Countermeasure (15 page)

“Ah, that would explain the lilt.”

“Yeah, I can mask it well, though. Most times I speak good American.”

“How’s that working for you? It didn’t do you any good a few minutes ago. I seem to recall the word s
hite
.”

“You caught me by surprise,” he replied with a wicked grin.

His grin pulled at her heart, which surprised her. She had never had this reaction to someone before.

“Good to know. So what the hell did you call Nate? It was Irish, right?”

With a snort, Trevor responded, “
A amadáin?
It means
you fool
, but it’s really a polite Irish way of calling someone an asshole. Since there are no assholes in Ireland, we don’t really have a word for them, so that’s what we say.”

His expression was so serious, Cassandra couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “I’ll have to remember that one. I know a few back home.”

“A few assholes or Irishmen?”

“Definitely assholes,” she laughed. Sliding off the table, she walked back to her chair and sat. Laughter aside, it was time to get back to the business at hand. “Help me, here. I’m trying to understand what an NSA employee would be doing hacking a system from their own work computer.”

Her laughter was like a warm blanket wrapped around his heart and he had an overwhelming urge to make her laugh more. But the laughter faded and the glimmer of determination to get to the bottom of why he’d been on the server returned to her eyes.

His stomach burned from the stress of the confrontation; she would be giving him an ulcer if she didn’t stop asking questions soon. The truth about the connection between the NSA and the formula was more than an acceptable answer to her questions. He would just keep his personal reasons for the intrusion to himself. That should give her enough to cool her heels. He moved off the table and took the chair she had originally indicated at the start of the meeting.

“Okay, Ms. James,” he sighed. “The reason I infiltrated the server was to verify information associated with a flagged conversation we picked up. My co-worker George, the one you saw me talking to when you arrived, received the thread originally. Based on my check, we were able to remove the flag that same day.”

“What do you mean by ‘flagged’?”

Trevor considered the ramifications of sharing classified information with her. Since he was fairly certain she was the same Cassandra mentioned in the tagged conversation, he didn’t see anything wrong with exposing that information to her.

“Our group investigates conversations that Echelon has flagged as suspicious based on a list of priority keywords. Almost two weeks ago, a phone conversation was flagged. Some dumbass picked the wrong choice of words to describe how a person by the name of Cassandra had ‘bombed’ the security around the formula—the same formula you’re asking me about right now.”

Cassandra’s pulse pounded in her ears. She now knew why he had been so surprised to hear her name. He had heard it before, had known who she was when she had introduced herself. She was mortified. She was fairly certain Jeff had been the dumbass gloating about her failure.

Anger rippled under her skin again, knowing that he was spreading the news and belittling her to others—but that was so typical of how he rolled. Maybe the next time she saw him she would make that little fantasy of hers a reality and punch him. Shaking her head, she stood and put some distance between her and Bauer while she composed herself and he continued to explain.

“George and I reviewed the conversation in detail to rule out a link to terrorist activity so that we could remove the flag.”

Cassandra had counted on Bauer being the key to Allison’s trail, confident that she would be leaving the NSA complex with the information she needed to catch up with her. Instead, her current path resembled a slippery slope on which she slid further and further away from what she wanted most—to fix the mess. Cassandra was compelled to make it right even though she was no longer in charge of the project—her father had not raised a quitter.

She tried to wrap her mind around his explanation. It still didn’t make sense. His direct eye contact and facial expressions as he answered her questions told her he was giving it to her straight. He admitted he had infiltrated the system, but still, she sensed there was more to the story than what he was letting on, and it irked her. No one would go to such lengths to erase himself from the server unless he was up to no good.

Cassandra looked him straight in the eye and pressed, “Mr. Bauer, you have to give me a better reason for covertly accessing the system and covering your tracks the way you did. You know what I think? I think you got wind of the formula on your taps and wanted it for yourself.”

Trevor could almost feel his eyes roll to the back of his head. Frustration was setting in rapidly. Although easy on the eyes, this woman was sharp as a needle. She was wasting his time and keeping him from his job, not to mention getting too close to what he didn’t want to disclose. “Damn, Ms. James, you’re like a dog with a bone. What part of what I said don’t you understand? I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, I was there as an NSA Analyst.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I thought that was the only reason you were snooping around. I still want to know what you used to get in the server. I was positive we had sealed all doors.”

Her comment gave Trevor the excuse he needed to change the direction of their discussion and get her out of his hair. “I have to hand it to you. You’re as tenacious as a rabid dog. As much as I hate to admit it, you’re pretty damn good. It took me a while to find a way in. Very impressive. With your skills, you would have been an excellent asset to NSA—or CIA, for that matter. Ever thought about working for either of them? No? Well, either way, your parents must be very proud of you and your work.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, her face paled and pain slid across her eyes before her expression hardened again. Trevor knew right away that he had said something wrong. Puzzled, he recalled his words but could not find anything that would have been offensive.
Holy crap, the woman is nuts.
A few simple compliments and he was back to walking on eggshells around her. By the look on her face, his well-meant words appeared to have been taken out of context: she looked like she was about to finish the job Hulk had started earlier. Eyeing her, he knew they needed to finish up that conversation. She was a touchy one. Holding a conversation with her was like hopping on a wild amusement park ride. The kind you came off of never knowing which way was up.

“If you don’t mind, I have work to do and this little talk has taken a big chunk of my day. If you don’t have any new questions for me, I’m out of here.”

Now that the conversation was coming to a close, a strange sense of loss filled him at the thought that he would never see Cassandra James again. If they had met under different conditions, he might have taken the opportunity to ask her out. He was fairly sure their conversations over a nice dinner would have been an intriguing learning experience and he would have enjoyed exploring her view of the world, certain her interpretation of it was as unique as the woman herself. As it was, they would be like two ships passing in the night.

Cassandra had bet all her chips on Trevor Bauer and lost miserably. More than anything, she was pissed at herself. Bauer’s words and flippant dismissal made the bitter pill that much harder to swallow. There was no way in hell she was letting him have the last word, “You’ll still need to send me your report detailing how you got in so I can seal that rabbit hole, Mr. Bauer. Don’t want you falling in there again. I expect to have the report waiting for me by the time I get home tomorrow evening.

As she turned to leave he commented, “I just might, if I knew where to send it.”

Her smartass answer matched his own smart mouth: “Hey, you were able to find your way into the server, surely a simple business email can’t be that hard to find.”

Turning on her heel, she left him standing there as she exited the room. He could’ve sworn he heard “
A amadáin!
”
echoing in her wake.

Trevor left the meeting with
a big scowl.
What the fuck just happened?
Back at his desk, he slumped in his chair, lost in thought until the sound of George clearing his throat zapped him back to reality. Trevor slid his eyes from the monitor to George and noticed the concerned, questioning look on his face.

“Spill. Who was she?” George asked him.

“A frigging bulldozer, that’s who,” Trevor answered sarcastically.

His thoughts bounced all over the place. His emotions were divided between a strange immediate attraction to the woman and a deep anger at her for implying that he was a thief and a liar. Ms. James certainly had a talent for rubbing him the wrong way, and yet, strangely, the more she had pressed him, the more he had wanted to prove her wrong, as if deep inside he cared about what she, a stranger, thought of him. At one point he had even wanted her to like him.
What
the hell is wrong with me?

There was no doubt he had been floored by her physically. Hell, he could still clearly see her curvy body in his mind’s eye. He wished deeply that it had been his hands that had followed the path along her body to her whiskey-colored eyes. His mind wandered over conjectures of whether the skin of her slender neck was as soft as it looked and his fingers itched to run along it gently, to prove the hypothesis right.

Trevor had been most impressed with the brain underneath all that beauty. His curiosity was piqued by the fact she had tracked him using the microscopic trace he had left behind on that damned server. Most sys-admins would never have caught it easily, proving she had some fairly mad observation skills of her own.

“What did she want?” George interrupted his musings again.

“Information on a case she’s working.” Trevor was vague. He didn’t want to give George too many details because it would alert him to the fact that he had breached EXClinic’s servers without his knowledge.

“Is she CIA?” George persisted, not letting go of the bone.

“Civilian. Private security and investigations.”

“Is she coming back?” George’s question was like a kick in the balls, forcing Trevor to accept the answer was most likely no.

“I don’t think so. Why are you asking so many freaking questions?”

“You had a strange look on your face when you looked at her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look at a girl that way before, that’s all.” George sensed that Trevor wasn’t in the mood to talk. With a shrug, he turned his attention back to his work.

Trevor spent the rest of the day trying to work. His head was a deluge of ideas, hunches, and suppositions as he relived his clash with the intriguing Ms. James.
Who is she really? Where did she learn her skills?
The more he thought about it and her, the more frustrated he became. By the time he left work that evening, he was in a foul mood.

****

Back in her hotel room, Cassandra popped a Tums in her mouth. Her anger and disappointment had tightened her stomach in knots. She sat on the bed and kicked off her shoes. Holding the edge of the mattress on either side of her, she looked down and watched her feet and toes as she flexed them on the carpet, lost in thought.

The day had been trying and she’d had an overwhelming need to lash out. Nathan’s attitude had fueled it even more. Both men had driven her nuts with their posturing; the testosterone in the room had been thick enough to cut with a knife. Nathan had almost blown it for her with his little outburst, and Bauer…she could still see the boyish cocky grin on his face when she grabbed his arm. She didn’t know what made her do it. At that time, the only thought in her mind was she couldn’t let her only lead walk out the door. The minute her fingers had connected with his arm, she had known it was a mistake. His warm skin had burned her hand and a jolt of electricity had stabbed her chest. God! For a minute there, when he had said,
Here? Now?
she had actually considered it and had to strangle the
Yes!
that had almost slipped from her mouth.

Cassandra’s own reaction had surprised her even more than Nathan’s jumping him. She wondered if she had let it show, pushing Nathan to act like an ape instead of the trained CIA agent she was counting on having as back-up. She had never anticipated that sort of reaction from Nathan. His jealousy frayed her nerves and needed to be dealt with.

The silence in the car back to the hotel had been painful. Cassandra had tried to discuss the details of what had just gone down with Nathan, but each time she had broached the subject he interrupted her with statements like,
He was an ass
,
I can’t believe he’s one of their top analysts,
and
He’s Irish, for Christ’s sake, probably an IRA mole, for all we know
.

When he had slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel, Cassandra could no longer take his griping. To satisfy her need to lash out she had jerked his chain: “Damn Nate, you’d think you were falling in love with the guy, the way you pushed him down on the table going hard and heavy at him.”