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

“This is bigger than VisionTech. What they did in there without triggering an alarm… It could go as high as the board that controls VLEX. But why would they partner with VisionTech?”

“Maybe because of the affirmation you made me do before I could join the team,” Ari reminded him. Not that she completely disagreed with that decision. Governments needed to know the lengths companies are going to manipulate the vote, but she didn’t love being the poster child for that.

“We have protocols in place.” He tapped the screen one last time and looked up. “We expected a backlash, but not a virus. Genius really, if it wasn’t killing us. I need to go talk to Harini.” A determination steadied his eyes, and Ari knew that look. He left without another word.

Joe followed behind him.

“Are we supposed to follow?” Marco motioned to the others.

Ari shrugged. “He’ll go over it tonight. So, unless you want to follow Patrick, picking up the crumbs of thoughts he leaves along the way, I’d wait.”

“O-kay.” Marco jumped off the chair and headed to the computer.

“Whatcha doing?” Ari followed him.

“I just wanted to look at their attacks. Make sure we’re secure. If they tracked the skins we went in under, it’s not too long of a chain to find us.”

A chill went down Ari’s back, realizing that despite their remote location in such a large world, it can be very small with a single technical error. She watched over Marco’s shoulder as he flipped through the firewalls in place, double checking for a glitch in the system.

“He covered our tracks,” Marco motioned to the screen. “But they were definitely keeping us there as long as possible. It’s good we left when we did.”

“See, sometimes my rash decisions pay off.”

Marco chuckled.

“What’s that?” Ari pointed to a file sent to Patrick’s IP address.

“Huh? Let me scan that before I open it.” Marco’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “It’s message of some sort. Could be a warning from VLEX security for an IP we hacked. Give me a minute to see if I can see it without it coming back to bite my backside.”

Joe stuck his head in, “Hey, Marco, Patrick wants an extra pair of hands to run a test.”

“Sure thing.” He turned to the screen and it was still processing the file. “Let me know if it is anything,” he said to Ari before heading off.

Ari waited until the file opened. Inside was a message. She couldn’t tell who it was sent from, but the code at the top was instantly recognizable as longitude and latitude, followed by a date and location code. “If you want Reed to remain alive, be there.”

Ari stepped back until she hit the wall. After the shock faded, her mind sped through her options. Moving towards the fate that lay in front of her, she memorized the coordinates. Then, with a click of the mouse, deleted it.

Chapter 18

Standing in front of the screen, Ari realized the weight of what she did and ran through the consequences. There was no way she could leave Reed to that fate. None. But she couldn’t put others at risk rescuing him, not when they had so much on their plate with Tricky and the virus.

Even Marco had become a member of the team, enjoying his job, which Ari never thought possible. If she involved Marco in lying, sneaking out, and defying orders, there was no way to tell if Patrick or the others would welcome him back. They may even kick her out, but that was a risk she’d be willing to take.

“You okay?” Harini asked from the doorway.

Startled, Ari tried to smooth out her features. “Yeah, I’m good. What’s going on?”

“Patrick called everyone into Joe’s office. You coming?”

Ari checked her HUB and noticed a message from Patrick. “Yes. Of course.” She flipped off the screen and followed Harini down the hall.

Joe and Marco were intently working on the screens in front of them, Patrick watching from behind.

When Harini and Ari entered, Patrick lifted his attention. “Thanks for coming so quick. I had some files and people that needed to be vetted.”

“What happened this morning?” Harini asked.

“Ari can catch you up with the details, but the overall take away was that our targets have changed. While VisionTech may have played a role, there is someone bigger behind the attacks, possibly members of the Board.”

“Oh…” Harini’s shocked face seemed a bit exaggerated given the news.

Maybe these players were worse than Ari imagined.

Marco glanced up at his sister. “What did that last file contain?”

Ari stiffened. “Nothing.”

Raising a brow, Marco watched Ari intently.

“What file?” Patrick turned to her as well.

“Nothing, an empty file. Something Marco found looking over some of our IP addresses.”

“Ahh, good. Thanks for checking.” Patrick turned back to the screen.

However, Marco didn’t seem as easily convinced. He held Ari’s gaze for a few more seconds, his brow furrowed and eyes narrow. When Ari gave nothing away, he turned back to his screen.

Another shovel of dirt for the hole she was digging for herself. She didn’t have another option. It wasn’t fair to ask Patrick or the others to divert resources to help rescue Reed. Not when Tricky was still unconscious for most of the day. Anyway, these types of projects weren’t their forte. They excelled in computers, not hand to hand combat. She needed her old trainer for that, but that wasn’t an option either since she worked for VisionTech.

He glanced back up at Harini and Ari. “Joe has sent you the files.”

“Great. We’ll get to work.” Harini turned to leave, and Ari followed.

Harini asked about what happened, and Ari went through the events of the morning. She was grateful for the distraction. Yet even with the conversation, there was a little nagging reminder in the back of her head that the real trouble hadn’t even begun.

The next couple of days were filled with work, work, and more work. The information on those behind the virus came in bits and pieces. Thankfully, Joe’s contact