Knocked Down Read online

  He was basically getting the leftovers after Ed Dennis had fired or reassigned agents he hadn’t felt were performing as well as they should be. He’d told Sebastian that if he didn’t like how the agents worked, he could have them reassigned, until Sebastian had a team that was just as effective as the CCU’s Team One. Another team had been assigned to the CCU as Team Two several months back. But they were a long-time team that had worked well together for quite a while.

  If Team Three was to succeed Sebastian had to work his ass off to make it as good as the two long-established teams.

  It was an uphill battle he faced, and he knew it.

  His team would arrive in Portland tomorrow—if he thought the case warranted it.

  He was familiar with the PAVAD and CCU guidelines; he and Ed Dennis had spoken about them in great detail before Lorcan agreed to the probationary position.

  The plane finally landed after some seriously nasty turbulence that had Agent Sparks turning green. He looked at her after she gained some composure. “Let’s do this.”

  “Of course.”

  Chapter Four

  They were met at a small private Portland airport by a local agent. Collingsworth was a big black man of close to the same age as Ed Dennis. His worry was in his eyes for all to see. Sebastian introduced himself and Sparks. It surprised him when Collingsworth seemed more interested in his partner than him.

  “So you’re the wunderkind we’ve all heard about?”

  Sparks flushed. “I—”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I heard Dennis was sending out the best PAVAD had.”

  And it was this girl. Sebastian didn’t quite understand it.

  “After this is over, I’d like to talk with you more. We have a few openings out here that I’d like your opinion on filling.”

  “No stealing our people. Hell and the director get a bit annoyed when people try to do that.”

  Sebastian wasn’t entirely certain she was joking. “What do you have for us?”

  “Not sure. I’ve been doing this since the late Eighties, and it’s not something I’m familiar with.”

  “What makes you think they’re related?”

  “I don’t know that either. I’m hoping the CCU can help.”

  ***

  The instant she walked into the Portland’s CART unit Carrie felt immediately at home. An assignment to a Computer Analysis and Response Team was what she’d originally envisioned for her career before Hell had picked her out at Quantico. This one was exactly what she’d had in mind.

  She stayed near Collingsworth as he led the way into the building. Her crutches were awkward and problematic, but she’d cope.

  It took them almost no time at all to get set up in a conference room with whiteboards and every supply they’d need.

  Carrie opened her bag and pulled out one of her laptops—she always carried two—and booted up. This case would rely on her expertise and she knew it.

  Terrorism. Using computers. She never could have imagined this when she was a girl playing with code for the first time.

  She looked at the people surrounding her.

  “It’s your show first, Agent Sparks,” Collingsworth said. “You just tell us what you want us to do.”

  What exactly was that? She tried to think for a moment. “I need to see everything found. I can find this guy, but it’ll take me some time.” It wasn’t boasting; Carrie knew what she was capable of. She’d focus on the hacking first until she got a handle on what was involved.

  “Uh, ma’am?” A young guy asked from behind her. She turned around. “I can give you what I’ve got. And I’m happy to help however I can.”

  “Do you code?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you’ll work with me. Agent Lorcan, I’m not sure what you should do while we look at this.”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ll find something to do. I don’t need to tell you how quickly we need to know if this is terrorism.”

  Chapter Five

  Sparks was tireless. Sebastian had to admit the woman was good at what she did. Everyone that even touched a computer in the conference room as the afternoon dragged on looked to her to lead them. And she did.

  Quietly and competently. She barely repeated herself even once.

  Interesting. He wondered if she was aware of that?

  He spent most of his time with Collingsworth trying to separate the two cases and then reconnect them in a way that made sense.

  It was long, painstaking work but at the end of the day, the ties were still only tenuous at best. He couldn’t say definitively whether they were connected.

  He’d already notified Ed Dennis. The potential Team Three would be meeting them first thing in the morning.

  Sebastian had the case files spread before him. Collingsworth had been called away to deal with an arrest warrant going down that afternoon. Sparks held court at the other end of the conference table, a trio of computer technicians hanging on her every word. The three men—all younger than Sebastian—were obviously in awe of her. And he didn’t think it was just because of her computer skills.

  There was just something about her that drew a man’s attention. It wasn’t anything he planned to act on, but the allure was definitely there.

  He dedicatedly forced himself to focus on the case in front of him. He knew the files were all connected, the code used to break into each system was nearly identical—at least according to Sparks’ initial opinions—but the targets weren’t similar. A bank, a school, and the smallest rail company in Portland.

  How were they all tied together?

  And were they connected to Collingsworth’s identity theft case; if so, how?

  ***

  Carrie couldn’t put the connections together, but she somehow knew the identity theft case and the hacking case were connected. She just had to figure out the specifics of how.

  Lorcan had waited until Collingsworth’s people had vacated the conference room before cornering her. It wasn’t exactly difficult to do. She’d fumbled the crutches the moment she realized he was watching her.

  He’d fired a bunch of questions straight at her, and the barrage had her tensing. “I don’t know.”

  “What is it that you don’t know?”

  “No. I can’t say definitively that this is terrorism. But the signature of the hacker, at least, is identical. It’s the same hacker. But Collingsworth already knew that. So why was the CCU called in?”

  “New regulations state that any possible terroristic link is called in to all the directors. Since Dennis is a director, the case fell to us. It’s why he created PAVAD, wasn’t it? And he knows Collingsworth—personal favor, perhaps?”

  “I think so. What if we’re wrong?”

  “We won’t be. We have to make sure that we aren’t.”

  “And how do we do that?”

  “Forget the terrorism. Forget the two cases. Focus on what you can do. Unlock the puzzles you can. Let me worry about everything else.”

  Carrie stared at him. That was definitely not something she’d expected out of him. He was so…harsh. Yet…did he mean it? Was he judging her?

  He confused her so much. And she didn’t do well with people she couldn’t figure out. She’d always sucked at social cues.

  “Sparks, tell me what you do know. Trust your gut. Dennis obviously believed strongly enough in you to send you out here to thwart a possible terroristic plot. Show me why.”

  She thought for a moment. “I don’t think whatever the hacker is planning is finished. It seems like he’s building up to something. Every attack, every piece of code he used is slightly more complicated than the last. It’s almost like he’s trying to teach himself something.” She’d done that, in the early years of learning the language of her computers. She’d poke around and practice, and just experiment to see what would happen when she went one way or the other.

  But… “He’s trying to learn something, but I don’t think this is an inexperi
enced hacker. He knows what he’d doing. And he’s building up to something.”

  “I’ll call Dennis and get a team here as soon as we can.”

  Chapter Six

  She hadn’t wanted to go to the hotel, but at Agent Lorcan’s order she finally agreed. There was just so much more she could be doing at the moment then trying to settle in to sleep.

  They hadn’t established a clear link to terrorism. Neither had they confirmed that the hacking case and the identity theft case were related. She wasn’t entirely certain why they were still there.

  The rest of Agent Lorcan’s team would arrive in the morning. Carrie was absurdly thankful for that fact. One of the agents assigned to work on the new team three was her sister, and Paige always made Carrie feel more grounded. Safer, and more confident, competent.

  She knew she used her sister for a crutch, but…Paige was the only real family she had.

  She spent a quiet night in her hotel room, extremely aware that Agent Lorcan was two doors down.

  Something about him bothered her. Made her nervous and unsure of herself in ways she wasn’t used to. Maybe it had something to do with the way they’d met. She hadn’t exactly been at her best.

  How could he have formed a good impression of her, when she’d been so upset that first meeting? She thought about him and the new case and a dozen other things for most of the rest of the night. Only near dawn did she drift off into a restless sleep.

  ***

  The next morning she was up and ready, waiting in the lobby for Lorcan to join her. The new potential Team Three would be meeting them at the Portland Transit Air.

  Other than Paige and her partner Alessandra Brockman, Carrie didn’t recognize any of the names that she’d overheard Agent Lorcan discussing on the phone with the director.

  It would be interesting to see how this new team worked out. To see what kind of leader the cat-like Lorcan turned out to be.

  He came down the stairs looking perfect in every way. Dark hair, green eyes, strong body, and a suit that looked freshly pressed. He eyed her, and Carrie just waited to hear what he had to say.

  “We’re picking up the rest of my team on the way. Collingsworth should be here in about ten minutes.”

  Not what she was expecting. There was no censure at all.

  ***

  They met the new agents at the same airport they’d arrived in and Sebastian got his first real look at the agents he’d be leading.

  He was surprised at how young most of them were. Only a few were anywhere near thirty. There was a tall, dark-haired woman dressed entirely in black. She stood speaking with a picture-perfect blonde with blue eyes and a figure men would definitely stare at. They introduced themselves first and he shook their hands. He recognized the name Brockman, and put together quickly that this woman was the sister of the Team Two unit chief. The dark-haired woman stated they’d been partners for over a year. He filed that information away in his head.

  There were two more women, Agent Jaz Therez and Amber Gleason. As well as Ken Chalmers and Saul Hernandez and three other men. More than he expected, and far more than he liked. In his experience teams of less than six tended to work better together. Too many agents on a team, and you inevitably had problems.

  He took stock of them quickly. It was obvious the Brockman woman and her partner knew Agent Sparks well, as she stood speaking next to them with ease.

  The rest of the group didn’t seem to know each other and he wondered if that was such a good thing with this type of case. Trial by fire was all he could assume Dennis was attempting.

  It took time for trust to form, for strengths and weaknesses to become apparent on a team. Was a case involving possible terrorism really the time for that to happen?

  Still, they were all well-trained federal agents, and Dennis had assured they could handle the job.

  It was up to him to put them together in a team first.

  “Let’s get going. We’ll fill you in once we get there.”

  Chapter Seven

  Sebastian led them all into the conference room he and Sparks had used the day before. Her trio of worshipers plus Collingsworth’s Agent Nugent were already hard at work. Agent Nugent assisted her with her crutches, and introduced himself to the two women nearest her.

  The others took one look at Brockman and Daviess and turned into blushing, stuttering lunatics. If it hadn’t been such an important case, Sebastian would have laughed. But… “Let’s get started.”

  He had Sparks, Collingsworth’s four men, himself, and nine other agents he knew next to nothing about. And two cases. He took stock quickly and made some decisions based on what he did know.

  The oldest agent in the room was Agent Gleason and he turned to her. “Gleason, you’re in charge of the team that stays here. Work with Sparks, she’s our liaison on anything and everything that has to do with even a single keystroke of the computer.”

  He looked at Sparks. She was the most comfortable with Daviess, wasn’t she? And he couldn’t leave both Daviess and Brockman with Collingsworth’s men. Even though they were professionals, they didn’t need to be that distracted. “Brockman, with me. Nugent, you can be our local liaison. Daviess—anything Sparks needs, I trust you can handle it. Chalmers, with me. Therez, Gerth, you, too. The rest of you…” He could remember their names, but not which agent was which. “Work with Gleason and Sparks. However they need it. We’ll regroup at six for a briefing.”

  ***

  Agent Lorcan moved fast, Carrie had to admire that. The man gave out assignments like a drill sergeant, then took his team and was gone within fifteen minutes of their arrival at the CART office.

  Leaving her with Gleason and the rest of the agents she didn’t know.

  Thank God Paige was there. Carrie always felt a bit more confident when her foster sister was nearby, and to be honest she still felt unsettled from recent events. They’d worked together since they were fifteen and found each other on the streets as runaways. It had been Paige’s idea to join the FBI in the first place.

  Agent Gleason took one look at Carrie and Carrie could almost see the sneer in the other woman’s eyes. She tensed. “Agent Gleason, do you have copies of everything so far?”

  “I’ll get them.” She looked at one of Collingsworth’s agents. “I’m sure you can handle that, can’t you?”

  Paige stiffened beside Carrie and Carrie was at least glad she wasn’t the only one to hear the condescension in the woman’s voice. Sometimes Carrie misread people she didn’t know. But Paige—if she felt someone was being unjustly treated, she could potentially go off the deep end. They definitely didn’t need that at the moment. Carrie looked at her sister. “Paige…I need copies of all the code Nugent and I identified last night blown up and on the boards. Side by side.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Agent Zahn, one of Collingsworth’s people, stepped closer. “We have both digital and regular white boards available. Whatever you prefer.”

  “Digital. We may need the capabilities for faster processing and information decimation.” Carrie’s mind was racing, trying to figure out exactly what they’d need to identify a hacker.

  “So what exactly is it that you are doing, Agent…Sparks, wasn’t it?” Gleason looked right at her, and Carrie knew she was going to have a problem with Gleason.

  What she didn’t understand was why.

  “It’s Agent Sparks, with the CCU. Team One. Under Hellbrook. Director Dennis sent me here to work with the CART division. What I am going to do, with your help, is isolate any patterns between the targets and the code. I need anyone with a strong background in mathematics or in coding to help.”

  Chapter Eight

  Carrie worked the people around her harder than she probably should have. But they seemed to understand the reasoning behind it. Once it had been explained that what they were facing could lead to terrorism most of the agents had buckled down and worked themselves almost ragged.

  It was Paige who finally called
a lunch break around two.

  Her sister looked at her, but Carrie shook her head. She wasn’t ready to deal with a restaurant and a lunch with people she didn’t know. And she really needed a few minutes—even a half an hour—to herself to think and regroup.

  Carrie didn’t understand what it was she’d done to Agent Gleason, but the other woman had a definite problem with her.

  And she was starting to undercut everything Carrie had to say, to the point that others were beginning to notice. Carrie could tolerate quite a lot, but she didn’t consider herself to be a pushover. Agent Gleason had crossed several lines in the last hour. And it wasn’t anyone else’s place to step in. Even her sister’s.

  No, if Carrie was having a problem, it was her job to fix it. Before it got worse—or before Paige went ballistic. Paige took her role as older sister a bit too seriously at times.

  She worried about the situation probably longer than she should have.

  Agent Smith, one of the CCU potentials, was the first back from lunch. It surprised her when the man came into the conference room where she’d spent the last forty minutes alone. She’d thought everyone had gone to eat together.

  He stepped closer to where she was sitting and she recoiled.

  She’d always been super-sensitive to the scent of any alcohol. And Agent Smith had most definitely had a few to drink. He’d done his best to mask it, but Carrie could smell it. She tensed when he leaned forward.

  “Agent Sparks…Hellbrook’s precious little pet.”

  She’d always hated that. But it wasn’t the first time she’d heard it. “Agent Smith, please don’t say that again.” Her skin crawled with the nerves that were almost always running through her. People made her so anxious at times. She almost reached for the headphones she had in her bag, but she didn’t. It was one thing to wear them when she was working on Hell’s team. He knew and understood that they helped her focus; but most other team leaders didn’t approve at all.