Read Online Angel's Breath (Fallen Angels - Book 2) by Valmore Daniels - Free Book Online Page A

anyone knows better.”
    Jorge reached inside the guard shack and pressed the gate release. It slowly opened with a mechanical whirl.
    “Thanks, Jorge,” I said as Chuck put the car in drive. “You just saved my bacon.”
    With a nod, he waved us through.
    After we were out of hearing range, Chuck made a gasping sound. “Ten minutes!”
    “I thought you were some kind of hacker or something.”
    “Yeah, but it’s not like I wave a magic wand and we’re in.”
    I made a face. “Sorry. I guess I’ve seen too many movies. How long do you need?”
    “There’s no way to tell. If he has a login password, I have a program to remove it on this flash drive. We should be able to access his email and data folders, but finding what we need could take a while.”
    I frowned. “Won’t he notice he doesn’t have a password anymore?”
    “Only if he’s one of those people who restarts their computer often. With any luck, he won’t notice until after the press release.”
    It was only as we parked in front of the admin doors that I felt the first nagging doubt about this hit-and-run plan of mine. I wished I’d had more time to think it over.
    Of course, it wasn’t as if I had any other choices at this point.
    * * *
    This early in the morning, we were the only car there, and I prayed no one would arrive before we had a chance to finish our job.
    I drew my mother’s card out of my pants pocket, and paused before getting out of the car.
    “What’s the matter?” Chuck asked.
    “Are you sure the information we need is in there?” I asked.
    “What, are you getting cold feet?”
    Yes, I was, in fact. But I shot Chuck a look of annoyance. “Just give me the stick,” I said.
    Chuck handed the flash drive to me, along with a cell phone. I didn’t own one, but Chuck had an older prepaid phone which he had reactivated a few hours ago.
    I took a deep breath. “I’ll call you when I’m in his office,” I said, and stepped out of the car.
    The main entrance to the admin building had two full pane glass doors. To one side was a black electronic lock with a slot to swipe a magnetic key card.
    Using my mother’s card, I ran it through the lock, and the small red light on top of the device turned green. I opened the door and walked inside as if I had every right to be there.
    As I had hoped, no one was in the main reception area. I didn’t expect to encounter anyone while I made my way down the hall to the stairs. The night cleaning staff were usually gone by midnight or shortly thereafter.
    The admin building was two stories. David Matheson’s office was on the northwest corner, facing the hangars.
    I reached the top of the stairs and a second set of doors, which also required me to swipe the key card. I hesitated before doing so, feeling an abrupt pang of guilt.
    In all the time I had worked for Worldwind, David Matheson had never shown me anything other than kindness. Perhaps it was just an extension of his working relationship with my mother, and he was simply being polite and professional.
    Here I was breaking into his office to steal information that would give an unfair advantage to another company, who was obviously unscrupulous. My actions could—and probably would—do harm to David. My anger was because of his father, and his summary decision to fire me. My revenge, however, would affect everyone else in the company. My mother was already having troubles with the other workers because of me, but did their actions justify what I was going to do?
    It was my emotional reaction to yesterday, coupled with a noted lack of sleep, that had brought me to this point, but now that I was here, I was losing my resolve.
    I hadn’t even thought about how my mother would react when she found out what I did. How would I explain it to her? How would I explain it to Stacy?
    I still faced a desperate situation. I wasn’t about to turn myself in to my parole officer; that much was certain. But if I didn’t go through with this plan