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

was no sunset in VLEX. As Ari and Blur appeared in the center of VLEX, next to the large fountain, she noticed a large sign.

It reported the recent security breach and that VLEX was in lockdown mode. It limited the people inside and uploads allowed. Thankfully, being warpers they weren’t bound by those same rules.

“We don’t have long. They know we’re here,” she turned to Blur, who wore the same assistant’s skin as before.

“There.” He pointed to the tallest building inside this virtual world, one with spirals on top. “Top floor is where we’ll find them. Follow me.”

Figures. Ari eyed the top floor, a good fifty stories or higher. When she looked at the code it appeared there was some sort of barrier, like they would have to unlock a file or door of some sort.

He crouched down and waves poured off him. He was doing something in the code that the program didn’t know how to translate into the virtual world. Then he shot into the sky, flying.

Huh? Looks pretty badass. Ari focused on code and then followed Blur into the sky. She didn’t have the finesse of her friend, but it worked. They flew towards the top suite.

“Remember: no talking. Just attack. I’ll take Maxim, you take the next one in line. Anyone with Maxim will be armed.” Blur spoke in a normal tone as they were less than a foot apart, not as if they were flying through the sky with the wind rushing in her ears. Normal rules obviously didn’t apply to Blur, or her for that matter.

Turning to the job ahead, she focused on the code, flashing back and forth between the code and the virtual. It was easy to find Maxim’s office. It was the only one she couldn’t see through. Locked away, just like Blur said.

But then she watched Blur work. He began tearing apart the code, not hacking it but using his ability to tear it to shreds. Ari followed his lead and by the time they reached Maxim’s office, they burst through the glass windows effortlessly.

Alarms sounded in the distance. Maxim was in the room, along with many other men. Too many to count. Blur was true to his word and began attacking Maxim. As Ari turned to attack, she hesitated. Did theses strangers deserve to be affected by the virus? Possibly, but despite her anger she didn’t have the stomach for it.

With a wave of her hand, she pushed everyone else out of the window and sealed it up after them. Their screams echoed even through the glass. It wasn’t real, she reminded herself. And the pain of the fall should push them out of the system.

Turning back to Blur and Maxim, she found Blur kneeling in front of Maxim, blood dripping from his ears. How did that happen so fast? Blur wasn’t infected with the virus though, not yet.

Ari charged. Running towards him she focused on the code, inserting the virus right where Blur told her to. The problem was it kept moving. How was his mind moving? Did he have a protection against the virus? She wasn’t sure how that was even possible, but a few months ago she wouldn’t have thought anyone could be killed through a virtual.

Tired of chasing Maxim’s slippery mind, she struck out with her fist. His faced recoiled with the punch, and he froze for a moment, his head tilted to the side. As he slowly faced her, he dabbed at his lip with the edge of his shirt.

“You’re going to pay for that.” Maxim struck out with a speed she would have only thought possible from a warper. He wasn’t a warper, but somehow his programmers had given him abilities inside.

She dodged the first two swings, but a kick took her down. Rolling to the side, she jumped back up and attacked again. If she could keep Maxim busy, maybe Blur could finish him with the code.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blur stand, holding onto a nearby table. He may be down, but not out. How could Maxim still be in here, fighting like a warper? Who or what did he have in his arsenal?

Just like Niomi taught her in training, Ari continued to push harder and faster, searching for an opening in the code. Then an explosion sounded. She watched a bullet or missile of some type speed by. Then she saw the code, and embedded inside of it was a virus or hack of sorts. Blur sent it towards Maxim and then collapsed to the floor.

She had a fraction of a second to decide if she should pull out and unplug Blur or end this once and for all. Knowing Blur and Tricky, she knew what they would want. She followed that bullet.

As it pierced Maxim’s defenses, Ari grabbed onto his mind. She pushed the virus into the code of his port, and watched as it began to eat at him. If she let him go now, he would only have a headache, at worst maybe a coma for a few days. She held on with everything she had.

Remembering the code that kept Patrick stuck inside the VR, she duplicated it. Repeating it over and over, she couldn’t give Maxim a chance to escape. At the same time she attacked him, he began poisoning her. She felt the warm tentacles of the virus wrap around her brain. She didn’t have anything left for a defense and could only focus on holding onto Maxim’s mind. At first the pain lived behind her eyes, black dots dancing in her vision. Then it continued growing into a bright light that blocked out all else.

There were sounds. Someone screaming in the distance. Maybe Maxim? She couldn’t let go. If she died, Maxim would die with her. She had to make things safe for her family and friends. The faces of her old family and new flashed in front of her. Sketchy and his wife Sue. Joe, Tricky and Blur. Marco