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

“What happened?” Patrick stayed close behind him.

Blur stopped in the doorway. Hanging his head down, he placed one hand on the wall, the other on his neck. Whatever he did inside took a toll on him. “He’s connected to the Board.”

“Who?” Ari asked, assuming he meant the board that ruled the realm of VLEX. Since VLEX was the most used international political realm, the Board had more power and influence than anyone.

“Maxim,” Blur spit out. “I went in on a tip from that IP address Harini had me trace and it led back to the CEO of VLEX.”

“Are you sure?” Patrick kept his distance, while his body lost its angry stance.

“I heard from multiple sources and traced some of his accounts.” Blur scrubbed at his face with both hands. “I just can’t believe they would ever entertain that murderer. Don’t they know what he’s done?”

“What does that mean?” Ari asked. The implications could vary in degree and magnitude.

“It means our battle just got a hell of a lot harder.” Blur’s bloodshot eyes glared at her. “Board dealings are not recorded, and every electronic footprint is supposed to be erased.”

“Not exactly,” Joe said from behind the screen. “It means we dig deeper. Nothing is ever completely off the grid. Even if he financed the virus, it doesn’t mean he worked alone. Maxim is the starting point, and we need to connect the dots.”

“You need to get some rest before you can connect anything.” His stance may have softened, but the anger in Patrick’s voice was still present as he spoke to Blur.

“I’m f—”

“Don’t say you’re fine. You can’t plug in again until you take something and sleep for a few hours.”

Everyone knew Patrick was right, even Blur, but it didn’t mean he took it any better. He pushed past Ari and Marco as he stormed out of the room. As he left, the energy in the room deflated a couple of notches.

Patrick drew both hands through his hair and closed his eyes briefly. “God, sometimes being in charge just…”

“Sometimes life is too much, and there’s not much you can do about it.” Marco spoke for the first time in a while.

“But we can do something about it, can’t we?” Patrick turned to him. “Call the others for me.”

Chapter 15

At the meeting, the team expressed a mix of shock and anger at Maxim’s meeting, and a new fear that they missed something. Harini visited Tricky right before they came together and reported no changes. She left Sketchy behind to watch after her. Harini’s eyes were rimmed red as she dabbed at her nose. She had been taking Tricky’s coma hard. Maybe Harini and Tricky were closer than Ari had assumed.

“We need to get moving with this new information.” Patrick stood at the head of the table. “We need to see what the connection between Maxim, the virus, and the board is.”

Joe raised a hand to speak.

“Go ahead,” Patrick nodded at him.

“I was looking at the code you and Ari came up with. It looks similar to something I saw a long time ago. It sped up the deterioration of the mind, overloading it, and triggering its own stress chemical until it freezes up. It never worked in code. They had to administer chemicals in conjunction with the program for it to work.”

“What?” The shock on Harini’s face was evident.

Ari didn’t know much about Joe, but if he was working on that kind of project, she wondered just how he got out.

“It was a dead end. Someone must have created something similar.”

“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Marco asked the question Ari was thinking.

“He mentioned it to me,” Patrick said at the front of the room. “It was a possibility. That division Joe worked with is no longer around and everyone he worked with is dead. As far as a lead goes, it is very limited.”

Everyone turned to Joe.

His face remained impassive. “No, I didn’t kill them. They killed themselves by playing with things no one should.”

The heavy silence had Ari’s mind spinning with a million questions she didn’t dare ask.

Patrick brought everyone’s attention back to the front. “The reality is that now someone has a weapon that is very effective against warpers. We have to be careful where we tread inside and run at the sign of trouble. Ari and Marco, I’m not discounting VisionTech either right now. The timing with Reed is too convenient for me. Take that angle for the next day and see what you can find.”

Sketchy stuck his head in, interrupting Patrick. “Hey, Boss, Tricky is stirring.”

Everyone straightened with his news. Harini jumped to her feet.

Patrick stood as well and waved her down. “Everyone head to lunch. I’ll let you know how she is.”

“Patrick, don’t you—” Harini started to argue, but didn’t get far.

“I know I can’t keep you away, Harini. Let’s hurry to see how our girl’s doing?” The two of them headed off while the others slowly filed out.

Ari wanted to go too but knew the small room would already be filled.

“Ready to eat?” Marco said.

“No, but I don’t think I have a choice. Mom would track me down.”

“That she would.” He nudged her with a shoulder. “Sucks to be cared for, huh?”

“Totally.” She smiled at him and they continued down to lunch.

No one had a great appetite, even though the food was great. Even the conversation was dampened as they all waited to hear the news of Tricky. It wasn’t only Tricky’s life on the line; it was all warpers. If they had something that could kill them, then everything became more dangerous.

Patrick appeared in the dining room and the room quieted immediately. “She woke for a few minutes.”

A collective exhale went through the room. Ari let go of the breath she was holding, even though she knew they weren’t out of woods.

Patrick waited for it to settle down again before continuing. “She said a few words to Blur, then slipped back under. Sue thinks it is