No Room for Error: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Seven Read online

  No Room for Error: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Seven

  By Julie Moffett

  Trouble follows me, Lexi Carmichael, like a little black cloud. At least according to my boyfriend, Slash: brilliant hacker, national treasure and vault of secrets. Even I have to admit he could be right.

  After a series of high-profile cases at my cyberintelligence firm, I was looking forward to a simple job. All I had to do was personally deliver a revolutionary microchip to a manufacturing plant in Indonesia. Easy, right? Wrong.

  Someone else wants the design and is willing to kill to get it. A failed hijacking attempt lands me, my best friend, Basia, and our boss, Finn, in the middle of the jungle. Our mission is clear: protect the microchip design from the hijackers on our tail...and survive. But how can a geek girl like me survive without access to my beloved technology?

  I’m about to find out. And this time, there’s no room for error.

  Don’t miss Lexi’s first adventure in No One Lives Twice!

  Dear Reader,

  You know what goes great with holiday cookies, long checkout lines (or queues, for those of you not in North America) and a stressful holiday season that makes you want to sneak off and steal a few seconds for yourself? Carina Press books! Buy them from your phone or iPad and read them while hiding in the closet with a batch of cookies, or while leaning against your shopping cart in line while you try to block out the incessant holiday tunes being piped in over bad speakers in the store.

  Right in time for those days off over American Thanksgiving is the release of Controlled Burn, the second in Shannon Stacey’s Boston Fire series. The firefighters in this book are so hot, you’ll be tempted to light your turkey on fire in order to get a visit from your local firemen, but please don’t do that. And for those of you not in the US, you might not have Thanksgiving days off, but that’s okay—you’re not going to want to wait to read it anyway, so go ahead and call in sick to work! Not to worry, if you haven’t read Heat Exchange, the first in this trilogy, these romances stand alone so you can read Controlled Burn now and have another steamy hero to look forward to later.

  Geek extraordinaire Lexi Carmichael is back in this newest mystery romance, and she’s a fish out of water without her beloved technology in the deadly jungle of Papua New Guinea with Chinese thugs on her tail. She’ll need to survive on wits alone...how hard could that be? Pick up No Room for Error by Julie Moffett this December, or go back to the beginning of this zany, romantic series in No One Lives Twice.

  If you love Lauren Dane’s books as much as I do, you’ve been waiting not-so-patiently for a year to see Rowan kick some butt in the newest Goddess with a Blade urban fantasy, At Blade’s Edge. Rowan Summerwaite is no ordinary woman. Raised at the knee of The First and honed into a weapon by the Hunter Corporation, she wields ancient knowledge from the Goddess Brigid...and is newly married to a powerful Vampire scion. But instead of being on a much-anticipated honeymoon, Rowan is in London gathering her allies and the evidence necessary to drive out the rot within Hunter Corp. and expose whoever is at the top. She’ll let no one get in her way.

  Kate Willoughby has another sexy, fun stand-alone contemporary romance for us in Under the Spotlight. Veteran NHL hockey player Joe Rutherford is accustomed to being in the spotlight, but when he falls for an actress whose career is just starting to take off, he must face the fact that his own might be ending sooner than later. And don’t miss On the Surface, Across the Line and Out of the Game.

  We welcome Annabeth Albert to the Carina Press lineup with her new #gaymers series. In Status Update, a quirky video game designer is stranded, and a charming but reclusive archeologist comes to his rescue. Their sizzling attraction blooms in the middle of a snowstorm, but forging a future together means thawing out frozen hearts and unlocking closet doors.

  Last this month is the trilogy end we’ve all been waiting for—book three of Caitlyn McFarland’s Dragonsworn trilogy. We fell in love with dragonlord Rhys and his dragonmate Kai in Soul of Smoke, we cheered and cried for them in Shadow of Flame, and now we finally get to experience the end of their journey, the thrilling conclusion to the battle...and the beginning of their HEA in Truth of Embers.

  That’s our new-release lineup for this December, because we’re taking a few weeks off from new releases over the peak of the holiday season, but never fear, we have a backlist of nearly one thousand titles for you to browse, including an incredible selection of holiday-themed novellas you may have missed the first time around!

  Paranormal romance fans should definitely read A Galactic Holiday, or Winter Wishes with novellas by Vivian Arend, Moira Rogers and Vivi Andrews. For those who love male/male romance, take a look at His for the Holidays, or Men Under the Mistletoe, which features Josh Lanyon, K.A. Mitchell, Harper Fox and Ava March. If a little extra heat in your holiday is what gets you moving, check out erotic holiday romance anthology Season of Seduction, or Red Hot Holiday with Anne Calhoun, Leah Braemel and K.A. Mitchell.

  And if you love a good, sigh-worthy, make-your-heart-happy contemporary romance, we have quite a selection for you to choose from, including anthologies like Romancing the Holiday, All I’m Asking For, Holiday Kisses, and novellas by Jaci Burton, Shannon Stacey, Brighton Walsh, Kat Latham and more. And don’t miss one of my personal favorites—Starting from Scratch by Stacy Gail.

  Whatever you read and wherever you are, the team at Carina Press thanks you for making 2015 an incredible year of publishing and wishes you the very happiest of holiday seasons, with only wonderful books to help you make it through!

  And, as always, until next month here’s wishing you a wonderful month of books you love, remember and recommend.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  Dedication

  To my brother, Brad, my sister, Sandy, and my Mom, Donna. Without your support, this book wouldn’t have been written! Love you guys!

  .

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

 
Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Julie Moffett

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Nearly five hours into fighting off a multipronged and well-organized cyberattack, my back hurt, the muscles in my neck were knotted tight and my fingers were cramped and aching. Plus I had to go to the bathroom.

  But the fate of the city’s electric grid was at stake and I wasn’t going to let it fall to a bunch of hacker thugs because I had to pee. Stopping was not an option. If I stopped, or took a break—even for two minutes—it was game over. That was unacceptable, so my bladder would just have to wait. Protecting the grid was critical to the city’s overall security since so many other sectors depended on it to deliver essential services. No way would it fall.

  Not on my watch.

  Not ever.

  I crossed my legs, considered my next move, and then took a series of steps to thwart the hackers.

  I was having the time of my life.

  My breath came in hitches as my fingers flew across the keyboard. The hackers were fast, clever and smart, but I was better.

  Gotcha!

  I laughed—okay, cackled—as the hackers encountered an unexpected layer of security I’d hidden. They had to stop to rethink their approach for a second or two, and that put me ahead. Just the way I liked it.

  I’m Lexi Carmichael, and technology has been my life ever since I was old enough to reach a computer keyboard. Some kids carried around security blankets and stuffed animals to feel safe. When I was two years old, I had to know where the family laptop was at all times. Twenty-three years later, my computer is a lot fancier, but not much else has changed. I was exactly where I was supposed to be—in the heated throes of a virtual battle, fending off a full-frontal hack on my system while figuring out ways to make the crackers—hackers with malicious intent—who’d started it sorry they’d ever picked my system to hack.

  I took advantage of the nano-pause to lift my hand from the keyboard for a quick stretch and flex. Jeez, my fingers ached.

  I began running another complicated trace on one of the hackers, searching for a weakness and determining the best way to strike back. Cybersecurity wasn’t only about protection. It was also about deception, exploiting the vulnerabilities of your opponent and strategizing effective counterattacks. A complex orchestration of data, numbers, code. My heart beat in time with my fingers as they tapped on the keyboard in perfect tempo with my brain.

  “Five minutes,” a voice called out. “That’s all we’ve got left.”

  Buffer, buffer, buffer.

  They were splitting up and campaigning against me on three fronts. I reversed my setup, pivoting to confuse them as my opponents threw everything they had at me in a last-ditch effort. They were close to breaking in. Damn, I hadn’t expected it to be this hard.

  Focus. Hold the course.

  I did a quick check on one of my traces and realized I was close to nailing one of the hackers. Someone had gotten careless in the past few minutes. They were getting tired, too, and had stopped working as a team. I could exploit that.

  I feinted an attack on one of my opponents’ soft spots, a back-end administrative support device. As one of the hackers abandoned the attack to protect it, I struck at the careless opponent, tagging their position and causing a complete upheaval in the group dynamic as they scrambled to retreat and regroup.

  “Time’s up.”

  Blowing out a breath, I pushed back from the keyboard and leaned back in my chair, stretching my arms over my head. “Holy freaking crack. That was close.”

  Wally Harris, one of my high school interns at X-Corp—the Washington, DC—based cyberintelligence firm I worked for—bounded into the room, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “Close? Did you even break a sweat, Lexi? You freaking slayed us.”

  “Slayed is not the word I would use.”

  “You totally shut us down. I’d never seen half of those moves. You were prime, boss. Wow. I’ve never had sex before, but I think that was the closest I’ve ever come to an orgasm in the presence of a woman. No kidding. Those were five of the hottest hours of my life.”

  I winced, then held up a hand. “Jeez, Wally. TMI.”

  “Can’t help it. The program was ace and you were a spectacular opponent.” His voice squeaked with excitement. He shoved his fingers through his hair and the strands stood straight up. “What a blast. My brain is completely fried.”

  A teenage girl strolled into the room. Her brown hair was in a ponytail like mine, and her eyes were lit up with excitement. “Holy cow, Lexi. That was amazing.” Piper O’Neill, the second of my trio of interns, leaned over my chair and peered at my monitor. “I had no idea what you were doing half the time, but it kept me so busy I was mostly in retreat instead of attack, which I suppose was your plan all along.”

  “Of course that was her plan.” That comment came from my third intern, Brandon Steppe, who was also Piper’s boyfriend. He entered the room swinging his arms around, presumably to increase circulation. “Three against one and we went down in flames.” He stood next to Piper, his hand on the back of her chair. “So, we really sucked, right, Lexi?”

  I rolled my neck to ease the tension in my shoulders. “Actually, you guys have no idea how close you were to breaking in.”

  Piper perked up. “Really? How close were we?” She was the brightest and the most competitive of the group. A girl after my own geek heart.

  “Too close. That unusual twist on the SQL injection was clever. Was that you, Piper? I thought I recognized your signature move in the code.”

  Her cheeks pinked in delight. “Yes. It was a bit unorthodox, but I thought it might take you off guard.”

  “It did. It was a good call. Don’t hesitate to embrace the unexpected. While it was a good technique, I have a few suggestions to make it even more powerful.” I leaned forward, glancing at my screen. “Okay, who was using the code name Yorick?”

  Brandon raised a hand. “Yo. That would be me.”

  “Well, I nailed you at the end. You left yourself vulnerable after the last round of cross-site scripting.”

  He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. I saw the defensive look in his eyes and posture and was sure I’d had that same look at some point in my past when receiving a critique. Good. That meant I’d made an impression. Whether he liked it or not, he’d remember this lesson.

  “Sue me, I got tired,” he said, frowning. “Five freaking hours.”

  I kept my voice neutral but firm. “You’re lucky we capped it at that. I’ve been on hacks that lasted days. Luckily, I had help on those, unlike today where I operated alone. But you three were a team and should have better distributed the work to stave off fatigue. You each got way too compartmentalized. Not a good strategy. Teamwork, communication and coordination are all critical, whether you’re hacking or protecting against a hack. Even when you’re tired, you have to stay in sync.”

  “It was totally an eye-opening experience,” Piper said, flexing her fingers. “Wow. What a fantastic way to spend a Saturday. The programming was totally brilliant.”

  A voice came from the doorway. “Good to know.”

  My boyfriend and said programmer strode in. Dressed in a short-sleeved white T-shirt and blue jeans with his dark hair loos
e and tucked behind his ears, Slash looked more like a sexy movie star than one of the most brilliant cyberwizards in the United States.

  “I’m happy to report that all remains safe in the virtual town of Byteville,” Slash said, smiling at me. He turned toward my interns. “However, there were several points in the game where you guys actually had the advantage but didn’t capitalize on it.” He lifted an eyebrow at me. “You do know how close your interns came to besting you on a few occasions?”

  “I know. Don’t rub it in.”

  “But it was three against one,” Wally argued. “In the full scope of things, that’s not really fair odds.”

  I shrugged, though it was sweet he was trying to defend me. “It is if you count my experience. Look, you guys didn’t crack in, but you performed well. I’m proud of you.”

  Wally leaned back against a table, resting his hands on the tabletop. “All I can say is the whole setup was extraordinary. Seriously cool. Slash, how did you come up with it?”

  “Design and redesign.” Slash stood behind me, putting his hands on my shoulders and kneading the tight muscles in my neck. “I discovered several more flaws that need adjusting today, so I appreciate you all flying here to New York to help me test it out.”

  “Anytime, dude. This office, the equipment, the private plane... Man, it’s a geek’s wet dream.”

  I grimaced. “Wally, TMI. Again.”

  “Well, at least I understand why you left me for this guy.” He jerked a thumb at Slash before swiping a bottle of water from the table and taking a long slug.

  “I didn’t leave you.” I rolled my eyes. “That implies we were dating, which we definitely were not.”

  I’d met Wally at his high school, where I’d gone undercover on a case. I’d faced off against a ruthless international cybermercenary, but with the help of Wally, Piper and Brandon, we’d beat him. However, Wally had somehow got it in his head during the situation that he wanted to date me, which was a complete surprise, seeing as how I had never once been asked on a date for the entirety of my actual high school years. It was also totally inappropriate, which I’d made sure he understood on numerous occasions.