Courting Passion by Elizabeth Lapthorne

forward, placed his mug on the scarred coffee table and booted up his laptop. Katherine scooted closer to Garth. He turned the screen so they could both see as he started working.
    “I want to start a background search combining Connor and the company that rents out that office space,” Garth spoke as he typed.
    “Both receptionists knew who Connor was, though he appeared to be a friend—not a collaborator—of James and Robert,” Katherine mused as Garth continued working the keyboard. He nodded.
    “Agreed. James and Robert frequently came in early, before anyone started for the day, and presumably worked on their websites and posted whatever conspiracy proof they’d unearthed. The receptionist was surprised to see Connor in so early.
    “That, coupled with the clear fact he was working on Oscar’s hard drive, decrypting it for sure, leads us to believe he must have been an easy contact for Oscar. Someone he knew had skills in computer code and encryption software, but also a tech he had ready, easy access to. It’s barely been twenty-four hours since Oscar got his hands on the hard drive, so this was his gut reaction, not a well-organised, structured response.”
    “So it isn’t a leap of logic to conclude Oscar has ties with the corporation itself, or with its owners,” Katherine concluded. “He might have used these techs in the past, he might have family ties to it, or possibly it came highly recommended from someone he trusts.”
    “I hadn’t thought of that,” Garth confessed as he opened a new tab to start a new search with the extra parameters. “Oscar could have turned to an accomplice, or the Agency mole asked for help and followed their recommendation for whom to turn to. That’s a valid point, Katherine.”
    It didn’t take them long to realise MacKenzie Industries—the company that rented the office—was a shell corporation. After copious digging and drinking another full pot of tea they made their first breakthrough.
    “There should be a branch of the government to dig into such generic corporations as this,” Katherine insisted, exhausted frustration clear in her tone. “Has it struck you that whoever has worked so hard to bury this board behind MacKenzie Industries must have had help?”
    “Oh yeah,” Garth replied, his eyes locked on the screen. “I can think of two simple answers to how hard we’re having to dig. One, Oscar hired a professional to bury all the paperwork and data. That means he’s well connected and flush with cash. The other method I can think of is he has a co-conspirator, either the mole or someone else well connected, and they handled this side of their business. Buried everything under so much secrecy and red tape it’s creating this nightmare for us.”
    “If Jennings does have an accomplice it would make sense they’d cover his tracks. By covering Oscar’s arse they protect their own. A mole has a lot more to lose than Jennings. Jennings will do hard time, but the mole will be branded a traitor. Lose their standing and privileged lifestyle. We could really be opening a can of worms here.”
    “You don’t sound too worried,” Garth shot her a quick smile.
    Katherine shook her head. “I’m not. If the toes I step on or the arse I kick is working against the Agency, our government and way of life I’ll happily do what I can to bring them down.”
    “You know what we could really do with?” Garth spoke again minutes later. “Another set of hands.”
    Katherine tilted her head, a small frown on her face. She wasn’t sure who Garth could mean, but then the light dawned.
    “You want to call in Victor?” she surmised. Garth nodded and searched her face with his gaze.
    “He’s paid a steep price for this data, he was prepared to give his life for it. He nearly did by the look of him when we finally helped exchange him. He’s Agency, too, has all the clearance needed to run back-traces on all these blocks and red tape being thrown at