Hard Wired Trilogy DeAnna Pearce (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📖

desk. Large clear panels blinked in front of her. One side held a scroll of announcements while the other had a bulleted list of things for Kari to do.

“Glad to see you early this morning.” A dark-skinned man with silver hair and a heavy accent stepped through the office. He was dressed impeccably in a navy suit and red tie. “It’s a busy day. Get out the morning memos. I also have the 1070A bill that needs to get out before noon.”

“Will do, sir.” Ari recognized the man as Kari’s boss, President Higgins from the Icelandic States.

He stopped mid-step, turning to stare at Kari.

Ari kept her nerves buried and turned. “What is it, sir?”

A small smile crept on his face. “Nothing. Keep up the good work, Ms. Trenton.”

“Of course.” She turned back to the screen and began scanning the tasks set out for her today. Ari had worked on a similar process to prepare for this, but she knew she couldn’t possibly do them as quickly as someone who had worked here for years.

The morning was filled with scheduling meetings, returning correspondence, and other menial tasks. Most authorities didn’t conduct business outside of the VR because outside everything was traceable. Traceable meant hackable, and both meant possible to track down and assassinate. In the VLEX, hacking was significantly more difficult. Ari didn’t want to contemplate the hoops VisionTech had to jump through to get her there.

Once President Higgins headed off for his mid-morning meetings, Kari could finally breathe for a moment and do her real job. She pulled up the bill 1070A. They had security protocols in place to detect unauthorized file transfers back to the real world. This is where her skills came in handy. This was all one big program.

As she re-focused her vision, lines of codes appeared before her. Reading it like a blue print or recipe card, she manipulated the program to give herself the clearance to send the file. Changing which office it came from, she sent it off to an untraceable account Niomi gave her.

Before she closed the program, she scanned the bill. The political jargon made it hard to follow, but words like studies and virtual reality caught her attention. They were doing experiments of some kind to study the effects of certain drugs.

The monitor beeped, and she flinched back from the screen. Calm down. I’m not a kid caught in the cookie jar. Checking the monitor, she realized she had a lunch at Milano’s with a representative from President Tremblay’s office. The meeting said it had to do with sharing notes from the latest energy crisis meeting, but Ari couldn’t figure out why they didn’t just meet over video feed.

Either way, she gathered the small purse Kari kept in her top drawer and headed out. Kari’s office was on the thirtieth floor of a sleek building. Once outside, she recognized some of the buildings around her from the limited photos VisionTech had of the VLEX. A variety of buildings with different architectural styles circled around a town square.

Ari had studied maps of the VLEX but, experiencing it first hand, it all felt different. On a perfectly paved cobblestone street, she walked to the center town square, which appeared to have been built with every single country wanting their say. A hodgepodge of restaurants flashed a variety of food, most Ari had never heard of. She passed a fountain with a very large naked statue of a man holding a spear of some shape in his upheld hand.

Ari also knew that once inside a store they could go on for miles. A cool magic trick written into code. So, while it only took fifteen minutes to walk through the town center, one could spend many more hours exploring all the space. When she took a minute to look beyond the illusion to the code involved, a web of characters appeared that were so complex even Ari couldn’t unravel it easily. She blinked a few times to focus on the program again.

Another few minutes and Milano’s appeared up ahead. When she entered the restaurant, a wave of garlic and other spices she couldn’t identify flooded her senses. Even though she knew the food wasn’t real, her mouth watered in desire.

“How can I help you?” A beautiful hostess greeted her.

“I’m meeting with Antoine.” Ari scanned the crowd for a familiar face even though Antoine wasn’t a name she remembered from training.

After the hostess glanced at a screen, her gaze lifted. “This way.” The women wove through a maze of tables and alcoves of people deep in conversation. They headed to a very secluded table in the back.

A gentleman stood up catching Ari’s, really Kari’s, gaze. His warm smile and beautiful features made Ari smile back instinctively, despite not recognizing him at all. When she went to greet Antoine, before she could reach out her hand for him to shake, he pulled her into a strong hug.

A very small and undignified squeak escaped Ari’s lips, as he lifted her briefly into the air.

“It has been too long,” he mumbled into her neck.

Ari stiffened realizing Niomi’s information wasn’t completely up to date. Kari must have found a recent boyfriend given this dark secluded table not that many people knew about it. Recovering from her shock and surprise, Ari tried to soften against his hold. “It’s good to see you too.”

He kissed her neck briefly then stepped back and offered her a seat. Despite the uneasiness crawling along her skin, she forced a smile and sat down, smoothing out the beige skirt she wore. She had only kissed two guys in her life, one only in the VR, so having this strange man kiss her neck sent shivers up her spine—no matter how attractive he was.

He had a foreign look to him with dark heavy brows, a sharp nose, and a chiseled jaw. His dark hair had a wave to it, as if the wind happened to blow it naturally perfect. There was no way this man looked