twisted his gut and scared the hell out of him. He knew deep down there was no future for them. There was too much crap to overcome and even though they’d made love, nothing had really changed. Max would still be against it, the brotherhood code had still been violated, and he still wanted Anna with a vengeance.
Once these codes were cracked, and he had no doubt that Anna would figure it out, they would have to go their separate ways. He hated like hell that Anna was now considered a rogue agent. He planned to talk to Kat Cross. She was Orion “Wicked” Cross’s wife and a CIA station chief in San Diego. Hopefully, she would help to clear Anna’s name. But they would cross those bridges when they came to them.
“What are you thinking?” Dodger asked.
She leaned back against the table, lost in thought for a moment, and the two of them waited for her to speak.
“Mouse, you said the code had six slots, which fits with what Miller gave us on the iPads. Two letters along with four digits.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Shifting his weight against the table, he lifted his mug to his mouth, watching her work. There was an intentness in her expression, as if she were totally absorbed in what she was doing. He was getting used to the way Anna looked when she was solving problems. She had a sexy brain, too.
His gaze fixed on her face, he crossed his ankles. “So, what are you thinking?”
She shot him a smart aleck look, clearly getting some ideas on which path to follow. It took her a second to answer. “Miller was all about the historical sites he chose to conceal the iPads. I would suggest that the two letters in the code is where we found the clues.”
“Oh, I see,” Mouse said. “WS for Wenceslas Square, CB for Charles Bridge, KP for Kinsky Palace, and ET for the Estates Theater?”
“That’s my guess.”
“How about the digits?”
“Addresses?” Dodger suggested.
“Look them up, Mouse. They would have to be uniform across the four locations.”
Mouse turned to his keyboard and typed for a few minutes. “No, the address doesn’t fit for any of them. Too many digits.”
“Telephone number,” Dodger asked.
“Possibly. Last four digits. Try that, Mouse.”
He pulled up all the numbers and once the code was assembled, he typed it into the activation code boxes. But when he pressed enter, declined came up in big red letters.
“Other ideas?” Mouse said, turning toward them from his computer screen.
“The only other digits associated with locations are dates,” Anna said. The three of them looked at each other with excitement on their faces. “Mouse, try the year each of the monuments were built.”
“Okay, so that would be WS1348 for Wenceslas Square, CB1357 for the Charles Bridge, KP1755 for Kinsky Palace, and ET1783 for the Estates Theatre.” He hit enter, and to their utter disappointment, the screen flashed red again.
“Oh, wait,” Dodger said when it dawned on him. “Put them in the order that obsessive-compulsive wanker Miller laid out in his original clue. WS1348 for king, ET1783 for enlightenment, CB1357 for span, and finally KP1783 for home.”
“Here goes nothing.” Mouse hit enter again, and the screen blinked green. accepted flashed across the screen and they all erupted in cheers.
The screen started to tick off the shutdown of the first few satellites, turning their icons red.
“Mouse stop the shutdown of the system,” Anna said, shoving his shoulder back toward the screen. He started to type furiously, and one by one the icons for the satellites showed green as they came back online. “Now close that back door and we’re home free.”
They celebrated with a bottle of whiskey, each taking a shot.
“So, how did you and Mouse meet?” Anna asked.
“Mouse…” Dodger said, glancing over at him. He didn’t like being reminded of the past.
Mouse totally ignored him. “Dodger brought my sister back to our family. She had been kidnapped by human traffickers. He wasn’t in good shape then, so we took him in and he—”
“I will strangle you, Mouse.”
“He helped us.” He gave Dodger a brotherly look full of affection. “I guess that’s all I’m allowed to say.”
Anna sighed. “I guess I better get my stuff together,” she said, rising. “Thank you so very much, Mouse, for sheltering us during this terrible time.” She leaned down and kissed his cheek. “You saved the West’s bacon.”
“As I said. I would do anything for Dodger. All you need to do is ask, and I’ll do what I can to