“Thanks,” White said. “You guys came directly here from the airport?”
The agents nodded and stepped out of the room to take positions outside. A few seconds later, Hammond came in. The door shut behind him, and he looked at White.
“Holy shit, Clayton,” he said, dropping the briefcase he carried on the bed.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, sir,” White said.
Hammond looked around the room, saw the coffee maker, and poured himself a cup using one of the hotel mugs. Hammond added a couple of creamers and some sugar. White watched him take an experimental sip.
“As you can imagine, there are a lot of things I want to discuss with you,” Hammond said.
“I understand, sir,” White replied.
“But there’s only one thing I’ll say about yesterday’s tragedy.” Hammond’s eyes were dark and unreadable. They were neither friendly nor aggressive. Just intense. “I’m glad you were next to her when it happened. And for that, I’ll always be grateful.”
That wasn’t what White had expected him to say.
“Thank you, sir,” he said after a few seconds.
“But let me be crystal clear about something, okay?”
Here it comes, thought White, realizing he had stopped breathing.
“It was a stupid move to propose while on duty,” Hammond said. “I don’t know what you were thinking, or why you’d think that could fly, but I’m not gonna intervene in any way to rescue you from this mess. You’re on your own, and frankly, I think you deserve to be fired.”
White had never expected Hammond to interfere with the investigation, nor would he have asked for it. There was nothing in his statement White disagreed with.
“Yes, sir.”
Hammond took a long sip from his mug, and then said, “That doesn’t mean I won’t speak highly of you at the inquiry.”
“Thank you, sir,” White replied. Had Hammond just offered him an olive branch?
“As for Veronica, and as much as I’m disappointed by the way you chose to proceed, I think you guys are perfect for each other.”
It was as if an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. White was relieved to know he wouldn’t have to fight Hammond over marrying his daughter. On any other day, that would have been enough to lift his spirits to new heights. But not today.
“Means a lot to me, sir,” White said, extending his hand.
Hammond shook it. He then picked up his briefcase and sat in one of the armchairs around a small table. He pulled out a sheaf of documents and invited White to sit in front of him.
“Now that we’ve cleared all our personal stuff out of the way, let’s talk business.” He slid the documents across the table. “But first, you’ll need to sign those.”
White rapidly looked through the paperwork. “A nondisclosure agreement?” he asked, confused.
“You’re wrong, Clay,” Hammond said. “This is your ticket to go after the person who tried to kill your fiancée.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Oxley Vineyards
Kommetjie, South Africa
Oxley watched his wife’s fingers fly over the keys of her laptop. She’d been at it for an hour, only stopping occasionally to sip from the can of energy drink at her side, calling up file after file from the SkyCU Technology servers they’d successfully hijacked.
“You’re sure they won’t be able to trace it back to here?” Oxley asked for the fourth time.
Adaliya stopped typing and looked over to him, clearly annoyed with the disruption. “Seriously? How many more times will I have to tell you? It’s impossible,” she replied, flexing her hands and fingers over the keyboard. “Every bit of data has been uploaded to an untraceable third-party cloud.”
Adaliya arched her back and stretched her arms above her head. Oxley moved in behind her and started massaging the base of her neck.
“Keep talking,” he said, trying to understand.
Adaliya let her head drop forward and said, “The instant Krantz’s device infected the main server, it was game over for them. And even if they could somehow find the lines of malicious coding associated with the malware, they’d have no way of knowing where it came from since the attack came from within their own server. If we had hacked into their system through regular means, my answer would be different.”
That part Oxley had no problem understanding. It was the other chunk of information with all the technical terms he had difficulties with.
“Tell me again about the part that worries you, and please, make it simple for me,” he said.