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

arm. They had protocols in place for a breach like this. Not that anyone would dream that the breach would be from Harini. Being warpers, they valued their privacy like gold itself, they all had chat rooms and extra IP addresses that they used. Having paid for the room for two hours they headed to the back.

They didn’t speak, but just pulled out their small computers and started the alarm system for the others. Those at home would have to know they were in danger, and any predestined meet up wasn’t safe either. Anything Harini knew, they had to assume Maxim knew as well.

“I’ll reach Tricky and those at the house if you contact Joe,” Ari said.

“Tricky already knows.” He didn’t even glance her way. “We have an emergency signal through a couple of channels no one knows about. I messaged her while we were running. She’s going with the others to find a safe place. She’ll reach out when they are settled.”

Ari let out a deep breath. “She’ll take my mom with her?” With Harini and Patrick out of commission, Ari worried how committed to the team everyone else was. Maybe it was everyone for themselves?

“And Sketchy and Sue.” He paused for a moment, his eyes bloodshot and ragged. That last meeting in the VR cost him more than showed. “She’ll take care of them. She knows how to survive.”

Biting her lip, Ari nodded. “Thanks.”

He went back to his screen. “I sent Joe and Marco a message that we’ve been compromised. They may be in the sky right now, though. We’ll need another way to contact them not using our regular channels.”

“We have to assume Harini told them everything.” She struggled to believe that Harini would betray everyone like that, but Ari remembered her cruel face. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. Maybe Ari didn’t really know her at all.

Ari paused, letting her thoughts travel. Blur and Tricky had a way to connect as siblings. Of course, they were twins and a little closer than her and Marco, but where could she find Marco and get a message to him?

“Tessa’s game!” Ari bent back to her screen and searched for the chat room associated with Tessa’s game.

“I can help.” Blur moved next to her, his computer on his lap. “Will he recognize the address?”

“Yes. It’s how he and Tessa communicated over the last year.” Ari pushed the last key that sent the message off.

They both froze staring at the screen as if willing for a reply.

“We’ve done what we can,” Blur said and began packing up his gear. “We shouldn’t stay here much longer. If Harini hasn’t given our destination away yet, it’s only a matter of time.”

A bing sounded on Ari’s computer, the most beautiful noise she had ever heard. “It’s him.”

Blur hurried back to her side as she messaged back and forth with her brother. Joe and Marco had no problems delivering the file and were out before the alarm sounded. With no time to waste, they signed off with Marco and Joe promising to find Patrick. Finally, Ari shut her screen, her heart heavy as the reality of what Marco and Joe would find sunk in.

“Tricky was in that virus for minutes and we saw what happened. Patrick has been in there ten times that already and will be in for hours by the time they get there.” Her throat tightened as she packed her gear. She couldn’t fall apart yet.

“Don’t go there.” Blur told her. “Not yet. Someone there could pull him out. Or maybe that bitch Harini’s heart melted just enough to pull him out before she left.”

“Maybe…”

“You ready to go?”

Ari nodded. “Are we going to join up with Tricky?”

“That’s the plan. Regroup and decide what’s next.”

Pulling her bag on her shoulder, Ari shoved her grief aside for her dear friends and she almost imagined her heart icing over. If she couldn’t let herself feel the loss of Patrick and betrayal of Harini, she’d feel the anger and hatred she had for Maxim and those that did this to them.

“If Tricky can keep the others safe, how about we go somewhere else?”

He turned back from the door. “Where?”

“A safe VR, probably not in this town. Do you still have the virus?”

His eyes narrowed in question. “Why?”

“I can’t go back, spending weeks in meetings trying to rebuild what Patrick did while protecting us from Maxim. I can’t.”

“What do you want to do?”

“You know where he is?” Ari asked. Since Tricky got sick, Blur had delved into Maxim’s world, learning as much as possible. If anyone knew Maxim, it was Blur or his sister.

“Not particularly, but with an ego his size I don’t think he’ll be hard to find.”

She pictured Maxim and the glum smile that she wanted to tear off his face. “Good. I’m not done with him yet.”

Chapter 33

Ari had counted on Blur’s drive for revenge, and he didn’t disappoint. They quickly got out of town. Worried about being tracked on any electronic device, Blur hacked into a car at a mall and they drove the green two-door vehicle away.

Ari turned to look out the window as the city flew behind them, her chest loosened slightly. She fidgeted in her seat, trying to block out all the thoughts she didn’t really want to think about. Patrick…

She rubbed her hands on her pants and turned to Blur. “What’s the plan? We should have a plan, right?”

He glanced at her obvious unease.

“How the hell do you remain so calm? Are you turning into Joe or something?” Ari couldn’t help the panic bubbling up inside of her.

“No, but what other choice do we have? We all go by nicknames for a reason.”

“To protect our privacy.” Ari knew that, but never thought beyond.

“Because we’ve been betrayed more than once by people we loved, people that were family. Harini… it hurts because I liked her. Hell, we all liked her. But she’s human like everyone else.”

With that depressing thought, Ari turned back to the window