Free Big Bad Wolf by Gennita Low

obviously a female computer. “Well, I guess I’ll fix us something to eat and do some chores. Holler if you need me.”
    “OK.”
    She studied him a moment longer. So much for freshening up. What’d it be like to be at the receiving end of that unwavering concentration? At that moment, he raked an impatient hand through those dark, luxuriant too-long locks, muttered something back to the machine, and went back to typing. His eyes hadn’t left the screen since she came in. All that lipstick, she mournfully sighed again. Wasted.
    When she left the room, Nick heaved an answering sigh of his own. Frustration dominated the jumbled emotions he felt. Frustration and anger. It was disconcerting. He had, before him, what he needed—easy access to spend time online and break through firewalls so he could leave a message for his contact privately—and he should be feeling elated at his good luck. Instead, all he wanted to do at the moment was lock the study door and kiss a certain woman into telling him her secrets. The memory of the taste of her mouth called him, and the thought of her kissing somebody else after he left her the night before felt like a 100-lb weight on his chest.
    Everything about her told him she was a loner, unattached, and had been for awhile, but he could be wrong. Maybe she did have a fianc é somewhere and he just hadn’t shown his face around the job sites, that was all. And maybe the fianc é would have his face smashed in, if he ever did.
    Nick took a deliberate deep breath and exhaled. She was interrupting his focus. With resolute grimness, he pushed everything to the back of his mind, allowing only thoughts about the computer to remain. He was almost done playing with the operating program. Fixing what was wrong was easy enough, but he needed to rewrite parts of the program for his needs.
    Just as he’d suspected, Jaymee wasn’t using DSL or wireless. He kind of understood her thinking by now. Hell, he’d seen her cheap cell phone. He’d also noticed the TV antenna on the roof. She was cutting back on every little luxury most people took for granted. That would be over a thousand dollars of savings there in the bank.
    He’d come prepared . Looking under the desk, he disengaged the phone line that hooked up the older computer to the wall outlet. Then he stood up and checked the back of the new computer and found the phone line dangling loose. Holding the line in his mouth, he pulled out a small plastic packet from his back pocket and poured its contents onto the table. Several tiny flat microchips the size of fish flake food scattered out.
    Nick cocked his head, listening intently for Jaymee’s movements outside the study. He heard her moving around the sink area. Making lunch, from the sounds of it. Pulling out a pair of tweezers from the other back pocket, he used them to pick up a chip. He released the line he was holding in his mouth into his other hand, and with a quick practiced twist, he inserted the microchip into the connector, firmly pressing it into place. He plugged it into the outlet in the wall.
    It took another five minutes before his link went through. He hesitated when the password was requested. If he gave it, Command would know he was alive, and so would anyone else monitoring his password. They wouldn't be able to read hi s message, but they’d know he wasn’t dead, and after the narrow escape from his boat, h e had a feeling his demised condition was very important to the enemy. If he’d been betrayed from the inside, then their attempt to kill him had failed.
    No. He would have to break in. There were only a few personnel in his agency who could trace or recognize his encryptions, and really, only one who knew how to decode it, and then disguise a similar message back to him. Step by step, his mind took him through the logistics. Override the security checkpoints. Invade through disguise. Disrupt by merging simple commands. Then make sure only one person would come