Lion's Heat

CHAPTER 22

The next morning Jonas and Rachel walked into the main computer and security control room for the estate house. Set in the far wing with direct access to the labs below, the room was outfitted with monitors, servers and external terminals that housed and stored the guts of Sanctuary's security operations for the house.

All internet, telephone and wireless communications went through the comm center before being routed to the communications bunker outside the house.

Stepping into the small anteroom that held three control computers, Jonas moved past the lioness working them, aware of Rachel following close behind, into the tech room where the technicians took their breaks or the occasional shift nap, then through another door to the heart of the room.

Here, servers maintained the various links to the comm bunker, drove the internet and wireless radios, monitored satellite phones and in-house satellite communications and held a backup security system that notified the comm bunker, the Wolf and Coyote communities of Haven as well as the Vanderale security system in Africa, in case of emergency. It was a self-contained emergency backup system as well as a last-response notification system.

The main house was powered independently from the bunker, but all systems from the house were monitored by the more advanced network set up in the bunker.

Still, this room was indispensable.

Jonas moved to the back of the room where the brains of the operation worked with a frown on her delicate face, her white-blond hair pulled haphazardly to the top of her head, the long strands falling messily around her face and shoulders.

Dressed in black mission pants and a sleeveless cami top, she cursed like a sailor under her breath and glared at the monitor.

"What do we have, Sherra?"

Jonas moved behind her to stand over her shoulder, his gaze narrowed on the results as he picked out the anomalies of the scan she'd described in her report the hour before.

"We have a bug," she murmured as her fingers flew furiously over the keys. "It activated perhaps a week ago, from what I can determine. It's a silent one; none of the scans caught it. If I hadn't begun the practice of running a deep-level scan in conjunction with full diagnostics and system routing to save time, I would have never caught it."

She paused and sat back before pulling the present screen to the monitor next to her. Within seconds, the five monitors around the main one displayed five different levels of diagnostics as well as the six main results.

"Here and here." She tapped the main screen and the one on the right above it. "The anomalies began here. Once the diagnostics caught the first anomaly, it began trying to hide." She pointed to several other diagnostic results. "At present, it's completely disappeared." Pointing to the screens left and right of the main screen, she hit a command to display the current readers. "Like dust in the wind, my friend. It's gone."

She turned and stared back at him with savage fury reflecting in her deep blue eyes. "We have a bug, and he's damned smart."

Jonas narrowed his eyes on the screens before turning to Rachel. "Do we have any intel on anything like this?"

The Bureau monitored all new viruses, rumors of nanoviruses and deep-level bugs.

Rachel was watching the screen intently, her green eyes narrowed, her expression thoughtful, before activating the electronic pad she carried. "There's no intel on it, but that doesn't mean anything. For the most part, we only get info on what's been discovered or rumors of what's in the works. There's been nothing like this in the intel we've received of intended attacks against our mainframe or communications network." She frowned at the results of the search she typed in on the pad. "All we have is unsubstantiated intel on one that destroys itself when found and wipes its track to eliminate the chance of identification. Those have to be uploaded manually though." She glanced back to Jonas, concern darkening her gaze as she gave him the information.

"Whoever put the bug in our system would have had to have worked from this room then." Sherra tapped the tips of her well-manicured nails against the table before initiating another search.

"It's not as though we haven't had our share of spies," Rachel reminded her. "The medical assistant we caught several months ago had access to the room during the poker games that were played here, as well as the night he murdered the techs working the room. He could have initiated it at any time."

We. She used a vernacular that placed herself as an indelible part of the community rather than an outsider. It was the first time she had done so, and hearing it sent a surge of satisfaction racing through Jonas.

"Let's not assume it's destroyed itself though," Rachel continued as she turned back to the screens and stared back at them thoughtfully. "We need someone experienced in subversive technology to go through this."

"All Breeds are experienced in subversive technology." Sherra snorted. "It's part of our training. We learn that in puberty."

Rachel was shaking her head as she spoke and typing commands in, one-handed, on the pad she used. Within seconds a list of information began scrolling across the screen.

"You have four Breeds, all rated A-plus in subversive technology, nanotechnology and communications stealth. Those are the Breeds you need."

Jonas lifted his brows. Fuck, where the hell had she gotten that information?

"Since when?" Sherra asked, surprise filling her expression. She looked to Jonas as though wondering why he hadn't known that information. Or, more to the point, why the main Pride wasn't aware of that.

"The information was hidden among some of the Council's more encrypted files," Rachel informed her. "Encryption isn't something that's easy. A lot of information is misread or overlooked entirely because the codes are so difficult."

"And you managed this how?" Sherra turned in her chair and watched Rachel suspiciously.

Jonas bristled at Sherra's tone until he watched Rachel slowly smile. "I like puzzles. I take the encrypted files, the various codes, and when Jonas is away, I play a little bit." She glanced at Jonas. "Sometimes, he's away often."

He wouldn't be away from her any longer.

"And who are our master technology Breeds?" Sherra questioned, still obviously not completely satisfied with the explanation.

"You have a Bengal Tiger Breed of Asian descent, Lee, as the only name listed here." She frowned, her tone becoming quieter, more thoughtful, as she began scanning the file. "There's a Wolf Breed of Scots descent, no name listed, only his file number." She tapped the screen for more information. "He's not registered with the Bureau." But she knew who it was; Jonas could see her expression, the shifting pattern of suspicion as she put together the information on the Breed. "I suspect it's Styx." An amused smile crossed her face. "We're in trouble if it is."

It was.

"We also have two Breeds, lab numbers only, who I haven't yet been able to track any information on or to unencrypt what the information is in the files I found them in. I'll have to work on that."

She lifted her head. "We have no known location or information on Lee. Styx is accessible though."

"Styx is a menace." Sherra rolled her eyes before turning back to the computer. "He'll probably have one of his temper tantrums and destroy every computer we have."

Jonas almost grinned at the thought.

"I'll pull the files I pulled this intel from," Rachel told her. "I'll see if we can find someone quickly. No doubt, we can't let the system go much longer with a suspected bug in it."

"I was able to track its parameters by using the computer logs," Sherra told her. "It's not easy though. Even the logs are trifling." She shook her head. "I don't know what we're dealing with but it's damned smart."

"Isolate the logs and work through them on an independent, unconnected system," Rachel suggested. "That's how they're created."

Sherra turned to her again. "How the fuck do you know all this? You've worked with Jonas for less than a year and you know more than I do."

"I rather doubt it." Rachel's smile was conciliatory. "I'm good at trivia though, so I retain large amounts of unconnected information. It's a talent." She flashed a charming grin Sherra's way.

"A talent, huh?" Sherra glanced at Jonas. "Sounds more like the same coin with a different face. You and Jonas are a better match than I thought."

"I always knew we'd be a good match." Rachel leveled a look up at him that nearly had him grinning. As though she had manipulated the entire mating.

"To each his own, I guess." Sherra chuckled before turning back to Jonas. "Before you leave, Callan needs to see you in Sit Comm One." The situation communications room in the estate house. A room completely secured from any outside electronic or satellite interference.

Jonas nodded. "Could you contact his Enforcer on call and let them know I'm on way?" When Sit Comm One was in use, Callan's personal bodyguard slash assistant was always nearby.

"Contacted." Sherra hit a key on the console, then flashed a smile back at him. "Also, just to let you know, Lance Jacobs is up and moving around. He, Harmony and their son are planning to leave for home within the week."

Jonas nodded shortly. He kept his emotions in check where his sister and nephew were concerned. Harmony had demanded that he stay far away from the boy, and it was a request that tore at something inside him.

He stayed away, though he kept careful tabs on the child. Joseph Leopold Jacobs. They called him Joey. He had just turned twelve months old. He had tawny hair with hints of black and his father's blue eyes. He was a happy child and Harmony was an ecstatically loving mother. She doted on her mated husband and child.

"Ready?" He turned to Rachel as she made a note on her electronic pad.

"Ready." She gave him an absent smile, but her gaze, her entire demeanor as she stayed close to him assured him that she was very much aware of him.

He could sense her awareness, the sensitivity of her body, the arousal that simmered just beneath the surface, ready to burn out of control.

The sweet, soft scent of her body, the easy breaths she took, even her thoughtful attitude as they made their way to speak to Callan, drew him to her.

They made their way from the comm room and to the other side of the house to the newly erected Sit Comm One. The room was in the family wing of the ruling Pride, which consisted of six families, though all were rarely there at the same time, other than the Pride leader, Callan Lyons, and the second-in-command of security, Sherra Tyler.

Callan's personal Enforcer, Fallon, a Lion Breed trained in advanced security and protection, opened the door to the room silently.

Callan; Kane Tyler, who was head of security and Sherra's mated husband; Santuary's head of enforcement, Taber Williams; and the head of Sanctuary Public Relations, Tanner Reynolds, were sitting at the long conference table as he and Rachel walked in.

Rachel broke off from Jonas's side, sliding perfectly into her former role of his assistant.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen." Rachel moved ahead of Jonas, poured him coffee and his water and set them at his chair. Jonas almost grinned. She was the perfect mate for him, able to blend in with his business life, as well as the role of mate.

She complemented him at every turn, and had managed over the past months to soothe a lot of the feathers he had managed to ruffle, or completely jerk out, over the years.

"We have files." Callan used the electronic pad to send the file to Rachel as well as Jonas.

She handed Jonas his and pulled up the information on her electronic pad.

"The Senate's Breed Appropriations Committee has called a special session to review the funds already voted on and agreed to for next year's expenditures. The information we have is that they've received information that the Bureau, as well as Sanctuary, has broken the agreement we signed in regards to conducting any military or personal acts of war or aggression toward any of the governments supplying the funds."

Jonas scanned the information before him before turning to Callan. "There have been no acts of aggression or of a military design against any government, period. Their intel is bogus, Callan. As usual."

The Bureau didn't bite the hand that fed it. At least not directly, and sure as hell not without someone or something else to blame it on.

"Senator Tyler is on that committee, as you know," Callan stated. "He sent a heads-up on the information he had; he's requesting your immediate presence before the committee, otherwise funds are going to be held up indefinitely until this gets taken care of."

"We don't need their fucking money," Tanner growled, his Bengal green eyes flashing with ire.

"They owe the Breeds that money," Rachel pointed out, her tone firm. "What you need to do is make a move to keep the money out of the appropriations committee's hands and directly under Breed control at a certain amount per quarter."

"They're too scared we're going to turn on them," Callan grunted as he leaned back in his seat and rubbed his finger along his jaw. "They think halting that money will keep us from taking over their various countries."

"As if we'd want to deal with their bullshit as well as our own." Tanner snorted at the thought. "Hell, just running Sanctuary is enough of a headache, wouldn't you say?"

That was about the truth.

"Rachel." Jonas turned to her.

"A heli-jet is being prepared and I'm having Lawe move ahead to pull mission files," she stated before turning to him, an edge of worry in her expression. "Am I going?"

He nodded abruptly before turning to Callan. "I need preparations made for Erin to bring Amber into Sanctuary while we're gone. Cassie is currently in residence, correct?"

Callan sat up straight, his eyes narrowing. "Cassie will ruin that child. I'll have quarters set up for Amber and her caretaker. She can assume twenty-four-hour detail. I'll assign someone to help her, but Cassie spoils babies worse than their mothers do. You don't want her anywhere near her."

"Wrong." Jonas wanted no one but Cassie near her, actually. "Assign Cassie as backup. I'll accept Erin as primary care."

Jonas rose to his feet, knowing it would be taken care of.

"Jonas, Amber is my child," Rachel stated quietly as she moved in front of him. "Shouldn't you at least consult with me?"

Ironic amusement filled her tone, although a hint of anger threatened.

"Would you have done it differently?" He tilted his head to the side, wondering if she seriously had a better alternative.

"Doing it differently isn't the point," she told him as she began to pack away their notepads. "The point is," she turned back to him, "consult with me next time. And I will be telling my daughter good-bye before we leave."

She strode from the office with her shoulders straight, her head held high.

"Consider that a warning, my friend." Callan chuckled behind him as he and the others rose to their feet. "Even for the sake of expediency, never, ever make decisions of the family nature without the direct input of your mate. The results could otherwise be fatal."

Evidently they could be. Jonas scratched at the side of his jaw as he gave the other men a rakish smile. Turning to leave the room, he thought the world might be a little brighter today.

He'd watched Callan and the others being gently chastised by their wives on more than one occasion, and he'd always felt an odd sort of envy for it. They'd possessed mates who lovingly guided them in how to be a part of a family, how to be more than a Breed within a unit of Breeds. How to be more than soldiers or killers.

Over the years, he'd seen the results of that guiding influence. Men who had once known nothing but death could laugh; they played with their children; they made silly faces at babies and they moved in a world that included more than blood, death and punishment.

Jonas had longed for that world. He'd longed to be a part of more than the blood and death, the past that haunted him. He had that now. And he intended to keep it. "Senator Tyler has arranged to delay the meeting with the appropriations committee to allow us time to arrive and to gather our information," Rachel informed him as they stepped into the back of the heli-jet. "He doesn't have the details of their supposed proof, but one of the other members who keeps his sympathy for the Breeds secret has advised him to warn us that they have circumstantial evidence at present, and that Senator Racert is working to build upon it."

"Good luck," Jonas grunted as he helped her strap in, before clipping his own safety harness and preparing for lift-off. "Does Tyler have any idea what information we should bring with us?"

She was frowning as she scrolled through the reports she was receiving. "At present his contact is fairly certain they're concentrating on all missions conducted with the U.S. and Israeli military through last year and going into this year," she answered shortly as she began using the electronic notebook's holographic keypad and typing furiously. "We have a total of a dozen missions conducted with the Mossad, Jonas, but nothing that could even come close to providing us with a chance to conduct a military maneuver or act of aggression against the U.S. or any of the other nations that have contributed to the Breeds' funding."

"Start running probables," he told her as he pulled his own E-pad from her briefcase. "I want to know which missions would have come close to presenting such opportunities. Don't confine the parameters to the Israeli missions; branch out to all countries that are a part of the Breed financial accord."

She was nodding as he spoke, working to get the information into the pad as the heli-jet raced for D.C.

"We'll need to stop at the Bureau offices," she told him. "Lawe should have the files pulled by the time we get there. We can head to the Justice Department, where the senators are convening."

Jonas gave a slight nod as he continued to pull up information on his own pad. There had to be a reason for the sudden investigation into their funds. No doubt the reason for it was completely falsified, but even the senators involved with the appropriations committee knew that the Breeds didn't depend on the funds allocated from the financial accord.

"ETA in ten minutes, Director Wyatt," Jackal informed them as Jonas began reviewing missions. "Let's eliminate any chance of a surprise here."

"Do you have any idea the number of missions that have gone out in the past eighteen months?" She stared back at him doubtfully, as though he had somehow lost his mind.

"Exactly three hundred and fifty-four missions; seventeen planning-phase aborts and twenty-six en-route aborts. That doesn't count the four hundred and fifty-seven refusals we gave in the same amount of time. Should I give you the number of privately subsidized missions we've taken in the same amount of time?" he queried.

"One hundred and thirty-six privately subsidized missions, of which there were seventy-two refusals, fifty-three planning-phase aborts and thirteen en-route aborts. Should I catalog them into amounts of kidnappings to extractions to private security?" She glanced back at him with a grin.

Damn if she wasn't good. It was one of the things that had immediately struck him once she began working for him. She knew how to keep track of information as well as the various details of the work he did. That ability, though sometimes irksome in the regard that it limited certain activities, had made many parts of his job much easier.

Shaking his head, his lips quirked at the need to grin, but he was damned if he would let it free. It might not stop at a grin. He might very well end up with a full-fledged fool's smile on his face. And Jackal was already way too attentive to the byplay between them. No doubt, there were bets going on as to the timing of certain phases of their relationship. The most common bets were how long it would take a Breed's mate to make them smile. That, and who would catch him grinning first. Jackal possibly had a bet riding on that smile.

"Lawe will be waiting on us in your office," Rachel told him as she glanced back to the E-pad. He has the files ready in the reader we use for the committees, loaded and unencrypted. Does he need anything else?"

Jonas shook his head. "Have him meet us in the parking garage. We'll take the limo to the Justice Department. How much longer do we have?"

"One hour before the hearing."

There was still had time.

Nodding, he shut the E-pad down, stored it back in Rachel's case, then stared into D.C.'s cloud-riddled skyline. The weather was calling for a blizzard. He hoped they made it home this evening before it hit. He had planned for champagne in front of the fire, the skylight over the fireplace opened and the blizzard blowing around them as he made love to his mate.

It wasn't a plan that he wanted to cancel.

"Snipers report all-clear," Jackal called back from the cockpit. "All areas secured for landing."

"Take her down," Jonas ordered, his gaze moving over the area as he assessed it for possible threats.

The heli-jet set down within the landing pad on the roof. Jonas quickly released Rachel's flight straps before releasing the catch on his own. Jackal threw open the door and Jonas jumped out, then turned, gripped his mate's waist and set her gently on the floor of the roof, all the while shielding her body with his own.

"Stay here," he ordered as he turned back to Jackal. "We should be ready to fly before dark. I want to get back before the snow hits."

It was definitely going to snow. Jonas could feel the threat of weather in the air, almost taste the ice crystals on his tongue. There was an overwhelming urge to turn around and fly back to Sanctuary.

"I'll be here," Jackal assured him as he reached in and handed Jonas the heavy briefcase Rachel had brought with them.

Turning to the building's entrance, Jonas checked to make certain the Enforcers were in place before they headed across the roof. They moved quickly toward the pair as Jonas indicated he was ready to leave the safety of the shield offered by the heli-jet.

Surrounded by the three Enforcers, they made their way quickly across the roof and into the elevator.

"Enforcer Justice is waiting in the garage," the Breed at his side informed Jonas. "He asked that you be apprised that the limo is waiting outside the elevator and ready to roll."

Jonas gave a quick nod as he laid his hand against Rachel's lower back and handed her the briefcase, in preparation of escorting her quickly into the limo.

The doors slid open on the basement level. An Enforcer stepped out, opened the back door and Jonas helped Rachel into the limo before stepping in himself.

The door closed behind them, the locks snapping into place.

Jonas jerked alert at the sound, his hand going quickly to the door handle to attempt to jerk it open. With his strength and the rage pounding through him, it would have been no large feat to trip the mechanism in the door.

"Do you want me to kill your mate?" The voice through the intercom system was well-known and filled with amused satisfaction. "Alert the Breeds outside that there's a problem, and I promise you she'll die."

Jonas's gaze sliced to Rachel. She was silent, staring back at him with wide, shocked eyes as her hand slid slowly inside the opened compartment of the briefcase.

She was sitting with her back to the driver's area, the case on her lap, and he knew what she was doing. She was pressing the wipe key to the E-pads and erasing all the information they contained.

As her hand slid back from the case, the partition slid down, revealing Phillip Brandenmore's bodyguard, Josef Svenson. The weasel-faced, dark-haired Svenson watched them through beady eyes, a smile curling his thin lips.

"Ms. Broen, please move to Mr. Wyatt's side, if you don't mind."

Rachel allowed the briefcase to slide silently to the floor of the limo as she moved to sit beside Jonas, facing the bodyguard silently.

"So tell me." He leveled a lethal, black laser handgun at Rachel's head. "Where's the brat? I thought Mommy never left home without her."