Sawyer winced slightly as Megan put some antiseptic on his arm.

“All right, I patched you up as well as my medical expertise will take us. But I take no responsibility for anything if you get gangrene and your arm falls off.” Megan began to put away the first aid kit then stopped and just threw it on the counter. “This place is going to have to be burned to the ground anyway.”

She turned away and looked back into the bedroom. Sawyer put his shirt back on.

“You can’t stay here. Even after the police process it, it’s not safe for you to stay here.”

“I know.” Megan’s words were soft, her look lost.

Sawyer reached down and grabbed her hand, entwining their fingers together. “We’ll make it through this together. But right now we need to get out of here in case our vicious friend decides to come back with friends of his own.”

Countermeasures

Janie Crouch

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JANIE CROUCH has loved to read romance her whole life. She cut her teeth on Mills & Boon® novels as a pre-teen, then moved on to a passion for romantic suspense as an adult. Janie lives with her husband and four children in Virginia, where she teaches communication courses at a local college. Janie enjoys traveling, long-distance running, movie-watching, knitting and adventure/obstacle racing. You can find out more about her at janiecrouch.com.

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To my dear, sweet Megan. I count it as one of life’s greatest blessings that you and I found each other again. You are a treasure. I promise to never leave you in another vat of ice for as long as I live. Here’s to our adventures of the past, the present and the future.

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

“Dude, I’m just saying, if you didn’t want a terrible job assignment then you probably shouldn’t have punched out your boss.”

Sawyer Branson rolled his eyes and kept walking down the hall of the nondescript building that housed the offices of Omega Sector Headquarters. “C’mon, Evan,” Sawyer told his fellow Omega agent. “I didn’t punch him out. I tripped.”

“Yeah, you tripped and your fist accidentally fell into Burgamy’s jaw.” Evan couldn’t even say it without chuckling.

Hell, just about everyone at Omega couldn’t say it without a chuckle now.

Sawyer stopped by his desk and began looking for a tie in the drawers. Okay, yeah, he had punched his boss two weeks ago, but only because it had been an emergency and his brother Cameron had been about to do much worse, like pull his gun on their boss.

So Sawyer had tripped and accidentally popped Dennis Burgamy—his supervisor here at Omega—right in the chin. But seriously, was it Sawyer’s fault Burgamy had crumpled to the ground like a rag doll at the slightest tap?

Most importantly, though, due to the “accident” with Burgamy’s chin, he and Cameron had saved Cameron’s fiancée’s life, arrested some very bad guys and pretty much saved the world.

Which had gotten Sawyer a two-week suspension without pay, thank you very much.

Sawyer rooted around in the drawer some more. Where was that damn tie? It was Sawyer’s first day back and he wasn’t about to walk into Burgamy’s office without a tie, despite the fact that proper office dress was not high on the priority list at Omega Sector.

As a multiagency task force, Omega Sector had much more perilous concerns than whether or not the people who worked there—all handpicked and highly qualified—were dressed too casually. Sawyer, a five-year Omega veteran at thirty years old, especially did not worry about it. Usually.

Sawyer cursed under his breath as he continued his search for a tie, smashing a finger in one drawer while opening another. He heard a throat clear from behind his back and turned to find Evan swinging a tie from his finger.

“Thanks, man.” Sawyer took the tie, figuring one with little golfers on it was better than no tie at all. “I’m just trying to do anything I can to get back toward Burgamy’s good graces.”

Evan gave a bark of laughter. “And also attempting to keep yourself from desk duty for the foreseeable future. Or the next twenty years if Burgamy has his way.”

Sawyer rubbed a hand over his eyes at the thought of desk duty. The normal charm and charisma Sawyer counted on seemed to escape him—he had no idea what he was going to say to Burgamy in their meeting. Lord, Sawyer hoped it wouldn’t come down to him being forced to a desk.

He was an agent. That was all Sawyer knew how to do. All he wanted to do.

And damn it, he was a good agent. Sawyer knew his strengths: he was likable and friendly. And people—witnesses, victims, hell, even perps a lot of times—had a way of opening up to Sawyer. Unlike his brothers, who tended to be the strong, sullen type, Sawyer was the strong, charming type. And people loved him for it.

He’d used his friendliness and charm to his advantage multiple times over the years. Sawyer just hoped he could figure out how to use them now when it mattered the most.

He gave another pull on the tie, straightening it at his collar. “Do I look okay?”

Evan gave the knot a mock straightening. “Yes, dear, you look as pretty as a princess.”

Any other time Sawyer would’ve harassed Evan back, but he was too caught up in the thought of dreaded desk duty to bother. “Wish me luck, man.”

Sawyer struggled not to compare the walk to Burgamy’s office to a death march, but he had to admit he was distinctly nervous knocking on his boss’s door. Not a feeling Sawyer was used to.

And damn his brother for all his falling-in-love stuff that had put Sawyer in this position in the first place. Sawyer would take his confirmed-bachelor existence any day.

Cameron entered the office at Burgamy’s barked command.

Burgamy sat back in his office chair, dressed in impeccable officewear. His tie definitely had not come from a desk drawer, nor did it have little golfers on it. Burgamy obviously put a great deal of stock into the saying “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.”

Evidently the job Dennis Burgamy wanted was the director of the United States intelligence and/or fashion community.

Burgamy was always prepared in case he had to take an unexpected meeting with someone important. And often, Sawyer and his three siblings thought, went out of his way to make those meetings occur. Burgamy had butted heads with each of the Branson siblings, all of whom worked or had worked at Omega at one time or another. None of the Bransons liked Burgamy much. Although Sawyer was, to his knowledge, the only one of his family to have ever knocked his boss unconscious.

“Branson, come in and sit down,” Burgamy told Sawyer without any pleasantries. Burgamy’s nasally tone negated whatever credibility the man built with his impressive fashion sense.

Sawyer entered the room and sat at one of the chairs across from the desk.

“I want you to know that if it was up to me, you’d be fired right now,” Burgamy began. Sawyer nodded; he didn’t doubt it. “But since I’m the bigger man, and because your brother Cameron swears you actually tripped, I am willing to not push for your termination.”

Sawyer didn’t relax. Burgamy still had the authority to take Sawyer off active duty.

“Not to mention we have bigger problems than your lack of coordination or outright insubordination, or whatever you want to call it,” Burgamy continued.

Sawyer nodded. “It won’t happen again, sir. I can assure you of that.”

Burgamy’s eyes narrowed. “It best not, Branson. That little stunt you and your brother pulled? Well, you’re damn lucky it all worked out the way it did or being fired right now—which you both would’ve been, believe me—would be the least of your problems.”

Burgamy continued without even giving Sawyer the chance to speak. “The Ghost Shell technology in the wrong hands would be a disaster. Thousands of lives could be lost if terrorists got their hands on it.”

Sawyer decided he better stick up for himself before Burgamy spun into a complete tizzy. “Absolutely, sir. But there was never any danger of the Ghost Shell technology falling back into DS-13’s hands.”

Sawyer didn’t mention what an utter lie that was. Telling Burgamy that he and Cameron had basically delivered the encoding technology to the crime-syndicate group definitely wouldn’t help Sawyer’s case for non-desk-duty.

“Ghost Shell is in our custody, sir.” Cameron continued with his most engaging smile. “So, all’s well that ends well, as they say. And I really am sorry about the—” Cameron made a popping sound with his tongue as he mimicked a punch to the chin.

Burgamy’s eyes narrowed. “Well, Branson, I found out yesterday that all isn’t as well as we think. You and your brother arrested Smith and some of the other key members of DS-13, but it looks like some others within the organization have taken Smith’s place.”

Sawyer wasn’t surprised. In a crime organization the size and caliber of DS-13, removing one head usually just caused another, uglier one, to grow in its place. DS-13 was more than any one person; eliminating a single person—no matter how high up—would not bring the organization down.

“And we’ve found out that Fred McNeil, the FBI agent on DS-13’s payroll, has gone completely off the grid,” Burgamy continued.

“That’s not surprising. McNeil had to know we’d be coming for him next. He’s probably with DS-13 full-time now.”

Burgamy nodded. “Intel confirms that he is. That’s not the problem. Ghost Shell is the problem. We were able to trace Ghost Shell back to the company that made it.” Burgamy slid a file across his desk to Sawyer. On the outside it was marked Cyberdyne Technologies.

Sawyer shook his head. “Cyberdyne. Can’t say I’ve really heard of them.”

“No reason you would have. They’re a tech-development company based in North Carolina. Evidently, earlier this year one of their senior computer scientists got concerned about some software they were developing.”

“Ghost Shell?”

“Yes. They were actually working on encoding technology for medical records and account-security type stuff. Then they realized Ghost Shell was something that could be used as a weapon if tweaked.”

Sawyer nodded. He wasn’t sure exactly how Ghost Shell worked, but he knew the results if it was used by a terrorist group: shutting down communication and computer systems within law enforcement and first-responder groups. Basically it turned the computers against themselves. If Ghost Shell was used in conjunction with a terrorist attack, the results would be devastating. Thousands of lives would be lost.

“One of Cyberdyne’s computer scientists got concerned that something weird was going on at Cyberdyne. So, this—” Burgamy referred down to his notes. “Dr. Fuller contacted the FBI. Unfortunately the person put on the case was Fred McNeil.”

“And Fred McNeil took the information given by said scientist and sent Ghost Shell straight to DS-13.”

“Pretty much. Dr. Fuller had no idea Fred McNeil worked for DS-13. Of course, nobody did. Just bad luck all the way around.”

Sawyer grimaced. The only bad luck was that Fred McNeil was still out there. Sawyer would like to take that treasonous bastard down. “But at least Cameron got Ghost Shell out of DS-13’s hands before they could sell it to anyone.”

Burgamy shook his head. “That’s what we all thought. But we found out yesterday through a call to Cyberdyne that two versions of Ghost Shell were given to Fred McNeil.”

Sawyer sat up straighter in his chair, his attention focused on Burgamy’s words. “But we only recovered one.”

“Exactly.”

Sawyer clenched his jaw. “And McNeil still has it?”

“We’ve had no intel of him trying to sell it. Evidently even other members of DS-13 didn’t know there was a second Ghost Shell. This second version wasn’t entirely complete. McNeil needs somebody who can finish it for him.”

Sawyer’s thoughts spun. A not-working Ghost Shell was definitely better than the fully functional version; it gave them a little bit of time. But Omega Sector needed to begin active measures right away to keep Ghost Shell from becoming sellable by DS-13. An undercover operation would be the best solution, but difficult at this late a time. It had taken Sawyer’s brother Cameron nearly a year of undercover work to truly infiltrate DS-13.

Omega didn’t have that kind of time now.

“Okay, what’s the plan?” Sawyer asked Burgamy. “I can try to set something up, call in a few favors to see if I can get in deep undercover with DS-13 quick. It’s risky, but—”

“No, you won’t be going undercover, Branson.”

“Sir, I really think a quick, deep undercover mission is critical if we want to get Ghost Shell back.”

“I agree that we’re going to need to send someone in. But that someone will be Evan Karcz.”

Sawyer knew his best friend, Evan, was highly qualified and even had an established cover that could probably work well in this situation. But Sawyer did not want to be left out of the action.

“I’ll go in with him. He can use his buyer cover and I’ll—”

“No.”

Sawyer began to argue his case but then saw Burgamy’s raised eyebrow and the way his boss sat back in his oversize office chair. The man wasn’t interested in anything Sawyer had to say. Whatever was about to come next was Burgamy’s retribution for Sawyer punching him two weeks ago.

Damn. Sawyer just hoped it wasn’t a desk job at an outpost in Alaska.

“You will be heading to Swanannoa, North Carolina, for protective duty of Dr. Zane Fuller, the head of Research & Development at Cyberdyne Technologies.”

Babysitting. Almost as bad as a desk job in Alaska.

Sawyer knew he had to make some sort of case against this assignment. “Sir, respectfully, I feel as if my talents may be better used somewhere else. Somewhere a little more...active.” There was no way Sawyer wanted to spend the next couple of months babysitting some geriatric computer scientist. Not when there was real work that needed to be done.

“What’s happening at Cyberdyne is active, Branson. Dr. Fuller at one time was working on a Ghost Shell countermeasure—a decryption system. That system being finished will be key if DS-13 finishes and attempts to sell the new Ghost Shell.”

Sawyer grimaced. “I understand that and agree, but I just think someone else might be better suited for this particular job—”

“Someone who, say, isn’t coming off unpaid leave for striking his superior officer?” There was the raised eyebrow again.

Sawyer shook his head and slumped back in his chair. All right, so Burgamy wasn’t going to cut him any slack. Looking at his boss, Sawyer realized he wasn’t getting out of this.

“All right, Cyberdyne it is.” Sawyer spoke through his teeth with forced restraint.

“You’ll be bringing Ghost Shell with you. Dr. Fuller needs it in order to complete the countermeasure system. Downright adamant about that. You’ll have to explain what Fred McNeil did, and convince Dr. Fuller and the Cyberdyne team to help us.” Burgamy didn’t even try to hide the delight on his face. The thought of Sawyer having to deal with a grumpy computer scientist for the next couple of months in the middle of Nowhere, North Carolina, made Burgamy practically gleeful.

Burgamy had chosen Sawyer’s punishment well; he knew how much Sawyer would hate this.

Burgamy filled Sawyer in on a few more details—none of which made Sawyer any more excited about the operation ahead. But fine, Sawyer would pay his dues, protect some old head of computer-nerdom for a couple of months, then get back to Omega, where he could do some real good.

And he would damn well make sure he never punched his boss again.

Chapter Two

Sawyer’s arrival at the Cyberdyne Group Headquarters in Swanannoa, NC—more like Swananowhere, NC—the next afternoon did nothing to help reassure him that he would be doing any good in the fight against DS-13 while here. Sure, he could recognize the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains all around him. But he’d give it all up to be inside some sleazy warehouse somewhere, with no views but concrete and sewage, about to arrest some bad guys.

This place—no matter how beautiful the surrounding scenery—was a waste of his time.

Not that Cyberdyne and the work being done here was a waste of time, but as far as Sawyer could tell, Dr. Fuller and his cohorts were not in any danger. No attempts had been made on their lives, nothing out of the ordinary had been reported recently. Which was great. But it also meant that somebody with a little less experience in the field could be here completing this assignment rather than Sawyer.

Sawyer sighed and got out of his car. There was no point bemoaning this any longer. He cursed his brother Cameron once again on his way up the steps. This assignment from hell was all Cameron’s fault for falling in love and trying to rescue the girl and save the world.

Sawyer rolled his eyes. Evidently Sawyer was a sucker for a good love story. And this was what he got for it: Swananowhere.

Sawyer looked at the file again as he walked through the door. Cyberdyne Group had been around since 1983, a midsize company, mostly focused on conceptual and computer engineering. They’d done some contractual work for the US government over the years, but not as much as bigger corporations. Most companies similar to Cyberdyne in this area were located a couple of hours away in the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle. But the original owner of Cyberdyne had loved the Blue Ridge Mountains so much he had built the Cyberdyne offices and labs just outside Asheville rather than Raleigh.

There wasn’t a lot of information on Dr. Zane M. Fuller, the head of Research & Development at Cyberdyne—the person who had helped develop Ghost Shell and then turned it over to the FBI. Sawyer glanced at the file. Looked as if Dr. Fuller held two doctoral degrees from MIT—barrels of fun.

What the file didn’t hold was any useful information about Dr. Fuller to help Sawyer plan out his protection detail. Was he married? Did he work fourteen hours a day? Did he have any bad habits that might get him into trouble?

Sawyer pictured a balding, cranky older guy with thick glasses and probably a bow tie. If that really was the case, Sawyer was going to take a selfie with Dr. Fuller and send it to Burgamy. His boss would probably cry tears of delight.

Sawyer might cry tears also, but they definitely wouldn’t be of delight.

Sawyer made his way inside Cyberdyne, taking a few minutes to chat with the attractive and attentive receptionist at the front desk. Far be it for Sawyer to miss an opportunity to talk to a pretty lady, especially in a situation like this.

The receptionist called a security guard—not nearly as friendly or attractive—to escort Sawyer to the R & D wing. Sawyer gave the woman a wink as he walked away. Maybe a couple of months here wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

The security guard led Sawyer down a series of hallways to a set of double doors. Sawyer watched as the man swiped a key-card through a scanner to unlock the door—adequate security, but not excellent and certainly not unbreakable—and opened it.

The Research & Development area was a much more open space than the hallway they had come through. It buzzed with activity, at least two dozen people working and talking at different stations and tables around the large room.

Another reception-type desk was near the door. The woman working here was not nearly as put-together as the graceful blonde at the Cyberdyne entrance. Here was a sort of mousy brunette with hair piled up in a messy bun at the top of her head and glasses perched on the edge of her nose. She didn’t even acknowledge Sawyer and the guard as they entered the room—she was too busy rooting through a drawer.

Evidently she didn’t find what she was looking for because she got up and walked over to a nearby filing cabinet and began searching through there.

Her gray pencil skirt and high-heeled black pumps with little bows made it difficult for Sawyer to stop staring at her legs. Wow. She might be mousy librarian on the top, but those legs... Sawyer noticed the security guard was also taking in the view.

When it became obvious the receptionist wasn’t going to notice them, the security guard cleared his throat. “Excuse me, ma’am—”

The woman turned and took a few steps toward them. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry, Mark. You know me.”

“It’s no problem, ma’am.” The guard’s Southern accent was noticeable. He gestured toward Sawyer. “This is Agent Branson.”

The receptionist glanced over at Sawyer, looking away before he could even smile at her. She turned back to the guard. “Thanks, Mark. We were expecting him. I’ll take it from here.”

The security guard smiled and nodded as he turned to leave—the man obviously had a little crush on the receptionist. Sawyer stepped forward to shake her hand and talk to her further, but she moved back.

“Can you give me a second? I’ll be right with you.” She didn’t quite look him in the eye as she said it; her gaze never seemed to move past his chest.

Sawyer watched as the woman reopened the drawer in the filing cabinet and began rooting through it again. When the search proved fruitless, she moved to another drawer. She seemed to have forgotten Sawyer was even there. Sawyer just enjoyed the view of her legs until it seemed as if she might never come out.

“Did you lose something in there?” When the woman glanced up over her glasses, blinking at him with big round eyes, Sawyer offered her his most engaging smile.

She just continued to blink at him for a few moments, then shoved her head back into the search without saying a word.

Okay. Sawyer crossed his arms while watching her. He wasn’t used to being ignored outright by women—especially cute little librarian ones with glasses, even though cute-librarian wasn’t generally his type.

Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t still appreciate her. Sawyer could appreciate all women.

Eventually Cute Glasses found whatever it was she was looking for in the cavernous drawer—some sort of stain-remover stick or something. She gave a small sound of triumph and turned around. And seemed authentically surprised to see Sawyer standing there.

More blinks. “Um, yes. Agent Branson, right?”

Sawyer’s eyebrows rose. “Forget I was here?” Sawyer shook his head with a half smile. She might be cute, but she was definitely the worst receptionist ever.

“I’m sorry, my mind tends to only focus on one thing at a time.” She looked back up at him, again more at his general chest area than in the eyes. Meanwhile still blinking those big brown eyes of hers.

Maybe she was shy. Sawyer didn’t mind shy and scatterbrained. Although the sophisticated beauty he met when he first entered the building was generally more his type, Sawyer certainly didn’t mind spending a few minutes with shy, either. So he winked at her, when she finally peeked up at his eyes for a second, trying to put her at ease.

But that just seemed to throw her into more of a tizzy—she began reorganizing all the items on the desk—so Sawyer decided to just try to talk to her.

“So, I’m Sawyer Branson, the law-enforcement agent you were expecting. What’s your name?”

“Megan.” She was still clutching that stain-remover stick in one hand, moving office-supply products on the desk with the other.

“Have you worked here long?”

She looked at him oddly, then nodded. “About eight years.”

Eight years? Wow, she must be somebody’s relative or something if she was still this bad at her job after eight years. Sawyer smiled at her again—when he could catch her eye for a second—and leaned up against the desk. “That’s great. Maybe if I have some questions about how things operate around here I can ask you about them.”

Cute librarian Megan just nodded.

Sawyer looked around the open R & D area. People were still working, although Sawyer noticed he and Megan had drawn some attention.

“I’m sure you know Dr. Fuller, right?” Sawyer asked in a conspiratorial tone. He might as well try to get as much information as he could before meeting the man.

That question certainly got Megan’s attention—she finally looked him fully in the eye. “Oh.” She said it with wonder as if some puzzle had just become clear to her. “You don’t know who Dr. Fuller is.” It wasn’t a question.

“No, unfortunately, I was sent here without much information about him. Just that he needed protection while finishing a project for the government. As director of R & D, he would be your boss, right?”

Megan nodded. “Um, yes. Dr. Fuller is everyone’s boss, I guess.”

Sawyer smiled encouragingly; at least she was talking to him now. “Do you like him? Is he easy to get along with?”

Megan looked down and began moving items on the desk around again nervously. She obviously didn’t want to answer his questions. That was fine. Sawyer didn’t want to put her in a place where she had to speak badly about her boss. He decided to change the subject before Megan rearranged everything on her desk.

“Megan, do you think you could get me a cup of coffee somewhere or point me in the general direction of one? I’d just like to get some caffeine in my system before I meet Dr. Fuller.”

Megan opened her mouth as if to answer him, but then just shut it again shaking her head. She seemed at an utter loss at what to say.

Cyberdyne really needed to look into replacing Megan as their R & D receptionist.

A man in a white lab coat, probably in his early forties, walked over to where Sawyer and Megan stood looking at each other. “Megan, is everything okay?” When Megan nodded, the man turned to Sawyer. “You must be Agent Branson. We were told you’d be arriving today. I’m Jonathan Bushman, Dr. Fuller’s assistant.”

Sawyer shook the man’s outstretched hand. He decided not to mention the coffee; it had just been an attempt at changing the subject and he didn’t want to get Megan in any sort of trouble.

“Great, Jonathan. I’m ready to meet Dr. Fuller whenever it’s convenient.”

Jonathan looked to Megan and then back to Sawyer, frowning. “But you already have.” He gestured to Megan. “This is Dr. Zane Megan Fuller, lead conceptual and computer scientist for Cyberdyne.”

* * *

OKAY, HAD THE federal agent just asked her to go get him some coffee? Megan had to admit he hadn’t been obnoxious about it, but still...coffee? Of course, she couldn’t really blame him. She had been puttering all around the desk, resorting back to her college behavior when she’d had no idea what to do when she was attracted to a member of the opposite gender—she’d practically lost her ability to speak for goodness’ sake.

She had thought those days were long behind her, but evidently not when a man as gorgeous as Sawyer Branson talked to her. She could barely bring herself to meet his eyes for most of the conversation. He must have thought she was the worst secretary in the history of the world.

Megan had to remind herself that she was no longer that socially awkward, painfully shy sixteen-year-old girl she had been at MIT, intellectually ahead of all her classmates, but emotionally much less developed. Now Megan was twenty-nine years old, well respected and liked in her workplace and confident in her abilities and accolades.

If still a little shy socially.

Megan could see the wariness crossing Agent Branson’s face as he realized his mistake. He probably wasn’t too thrilled that he had asked her for a cup of coffee, either.

Megan stuck out her hand for him to shake. “Hi, I’m Dr. Fuller. Megan.”

“Not the receptionist. I’m sorry about that.” Megan could appreciate that Agent Branson had the good sense to at least look sheepish. His handshake was firm, and if Megan didn’t know better she would almost swear she could feel his thumb caressing the back of her hand. That totally had to be her imagination. She pulled her hand back quickly.

“Yeah, there’s not actually a receptionist for R & D, despite this desk. We just pretty much keep the desk as a catchall for office supplies and stuff.” Megan held up the stain-remover stick. “I got a stain on my lab coat, so I was coming to see if I could use this to get it out.”

Agent Branson nodded and gave her a half smile. “Well, a lab coat might have clued me in that you weren’t a receptionist, but I definitely didn’t know you were who I was here to see. My apologies.”

Wow, if that was only a half smile, Megan didn’t want to be around if he decided to turn his full charm on her. “I can still direct you to the coffee if you want it.”

Agent Branson gave a bark of soft laughter. “Believe it or not, that was to make you feel more comfortable. You seemed to have lost the ability to speak for a while there.”

Megan could feel a flush spilling over her. “Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have made a good receptionist. I’m more of a computer-person than a people-person.”

Megan heard a throat clear from the other side of the desk. Jonathan. She had almost totally forgotten her assistant was there. Good Lord, she needed to focus. On the situation, not on Agent Branson.

“Jonathan, yes, okay. Um, Agent Branson, it sounds like you didn’t know very much about me and we know even less about you. All we were told was that you would be ‘a presence’ here at Cyberdyne for a while. I don’t really know why.”

Agent Branson looked around. “Is there somewhere we could go to talk that isn’t so open to everything?”

“Yes, of course. As you can see, we have an open workspace in general, but everyone also has offices. Mine is in the back.” Megan began walking that way. “Should Jonathan join us?”

Agent Branson shook his head. “Right now, I’d just like it to be the two of us if that’s okay. I’ll need to talk with all of the R & D employees while I’m here, but I’d like to start with just you.”

Megan could tell Jonathan didn’t like that. But her assistant tended to be a little high-maintenance in that way. He always wanted to be involved with whatever was going on and tended to get a little churlish when he was left out. The behavior had been getting worse more recently. Megan tried to smile at Jonathan, but he had already turned away with a huff. Megan just shook her head and led Agent Branson back to her office, closing the door behind them.

Megan stood behind a chair at the table and gestured to another seat for Agent Branson. She couldn’t help but admire the casual fluidness in how he filled the chair. As if he was a model.

If it wasn’t for the scar on his chin and slightly crooked nose—it looked as though it had been broken at some point in his life—Agent Branson definitely could’ve made a living in front of the camera. Black hair, cut short and stylish, a perpetual five-o’clock shadow, gorgeous green eyes. Megan put a hand up to her chin just to make sure she wasn’t accidentally drooling.

It was time to rein in all of this nonsense. Okay, yes, Agent Branson was attractive. Megan didn’t know the specifics of exactly why he was here, but she did know that it wasn’t for her ogling enjoyment. Megan took a deep breath in through her nose to focus herself, then released it gently through her mouth.

One of the advantages of being so intellectually advanced for her age when she was growing up—and always surrounded by older people—was that Megan had learned early how to act professionally even when she didn’t feel that way. She wasn’t going to let Agent Handsome discombobulate her any more than he already had today. She hoped they both would just totally forget the incident at the reception desk. That wasn’t how she ran the R & D department—all flighty and unable to speak. She was a professional and she could handle this.

She could handle him.

Even though her lab coat had a small coffee stain on it, Megan grabbed it from where it hung on a hook on the back of her door and put it on. She immediately felt more secure with its familiar weight on her shoulders. She sat down and looked across the table.

“So, Agent Branson, how can we help you here at Cyberdyne?”

Evidently she had succeeded in adding the desired professionalism to her tone as she watched Agent Branson sit up a little straighter in his chair, his eyes narrowing slightly for just a moment. Obviously he was also expecting the nervous woman he had met earlier at the desk.

Well, she wasn’t around anymore.

Chapter Three

Sawyer watched pretty Megan transform into stuffy, prickly Dr. Zane Megan Fuller—just like her name tag said—as she pulled on that drab lab coat and buttoned it. The skirt underneath, and evidently the shy woman from the desk, disappeared. Sawyer could almost feel the temperature drop around him.

Okay, the asking her for coffee had been a bit of a misstep. Sawyer totally read that situation wrong—not something he was used to doing. He tried to think back to his conversation with Burgamy. Sawyer definitely would’ve remembered if his boss had said Dr. Fuller was an attractive young woman. Or if he had said woman at all.

What had Sawyer been expecting in Dr. Fuller again? Someone balding, with thick glasses and a bow tie? Sawyer could admit he’d let a stereotype get the better of him. It was his own fault and he knew better. But when he’d seen pretty little Megan fumbling around at the desk, blinking up at him with those big brown eyes and blushing for goodness’ sake?

It had never even crossed Sawyer’s mind that she would be the head computer scientist of a multimillion-dollar company. But the woman sitting across from him so coldly, lab coat around her like a suit of armor? He had no problem picturing her as Dr. Fuller, brilliant scientist.

“Yes, Dr. Fuller. I’m sorry for the confusion before.” Reflexively Sawyer tried to smile at her, but he was met only with cold professionalism. “I’ve been sent here from the Bureau to discuss Ghost Shell.”

Sawyer knew Megan would associate the word bureau with the FBI, but now wasn’t the time to explain about Omega Sector. Omega was a task force made up of representatives from all different sorts of government agencies—FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, hell, even Interpol—who answered to bosses inside Omega. The task force was generally kept on a need-to-know basis. All Megan needed to know right now was that Sawyer was from federal law enforcement.

Megan nodded curtly. “I gave Ghost Shell to the FBI three months ago. Then I receive a follow-up call a few days ago with all sorts of questions you guys should already know the answer to.”

Sawyer didn’t respond to that directly. “I understand you’ve been working on a countermeasure to Ghost Shell.”

That obviously wasn’t the statement she was expecting. “Well, we were. But once I turned Ghost Shell over to the FBI, we put that on the back burner. Didn’t seem important to work on the antidote for a poison we’d already gotten rid of.”

“Unfortunately, it looks like the poison is back.”

“What?” Her big brown eyes blinked at him again, but this time with confusion rather than shyness.

“Ghost Shell fell into the wrong hands not long ago.”

“What?” Megan parroted herself. “I gave Ghost Shell to the FBI to keep that exact thing from happening.”

Sawyer grimaced. “I understand your frustration.”

Sawyer watched Megan’s small fists ball on the table. He slid back a little in his chair, since it looked as if she might start swinging any moment. Not that he could blame her.

“My research team here at Cyberdyne put in hundreds of man-hours on Ghost Shell! The work we did was brilliant and could’ve potentially made Cyberdyne millions of dollars. But I chose—my team chose—to stop our progress when we realized how easily Ghost Shell could become a weapon.” One of her small fists came down forcefully on the table. “And now you’re telling me some terrorist group has it anyway?”

“Well, yes and no.”

One eyebrow rose. “I think perhaps you should just cut to the chase, Agent Branson.”

Totally gone was the shy, stammering woman he had seen at the front desk. This woman in front of him—he definitely could not think of her as mousy in any way—was a force to be reckoned with.

“The agent in charge of the technology you gave the FBI—”

“Fred McNeil.”

Sawyer shouldn’t be surprised that Megan remembered the name of an agent she’d spoken to months before, given her reputation. “Yes, Fred McNeil. Ends up he was also working for a crime-syndicate group known as DS-13.”

Megan closed her eyes and shook her head, her breath coming out in a hiss. “And is this DS-13 group terrorists?”

“No. But they would not hesitate to sell Ghost Shell to whatever terrorist faction was willing to pay the highest price.”

“And now DS-13 has Ghost Shell.”

“Again, yes and no.” Sawyer held his hand out to stop the sound of exasperation he knew was coming. “In a mission two weeks ago, one version—the working version—of Ghost Shell was recovered. But until we contacted you just a couple of days ago, we had no idea a second version of Ghost Shell even existed.”

“But you don’t have the other version?”

“No, Fred McNeil is still at large with it.”

Megan got up and began pacing around her office. “The other version, although not as dangerous as the first, is still definitely not benign. It’s just as potentially dangerous.”

“But it would take someone with a special set of skills to complete it, right?”

Megan shrugged a delicate shoulder. “My ego would like to think so. But really, anybody skilled in reverse engineering—taking something apart and figuring out what makes it work—and software development could probably do it. There’s a dozen people at Cyberdyne alone.”

“So the FBI should be acting on the assumption that Fred McNeil and DS-13 could have a working prototype at any time.”

Megan took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, leaning back against her desk. “Absolutely. With the right help, it won’t take long.”

“We’re going to do everything we can to stop that from happening.”

“No offense, Agent Branson, but my trusting the FBI is how this whole problem happened in the first place.”

Sawyer grimaced. There really wasn’t much argument around that one. “On behalf of the entire Bureau, I want to apologize for what happened. Nobody had any idea that Fred McNeil had flipped.”

“Well, thanks for the apology, but that doesn’t necessarily make me feel much better.” The ice doctor was back in full force. “Did you work with Agent McNeil?”

“No. I’m in an entirely different...section of the Bureau. Never met the man.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“Well, for one thing, I’m bringing Ghost Shell back to you, not the other way around. But also, there’s a whole department involved this time. Not just one person. A lot more accountability that way.”

Megan stared at him for a long moment. “I guess so. Fred McNeil always seemed to want to keep things so quiet and just between us. Now I know why.” Megan shuddered. “He was so smarmy. I should’ve known better.”

“We’re working around-the-clock to find McNeil and Ghost Shell before it can be developed more fully.”

“What exactly do you want from us here at Cyberdyne?”

“We need you to finish the countermeasure decryption system you were working on before.”

Megan shook her head and sat back down at the table. “I explained to whoever I talked to a couple of days ago that I can’t do it without Ghost Shell. That’s why I stopped working on it months ago.”

“I have the first version of Ghost Shell with me. I know you will need this version to create the countermeasure so we can stop McNeil once he gets his version of Ghost Shell up and running.”

“You have Ghost Shell here, unguarded?” Megan stood back up. “Then we need to get that drive into the vault right away. It’s too valuable, too dangerous for you to just be casually carrying it around.”

Sawyer tried not to be offended. “I think I’m capable of guarding a software system for a few hours, Dr. Fuller.”

It looked as if Megan would argue the point further, but then decided to let it go. “Fine. But you’ll have to excuse me for not having too much faith in FBI agents at the current moment. And, honestly, why shouldn’t I just wash my hands of this entire thing? My team and I did our job right. It’s you guys who messed things up.”

Sawyer took a breath. He needed to convince Megan to help them. Because if she decided she’d already done her part, and that law enforcement were on their own, Omega’s job was about to become a lot harder.

Sawyer looked at Megan, who was standing beside her desk, lips pressed into a white slash, posture rigid. He couldn’t blame her for how she was feeling.

But they needed her help, and right now it didn’t look as though she was very interested in giving it.

Sawyer knew his colleagues considered him to be the charming Branson brother; they teased him about it all the time back at Omega. People—and okay, he could admit it, women especially—responded to him. It was a gift, and Sawyer had used it to his advantage multiple times in different operations. It made undercover work a natural fit—who didn’t want to like the guy with the easy smile and quick joke? But his easy smile didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere in this conversation, not since the ice doctor had appeared.

It was amazing how different this controlled woman was from the pretty librarian-type he’d talked to at the desk. The woman at the desk Sawyer would’ve known how to reach, even with her shyness. Yet this woman didn’t seem to see him as a man—hell, even as a person—at all. But he had to try to get her cooperation.

“You’re right, the FBI has messed things up.” Sawyer smiled and held a hand out to her in a gesture for her to sit back down. Standing up and towering over her wasn’t the way to make her feel more comfortable. “And Fred McNeil fooled a lot of people, not just you.”

Sawyer noticed Megan’s posture slump slightly. Evidently McNeil’s ability to fool her weighed more heavily on Megan than she wanted to admit.

Sawyer continued, “I don’t have to tell you how important it is that Ghost Shell not fall into the hands of terrorists. You’re the one who came to us with the problem because you could see the catastrophic damage Ghost Shell was capable of. Without you, law enforcement would have no idea of the potential threat they were up against.”

He reached out and touched her hand that rested on the table. “Thank you for coming forward. I’m pretty sure nobody has said that to you, but somebody should have.”

For a moment, looking into her big brown eyes, Sawyer saw Megan, not the cold Dr. Fuller. Sawyer realized maybe it had been him not seeing her as a person, not vice versa. Dr. Fuller and Megan were one and the same; he needed to remember that. Sawyer squeezed her hand in a friendly manner, then let her go.

“You’re good at what you do,” Megan said after a moment.

“And what’s that?”

“Manipulating people.”

Sawyer shook his head. “I know it seems that way, but I’m not trying to manipulate you, I promise. Everything I’ve said so far has been the absolute truth.”

She looked at him with one eyebrow raised, but seemed to have lost a little of her coldness, so Sawyer continued, “But don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely asking you for something. We need your help. We’ve got to have a way to stop Ghost Shell when DS-13 goes to sell their version on the black market. You are our best hope for that.”

Megan sighed, resignation clear in her eyes. “All right, Agent Branson. Whether you’re trying to deliberately manipulate me or not, I guess you’re going to get what you want. I’ll get the Ghost Shell countermeasure finished as soon as possible.” Megan stood up again and wiped an imaginary piece of lint off her lab coat. “But I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do. I just hope you guys don’t screw it up again.”

* * *

“I’LL MAKE YOU a deal. You get the Ghost Shell countermeasure completed and I will personally make sure nobody on my end of things screws it up.” Agent Branson had such utter confidence in his voice that Megan couldn’t help but believe him.

Megan couldn’t sit there and say she wasn’t affected by Agent Branson. But it wasn’t as if he was trying to talk her into going out with him; he was trying to get Megan to do something she was already willing to do.

Not that she wasn’t willing to go out with him.

But not that he was asking.

Megan had to get herself under control. Him asking or not asking her out was not the issue here. Ghost Shell and saving the world was. Focus. Be professional.

“So should I announce the change in projects to everyone?”

Agent Branson shook his head. “No, we want to keep this to as few people as possible.”

Megan nodded. That was probably best. Although she trusted everyone who worked in the R & D department, the fewer people who knew about all this, the better. “Okay, just my inner team then. That’s seven people including me and Jonathan Bushman, my assistant, whom you met.”

“That sounds good.”

“Great. So I guess I’ll call you in a couple of weeks when we have the countermeasure completed.” Megan stuck out her hand to shake his. The sooner she got him out of her office, the sooner she could focus on other things. Any other thing besides his presence here.

“Actually, I’ll be staying here for a while if that’s okay.”

“For the meeting with the team? That’s probably a good idea.” Her inner team rarely needed to be more focused than they already were, but Agent Branson could provide added motivation to get the Ghost Shell countermeasure completed faster.

“No. I’ll be staying until you’re finished.”

“The whole time? You know, this isn’t going to be done in a day. It’s going to take a while. Plus, we are a secure facility, especially within the R & D vault. You can leave Ghost Shell here and come back in a couple of weeks. I promise it will be safe.”

“Even so, I’ll be staying.”

This was not good. Having him here was going to wreak havoc on her concentration. “It’ll be pretty boring. You understand that, right?”

Megan watched Sawyer’s brows furrow as he nodded curtly, with no enthusiasm whatsoever. Evidently, he didn’t really want to be here. Megan wasn’t surprised; watching a group of scientists do conceptual engineering for days or weeks did not strike Megan as something a man like Sawyer would want to do on his own accord.

“Drew the short straw, huh?” she asked him.

Megan could tell she had surprised him. He laughed, then looked down at her with his megawatt smile. “Something like that,” he finally said. “Maybe I’ll tell you about it sometime while I’m here. You’ll like that story.”

Megan seemed to have forgotten how to breathe at his smile. She finally forced herself to look away and grabbed all the folders on her desk—most of them ones she didn’t even need—and called her inner team to the conference room for a meeting.

This group of people had developed Ghost Shell at one stage or another and was well aware of its potentials and dangers. Without going into the details about what had happened with Fred McNeil and DS-13, Megan explained that developing the countermeasure to Ghost Shell had become a priority for them at Cyberdyne.

Sawyer’s presence in the room couldn’t be ignored, so Megan introduced him.

“This is Agent Sawyer Branson. He’ll be here for the duration of the project. The fact that law enforcement feels his presence here is necessary should be a reminder of how crucial this project is.”

Two of the women on the team—both in their midforties and both married with children—were all but ogling Sawyer. Megan resisted the urge to rap something against the conference table to get their attention.

Branson seemed to be taking it all in stride, smiling easily at the women. Of course, he smiled easily at the men, too. He just seemed to have a way that put everyone at ease.

Everyone except Megan.

Megan dismissed the meeting a little more curtly than she had planned, after they all agreed work would begin first thing in the morning. She left the conference room without waiting to see if Agent Branson was coming with her or not. If he wanted to flirt with everyone in the department, that was his business. As long as it didn’t interfere with their work, Megan had absolutely no problem with it.

Good to see that the FBI had once again sent their very best.

Megan knew she was being unreasonable. What the heck was wrong with her? She sat down and rested for a minute. It had been a long day, made more stressful by the bad news Sawyer had delivered. She had been such an idiot to trust Fred McNeil. Even though Sawyer told her McNeil had fooled everyone, Megan knew she should’ve trusted her instincts with McNeil.

But Megan had never been good at trusting her instincts unless it came to science. Trusting her instincts with men had always brought her a heartache or headache.

Megan rubbed at a knot that was beginning to form in her neck. She took a deep breath and began reorganizing all the mostly unneeded files she had taken to the meeting back into their rightful places on her desk. Then she cleared off and straightened any other items that cluttered it or were out of place. She knew that a clean desk always made her feel better and would help her when she got to work tomorrow with a new, stressful agent on her hands.

Project. New, stressful project on her hands, damn it.

And speak of the devil... Agent Branson was making his way over to her office. He rapped on the outside of her office door, but entered without waiting for an invite.

“Get to meet everyone on the team?” It was the most neutral question Megan could think of.

“Yep. Seems like a pretty solid crew you have there.” He looked around her office. “And looks like you’ve got that desk of yours about as pristine as they come.”

Megan shrugged and smiled ruefully. “Having everything neat and organized helps me work. It’ll help me focus when I get back to work in the morning. But right now I’m going to head home and have a nice glass of wine. How about you?”

Megan watched as Sawyer’s head tilted to the side and he raised one eyebrow. “Sure. I mean, I don’t know you very well, but I’d like to have a glass of wine at your house.”

Megan could’ve bitten off her own tongue. He thought she was asking him out? No. He absolutely could not come over to her house for a glass of wine. She could barely form coherent sentences around him here. She definitely didn’t want him in her home.

“No. I mean—I wasn’t asking you over. I don’t want you to come over to my house. I just meant—” Megan stopped herself—she was just making it worse.

“Oh, well, then, we could go out to a bar or restaurant or something.” Sawyer’s eyes were lit with amusement as he said it. “Just let me grab my stuff.”

“No! I don’t want to go out with you. I just want to go home by myself.” It sounded rude even to her own ears.

Sawyer chuckled. “I know what you meant, Megan. I was just giving you a hard time.”

Megan didn’t know what to say. She just grabbed her purse from the back of the office door and left without another word. She was probably coming across as childish, but didn’t care. His charming laughter followed her down the hall.

How was she ever going to make it through the next few weeks with Sawyer Branson around her all the time?

Chapter Four

Arriving back at Megan’s office at Cyberdyne first thing the next morning, Sawyer was determined not to tease her about the incident the night before. But he had to admit it was tempting. So tempting.

And icy Dr. Fuller was back in full force this morning. Sawyer could tell as soon as he walked in the door.

“Agent Branson,” Megan said with a brief nod. “Good morning.”

So they were back to Agent Branson. “And to you, Dr. Fuller,” Sawyer responded in the same formal tone. Megan’s eyes narrowed at that, as if she couldn’t decide if he was mocking her or not. That was okay; Sawyer couldn’t decide if he was mocking her, either.

“Is it all right if I put my things in here or would you prefer me somewhere else?” Sawyer asked her. He didn’t have much—but he needed somewhere to set up his laptop and files. He didn’t want to be totally useless while he was here; there were at least some things he could accomplish on the computer while babysitting.

Sawyer just hoped Megan’s team would be able to construct the countermeasure quickly so he could get back to Omega as soon as possible.

“Here is fine. I’ll just clear off the table for you.” She moved a few files from the table, then nodded curtly again. “There you go, Agent Branson.”

“Megan, I thought that since you asked me out last night you could at least call me Sawyer.” So much for his resolution not to tease her.

He could almost physically see the heat suffusing her face. “About that, um—” Megan wasn’t looking in Sawyer’s eyes, but he could tell she was at least forcing herself to hold still and not fidget. “I apologize. My words didn’t come out correctly last night and then I didn’t handle the situation well.”

Now Sawyer felt bad. He had thought it was kind of cute the way she had gotten so discombobulated, but she obviously was berating herself for the behavior. “Megan, I was just kidding. Don’t worry about it—”

“I behaved childishly.”

“You didn’t behave childishly. I deliberately misconstrued what you said and I shouldn’t have. I knew the entire time you weren’t asking me out. I should be the one apologizing, not you.”

Megan finally looked up at him. “Fine. I accept your almost-apology, Agent Branson.”

“Thank you, Dr. Fuller. But I do wish you’d call me Sawyer.”

Sawyer wasn’t sure if Megan was about to agree or argue the point when one of the lab technicians came flying into her office.

“Dr. Fuller, we have a huge problem in the vault. We need you to come right away.”

A flash of relief crossed Megan’s face before it was drowned out by concern. She turned and hurried out of her office without another word. Sawyer followed right behind her.

Obviously the lab tech’s definition of huge problem and Sawyer’s differed greatly, Sawyer realized. There was no smoke here in the vault, no bullets, no blood.

The Cyberdyne R & D vault wasn’t a vault like that of a bank. Instead it was just a secure area, with a further locked door and a higher security clearance needed to enter. No stranger could just wander around any part of Cyberdyne from off the street; everyone was escorted by someone. Beyond that, only certain people were cleared to enter the R & D department. From what Sawyer could tell, it looked as if everyone had their own key-card that tracked who came and left out of the general R & D department.

“The vault holds our more highly classified or secretive items,” Megan explained as they entered the secure room. “But really, it’s more of a safe place to store items than anything else.”

“Who has access?”

“Me and select members of the R & D team. And security guards, I guess.”

That was good. Limited access definitely made any area more secure. Sawyer made a mental note to get to know the head of Cyberdyne security.

“We don’t really use the vault to keep out thieves or anything like that,” Megan continued. “It’s more to keep important items safe from a much more treacherous enemy—human error. When you’ve got multiple people walking around day in and day out you’re bound to have spills, misplacements or other accidents. The vault is primarily to save important items from those sorts of problems.”

Jonathan Bushman, Megan’s assistant, was sitting with rigid posture in front of a computer station in the vault.

“What’s going on, Jon?” Megan walked over to stand right beside him.

“It’s the hard drive that housed the Ghost Shell countermeasure. It’s critically damaged.”

Megan pulled her glasses from the top of her head to get a better look at the drive. “What? It was fine the last time I accessed it.”

Sawyer walked over closer to the two of them. “When was that?”

“I don’t know, maybe eight weeks ago? We can check the logs to find out exactly.” She said all this without looking at Sawyer. “Can you recover anything, Jon?”

“Nothing useful.” Jon spoke with a heavy sigh.

Megan picked up the drive and held it in her hands like a wounded bird. Sawyer noticed some scratches on the outside of it.

“See those scratches? Do you think it was external damage that caused the problem? Or is it more internal issues?” Sawyer asked.

Jonathan just rolled his eyes and went back to scanning the screen looking for any recoverable data. Megan turned to Sawyer. “Something happening to it externally could certainly cause damage, if someone, say, stepped on the drive or put something heavy on top of it.”

Sawyer nodded. “Could something internally have been done to it deliberately to make the data unrecoverable?”

Both Jonathan and Megan turned to look at Sawyer sharply. “Like some sort of sabotage?” Jonathan asked.

Sawyer shrugged. “It happens.”

Jonathan was obviously about to take offense. Megan leaned back against the computer station so she was face-to-face with Sawyer. She put her hand on Jonathan’s shoulder.

“I’m pretty sure we don’t have anyone working here who would do anything like that. Especially not anyone who has access to the vault.”

Jonathan nodded vigorously.

“But there’s no way of telling when the damage was done?” Sawyer asked.

Megan shook her head. “No. It could’ve sat here damaged for weeks.”

“Or it could’ve been damaged last night or this morning after you announced the team would begin working on the countermeasure.”

Megan sighed. “Yes, Agent Branson. It is possible it happened within the last twenty-four hours. But I doubt it.”

Sawyer decided not to push it since they had no way of knowing when the damage had occurred. “Do things get damaged in here often?”

“Not often, but it has happened. It happens more often out there.” Megan gestured vaguely with a hand toward the general R & D area. Then she turned and refocused on the screen in front of Jonathan. Within moments they were in a deep discussion about what, if anything, could be salvaged. Neither looked very optimistic.

Sawyer stepped back and looked around the vault. There were cabinets and shelves of varying size. Everything seemed highly organized and labeled—via Megan’s decree he was sure. Nothing lay around haphazardly or seemed to be damaged as far as Sawyer could tell. Like Megan had told him, the vault was equipped to protect its items from human accidents and mistakes. It seemed to do that very well.

Except for in this one case. Sawyer couldn’t help but be suspicious of that.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Evan Karcz. Good, maybe now Sawyer could get an update on what was happening back at Omega.

Sawyer walked out of the vault without saying anything to Megan and Jonathan. They were obviously deeply focused on the countermeasure salvage. Sawyer doubted they would miss him at all.

“Evan. How’s it going in the real world?”

Evan chuckled a little at Sawyer’s greeting. “I take it that means you’re still less than thrilled with your Cyberdyne assignment?”

“Well, let’s just say it hasn’t been what I expected.”

“Oh yeah? More interesting or less?”

Sawyer glanced over his shoulder at Megan before walking farther down the hall toward her office. “More interesting. Definitely more.”

That got Evan’s attention. “Is something happening there, Sawyer? Good news, I hope.”

“Dr. Fuller thought it was going to take up to a few weeks to finish the Ghost Shell countermeasure, but we encountered a setback first thing this morning.” Sawyer told Evan about the problem in the vault.

“Well, that’s definitely not good. I hope they can recover something from the drive, because things are going to hell in a handbasket around here concerning DS-13 and Fred McNeil.”

“Movement?” Sawyer proceeded all the way into Megan’s office and closed the door.

“Word is, DS-13 is going to have some sort of infiltrative software system coming available in the next couple of weeks.”

“That sounds exactly like Ghost Shell.”

“I thought so, too.”

“Dr. Fuller said there were a number of computer people who would be able to finish the work on their version of Ghost Shell. That it was only a matter of time.”

“He was right, it looks like.”

Sawyer decided to let the erroneous pronoun choice go for the time being. “So what’s the plan?”

“I’m still going under. But as Bob Sinclair.”

That stopped Sawyer in his tracks. “What?”

“I know, Sawyer, believe me, I know. But one of my contacts who has direct ties with DS-13 reached out to me as Bob Sinclair about all this Ghost Shell mess.”

“I thought you retired Bob Sinclair a year ago. After...” Sawyer couldn’t even bring himself to say it.

Bob Sinclair was an undercover persona Evan had carefully developed as a high-end weapons buyer for terrorist groups. Juliet, Sawyer’s sister, had gone undercover with him as Lisa Sinclair, Bob’s wife. Until it had ended in tragedy.

“Sawyer, I know what you’re thinking. And believe me, Juliet won’t be involved this time.”

“She better the hell not be, Evan. She’s not ready.”

“Nobody wants to protect Juliet more than me.”

“Fine, just leave her out of it. And make sure Burgamy isn’t putting any pressure on her to go back under, either.” Sawyer didn’t like being away from Omega where he could make sure for himself that his sister wasn’t being pressured to go back undercover. But he trusted Evan.

“I just wanted you to know what was going on. Word is to expect a big sale coming up in the next couple of weeks. If that’s Ghost Shell, we need to be ready with the countermeasure.”

“Roger that. Dr. Fuller was pretty pissed off about what happened with Fred McNeil. Took a bit of convincing to get the team to trust that I wasn’t going to do something similar and get working on the countermeasure.”

Evan chuckled. “Dr. Fuller giving you hell? Even after only one day?”

“Yeah, she’s something.”

“She? I thought it was Dr. Zane Fuller?”

“Yeah, Dr. Zane Megan Fuller. Not sure if Burgamy left out the Megan part on accident or on purpose.” Sawyer rolled his eyes.

“Well, I certainly imagined that wrong. I guess two degrees from MIT made me think middle-aged guy.”

“You’re not the only one. But try female in her late twenties.”

Sawyer had to pull his phone back from his ear, Evan was laughing so hard. “Of course she is.”

“Shut up, Evan.”

“Look, I’ll let you go play with your scientist, but tell her to hurry up with the countermeasure.” Somberness crept back into Evan’s tone. “It’s going to be easy for this situation to get shot straight to hell very quickly.”

“I know, man, you be careful. Your Bob Sinclair cover has some holes, especially without Juliet.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get it worked out. Looks like I might be coming down toward your current location. My contact is not far out of Asheville.”

DS-13 with movement just outside Asheville? Another interesting coincidence Sawyer wasn’t going to take at face value.

Sawyer saw Megan walking toward the office from the vault. “All right, man. Keep me posted if anything further develops. As soon as Cyberdyne has the countermeasure completed, you’ll be my first call.”

Megan tapped lightly on the door before walking in just as Sawyer was ending the call.

“How’d it go?” Sawyer asked her.

Megan threw the file she was carrying down on her desk. “I hope that whoever you were talking to had some good news for you. Because after a complete scan of the damaged hard drive, we discovered that almost nothing is recoverable. We’re basically starting from scratch.”

Chapter Five

Four days later, Megan was considering killing herself and everyone around her. Absolutely nothing was going right with the Ghost Shell countermeasure. Everything she and the team did seemed to be one-step-forward and two-steps-back. First having to start from scratch after the drive was damaged, then errors both human and mechanical plagued them.

She was one mistake away from becoming a homicidal maniac.

Megan was used to working under pressure. Pressure was a challenge she generally enjoyed—it forced her brain to exert in ways not normally required of it. Thinking faster often produced new and exciting solutions that working a problem slowly often missed.

But right now thinking faster was just producing a bunch of junk.

Admittedly, the pressure Megan usually fell under wasn’t the save-the-world variety. It tended to be more of the save money or time variety. Knowing that if they didn’t get the countermeasure completed before Ghost Shell was sold on the black market by this DS-13 group then thousands of lives could be lost tended to put Megan a little on edge.

But really it was Sawyer Branson’s constant presence here that was damaging Megan’s calm. Not that he was critical or did anything to deliberately make her uncomfortable, he was just always there. Observing, reporting, ready to help if there was anything he could do.

It was driving her absolutely nuts.

After yet another error in the computer coding had forced Megan’s team to backtrack again this morning, Megan had decided to leave them to that part and take an early working lunch.

And yeah, Megan could admit she was hiding out a little from Sawyer here in the small break room of the R & D department.

She had brought with her the new drive she and the team had partially rebuilt over the past couple of days. Her lunch tote was stuffed with printouts concerning the source code and combinatorial algorithms needed for the project, as well as a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Megan hoped she could get some work done in here. Almost everybody used the larger companywide cafeteria to eat rather than this small break room. Blessed quiet reigned here.

Halfway through her sandwich and the printouts Megan heard the door open. She didn’t look up from her work, hoping whoever entered either wasn’t looking for her or would see she was busy and not disturb her. A few moments of silence reassured her.

“You’re cute when you concentrate really hard like that.”

Sawyer. Almost instantly the words Megan had been concentrating on became gibberish on the printout in front of her. She just couldn’t think when he was around.

“I’m working.” Megan knew she was being borderline rude, again, but couldn’t help it. Acting cold around him was the only way not to become a babbling idiot like she had been on the first day.

“I see that. Mind if I hang out in here for a while? I’ll be quiet, I promise.”

Yes, Megan minded. His very presence in the room bothered her. Everything about him bothered her. “Fine.”

True to his word Sawyer didn’t say anything else, not even to point out how rude Megan was being, but it didn’t seem to matter. Try as she might, Megan couldn’t get any work done with Sawyer around. When she found herself reading the same page for the third time, she decided she’d had enough. She was going home.

Megan stood up and began cramming stuff into bags. She realized she had put the remaining part of her sandwich in her briefcase and the Ghost Shell drive in her lunch bag, but she didn’t care.

Sawyer watched calmly from his table near the door. “Finished with lunch?”

“I can’t work in here anymore. There’s too much noise.”

Sawyer looked around as if to discover what noise she referred to. Megan couldn’t blame him. Except for the sound of Megan frantically stuffing papers into whatever bag happened to be closest, it was completely silent in the break room.

“I’m going home to work for the rest of the afternoon.” Megan couldn’t afford to lose another whole day, no matter what the reason. Especially because of her own ridiculousness. There was too much at stake.

Megan took her bags and marched out of the break room, without looking at or speaking to Sawyer, and headed toward her office. Jonathan and the rest of the team were sitting around one of the conference tables in the middle of the main R & D room looking much more relieved than when she had left them this morning. Jonathan stood when he saw Megan, a report in hand.

“Megan, it looks like we figured out the coding problem. Well, it was mostly Trish.” Jonathan gestured to the woman next to him. “Now we just have to finish it.”

“Great, you guys. I’m going to be working off-site this afternoon, so I need you all to get this done so we can start fresh tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have some of our other Ghost Shell problems worked out by then.”

Megan encouraged everyone a bit more, then headed back to her office. Jonathan followed her, along with Trish, one of the newer Cyberdyne team members, who always seemed to be trying to get more face time with Megan.

“Where are you going to be this afternoon?” Jonathan asked Megan.

“Just off-site somewhere, probably at home. I need to get away from Cyberdyne for a little while so I can think clearly. Everything here is holding me back.”

Megan noticed Jonathan’s pinched features. Great, now she had hurt her assistant’s pride. “Jon, you know how I am. Sometimes I just need to be away from everything to break through a problem.” Megan turned to include Trish in the conversation. “If you two can get the coding finished, then tomorrow we can meet back here and really make some progress.”

Jonathan finally nodded. “Okay, I guess you’re right. Is Agent Branson going with you?”

Megan looked up and saw Sawyer walking toward them from the break room. “No, Agent Branson will definitely be staying here. Otherwise it will defeat the entire purpose.”

Trish nodded as if she totally understood what Megan was saying. Megan just grimaced. Another woman under Sawyer’s spell did not make Megan feel any better.

Jonathan gestured down to Megan’s briefcase. “Do you have everything you need? Do you want anything we were working on this morning? I can get it for you.”

“No, I think I’m okay. I’ve got the printouts and hard drive. That should be all I need. We’re close, you guys, I can feel it.”

Trish nodded. “I know. It feels good, doesn’t it? To actually make forward progress? It seemed like the fates have conspired against us the last few days.”

“Well, let’s hope that’s all behind us now.”

Sawyer stopped outside her office and tapped on the door. “Can I speak to you for a minute, Megan?”

“Yes.” Megan turned to Jonathan. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Trish, Jon. Okay? Thanks for your help.”

Both computer scientists nodded and left, already discussing the coding problem. Megan was thankful to have team members who were so dedicated to what they did.

“You’re really going to work somewhere else today?”

Megan began unbuttoning her lab coat. “Yes. Believe it or not, it happens. Sometimes I need to be in a different element in order to break through a problem. It’s just how my brain works.” She turned her back to him to slip off the coat.

“I’ll come with you.”

“No!” Megan took a deep breath and then spun back slowly to face Sawyer. “I mean, that’s not necessary. Thanks.” Megan could tell Sawyer was about to argue, so she continued, “Sawyer, thank you for the offer, but I really just need to be alone. Otherwise I won’t be able to get the work done.”

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to be off on your own.”

“I’m just going to my house, Sawyer. It’s a chance for me to get in multiple uninterrupted hours of work. If I’m here, there’s always someone who needs me for something or other distractions.” Megan couldn’t look at Sawyer’s face as she finished the sentence, so she turned to her desk and began grabbing her bags.

“Fine.” Megan was a little surprised to hear Sawyer say it. She thought she was going to have to present further arguments for why he couldn’t come with her. And to be honest she wasn’t sure what those arguments would be.

Sorry, Sawyer, you can’t come with me because whenever you’re around I can’t seem to focus on anything but how...yummy you look.

Sawyer had been nothing but polite and friendly to Megan over the past few days—just like he had been to everyone. This craziness was all in Megan’s head, not in his actions.

“Give me your phone,” Sawyer told her. “So I can put my number in it.”

Megan gave it to him and he continued, “If you have any issues, call me. Or if you decide to go anywhere but your house, let me know.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to stay here because there are a couple of concerns I want to look into.”

“About Ghost Shell?”

“Yes. But I’m not certain about anything yet, so don’t worry about it now. We’ll talk tomorrow when you get back. Right now the most important thing is that you get some real progress made with the countermeasure.”

Megan agreed. “I know. I work best alone.”

“That’s the main reason I’m letting you go alone. I know you don’t really like me around when you’re working, Megan. I annoy you. That’s fine.” Sawyer smiled and winked. “My manly ego can take it, I think.”

He thought she didn’t want him around because she didn’t like him? Obviously he couldn’t see how her pulse started racing when he smiled at her. Better to keep it that way.

“Well, I’m sure you never lack for female company of those you don’t annoy.”

“I am highly suspicious of any woman who isn’t annoyed by me.” Sawyer winked at Megan.

She grabbed her stuff and headed toward the door without another word before she hyperventilated. She heard Sawyer chuckle as she brushed past him.

“See you tomorrow, Dr. Fuller,” he called as she walked down the hall. Megan didn’t respond. What could she say anyway?

Megan made her way down the hallway, reporting to Mark, the main security guard, that she was leaving for the day to work at home and would be back tomorrow.

When Mark smiled at her it didn’t do anything to her stomach. She smiled back as he helped her with the front door.

The crisp winter air felt good against Megan’s overheated skin. She walked slowly to her car enjoying—as always—the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains surrounding her. Here, outside and away from all the craziness inside Cyberdyne and her reaction to Sawyer, Megan realized she had made the right decision.

She already felt clearer, steadier. Ready to work. What she was doing was important and she was racing against a very real clock, but she was up for the challenge. Working at home would be just what she needed.

Megan opened her car door and threw her briefcase and lunch bag in the passenger seat beside her. Her house was only ten minutes away from Cyberdyne. She’d chosen it specifically for that reason. She cleared through the security gate and began her drive home.

As she stopped at an intersection about halfway between her house and Cyberdyne, an idea for solving one of the problems with the countermeasure became clear to Megan. She reached into her purse to grab her phone so she could make a voice recording, to remember it later.

A car behind her honked as Megan was getting her phone ready to record. The light had turned green. Megan waved to the car behind her and began to pull through the intersection.

Just as an SUV flew through the intersection in the other direction and T-boned into the passenger side of Megan’s car.

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