Raiden (The Kent Brothers #2) - A.M. Hargrove Page 0,52
it in a file somewhere that our men could access when they needed it, it would be invaluable.”
“I can’t believe it doesn’t exist.”
“It does. Sort of. The FBI has files. The CIA has files. The local agencies have files. And then the international groups have their files, which causes a whole new set of headaches. Our guys should share, but they don’t. They have their heads up their asses and are too territorial about their info. We need a data scraper that pulls it all and deposits it in one place. Can you develop that?”
I pondered the question. “Yes, but, this is huge. Hacking into their systems would be part of it, and I’m not capable of that.”
“No, Huff is. If you develop something, how long would it take to scrape their systems?”
I shrugged. “Depends on how many files they have and how much information they store. Could take a few minutes or hours, which we can’t do.”
“Remember how we talked about doing the database on missing persons, this could work in the same capacity, except for organized crime.”
“Acer, I’ll see what I can grab through the dark web and with Cruze’s help. I can’t promise much because at this point we have our hands full.”
“Can I help? You can throw some things at me, or even teach me how to search deep in the dark web. Isla has shown me some things, but I’m not near as knowledgeable as she is.”
“You know… come to the office tomorrow and we’ll have a chat between us three. You could definitely help us out here. It would take that part of the development process off our hands so Cruze and I could focus on just the program parts.”
“Okay, I’ll be there around eight.”
“Make it nine because that’s about the time I get all my correspondence completed.”
During dinner, everyone barraged me with questions over why I wasn’t eating and if I was sick. Acer, Isla, and Cruze knew the answers, so they did their best at distracting Mom and Dad. But Mom wouldn’t let it go. I finally said, “Mom, I’m worried about Scottie and the team. They’re on that mission and I’m hoping it all goes well.”
“Gosh, Raiden, why didn’t you say so?”
“Didn’t really want to discuss it.”
“I understand, son. Would you care for some peach cobbler? Liv made it.”
“No thanks, Mom. I’ll clean up for you, then head upstairs.”
“Your father and two brothers can handle the cleanup. You go upstairs, if that’s what you want.”
“Thanks, and thank you both,” I nodded at Liv, “for the excellent meal.”
“Raiden, Scottie will be fine. She’s very strong,” Liv said. “I have a good feeling about her.”
“Thank you.” I wish I felt the same, but knew that wouldn’t happen until she stepped off the plane and was back home.
In the middle of the night, someone pounded on my door. “Yeah.”
It opened, and Cruze rushed in. “Get dressed.”
“What’s going on?”
“Why wouldn’t you answer your phone?”
Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I asked, “Huh?”
“The police have been calling you and you didn’t answer.”
I reached for my phone, and it wasn’t on the nightstand. “The fuck.” I jumped up and began my search when I found the thing on the bathroom counter. “No wonder I didn’t hear it, not to mention it was on silent.”
“Get dressed. We have to go.”
“Where?”
“Your house. Someone torched it. One of your neighbors called it in after a loud explosion woke him up.”
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
“Hurry.”
I quickly pulled on a pair of jeans, a shirt, and shoved my feet into the first pair of shoes I could find. We both ran down the stairs where four bodyguards waited to drive us.
On the way, Cruze said, “Damn good thing you stayed at my place.”
“Truth, brother. But now they’ll know we’re all there. We need to get a safe house. Stop traveling to work and do everything from home. This means Isla, too. We can’t take these risks anymore.”
He punched in some numbers on the phone. “Isla, Raiden and I are on the way to his house. It’s on fire. We don’t know the details yet. But we’ve got to get out of my house. Can you find someplace for us to stay? Someplace safe? We have to assume O’Brien is behind this and once he figures out we escaped unscathed, he’ll hit my place next. We don’t know how long it’ll take. I wonder if this means Ireland was a success.” He went silent, and I heard her talking, but not what she said. I