A Time & Place for Every Laird by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader TXT) 📕

with what Claire understood now was ingrainedducal courtesy, but her brother just grinned lazily.

“A pleasure indeed,” he drawled out beforeturning to Claire. “So what can I help you with, my favoritesister?”

“Only sister,” she countered by rote.

“That’s why you’re my favorite.” Dannyturned and led them deeper into the wide-open space of his loft. Itwas a standard renovation. The kitchen, dining, and living areaopen with two bedrooms and a bath walled away, but unlike manyothers, her brother had packed his small dining area with a couchand huge television, with the console holding every conceivablegaming system and game, while the “living area” presently housed noless than a dozen tall racks filled with internet servers, fansblowing from every side to keep them cooled. Nearly a dozenworkstations were set up on tables along the perimeter of the room,most of them manned by young men who turned to look at Claire as ifshe were some rare, exotic specimen.

The examination was par for the course whenshe came to visit her brother. She was a woman in a room full ofcomputer geeks. Danny himself had equated the phenomenon to themseeing a copy of Marvel Comics No. 1 at Comic-Con. It was rare andbeautiful, but they didn’t dare touch it or believe it was real.Claire waved at them merrily, seeing new young faces in with thoseshe recognized. To a one, they blushed and turned away without aword.

“Did you bring your laptop for me?” Dannyasked, dropping into his office chair.

She handed her laptop to him. It had beenstupid of her to use it to search for Hugh’s history. If Jamesongot ahold of it, she might as well have written a confession of hercollusion.

“Don’t bother with that just yet, Danny,”she said, glancing up at Hugh, who was looking around the room asshe might look at Mars. “There is something else I’d like you todo.”

Danny rocked back in his chair, scooping upa slice of pizza from an open box next to his keyboard as he didso. “Ah, yes, favor number two. I am intrigued.”

Knowing there was little that could actuallyshock this particular brother, Claire laid her request out in nouncertain terms. “I’d like you to hack into Mark-Davis and find outwhat you can about a project being run by Dr. Roy Fielding.”

“Is that all?” Danny wrinkled his nose andsniffed with some disdain as he took a bite of the pizza. “Ithought it might be something more interesting.”

“Oh, it should be interesting,” Clairepromised and scrunched her nose as well. “Don’t you ever eatanything besides pizza?”

“Why bother when the four basic food groupsare so brilliantly combined in one handheld delight?” he respondedridiculously before spinning his chair and dropping the pizza backinto the box. “Do you want to wait?”

Claire blinked. “Can you do it thatfast?”

“More than likely.” Danny dropped into anoffice chair and rolled to a table with three large monitorsarranged around the keyboard. Pushing another empty pizza boxaside, he began to type faster than Claire thought him capable ofmoving. “These high-tech guys think they’re all that, but …” heshrugged as if the rest of the sentence were an obvious one andapplied himself to the keyboard. For a few moments only the hum ofthe numerous servers and fans and the tapping of keys broke thesilence of the room.

Danny grumbled incoherently and Claire felther hopes plummet. “Are you not going to be able to get in?”

“Your company is so untrusting,” hecomplained. “Even the government doesn’t try this hard to hidethings.” He typed again, the screens bringing up page after page ofwhat looked like gibberish to Claire. “Ahh, there we are. Oh,that’s interesting,” he mumbled more to himself than to her. “Mighthave to go back and look at that. Fielding, you said? There arefive projects he’s head of.”

“Five?” Claire frowned. “Is there one thatshows any connection to INSCOM?”

Danny’s brows rose but he said nothing andwent back to work. He snorted a few times, humphed once or twice,and rifled through a box with several labeled USBs before pickingone and inserting it into the portal. “Really? Man, they don’t wantyou in there, do they? These military types …”

Still, less than twenty minutes after theywalked in the door, Danny pushed away from the desk, rolling backseveral feet as he gestured toward the monitor with a broad sweepof his arm. “Ta-da.”

“Danny, you are a genius!” Claire announced,bending to kiss his cheek.

“Don’t I know it? Well, pull up a chair andlet’s take a look. With all that encryption, it must be somethinggood.”

Claire turned to Hugh with a winning smile.“You ready?”

Hugh nodded in the face of her enthusiasm,though he wasn’t at all certain on the matter. Sorcha had beenright. What good would it do to know how he had gotten here? Theknowledge would not give him power. It would not give himunderstanding. It would give him nothing if the key to his returnwere not there as well. Given Claire’s previous comments on thematter, it sounded to Hugh as if even Dr. Fielding had no controlin the matter.

It was not for him, the fantasy of home.

Hugh watched Sorcha, her head close to herbrother’s as they explored together. “There,” he heard Sorcha sayas she pointed at the screen. “Try that.” Danny complied andanother screen appeared.

Danny O’Bierne was an interesting specimenof a man, Hugh thought, studying the young man in turn. Sorcha hadcalled him her younger brother but Hugh could scarcely credit itgiven the man’s appearance. He was tall, but long and lean withscraggly ginger hair and sparse beard. He was incredibly pale aswell, more so than Hugh was after his recent incarceration. Dannyhad the look of a man who hadn’t seen the sun in many a year, andHugh had to wonder if he had been imprisoned until recently. In anycase, he looked years older than Sorcha.

“Let me try this one, my sister,” Danny saidin slow, drawn out words. His manner of speaking puzzled Hugh aswell. He’d never met a man who had seemed so vague yet held starkintelligence in his eyes. He was more unusual than Sorcha hadhinted.

Leaving Sorcha and her brother to theirreading, Hugh turned his back on the alien room and went