He’d been extra diligent about covering his tracks this past week. Yesterday, when he’d had his best opportunity yet to breach the Cybersecurity Department, after he’d found the room’s coded doorlock hadn’t latched completely after the last person entered the room, he’d decided against it. The risk of getting caught had been too high. It turned out to be the right decision. The head of security had walked out just a few seconds later. Daniel had managed to play it off, but maybe he hadn’t been as convincing as he’d thought. Had someone become suspicious?

By the time they reached Justin’s office, Daniel had chosen the story he would use out of the five he and his team back at FinCEN had devised were someone to make him while on a job.

“I—” he started.

“Did you hear about Mike?” Justin cut him off.

Mike?

“Yeah, I did,” Daniel said. “Jerry Johnson just told me. Sounds as if Mike’s lucky to be alive.”

He really needed to figure out who this Mike guy was.

“I went to the hospital to see him yesterday,” Justin said. “He’s in good spirits, but in a lot of pain.”

Daniel nodded in sympathy. It would be nice to know what any of this had to do with him. Did Trendsetters have some program for helping injured employees that they wanted him to get some training on like everything else?

“I’d like you to take Mike’s place on a new project that’s starting up,” Justin said, putting to rest his speculation. “I know the two of you aren’t in the same department, but given the work you did at Four Corners Technologies, I think you’d be a good fit.”

Daniel did a mental rundown of the various jobs on his résumé. Four Corners Technologies. India. Quality control analyst.

“What’s the project about?” he asked.

Justin gestured for him to follow. “Come with me. The new team is getting together for their initial kickoff meeting.”

Daniel followed him out of the office and into the larger, more traditional conference room. About a dozen people from various departments sat around the table. Justin nodded to John Kim. “He’s agreed to join,” his supervisor said. Then he turned to the others.

“With Mike out for the duration of this project, I’ve asked Daniel to come on as his replacement. Daniel did Quality Control on a previous project for a defense contract with the DOD. To be honest, even if Mike was available I would still bring Daniel in. He’s a good match for this team.

“As you all know, this project sprung up quickly, and has a very short, four-week turnaround, so things will move at a pretty good clip. John will serve as co-captain.” Justin paused as the door opened. “And here’s our other co-captain.”