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

didn’t feel like half an hour,” Marco said, standing up.

“Not at all.”

“So when will we see you next?”

Ari shrugged. “Not sure. I’m starting the next phase of my training soon, not that I’m sure what that entails.”

“Well, don’t get crazy in there, you’ll—”

“Get out now! And cover your tracks.” Niomi’s voice boomed inside the program. “Now!”

Marco’s smile fell, and he nodded. “I’ll be fine. Get out.” And he quickly vanished.

Only then did Ari pull out of the program.

Chapter 4

“What the hell?” Niomi shouted as she pulled the cable out of Ari’s port. “When I said leave, I meant it.”

“I needed to make sure Marco was okay.”

“That was really stupid.”

Ari ignored the insult. “What happened in there?”

Niomi stormed back to her computer, her fingers flying over the keys. “Someone hacked into our site. Security is looking into it now. You didn’t do anything in there did you? Morph the program?”

“No. I was just talking to my brother.” Ari pushed up from the chair, slowly curling her fist. “By the way, the government is after my mother. She had to go into hiding. Did you know?”

“I don’t follow your mother. My job is you.”

Ari slammed her fist onto the table. “You promised they would be taken care of.”

“Take it up with HR. I have enough trouble taking care of you.”

“Niomi!” Fury raced through her veins. This wasn’t something Niomi could just blow off.

Her trainer slowly turned, glancing at Ari’s fist on the table. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You’re right. Your family is important. Are they safe and getting the money they need?”

Ari realized her body trembled in fear. Would her family be okay? She forced herself to focus on the here and now. “Marco got my mom out, and they are in hiding. Dave has been getting them the money. But what about now? Will Marco be okay?”

“I’m trying to find that out.” Niomi motioned to the screen. “We take every threat seriously and will track down the hack. It could be just a bored troll out there or something more. But given what I read about your brother in your file, I think he’ll be okay. After hacking into the Mayor’s feed and escaping unscathed, he can make it. He’s smart and has connections. And if we have to, we can relocate them if they want.”

Sitting down on a nearby stool, the tightness in Ari’s chest lessened. “You’re right. Marco can take care of himself. And he’d hate for me to pull him out and trap him somewhere in a real job.” He told her no more than once when she tried to convince him to come with her.

“We have a team that will assess the situation. They’ll let us know as soon as they know. If people don’t connect you to them, the safer they will be.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Go grab a drink and calm down. I’ll go over things with Security and create an incident report. Vinh will be dropping off your upgraded suit soon as well.” Niomi turned back to her computer.

Trying to calm herself, Ari headed down to the kitchen to grab a drink. Since she’d accepted the position at VisionTech, she worried whether it was the right decision for her family. If she hadn’t, the government would have forced her into another position without ever seeing her family again. Was it selfish to want freedom, even if your family had to pay the cost? Next time, she’d talk her brother into coming here or at least sending her mom.

Sick of being stuck with her own thoughts, she called Vinh. “Are you heading over with my suit?”

“No hello? How are you doing, Vinh? I’m sad at how downhill your manners have gone since you arrived at VisionTech.”

Vinh continued rambling. As she turned the corner, she found he stood in the hall with a suit in hand. “I blame Niomi really. This isolation can’t be good for a person.”

Ignoring his lecture on manners, her lips curled up in a smile at the sight of her new suit. “You finished it.”

“You doubted me?” It was a shiny gray material that was clearly expensive.

“Never.” She reached for her suit, the soft material lighter than she expected. With the ache and worry of her family still present, she was grateful for the distraction. “Have time for a drink?”

He glanced at the time on his wrist. “Yeah. They won’t miss me for a while.”

They headed to the kitchen for some hot drinks. Ari thought the coffee machine in the communal kitchen must have authentic beans growing in the walls, along with farmers grounding them by hand. It was better than anything she ever tasted. They each grabbed a latte and sat down to chat. Talking to him about home, the fear faded to the background. Vinh laughed as she relayed some of Marco’s old stunts, and he shared some of his own.

Vinh grew up not too far from where they were and was recruited as an engineer. Making his own AI by the age of fourteen, he was brilliant and left his home in Thalasia when he was seventeen. He’d been here only a few months longer than Ari.

“So, did you ask out Tara from Marketing?” She’d been hearing about Tara for weeks now.

He shrugged. “She started dating some idiot from Security. I guess some people are into big muscles and not big brains.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Glad I found out now and didn’t waste any of my brilliance on her.” A message pinged on his HUB, and he heaved a sigh as he read it. “I got to head out. Thanks for the coffee.”

“Anytime.” Ari realized that they didn’t even get to talk about her suit, really. Which must have been hard for Vinh. She traced a silver line that caught the light against the black material. Guess the time for moping was done.

Ari got to test out the suit sooner than she thought. The next day they went inside a basic VR program. With Vinh’s new