Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,47

her arms. Ana hadn’t known it was frowned upon to have your personal in the office until she’d been in two weeks and brought her computer every day. Pearson had obviously bucked the stricture too.

“Got Wi-Fi?”

“Yeah, I do, standard-issue three-G remote Wi-Fi device. What do you need?”

“Backup. Come to my office please and pull up whatever server and e-mail you use. We’ll need to keep working. God,” she groaned. “This is going to take hours to sort out, and I didn’t have time for this shit. I’ve got five reports due tomorrow.”

For the first time, Ana saw Pretzky as a person. A worker with a job, with reports, with someone she had to answer to. It was enlightening.

“Okay, let’s move, Agents. Burton, you want to head out, or stay here?”

“Stay here, I guess. I don’t have a car at the moment,” she said, shrugging off the immediate offers of a cab or help. “Really, I’d rather try to work. Do like IAD said, go through my communications over the last week and see if there was any warning of this. Anything.”

“You got any ideas right off the top?” Pearson asked, shooting her a speculative glance as they walked out of the conference room.

“Not a one. Wish to hell I did.”

The three women moved through the office, and all conversations ceased. Agents rolled out of their cubicles, away from their desks, to look at Pretzky, judge her mood.

“Davis, thanks for getting coffee and sodas,” Pretzky snapped. “Caldwell,” she barked at another agent. “Order in some lunch. The office will cover it, so get a list and call it in. Everyone, list files you need so IT can focus on getting you access for anything you’ve got heating up. They’re cleaning things, making sure they’ve locked whatever door that hacker came through.” She took a breath, rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Also, I need all of you to go through anything you’re working on. Make a list of hot spots that might have precipitated today’s event. I want those lists by COB. The tech geeks need a place to start in backtracking this hacker, so if you’re the key, we need to know it. All of this is gonna take time none of us has, so just suck it up and get it done.”

There was some muttering, but it quieted when Pretzky continued to stand there, obviously not finished. “Last thing—” She took a breath, let it whoosh out. “When you leave today, be careful and watch your backs. Agent Burton was fired upon as she entered the garage. It may be personal, but then again it may not. There are enough crazies out there who hate our guts because we work for the Agency. Random isn’t out of the question, so stay sharp.”

Everyone gave assent, shooting her a respectful nod or glance. Caldwell hustled over with a pen and paper. “Stile’s Deli okay with you?”

“Sure. Reuben. Chicken soup. Brownie. Pepsi.” Pretzky’s lunch order was as clipped as the rest of her delivery.

“Got it. Agent Burton?” Ana and Pearson gave their orders. Caldwell moved to other people, which gave them all a chance to more naturally disperse to work.

“Huh,” Ana muttered, deciding Pretzky was smarter than she let on. Getting everyone involved in lunch or listing files took their minds off Ana, off the hacking. Focused them on something they could do, that they needed—lunch—and distracted the attention they’d all been focusing on Ana.

“What?” Pearson said without looking at her.

“Pretzky. Lunch was a good ploy.”

Pearson laughed. “Caught that? I didn’t until about the third time she’d done it. Productivity in her unit’s about the highest in the building. She brings that up every time someone gets pissy about the deli. She knows how to keep the drones at work.”

“I guess.” Ana was trying to figure out how to say something to Pearson, but the words were difficult. “Pearson…”

“I know. Forget it. We gotta cover each other, you know?”

Relieved, Ana nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” She grinned. “Seriously.”

“Right. Enjoy hanging with Pretzky.” Ana felt just comfortable enough to tease.

“Bite me, Burton.” Pearson grinned as she said it, disappearing around the cubicle wall to retrieve her gear.

For her part, Ana dumped her bag on the desk and slumped into the chair. She hadn’t even had time to unload her notes and files before her cell rang. She frowned over the number, one she didn’t recognize.

“Hello?” Damn it, her voice was shaky.

“Ana? It’s Gates. I wanted to—” He paused. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she lied.