Security Breach

  “Where does he expect us to go?”

  Instead of answering, Nora focused her eyes on the horizon, which was now stained with pink. Daybreak had nearly arrived. They were almost out of time.

  “Find a way for me to rig this throttle, Randall.”

  He rushed back down to the galley.

  Two minutes and twenty-eight seconds.

  He returned to her side with a bungee cord, and they wrapped it around the throttle, holding the boat’s engine at its maximum speed.

  “Let’s go.” Nora tossed him a life preserver.

  As they ran toward the back of the boat, they both fastened the belts of the preservers and pulled the cord that would inflate them.

  “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  The water was cold and dark as he plunged beneath the waves. Bobbing to the top, he spotted Nora and side-stroked toward her. They could hear the Tahlequah’s engines, but the boat itself was now out of sight. Then the morning’s peacefulness was shattered by the explosion. The waves hit them a few seconds later.

  Once the waters had calmed, Nora nodded back toward Seattle. Morning was breaking over the city.

  Instead of high-fiving her, Randall pulled her closer, as close as they could get while they were both wearing fluorescent life preservers. “That was close.”

  “Indeed it was.”

  “You think that rope around Dresden’s waist was knotted?”

  “Something tells me it might not have been, but that’s a problem for another day.”

  The sound of a boat approaching rose over the thud of Randall’s heartbeat. He’d wanted more excitement than sitting behind a computer, but as his granny liked to say, be careful what you wish for.

  As they waved at the rescue boat, he realized that they couldn’t possibly stop all the dangers facing America—cyber or otherwise. But today they’d succeeded in stopping one, and for now, that was good enough.

  The End