In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,142
ran, slamming into the doors and taking the steps two at a time, heading up.
He reached the first floor. The two guards who protected these doors from unknowing full-humans and made sure all the shifters got out safely if there was an emergency were out cold, blood seeping from wounds on their heads.
Shen jumped over them and raced out the door and onto the city street.
“Stevie!” he called out. “Stevie!”
But she was already gone.
* * *
Irene continued to pace around the room. The one person she knew who could do this level of illegal hacking—at least the one person she knew who’d nearly served hard federal time for this level of illegal hacking—continued to work.
“How are we doing?” she finally asked.
“I just started. Back off.”
She glared at her one-time PhD student, Miki Kendrick. Although Miki now did a lot of work for the government to stop the sort of hacking she was currently performing, she was willing to return to her old ways. Not for money, but for friends. Thankfully—and surprisingly to many—Irene was one of those friends. Of course, they were two full-human geniuses married to wolves. It was logical that they’d end up friends.
A knock and the door opened. Van stuck his head in.
Irene frowned, tried not to panic. “They didn’t find—”
“No, no. But we have another problem. They got Stevie.” He stepped into the room, studying Miki. “How much time?”
Miki shook her head. “I’m shocked Stevie’s little device could actually make workable copies from those hard drives. The problem is that they have thirty-five-digit passwords and layers on top of layers of encryption.” She looked at Irene. “You didn’t tell me they were this paranoid.”
“We need to do something, Miki,” Van insisted. “We do not have time to—”
“I’m doing my best but these aren’t house husbands hiding their porn or their latest girlfriends. These are incredibly brilliant scientists who know how to set up a system and keep people out of it. And you pressuring me with your annoying wolf barking is not helping.”
“I’m not barking. Trust me, you’ll know when I’m barking!”
“Stop. Stop,” Irene ordered, her mind analyzing the current situation. “You are forgetting something.”
“What?”
“Stevie MacKilligan’s sisters.”
“I have not forgotten about them. They’re under the watchful eyes and ready chains of a full tactical unit. All my best people except Cella and Dee-Ann.”
“You misunderstand me.” Irene raised her forefinger. “I don’t want you to hold them back. I want you to unleash them.”
“Have you lost your mind? You love my skin!” he reminded her.
She waved that forefinger. “No, no. They’re not thinking about you anymore. They’ll track their sister down quicker than we will hacking into these drives.” She pointed at Miki. “But I still need you to get in and find their research.”
Van blinked. “Why?”
“He or they took her because they think they’re ready to use this . . . project, for lack of a better word, on her. Otherwise, they wouldn’t bother. I need to know what’s in those files so I can . . . counteract, I guess, whatever they do to her.”
“They don’t want to just kill her,” Van said, giving a little shudder.
“No. They’re going to use her as their pièce de résistance. The proof that their experimentation and murders were worth it. But I’d prefer not to let it get that far. And if we let Stevie’s sisters go . . .”
Van pulled out his cell phone, speed-dialing his team as he walked out of the room.
“Are you sure about this?” Miki asked. “I’ve heard about Stevie MacKilligan from my friends at CERN. I especially heard about her sisters. They will leave a trail of bodies behind in their search for her.”
Irene shrugged. “Then the Wells Pride would be wise to give them the information they’re looking for.”
“What if they don’t have it to give?”
“Then their night will be very, very sad.”
chapter TWENTY-NINE
Her head throbbing, Stevie forced herself to sit up. It wasn’t until the extreme nausea passed that she realized someone was touching her shoulder.
Stevie jerked but Blayne immediately threw up her hands, palms out. “It’s me! It’s me! Please don’t eat me!”
Chuckling a little, Stevie said, “It’s okay. I just didn’t know it was you.” She pressed her hand to her head. “What the fuck did they give me anyway?”
“A bat to the back of the head.”
That came from Gwen. She was on the other side of the room, sitting on the floor. She had her knees raised, one arm resting across them.