All Due Respect by Vicki Hinze Page A

they had finished their conversation to talk to him about his badge. Waiting should be safe enough. They were in the inner lab, for God’s sake.
    She walked on to her own office, thoughtful, and sat down at her desk. Seth had seemed genuinely interested in Linda and her children, and he certainly had been genuinely concerned about Jeff. What if when Julia’s troubles had started she had gone to Seth with them? What if she hadn’t felt so ashamed and embarrassed and certain her problems had been her fault? She had refused to even acknowledge there were problems until it was too late. But what if she hadn’t?
    Seth would have helped her. Just as he had helped her with Jeff. Just as he helped Linda. Julia wouldn’t have had to deal with—
    Stop it. Just stop it. Done is done.
    She squeezed her eyes shut. Done was done. Dragging Seth into hell with her would have been a stupid thing to
    do. It couldn’t have worked out much worse than it had for her, but involving Seth would only have made him intimate friends with misery, too. She’d done the right thing, keeping him out of it.
    Letting go of the past, she reached for a file.
    The rest of the morning breezed by with Julia rereading the profiles, looking for personal strengths and potential weaknesses in the team members that could create challenges. More often than not, problems originated with the staff, not the work, and if she could spot weaknesses and negate them, she would take a lot of pressure off herself and spare the whole team headaches.
    At noon, she scarfed down a sandwich at her desk and shifted her focus to policy changes that had occurred during her absence. Those, she had to get a grip on quickly. Nothing could sabotage a program faster than breaching policy, stepping on toes, and ticking off powerful people.
    Finally, about four, she began reviewing the actual project files. By tomorrow night, she estimated, she’d be up to speed.
    She could have made the transition sooner, but none of the project files she needed to review could be removed from the vault, and no crisis on the horizon warranted her pulling an all-nighter. Her day officially ended at sixteen thirty—four-thirty p.m. Naturally, she would work until her usual six.
    Just after five, Seth appeared in her doorway. “Julia.”
    The concern in his voice jerked her attention from the file in her hands to him. Long ago, she had become accustomed to Seth’s shielding his emotions, to his expression appearing dark, remote, and distant. But now it looked ten times darker than Marcus’s and the worry she had seen in Seth’s eyes at the beach had doubled. That chilled her to the bone. “What is it?”
    He closed her office door, then turned and jammed a fist into his pocket. “We’ve got a serious problem.”
    With Seth, serious meant serious. Her skin crawled. And what he had told her at the picnic area came to mind.
    Millions could pay with their lives.
    Julia prodded him. “What’s wrong?”
    “Someone’s made copies of Home Base’s sensor codes.”
    “Who?” They had a keyed copier, for God’s sake.
    “According to the log”—Seth’s grim expression turned sickly and cold fury glinted in his eyes—“me.”
    Julia mentally flashed back to the conference room, to the briefing. To Seth’s name badge. “Oh, hell.” She stared up at him. “We’re being set up.”

Chapter Four
    We need to lock down the vault.”
    Julia considered it, then rubbed her hands together atop her desk. “I think that would be a mistake, Seth.”
    “A mistake?” He paced between her visitor’s chair and office door. “Don’t you understand? They’ve got the damn sensor codes.”
    “I understand.” Grave news. Home Base’s sensor codes controlled its sensory perceptions, much like a human’s eyes and ears. It collected visual, audio, and magnetic energy data, verified it, and then transmitted the verified data back to them—one day, to the duty monitor at the Battle Management