Bodyguard by Melanie Shawn

25

Savannah

My head was spinningwith the knowledge that my father had something that Barlowe wanted.

No. Not wanted. Wanted back.

It made sense, in a weird way. Twelve years was a long time to harbor a revenge plot. Especially when it involved infiltrating WITSEC, no easy feat.

In fact, now that I knew about it, I couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me before. Of course, it’s not like I’d had a ton of time to just relax and ruminate.

Also, I had to admit, I’d been blocked by something else. By the idea that my father had just been an unwitting victim in Barlowe’s web.

He’d never wanted to talk about his role in the events that led to us getting put into WITSEC, or even the events themselves. I’d never pushed. It felt too precarious, and my entire life felt precarious. My father was the one constant. I couldn’t afford to rock that boat, emotionally or otherwise.

Now I wondered if there was more to it, though.

Had I known? Had I actually known, deep down, that he was not just an innocent bystander? That he was more involved than that?

Maybe. The last few days had been so emotional, such a rollercoaster, and my head was still spinning. It was hard to look back on it with any objectivity.

But...Gage had said something to me. Later, Bear had said essentially the same thing. That I knew things I didn’t even know that I knew. That I remembered things that I wasn’t even aware that I remembered.

Now, that rang in my head. What did I know? What was it?

I closed my eyes in frustration. I knew that the worst way to get yourself to bring something up from the recesses of your mind was to try to force it, but it was hard to resist. After all, this was my father we were talking about. And this was my life!

It didn’t matter, though. Even with the stakes so high, my traitorous brain remained completely blank, refusing to cough up the goods.

I tuned back into the conversation between the guys.

“What can you infer from context?” Bear was asking. “Is it information? Are we looking for a drive, or something encrypted on the cloud? Or is it something physical? Some kind of evidence, or blackmail?”

Those were good questions.

Crypt considered. “It seems more like information, from what I scanned. But I don’t know. I’m dumping all of this into both of your encrypted buckets on the server. You can go through it on your own time. I find this stuff. I don’t interpret it.”

Gage nodded and we headed back over to the couch. In a moment, both he and Bear opened up apps on their phones and started swiping through pages. They paused to read from time to time, even pinched and expanded to zoom in.

Finally, Bear looked up. “I don’t think it’s about blackmail or anything incriminating. It seems to be some kind of proprietary process.”

“Agreed,” Gage said.

“Process for what?” I asked.

Gage shook his head. “A lot of this is in coded language. I’m guessing it has to do with drugs. That’s the only thing that would make sense.”

“Yeah,” Bear said. “When you think about the kinds of things Barlowe is into—drugs, pros, guns—nothing requires any sort of processing but the drugs.”

Queasiness threatened to overtake me but I fought it.

Hey, Savannah. Don’t worry. It’s not like your father was a drug dealer. He just worked for one.

Making the drugs.

Which his boss then dealt.

Much better.

Right?

Good old gallows humor. It could always be counted on when I was about to go over the edge.

“So...I guess we need to find it,” I said. “This...thing, this process that they’re looking for.”

“Seems like a logical next step,” Gage agreed.

“What would it look like?”

“It would likely be stored on a removable drive. That should make it easier. They were bigger a dozen years ago. Clunkier. And if I were your father, once I had it hidden, I wouldn’t touch it. I certainly wouldn’t be pulling it out just to transfer it onto sleeker technology.”

“Right,” I agreed.

Gage stood. Bear and I followed suit. He called over to Crypt, “We’re heading out, unless you need us for anything.”

Crypt looked up, brows drawn together, a distracted air enveloping him. “What? I didn’t even know you were still here. What would I need you for?”

Gage nodded. “Fine. Drop anything you get in our buckets on the server.”

Crypt just waved his hand in annoyance to show that he’d heard Gage’s instructions. Or maybe it was to tell us to go away.

Either way, the three of us piled back into Bear’s SUV. We were on the move again.