Read Online The Target by L.J. Sellers - Free Book Online Page B

crew. She tried the interior doorknob and it turned easily.
Yes!
    Inside, the drapes were open and the lights on. Grissom had left in a hurry. His computer monitor was dark but blinked an invitation. She glanced around, noting that, unlike Decker’s, his office was clean and organized. It was also bigger, with a private bathroom and closet. She sat at the desk and tapped the keyboard. The monitor lit up, and she looked for icons, indicating open programs or files. She clicked one, and a Word document opened. A correspondence, addressed to someone at the FDA, on company letterhead. Dallas scanned the text. It mentioned clinical trials and a product called HealthPatch. She noted the details to add to her file later, then opened his email program. If Grissom was smart, he wasn’t using his company email to correspond with a criminal-for-hire, but she checked anyway, skimming through batches and folders, looking for anything personal.
    After a minute, she looked up at the doorway out of habit. Through the outer office, she saw the exterior door opening.
Shit!
Dallas bolted out of the chair. Should she hide or try to bullshit her way out of this? She ran for the bathroom, hoping it would give her time to come up with a plausible story. She swung the door behind her but didn’t let it completely close. She might get lucky. Maybe Grissom had just come back to grab something and would leave right away.
    Adrenaline pumped in her veins, and the roar of the fire alarm made it worse. She took deep breaths but couldn’t get her pulse to slow. She stayed next to the cracked-open door and watched.
    A man with a beard and a baseball cap strode into the room. Maybe thirty, dressed in jeans and a dark T-shirt, and wearing a backpack. He headed straight for Grissom’s computer, plugged in a thumb drive and started downloading files.
Holy shit! A data thief.
Had the intruder triggered the fire alarm? ProtoCell, with its competing product, came immediately to mind. What had she gotten herself into the middle of? Dallas reached for her cell phone, clicked the zoom on the camera, and took pictures through the crack. They wouldn’t be great, but she had to document the activity if she could.
    She checked the time on her cell, wondering how long he would stay. The noise was maddening and she covered her ears. While the thumb drive was in the machine, the intruder searched drawers but didn’t seem to find anything he was interested in. The alarm shut off, but the wait still seemed to take forever. The intruder finally yanked out the drive and left. Dallas glanced at her cell again. The whole thing had taken nine minutes.
    Follow him or try to get some intel while she could? She was running out of time. The fire department had probably arrived and would clear out the building. Dallas bolted out of the office. Down the hall, the elevator door was closing. She sprinted to the stairwell. He had to exit the building on the ground floor, didn’t he?
    She pounded down the stairs, regretting the damn heels. She’d be lucky not to twist an ankle. On the first floor landing, she pushed out the door and ran into a fireman.
    “Excuse me.” She stepped around him and bolted toward the lobby. The intruder wasn’t in the hall ahead of her, and she didn’t see him in the foyer a moment later either. Had he exited already? Through the glass front doors, she noticed employees milling around the grassy area while firefighters dragged a hose off their truck. No one who resembled the intruder was in sight.
    Dallas sprinted down the opposite hall toward the break room and atrium. Behind her, the fireman called, “Hey, you need to get out!”
    She turned into the atrium and caught sight of the thief scaling over the cement-patio wall outside.
Hell!
She could climb over the damn wall even in a skirt, but could she catch him? And how would that activity look to her boss and co-workers? She couldn’t risk blowing her cover.
    A firm hand grabbed her shoulder.