"Do you normally make-out with the people you're hired to kill? It doesn't strike me as very professional."
"Put the gun down," Gabriel panted, not answering her.
"Why on earth would I do that?"
"Because you're not going to shoot me," Gabriel rep...
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Happy wasn't an emotion Henry felt often. Satisfied, yes. Calm, frequently. Bored, almost always. But today he was enjoying the rare sensation of happiness. His project was going to launch in 36 hours, he had just tormented Alexander, and now he was watching as his daughter effortlessly reviewed the programming his tech team had done.
As Ashlyn's fingers flew over the keys, Henry was reminded of his late wife, Dianne. What she lacked in emotional stability she generally made up for in intelligence and obedience. And she had clearly taught their daughter well. Dianne had been the ideal partner for him in so many ways.
It was a shame he ended up having to kill her.
Dianne was smart, but he was smarter. He knew she had been compiling information about his plans, was going to turn over the files to the feds, and then planned to disappear into witness protection with Carter and his Ashlyn. He should have killed her the first time she ran from him, but he didn't think she was stupid enough to make the same mistake twice.
He looked fondly at his daughter as she kept working. He had been able to mold her from childhood. She wouldn't make her mother's same mistakes.
Most of the coding work had been done on the front end of the project. At this point, the only thing they had to do was make sure the programs for launch day were ready to go. They had hundreds of water systems they were targeting; in order for their plan to be as successful as possible, they needed to disable any security systems at those plants without anyone noticing.
"There's nothing technically wrong with this code," Ashlyn told him as she worked. "It's just going to be obvious to anyone paying any attention that something isn't quite right. There are ways to make your program far less detectable."
"That you can do in under 36 hours?"
"I can do it in under 24," Ashlyn said with a determined glint in her eyes. "I just need silence."
Henry nodded. "I'll bring your meals in here and tell everyone else not to bother you."
Almost immediately after he left the computer lab, he ran into Sievert.
"Sir, we've been looking for you," Sievert said, relieved. "We found Martinez."
Just when he thought his day couldn't get any better. Finding Martinez was icing on the proverbial cake.
"We also have Kyle VanNess. Do you want me to get rid of him?"
"He's the civil engineer, right?" Henry asked. Sievert nodded in confirmation. "Keep him for now. He could end up proving useful. Test him, see how good he is at his job. Then I'll decide whether we let him live."
"And Martinez?" Sievert asked.
"Bring me to him."
As Sievert led him to Martinez, Henry felt another rare feeling: excitement. Henry was looking forward to meeting the person who was naïve enough to think he stood a chance against him. He had studied Martinez's file extensively, but demographic information and performance evaluations didn't give a full picture of who someone was.
