Knight Takes Queen

By Elizabeth Lapthorne

Peter is at a loose end. Bored, he drops in to tease fellow Agent Jane Harvey only to find her fighting off a technical hacking attempt. Drawn into a decade-long conspiracy, both Peter and Jane need to dig deep and rely on each other to save the Agency.

Peter Abrams is used to charming and talking his way into—and out of—every situation. But he's not so savvy when it comes to the technical side of things. Jane Harvey has never met a system she couldn't crack, but even she is kept on her toes when a hacker attempts to steal archived files from the Agency.

They're both drawn into the conspiracy, a deep, dark secret the Agency has been hiding for decades. Unsure who to trust, when even their own people might be involved, Peter and Jane try to treat this like any other case, but such delicate files are in play it's impossible to know where to turn.

Drawn together, Peter and Jane have to trust themselves and each other or the explosive revelations might destroy the very Agency they both work for and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
• Release date: Apr 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781784305024

Book preview

Page

A Totally Bound Publication

Knight Takes Queen

ISBN # 978-1-78430-502-4

©Copyright Elizabeth Lapthorne 2015

Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright March 2015

Edited by Sue Meadows

Totally Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2015 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN

Totally Bound Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

Warning:

This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Sizzling and a Sexometer of 2.

The Agency

KNIGHT TAKES QUEEN

Elizabeth Lapthorne

Book ten in The Agency series

Peter is at a loose end. Bored, he drops in to tease fellow Agent Jane Harvey only to find her fighting off a technical hacking attempt. Drawn into a decade-long conspiracy, both Peter and Jane need to dig deep and rely on each other to save the Agency.

Peter Abrams is used to charming and talking his way into—and out of—every situation. But he’s not so savvy when it comes to the technical side of things. Jane Harvey has never met a system she couldn’t crack, but even she is kept on her toes when a hacker attempts to steal archived files from the Agency.

They’re both drawn into the conspiracy, a deep, dark secret the Agency has been hiding for decades. Unsure who to trust, when even their own people might be involved, Peter and Jane try to treat this like any other case, but such delicate files are in play it’s impossible to know where to turn.

Drawn together, Peter and Jane have to trust themselves and each other or the explosive revelations might destroy the very Agency they both work for and love.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

BlackBerry: BlackBerry Limited

Skype: Skype Technologies S.A.

Chapter One

Oh. Well aren’t you a sneaky little bastard? Jane Harvey muttered to her computer screen as her fingers flew over the keyboard. Clacking filled the air of her tiny office. Leaning closer to her monitor, Jane moved her eyes as code scrolled past rapidly.

Oh yeah, didn’t expect that, did you, you jerk?

As one of the technology experts for the Agency, Jane enjoyed regularly pitching her talent against all sorts of twisted new systems. This one, however, took her by surprise at just how ingenious it was. Even as she watched, she saw the hacker mutate the code she’d inserted.

Hmm, that’s new, she murmured.

Talking to your screen again, Jane?

Jane turned for a moment and saw Peter leaning casually against her doorframe. Even as her cheeks flushed warmly, she forced her attention back to her computer. Though how she was to ignore how tall and well built he was she didn’t know. Peter was far too handsome—Jane had been crushing on the blond, blue-eyed man for months now. In pinstriped suit pants with a matching charcoal vest and blue shirt, Peter should have looked old-fashioned or stodgy but somehow he managed to look sexy.

Sometimes it’s the only one who understands half of what I say, Jane replied lightly as she continued to try and thwart her opponent’s attempts at slipping a Trojan into the Agency’s secure network. I know I haven’t made the next move on our chess game. I’m sorry. I thought you were on leave. Isn’t Maria due to pop any day now?

No worries, I just wanted to duck in and see you. It doesn’t always have to be about our little game. But yes, I’m hoping they reassign a new partner to me before she gives birth. I’m a lot harder to fob off if I’m present rather than hassling on email or something, Peter said.

Their online chess game—a thoroughly against the rules one to boot—had started out as a bit of a lark. Peter had been bored and roaming around. He’d noticed her playing a game by herself. That had been the first proper, non-mission related conversation they’d had. One thing had led to another and when she’d narrowly beaten him he’d immediately challenged her to a rematch.

That had been a few months ago and their friendship had blossomed with a healthy dose of competitiveness, too.

Peter came into her office and his large presence filled it immediately. He took the only other chair and sat next to her. Jane forced herself not to fidget. Even with her eyes firmly locked on the screen, she couldn’t help but be electrically aware of how close he was. She smelled the light, masculine scent of his aftershave and reminded herself she was in the middle of something. There wasn’t time to turn, stare, and drool over Peter Abrams right now.

Heaven forbid you grow bored, Peter, Jane teased him. No wonder you never made it as a tech. It’s often days of humdrum banality then something like this pops up. I swear this time management has gone a bit far. I know we need to be tested, to be proactive in upgrading our systems. But really…

What have you found? Peter leaned in closer and Jane caught her breath. He glanced at her and once more she found her face heating.

Well. She cleared her throat. I’d only be guessing, but my money is on that new technician, Roger, flexing his muscles. I’m well used to everyone else’s bag of tricks and this isn’t something I’ve come across before. The coding is amazing and convoluted. Well finessed. The target is trying to insert a Trojan into our system and I’m fighting him off, corrupting his code in real time.

How do you know it’s Roger? Peter asked as he peered at the screen with her.

Jane smiled. Well, it has to be someone from in the unit. They were already inside our firewalls and safety systems when they tripped a flag and came to my attention. Every couple of months management tests us like this, sets us against each other to playact duking it out. It keeps us sharp and can be used as a tool to make sure we understand how to follow the Agency’s procedures and fail-safes even when under pressure. It’s an exercise for us, like your physical tests or training courses.

But how can you be sure it’s not just a very good hacker? Peter pressed. Don’t these exercises usually come with prior notice?

Well, Jane paused, distracted. Well yeah, usually. We’re never told the date or anything. But a general notice that sometime in the coming month…but, but this can’t be a real attack. They started inside the system.

She heard herself repeating the last comment like a talisman. Jane stopped typing and looked directly at Peter for the first time that afternoon. Her insides froze as panic threatened. Peter’s cool blue gaze didn’t waver from her and for the first time since she’d met him Jane didn’t have the urge to run her hands through his thick, blond hair.

Jane spent a vital moment mentally casting back over her recent emails.

Peter was right. There hadn’t been a warning that system checks would take place anytime soon. And while a part of her still believed this was just an internal exercise, she couldn’t take that risk.

Jane turned back to her monitor with strengthened purpose. She hadn’t cut any corners earlier, but this time she started double saving everything and using remote locations to back up data. It hadn’t entered her head that this might be a ‘real’ threat. And while the Agency’s countermeasures were good, she wasn’t going to take any chances.

I need you to get into the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet, she said to Peter without shifting her focus from her work. There should be a box with an external hard drive in it. It’s about the size and weight of an old VHS tape.

Jane heard Peter open the drawer. A minute later he sat back down and held the hard drive out to her. She nodded her chin to the desk.

Plug it into the power board and connect the USB into my desktop, please, she said. Dropping her flirtatious manner, she sat forward on her chair. This was pure work and she was focused. Once I start saving some screenshots and dumping the code he’s shedding onto the external I can maybe distract the hacker and try to back trace him.

Shouldn’t there be some sort of alarm you’re meant to activate? Peter asked as he followed her instructions.

Sure, she replied. Jane’s gaze remained glued to her monitor. She touch typed and only occasionally glanced at the jumble of letters to be sure she didn’t make a mistake. A single incorrect keystroke right now could prove disastrous, but unfortunately time was of the essence. As fast as she worked though, her opponent was equally swift. But Jane was no novice and despite the sweat she could feel trickling down her back, she didn’t miss a step.

"The problem is that whoever this is, they’ve gone to great lengths to appear as if they started inside the system. Which