Mission: Impossible to Deny (The Impossible Mission Romantic Suspense Series Book 7), Jacki Delecki [polar express read aloud .TXT] 📗

“Leave the bag alone. You’re only to access your computer when Galina is here.”

Scratch plan A. But Reeves was persistent and solving the most difficult problems was his forte. Strategically, he should wait until McDonald left to even the odds. He had to assume that Galina was an SVR agent trained in torture and assassination. He would need to get close to her to immobilize her, but what to do with an armed Muscle? The alternative was torture and death. Analysis could only get you so far. It all came down to the right opportunity.

He had to escape before they got to the torture. He had a high pain tolerance, but he’d rather skip the whole experience. He assumed she was going to make him give her the unique coding that they used to develop the game. Whoever was running this operation seemed to think Reeves needed his computer to access the files. Not sure if he saw the logic in this line of reasoning. If they planned to “extract” the code, why couldn’t he use any computer?

And when he didn’t give up the codes, the fun would begin. He wished he had a reason why their game, out of the hundreds of thousands of games, was singled out?

Muscle’s phone beeped. “She’s here.”

Reeves’s heart rate was off to the races. He stood, not wanting to give Galina any advantage. All his childhood chess tournaments were paying off for psyching out an opponent.

Expecting Natasha, a sleek Russian villain with harsh features from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Reeves was shocked by his nemesis’s appearance. Galina, an overweight, thirty-something woman with mousy hair and horn-rimmed glasses that were sliding down her nose, wore a denim jacket and a Game of Thrones backpack.

“What took you so long?” Reeves crossed his arms over his chest. He had learned to take the offensive right at the beginning of a meeting from Richard Dean.

Galina blinked. Her wide-rim glasses made her look like a baby owl. “You have somewhere to go, Mr. Hewitt?”

She had no Russian accent and was dressed as if she belonged at a con of some sort.

Reeves shrugged.

“Fine, let’s get started. Give me your computer and the password.”

McDonald spoke to Muscle as he moved toward the door. “I’m out of here. What do you want?”

Muscle followed McDonald to the door, his back to the room. “I’m tired of burgers. Get us some teriyaki or sushi. And get this one some coffee.”

With Muscle distracted, Reeves sat and opened his bag. His computer was his only weapon. Not exactly a well-hatched plan, but desperate times called for less than brilliant moves.

Placing her PC on the table, Galina moved around the table to sit next to him. “I don’t want them to hurt you. But you know from seeing your friend Thompson what happens when you don’t cooperate.”

Reeves spotted the grip of a handgun sticking out from her denim jacket pocket—so much for the assumption from her clothing choices that Galina was “tech only.” Could he be fast enough to grab the gun from a Russian agent before Muscle reacted? Anxiety and fear worked as well as caffeine. Scenarios were rapidly firing as he sorted through the probability of which one had the best chance of a non-dead, non-shot-to-the-head outcome.

“Why don’t I sign in for you? It will make it a lot quicker. And you won’t need to spend hours trying to get in.”

“Just like that, you’re going to sign in for me?” She’d never get into anything important, not even the game files. All his work was encrypted and encrypted again in his “special” way. A fake login would nuke this computer and set up a help call. And in case his escape failed, he had already overwritten the code in his files to prevent anyone from accessing the game. He’d made the changes on their flight to Santa Barbara while Darcy slept.

“Maybe. Are you sure that Snakes Ahead doesn’t have open source code?”

Galina pushed her glasses back on her nose. “Think you’re so clever. Not when they break your fingers one at a time. You’ll download the code.”

“That seems counterintuitive to get what you need.”

Reeves’s fingers were flying over the keyboard. She watched his screen. “We updated the graphics not too long ago with C++unreal. Are you familiar with the coding? Or are you more of a GC# kind of girl?”

He hoped the damn CIA and Izzy were tracking all sign-ins for the game before he made his getaway. He might make it out of the building alive, but it got more complicated and a lot dicier if he were in Tijuana.

His heart thumped against his chest, and his stomach churned like a wind turbine. He opened Snakes Ahead and typed in “XChoco” as the player.

“I want to show you what a difference C++unreal made to the graphics. Look closely. Do you see how well we’ve done with the GPUs?  It’s hard to appreciate since you haven’t seen the old version, have you?”

She leaned forward, unable to not look like any gamer/geek. Her gun was within his grasp. It was now or torture.

“Close down the game and open your files, or he’ll break your thumb.”

He hesitated, pretending to decide. “I thought you’d appreciate the graphics.”

With a loud, dramatic sigh, he slowly closed the game. With his left hand, he lifted the PC and slammed it with full force into her face. Her head snapped back. He hadn’t knocked her out, but he was able to stun her, giving him time to grab her gun.

Muscle reached, but Reeves already had her Russian-made GSh-18 pressed against Galina’s temple. “Give me a reason to fire this baby. I should blast you for what you did to my friend and the CIA agent.”

Galina’s nose was broken from the amount of blood gushing, and her glasses had fallen onto the table. Reeves yanked her upright by the arm, never losing sight of