Chapter 73

**Calum POV**

“What have you been doing?”

“Tracking Torin.”

Emilia nearly fumbles the tray of food before she hurries over to place it down on the table. My eyes dart to the plate. I cringe at the sight of dry scrambled eggs with edges burnt black along with withered tomatoes that look sun-blasted instead of sun-roasted. I don’t know what hurts my stomach more, the stab wound, the bullet or her cooking.

“You have a way to track Torin?”

I nod dramatically. “Yeah, I do. I needed my own insurance policy just in case he decided to pull a Houdini trick. Or tried to straight up kill us.” My eyes barely have to glance at the keyboard as I type. “Hadassah argued that he would never do that, but I would rather not take the word of a crime lord’s brother whom he betrayed.”

I can feel Emilia’s eyes on me. She moves to lean her rear against the edge of the table so she can stare down at me. “That sounds naive. Which doesn’t sound like Miss Moor.”

“I know,” I say with a sharp inflection. “You should’ve seen the way she defended him at every turn.”

Emilia looks away thoughtfully. “Sounds like she’s grown fond of him. Even if she herself cannot admit it.”

I scoff in both accord and animosity.

She glances back at me. “Does that bother you?”

“No one should be fond of a crime lord or his brother,” I say flatly.

“I mean do you feel threatened, romantically?”

A slam a finger on the last key before I glare up at her for a hot moment. “Seriously, why does everyone have to keep shipping us?”

Her hands fly up in surrender. “Hey, you’re the one that made the heart-warming speech about her being the very essence of your soul.”

“In that heart-warming speech, I also said she was my sister.” I throw a curse with a disappointed head shake. “If you wanted to know if I was single. You could’ve just asked.”

“How can you track Torin?” she asks as a quick diversion.

“I embedded a hidden logging mechanism within the VPN server’s code. This mechanism is designed to capture and store the originating IP addresses of incoming connections discreetly.
The logging mechanism writes the IP addresses to an encrypted log file stored on the server. This log file is accessible only by me through a secure back channel.”

She nods, unable to suppress a smile. “And what if Torin’s other techies find that back channel?”

I snort at the ignorance, the deficient understanding of my capabilities. “This back channel is a separate VPN connection with multifactor authentication to ensure only authorized access. I’m currently trying to decrypt the log file using my private key to view the originating IP addresses.”

“If you’re so good, why aren’t you fast with it?”

“Good things take time.” I shoot her a wink. “ Clearly you’ve only been with people that don’t last long.” I sneak a look at her indignant expression and a humored breath escapes me. “Tracing a specific IP address, I need to correlate the timestamps and session data in the log file with the VPN-assigned IP addresses. This correlation allows me to map the VPN-assigned IP address back to the user’s original IP address. While I do that, and there is no respectful way to say this. But you can spend that time getting me something to eat.”

She gestures to the plate pointedly. “I made you breakfast.”

“I meant something edible.”

She straightens and glances out of the window, then something snatches her attention.

I lower the lid of the laptop to peer out into the street. “What, what is it?”

“A specialized unit making a covert advance.” She slants closer, angling her face for a better viewpoint. “From the lack of gear and heavy weaponry. It’s a grab team.”

“I thought this safe house was supposed to be safe.” I encode my progress so far then I upload it into my private heavily encrypted uplink. Then I wipe the drive clean. “It’s kind of in the name.”

Emilia disappears into her room and jogs back to me holding an Ipad, showcasing real-time surveillance of the building, the foyer, atrium, elevator and hallways.

“Give me, I’m way too pretty to go to prison.”

I pluck the Ipad from her grasp and I hurry to the front door, pain rebounding with every reckless, rushed step. I note the primary system of the building has already been infiltrated and the device has full operational control with eyes to the entire interior of the building. Which makes my job a thousand times easier. All I ever need is an electronic device. With that I can do anything and obtain all the money I need, illegally. That’s how I did it before. I’m not proud of it but I hacked into people’s accounts—only the rich people, the silver-spoon bastards who probably haven’t even noticed me skimming from their seven figure bank accounts.

“What exactly is your plan?”

I fling the door open and I go left. “To not get arrested.”

Down the hall behind me, a group of brawny men emerge dressed seemingly casual with caps slotted over their heads. And indiscreet wires coiling down their ears. I lift up the Ipad and with several taps, I initiate the emergency fire protocol of the building. The lights darken into a dim opacity, flashing red light lights before the ceiling jets blast thick plumes, the sprinkler system kicks in, raining down a storm I use for cover to reach the end of the hall. By my surprise, Emilia is right at my side even though she has been sighted with apparently, a fugitive from justice.

When we reach the electrically controlled doors. I input another sequence in the Ipad and the doors lock automatically. The men on the otherside are soaked to the bone, pounding on the fortified glass as drenched tenets flood out of their apartments in a panic. Instead of merging with the current stream of perplexed residents out of the primary entrance. We take the back because there’s a unit outside monitoring, just waiting to catch us on sight.

Emilia and I spill out into the back alley. She runs her hair through, plastering her wet tresses to her head.

“What now?” I ask. “I got money, but I can’t travel. I got no ID nor passport. Even if I did, I’m sure I’m flagged because I probably can’t show my face anywhere where there is a camera. Which is everywhere.”

“Traditional modes of transport are definitely out of the question for a wanted individual.”

My chest heaves and I inhale a sharp breath, pain squeezing my gut.

“I know a way we can get you a fraudulent passport and a way out of the country.”

“Not yet, I wasn’t finished with the trace but Torin is still in the country. Which means Santos hasn’t left yet.”

Emilia nods knowingly. “Makes sense, the massacre at the villa sent everything on high-alert with road blocks, every port and terminal under acute supervision. They’re likely waiting for the heat to die down before they find a secure way out of the country.”

I start moving, wincing but I keep at it. “That doesn’t mean we have to stay here. Let’s go.”

Before we can even make it onto the sidewalk, an arch of agents appears, two of them with guns leveled at our chests. Pain pinches my face as I raise the Ipad in the air along with my free hand. Emilia doesn’t yield an inkling of emotion in reaction to our certain defeat. She merely glowers at one guy who smiles smugly back at her.

“007, what a surprise,” he says dryly.

“What’s this?” she demands. “Spying on the spy?”

“Well I was just so concerned even when you called in to affirm your status. I was cleared to do a little bit of digging and I was intrigued by what we dug up. Playing house with a cyberterrorist, are we?” With a stern and solemn expression, he says, “You are both under arrest.”

“I assert my entitlement to legal counsel,” I say fast.

The agent makes a wry and irksome sound. “Where you’re going, boy, you won’t need one.”