Smart, wasn’t he? Well, the guy had walked away in one piece from the mob. “I need that journal,” Raider said.

Sean scoffed. “You going to just walk in the front door with it?”

Raider glanced at Nari and then back. Sean was holding something back. He could feel it. But he’d have to figure out what later. “No. I’m going in without it first.” He jerked his head at Wolfe. “We can’t leave Brigid in there by herself any longer. We’ll have Force get the information, but we have to go right now.”

Sean shook his head. “You go in there without something to trade, and you’ll be dead in less than a minute.”

Raider breathed out. It was a chance he’d have to take.

* * *

Brigid had unraveled Eddie’s passwords in about ten minutes and delved deep into his home accounts, making mental notes of anybody he emailed often. There was no evidence of crime on the computer or in the emails, but she found a trail to a series of computers she pinged to a bar on the outskirts of Boston. There was a computer system there, but she couldn’t get into it. The server must be local and it was protected well. She memorized the address.

She caught sight of another protected file and went to work, using an encryption code she’d created. She found numbers and dates and other numbers. What were those? Latitude and longitude? She memorized the page, trying to make sense of it. Some of the material was a code, and she ran through several she knew, finally unraveling a series of places: Thailand, India, and Haiti. She memorized the entire sheet.

Then she scrolled through his email. Nothing. What about another account? Humming, she ran another algorithm and found a secret account where Eddie was named Bulldog. It kind of fit. The recipient was called Lion. Interesting. Dogs and cats didn’t usually get along. Her blood quickened as she caught a scent. She traced it, following it, and found Lion on another site. Then another, and finally, a name. “Scot Tyson,” she murmured. How did she know that name?

Then a sound echoed down the hall and she quickly exited the computer and rushed to sit, settling the blanket over her legs.

The door opened, and Eddie Coonan walked in, knife in hand.

She jumped over the side of the chair and edged around it, her mind spinning. She’d taken some defense classes at the HDD, but securing a knife from an experienced killer was out of her skill set. “Get away from me.”

He walked inside, his clothes somehow still perfectly pressed. “I’ll only take a pinkie or an earlobe. It’s your choice.”