Facing Fear

Facing Fear Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: Facing Fear Read Online Free PDF
Author: Gennita Low
Tags: Suspense, Romance, Contemporary
today. Things people knew about him and things he knew about them. Facts that he couldn’t change, like his past, but the image that he now projected, he had built with the deliberate care of a toddler playing with Legos.
    He had learned the hard way that information was power. He now gathered it for his protection as well as use, if necessary. He had been trying to move up the ladder since his personal disaster, but one person had always stood in his way. Gorman. The ex-director of TIARA was his enemy; he was also his teacher, showing him how a mere piece of information could be used repeatedly to destroy one’s future. But now Gorman was in jail for selling information to the enemy.
    Rick typed in his password to activate his encrypted system. The program started to run after a series of executed commands. There were secret encoded files within his puppet files, things that only he knew about. He had collected a large one on Gorman, but he might as well toss that out. All these years of trying—and failing—to find something tangible to push Gorman out, only to have a hotshot SEAL operative sent into his very team blow the whistle. He didn’t feel bitter about that. Just…an overwhelming disappointment that revenge wasn’t his.
    Rick frowned. Of course, with Gorman now incarcerated, there was the problem that Task Force Two was going to be under investigation because they were essentially Gorman’s team. Not to mention the fact that Rick himself was the team’s operations chief, Gorman’s handpicked man. But if he could escape I.I., he could finally move up and regain access to certain archives. With Gorman and his threats out of the way, he would be able to request closed cases to be reopened.
    He opened Gorman’s file after a series of special coded prompts that disabled several firewalls. Cam’s wiretap before Gorman’s capture was going to play an important part in Task Force Two’s defense, and Rick knew that he had betterback up any evidence before politics started to dip its stinking fingers into the mess. Things had a strange way of disappearing when they caused big waves at the Department of Justice, especially if they involved big, important names.
    He slipped the tiny silver diskette into place and started data transfer. It took him a long time to learn how to program Shadow files, a new technology that scanned and transferred without trace. Cam’s recording at the department might disappear, but if they were going to use him for a sacrificial lamb, Rick wasn’t going down without a fight. Backups. Always have backups.
    Once the data transfer was completed and encrypted, he emptied the temp file cache and redisplayed the puppet files to cover his tracks. He was now an expert at that. It had become second nature to back up and cover and re-back up and hide. Sometimes he wondered if he peeled off all the layers he had put on, would he still find himself inside. He looked at the blinking cursor for a few seconds. Maybe not. Maybe he wasn’t inside there anymore. Maybe that was why he hated himself and his life sometimes. He had buried himself alive.
    One last thing before he finished. A new file. Nikki Taylor. He was going to have her in here, in a little box he could fill with data, where he could build her bit by bit so he would see the whole picture, where she couldn’t slip in and out of his dreams.
    By the time he relocked the study, Rick felt at ease, in charge of the situation. He was Hard-On again, bureaucrat and nobody’s victim.
     
    Nikki walked out into the open, making sure she didn’t interrupt any joggers. He hadn’t shown up this morning. He was, by all reports, a creature of habit. He took this hilly path, a scenic route favored for its hard climb and its direct contrast to the two-lane curvy highway across the chasm with its cars speeding down to Connecticut Avenue. On this side, the cars looked tiny and insignificant, and the winding jogging trail let everyone set his own
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