Jigsaw (Black Raven Book 2) by Stella Barcelona Page A

classified, sensitive information into the company. One result of the prison break and hiring Barrows was that Black Raven became privy to Shadow Technology—the top-secret data collection and assimilation program Barrows had designed for the government.
    Zeus and Sebastian, working with Barrows and Ragno in the months after Black Raven acquired both Barrows and Shadow Technology, believed that Shadow Technology could enhance the pending DHS and NSA projects. Every bit of brainpower possessed by Barrows and Ragno, and others in Black Raven’s cyber division, had resulted in Jigsaw—a program tailored to DHS and NSA concerns. Meanwhile, terrorist activities were escalating. Zeus gave Barrows a couple of months of lag time for research and development, then personally pitched the project to the Secretary of the DHS and the Director of the NSA, who were under increasing pressure from President Cameron to damn well do something about terrorism. Zeus and Sebastian gave the new project the code name Jigsaw, the name of the Barrows-designed program that ran it. Forming a collaborative, top-secret task force, the DHS and NSA hired Black Raven for Jigsaw.
    With funding secured, and with Barrows having free rein on the job, Jigsaw blossomed into a wide-ranging project that had the potential to throttle the terrorists who now held the world in a chokehold. Jigsaw was tasked with the wide-ranging, lofty goal of a safer and more secure America. The program compiled, assimilated, and assessed data from intelligence agencies worldwide. The objective was to predict behavior and defeat organizations like Maximov and others, who managed to succeed in coordinated terrorist acts like those the ITT was investigating and the recent bombing in Las Vegas.
    Barrows was working out kinks, performing upgrades, creating shortcuts, and analyzing output. The Vegas New Year’s Eve bombing had produced shockwaves for Barrows, Ragno, and Zeus—because the program hadn’t predicted it. Barrows now assured Zeus the program was almost operating at a level where answers could be produced. Answers to burning questions, like where the hell is Maximov.
    Damn program should have an answer.
    There were other questions, as well, such as the questions the ITT was investigating, whether there was a link between the terrorist acts at issue in the trial, whether the Maximov organization was funding the current wave of terrorism, and what terrorist organization was behind the Las Vegas New Year’s Eve bombing.
    If answers aren’t produced soon, we’ll be skewered.
    Jigsaw’s level of secrecy was the highest Zeus had ever known. Now, six months after Black Raven had been officially hired by the DHS and NSA on Jigsaw, only a select few were even aware of the breath and scope of Black Raven’s Jigsaw. Even some of the agencies that were collecting and compiling their own data regarding credible terrorist threats—Maximov being one such threat—weren’t aware that Black Raven was using their information.
    A point that brought Zeus back to Samuel’s question. Is Black Raven working on the bounty hunt for Maximov?
    “No,” he lied easily. “We’re not pursuing the bounty.”
    True answer—hell yes.
    If Jigsaw produced information that would lead to the apprehension of Maximov, Black Raven would have the terrorist nailed to a fucking wall in a matter of hours. They’d happily claim the bounty, even though Jigsaw’s fee far surpassed anything that could legitimately be charged for a mere bounty hunt. As it was, clues as to Maximov’s whereabouts were starting to come in. Teams of elite agents had been mobilized.
    “Why not?” Samuel asked.
    Here goes. This is why I get paid one hell of a lot of money. I’m damn good at the creative lying that comes with top-secret government jobs.
    “We’re not bounty hunters. We’re paid for our services. Expenses for a team of elite agents searching the world for Maximov, with the kind of dedicated analytical power