Catalyst (Breakthrough Book 3)(79)

His computer microphone had been activated. And it had been on for over twenty minutes before his program flagged it as unusual.

Borger quietly pushed himself away from his desk, sliding back in his chair. Someone was in the system. And someone just listened to everything he had said.





Borger burst out of the lab, heading directly for the stairs where he sprinted to the top. He continued, running up another flight until he reached the next floor and an outside exit. He pushed through the glass door and into an outdoor foyer before pulling his satellite phone back out and redialing.

“Clay!” he shouted between heavy breaths. “We have a breach!”

“What?”

“A breach! Someone is in the system! And they just listened to our last conversation!”

“Are you sure?!”

“Yes, I’m sure. And if they’re in my system, everything could be compromised!”

“What do you mean by everything?”

“I mean, everything. Wei, the case, his daughter, the hospital. Everything!” Borger stopped in his tracks. “Shit. That means they probably know about you too. And where you are!”

“Dammit!” Clay growled. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the Chinese. They might have found out I was poking around their systems. So, whatever they didn’t know before, they probably know now. And if they do, they might also know where you’re headed. Hurry!”

Clay shot a look at Tang. “Step on it!”

Tang grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and mashed the accelerator down. The Honda’s small engine immediately surged and began picking up speed.

“Find out who it is!”

“I will.” As Borger turned back toward the door, he suddenly had an idea. He immediately rushed back down the stairs as fast as he’d come up.

If someone was listening…maybe they were still listening.





44





The expression on M0ngol’s face did not change when he heard Borger rush back into his lab. Nor was he fooled with the man’s attempted misdirection. He listened with a slight smile as Borger pretended to be on the phone again, giving different information. It was quick thinking, but something M0ngol was half expecting once the man realized he was being bugged with his own system.

M0ngol had hoped it would take longer to detect his presence. Previous targets had taken days or even weeks to detect the hack, which indicated just how careful this man Wil Borger was. The dearth of data M0ngol had to piece together in order to tunnel back showed Borger to be extremely savvy. The man was not to be underestimated.

Of course, if he were smart, Wil Borger would immediately power down his entire system, which was exactly what it sounded like when the microphone on the other end promptly went dead.

He had been found out, but it didn’t matter. M0ngol calmly reached for his phone and dialed Qin’s number.

“Go ahead.”

“How close are you to a computer?” M0ngol asked.

“Five minutes.”

“Good. Let me know when you’re online. I have something to show you. And you’d better hurry. We don’t have much time.”

He hung up the phone and began typing. He brought up a large map of Beijing and zoomed in, looking for G111 highway. He then switched screens and replayed the audio from Borger’s microphone, listening again to his conversation with someone named Clay. M0ngol wrote down the coordinates, then looked up and typed them in. The map on his screen jumped north, zeroing in on a small building which matched Borger’s description –– the hospital.

He then worked the distance back toward Beijing by three hours and thirty-nine minutes, giving him an estimate of Clay’s location. Next he factored in a change in speed after hearing the car accelerate in the background.

M0ngol watched as his computer began calculating and answered his phone again when Qin called back.

“I’m on.”

“Is this your laptop?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on. I’ll connect.”

A moment later, Qin watched as a map was displayed on his own screen.

“We found who broke into our systems. It looks like we’re not the only ones looking for Wei’s daughter. They think they know where she is.”

“Who?”

“A small group inside the U.S. Navy.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes. They just severed our connection.”

Qin’s map jumped to an overhead satellite picture of Washington, D.C. –– with a prominent red icon identifying the Pentagon building.

Qin nodded. “So, where is she?”

“They think she’s here.” The map changed to an image of the small building surrounded by trees. “And two of them are almost there. They should arrive in just under three hours.”