Yael banded her arms across her stomach and leaned back in her chair. Sweat formed on her skin and she started to shake as if she’d run a marathon. “I think it was different this time,” she gritted out. “I think he knew we were coming.”

Suddenly the camera light on her laptop turned green and she found herself staring directly at the masked face of the so-called Evi1Geni-us.

Ice flashed in a cold wave over her skin. He’d somehow gotten into her system and taken control of her camera. He wasn’t in that room with Anya Baker anymore. He was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere he felt safe.

This bastard, who everyone else could see as her screen was being fed to another large monitor, was staring straight at her. He could see her face.

And she couldn’t breathe…

2

“Hello, Sphinx.” His voice echoed with distortion. “Such a pretty thing—thought you were clever, too, didn’t you? Tut tut. You’ll never be as clever as me.”

Her pulse pounded as if someone had plugged her into the mains socket.

Alex was typing frantically.

“Anya was pretty too—in the beginning. I wonder what you’ll sound like when you beg for mercy? Or perhaps you like pain…”

Alex stuck his thumb over her camera as the rush of blood to her ears deafened her.

Pulling herself together, she launched herself onto her keyboard and tried to follow Evi1Geni-us’s tracks as he fled back along the system. She hit a brick wall. Then he vanished.

She could find him. She simply needed a little time.

“Turn it off,” Chen snapped.

Yael’s stomach flipped as she stared at the agent, her fingers still typing commands. “I can track him.”

“I said turn it off.” Chen’s eyes were hard as they assessed her.

Yael’s hands hesitated as they hovered over the keyboard. Given the opportunity she could find him and the likelihood was he wasn’t physically that distant from where they all sat stunned and defeated. Alex watched her with a fierce expression.

This was the best chance they had of finding this monster…

“Now!” Chen started walking toward her.

“Do as Agent Chen says, Yael,” Alex said finally. “Let’s figure out how he snuck inside your machine before we race after him and risk compromising ourselves if he set another trap.”

Yael blew out a shaky breath. Reluctantly she shut down her laptop and removed the battery to make doubly sure the bastard couldn’t do any damage if he’d planted some Trojan or worm.

“Let’s establish what he saw and whether or not he got into any of the other systems,” Chen said.

“He didn’t,” Alex assured the FBI analyst.