“No,” Derrick said. “Nothing yet. We don’t know if they’ve caught wind of the enhanced females, but considering we hacked into their technology, I’d be shocked if the Kurjans weren’t headed the same way we are.”
“We just have to be faster,” Hope said, her adrenaline flowing freely. This was their first solo mission, and they couldn’t fail. “Okay. I’m going to set up in the building on Boulevard Saint-Germain.”
They’d trained all over the world during the last five years—sometimes with other teams on real missions, sometimes on practice missions—and Hope knew exactly where she wanted to be.
“I’m going to send two teams out. Derrick and Libby, you’re on Natalie. Liam and Collin, you’re on Annette. When we arrive, they should both be at work, so I’ll finish studying the schematics of their workplaces, and we’ll come up with a plan.” She didn’t like kidnapping anybody, but sometimes there wasn’t time to cajole potential victims into taking shelter at a safe house.
Her phone dinged, and she lifted it absently to her ear. “Kayrs-Kyllwood.”
“Hi, it’s Bo?ena Jílek.”
Hope went still, and her head jerked up. “Hi, I wasn’t expecting your call yet.”
“He’s coming today,” the woman said quietly, dropping into her native language of German. “I just received a message from him with a purchase order. An impressive order.”
Hope sat back and dropped her pen. “Today? Are you sure?”
“Yes. He’ll be here at 2:00 p.m. I don’t think I can do this, Ms. Kayrs-Kyllwood.”
Hope rapidly recalculated the trip. “You don’t have a choice. You owe me, and you know it.” She’d saved the woman’s life a couple of years ago, and she was fully prepared to call in the debt.
Bo?ena sighed. “I understand. He placed a large order, like I said.”
“You can give him the products, but you have to throw the tracking dust on him as he leaves.”
“He’ll know it was me.”
Hope would have the bastard in custody at that point. “That’s irrelevant. I’ll take him in, and you’ll be safe. You won’t have anything to worry about.” Her heart hammered against her rib cage. She couldn’t believe this.
“All right, but I’m leaving town the second he exits my doorway.”
“That’s a good idea. Thank you,” Hope said. “After this, we’re even.” She clicked off, her eyes widening on her team.
Collin straightened. “What?”
“I found him—our hacker. He’s going to be in Nuremberg in just a few hours.” Hope couldn’t believe it. Finally. She’d been chasing this guy for two years.
“Are you sure it’s the hacker?” Libby leaned forward. “I was starting to think he didn’t really exist—except he’s taken a bunch of our money.”
“Oh, he exists,” Hope said. “Finally. We’re going to nail him.”
Liam didn’t twitch, and his lids were still at half-mast. “What about the sisters in Paris?”
Hope knocked her fist against her head. “You’re right.” She wanted to save those women, but this male had been causing havoc, and she knew, she just knew, he was a Kurjan soldier or spy. If they could get him into Realm territory and question him, what might they discover? The guy might be the key to taking down the entire Kurjan nation, or at least forcing them to the negotiation table.
“All right.” She quickly shot off several texts issuing orders. “There’s a Realm team in London. I’m sending it to get the sisters. We’re going after this guy.”
Libby shared a look with Derrick. “Are you sure this isn’t personal?”
Of course it was personal. Hope clicked through a map of Nuremberg. “He’s stolen our money, taken out some of our resources, and even hacked into personal Realm business. I knew when we took out his computer control room in Scottsdale, he’d need to restock and resupply.” In fact, she’d been counting on it.
“When did you contact Bo?ena?” Collin asked.
“The second we confiscated all of his equipment,” Hope admitted. Bo?ena was one of the foremost dark computer retailers in the world. A woman who owed Hope a favor. She’d known when she had destroyed his Scottsdale headquarters that he’d have no choice but to turn to the woman, but Hope hadn’t realized it’d be this quickly. He must have more funds available than she had thought.
Collin secured a knife in his vest. “Enhanced females have always been our priority.”
Hope glanced at her cousin. “I agree, but the London team can get them. We finally have a chance to get this guy, Collin.” It was personal, and it had been since he’d hacked into Uncle Dage’s schedule a few months ago. “He’s ours now.” Since he was most likely a Kurjan, she’d then be in a position to negotiate with the Kurjan leader for his release. It was time to find peace for everyone. “We can’t fail. Everything is on the line.”
The plane started to descend, and she secured her seat belt. She’d barely gathered her belongings when they landed in Nuremberg and rolled to a stop. As always, Liam was the first out of the plane door, scouting with his weapon, making sure they were safe before leading everyone to the waiting vehicles.
Dark SUVs drove them past the imposing brick castle that dominated the Nuremberg skyline and to the Realm control room, which looked like one of the many two-story townhouses in the area. Hope sent her team off and locked herself in to prepare.
Finally, she was going to catch the hacker. They’d been playing a game for years, and she was ready to win it.
Holding her breath, she engaged the computer system and zeroed in on the tracking dust. There he was. For a second, she just stared. He was one little blue dot on her screen. “He’s headed into the tunnels outside the computer store in the old city.” Which was actually camouflaged as a soap-and-sundries shop. “You know your entry points,” she advised the red blips on the screen. Her teammates were already in the tunnels that had been built beneath the old city centuries ago.
Her team was the best.
Adrenaline raced through Hope’s veins. She typed rapidly on her keyboard and scanned the three monitors in front of her before tapping on her ear communicator. “He’s moving west, fast.” She couldn’t believe they might actually catch this guy.
“On it,” Liam said.
She brought up a map of the entire area. “Affirmative. Derrick, I need you and Libs to come in from the south. He’s going through those tunnels underground, the ones we mapped out last year that are about thirty clicks from that tea store we visited during training.”
“Copy that,” Derrick said. “And you went into the tea store. I don’t do tea.”
She could hear the barely veiled excitement in his tone. “Libs? Status?”
“Moving fast. Feel Kurjans in the air. Hate abandoning the original objective and hope the second team can get there soon,” Libby said tersely. “Going dark now.”
Hope frowned. She’d had to switch objectives because this bastard was within reach. For two years, she’d hunted him using every ounce of strategy and technology she could find and had come close several times, but never like this.