to always follow the money. With Alejandro setting up a new residence he would have to move some of his funds here. With the data we collected off the flash drive, I could get his bank account information. So, I put a tracker on the accounts to alert me if funds had been moved.”
“And?” Liam hated waiting in suspense and listening to all this hacking and tracking jargon.
“The money is here, but when I tried to access the account, I was blocked. I tracked down the ISP that was blocking me. I’ve been hitting a lot of firewalls, but I think I finally…gottcha.” Hound peered closer at his screen when he pulled up the address the block was coming from. “Oh shit.”
“Oh, shit, what?” Liam yelled and slammed his fists down on the desk. He was tired of the suspense.
Hound turned to face him, and the grave look on his face didn’t bode well. “The person blocking me from getting into Alejandro’s accounts is Cora.”
Cora?
His Cora.
“You’re wrong. Check it again.” Liam wouldn’t believe that of Cora. She would never aid an international terrorist. Not his sweet Cora.
“Data doesn’t lie, Sunshine. Cora set up security to protect Alejandro’s accounts.” This was worse than he thought. Cora was working with his enemy. Maybe she didn’t know. He hoped not. There was only one way to find out.
“Hound, get eyes and ears on Alejandro. I’m going to go visit Cora again.” He hoped he was wrong about the situation and Cora wasn’t helping an international dealer and trafficker.
Chapter Four
Cora was so engrossed with work she almost missed her phone ringing. She had been writing codes all day for other clients and blocking a hacker from getting into her new client, Alejandro’s accounts. She didn’t know what was so special about it, but every firewall she had put up the hacker seemed to break through them. She thought she finally put up enough walls to keep them out for good.
“This is Cora,” she answered her phone.
“Ms. St. James,” a smooth heavily accented voice said on the other line.
“Hello, Mr. Ferrera,” Cora tried to sound upbeat, but she was exhausted. After blocking the hacker and working around the clock, she was in desperate need of sleep. A glance at the clock confirmed it was getting late and she had been sitting at her computer for eleven hours. “How can I help you?” She hoped he didn’t know about the hacker.
“I’ve been told there are problems with the security system you are using, and I was almost…how you say? Hacked.”
“No, Sir,” she quickly assured him. She had never been hacked before and she wasn’t about to start now. “There was a minor incident today, but I handled it. Your accounts are safe.”
“I hope so, mi querido. I don’t trust easily, and you come highly recommended.”
“I have everything under control. I have new firewalls up now. No one will be able to get near your accounts again.”
“Good. I like you, Cora.” He rolled the r in her name making a purring sound. It made Cora nervous. She didn’t know how he could like her when he had never met her. “I would hate for anything to happen to you.”
Cora’s hackles went up. “Are you threatening me?” No one threatened a St. James. She had worked with some high official people around the world setting up their security, but no one had ever threatened her before. She didn’t like it.
Alejandro chuckled good-naturedly. “A mere warning, mi querido.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t care for it. Your accounts are safe. I protect all my client’s information. I have never been hacked before. Besides my clients, the only way to get their information is through my computer, and I am on it all the time. It is highly secured.” She snapped at him. No one threatened her. She didn’t care how much money he was paying her.
“I’m glad to hear that, mi querido.” Not in the least bit offended she yelled at him.
Cora was ready to be done with this conversation and go to bed. “Was there anything else, Mr. Ferrera?”
“No Ms. St. James. Buenas noches, mi querido.” Alejandro hung up leaving Cora dumbfounded. That had to be one of the most bizarre conversations ever. Cora rolled away from her desk
