Covert-Completed(book 1 Dr Jenny Stevens Series)

Chapter 1

"Let's all take this in here shall we," state guy number 1. Miraculously a door opened in the wall to the right of us and I was hearded in despite my every effort to resist. 

Unsurprisingly there was a table with four chairs and nothing else inside. I was forced onto one seat and the guys pulled out the remaining to occupy the remaining three seats. I was seriously beginning to consider I was under arrest for some crime. But I was clean.  Wasn't I? I may have had a parking fine or two but nothing recent and I've not had a speeding ticket since..well since...forever.

"Jenny...," Guy 2 said rudely ignoring my PhD doctorate, " are you a hacker?"

Oh my God!  They knew! 

"Huh?" I tried to be dumb. I guess I was kind of stupid to try to get a foot in here when my past has been all but legit. I was a hacker but nothing would ever get me to admit it. Despite my past I have a keen need to share my skills where some good could be derived that would benefit others and not just myself.

The keyboard is my choice of weapon of mass destruction. I could take down nations with it let alone the meagre white collar criminals that run this country.  The department needed me and I needed access to their database.  Legit access would make my task that much easier.

"You were about to tell us just who you are," prompted my high school crush Josh.  I almost melted and revealed all right then. But I managed to rein in the urge and let out a giggle instead in the nick of time.  Just then the doors to the room burst open to admit Mr Lou the man who head hunted me.

"Dr Stevens I am so sorry for the missunderstanding.  The team has a unique way of expressing themselves," Mr Lou all but snarled at the team to back off. I felt the urge to giggle again.

"She won't do," said Josh not at all perturbed by Lou's reaction.

"What the fuck does that mean?  Let me remind you we chose her not the other way round, " Lou snapped.

"I mean she would have broken down.  Another two minutes and she would be squealing out all to us. She cannot handle the pressure and with the type of information she would be handling, she'd have to be someone a little more stout hearted." The assessment of my character was matter of factly delivered.

I frowned over what was being said.  They we right at all counts.  I got their concerns.  The type of privileged information that I would be handling would require someone tougher at its helm. I could toughen up. I would.

"What are you saying? " I asked bluntly.

"You need to toughen up. Can you handle a weapon? "

"The only weapon I'll need is a keyboard, I stated meaning business.

"Nope. That alone will not do.  You will have to undergo intense combat training and weapons handling. The bulk of what you'll do may be white collar crimes but a cornered criminal will seek a way out anyway he can. I won't have a member on this team who is ill equipped to handle the heat."

I looked at the intense greens of Josh and saw that he meant every word.

"You'll accept me if I do these training? " I asked for clarification.

"If you pass the training, " corrected Josh.

I nodded my head, " Agreed. " I had nothing to lose in trying and I might even learn some new skills along the way.

"Great training begins at 0800," Josh rose from the desk dismissively.

I leaned back against my chair.  "Don't I get an introduction? " I asked.

"If you pass the training I would  be glad to perform it," he offered unimpressed.

"Don't bother Josh. I alread know all about Pete, Mack, Robin, Alvin and yourself," I threw out my thrump card and I did know it all. I had a neat dossier on each and everyone compiled digitally in my trusty laptop. I guess I was as distrusting as them.

I walked out then with the team boring holes in my back every step of the way but I didn't give them the satisfaction of looking back.

I didn't like exams and this training was just that. I stepped out of the precinct into the brightly lit day and hailed a cab to take me home.

Home was a shared apartment with the wealthy son of a rich industrialist.  The hottest man to walk the face of this earth next to my high school heartrobe Josh of course. Cody Holton was every women's wet dream come true.  Blond, blue eyed, tanned musculature that fitted his six foot tall frame to perfection.

But there was one distinctive flaw that stood out and held all those women at bay.  No he was not gay. But he might as well have been for the white choke collar that he wore day in day out marked  him as clearly off the market to every eligible female who has pounded on his door.

Yes my hottie best friend was a very rich and ineligible priest. I was just thankfull he let me share his apartment at reduced rent. Staying at the posh Melbourne skyscraper, naturally made the torture of seeing but no touching bareable.