“My job is not as easy as it looks, sir,” Stein retorted. “However, despite the delay, I think you’ll be pleased. Once I gained access to the file, I located Ms. Taylor’s. He hadn’t erased it as I’d originally thought, merely swallowed it into his.”
“Son of bitch,” Derek growled.
“There were some very interesting things in there. First of all, it appears that Ms. Taylor has been a project of the President’s almost since birth.”
“I knew that already. He’s been grooming her to be his mate. He just wasn’t counting on her having any backbone.”
“Well, were you aware that he’s been tracking her?” Stein asked. “He’s had a tracking device on every one of her ships since she broke off their personal relationship.”
Derek’s eyes widened. Marius had put the tracking device on her ship? “I think that tracking device almost got her killed.”
“So you said. I researched the schematics of the particular devices used on Ms. Taylor’s ships. The President had them specially designed so that the authorities wouldn’t be able to pick up the signal. It could only be read by a special receiver, one that he alone possesses.”
“Damn, so the Federation didn’t find her that way.”
“It doesn’t appear likely,” Stein agreed. “As I searched deeper into the President’s account, I noticed we aren’t the only ones who’ve been delving into his information.”
“Hoff.”
Stein’s mouth fell open. “How the hell do you do that?” he asked, startling Derek with the rare curse.
“Hoff asked me some odd questions the last time I saw him and he knew about the attack against Sable’s ship.”
“So you’ve discovered the culprit. Ms. Taylor was the key after all.”
“I suppose that’s true, but not in the way I had originally assumed. Can you prove Hoff had access to the tracking device information?”
“Without a doubt. I’ll send a security team to apprehend him immediately.” Stein smiled. “Now that the traitor’s been discovered, sir, will you be dropping your cover and returning to the Security Council?”
“Soon,” Derek said evasively. He damn well wasn’t returning anywhere without Sable. “Did you get a copy of the video from the concourse on Rashier 6?”
“Yes, sir. I downloaded it to your ship just a few moments ago.”
“Excellent. I’m on way to Sarjon to check on another Drake residence. Comm me if you have any trouble with Hoff.”
“Of course. Good luck, sir. I’m looking forward to meeting Ms. Taylor. She sounds like a remarkable woman.”
“She is,” Derek murmured. “Atkinson out.”
He took a deep breath before playing the video taken by docking security on Rashier 6. Even though he knew deep in his soul that Sable loved him, part of him still feared what he would witness on the video.
He froze as the screen flickered and Sable appeared, standing on the cargo ramp of her Starwing speaking with Marius Drake. Stein had done an excellent job of filtering out the background noise and Derek listened in rapt attention as Marius blackmailed Sable into breaking off their relationship.
“I love him,” Sable told Marius on the tape.
And Derek’s heart swelled. He hadn’t misread her. He rewound the video and played her words again. And again.
The tiny seed of doubt that had tried to take root, insidious and punishing, urging him to think that maybe Sable’s note had been the truth, withered and died and would never return.
“I’m coming for you, baby,” he whispered to her beloved face, frozen on the screen. “I’m coming.”
* * * * *
It was approaching midnight when the transport cab pulled away from the large house. Sable waited a few moments more before leaving her hiding place in the bushes, just to be certain they wouldn’t return for something they’d forgotten. She’d finally solved her investigation. Now she had only to capture the culprit. She’d wondered how this hunt would go down when Captain Hoff had come out of his house with his family in tow. But then he’d kissed them goodbye and sent them on ahead.
Now it was just the two of them.
She crossed the moonlit circular driveway and rounded the side of the house. Knowing how trigger-happy some agents were, Sable had waited until just a few moments ago to comm in her call for backup. She couldn’t risk them arriving too soon and scaring her prey away. Not after the last two years of hard work.