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“Ethan will notice,” Corey said.
“It’s why I’m his wife,” Alice said and smiled. “I’ll keep him busy long enough.”
“I’d just like a little assurance,” Corey said. “Randall Jones died.”
“An accident,” Eddie said. “He fought us off, or tried. Doesn’t have to happen again.”
Corey lifted a brow. He smoothed out this Mario Bros. T-shirt and sighed. “Guess I’m not going to be given a choice. But I feel uncomfortable with my brother up here and a gun pointed at him.”
The gunman moved his weapon, pointing it at Corey instead.
I glanced up at Raven, who was mouthing curses.
We needed a way to motivate Alice and Eddie to walk out of here without killing anyone. Just giving them what they wanted didn’t guarantee that.
I looked at Raven for help, but he was focused on the gunman trained on Corey. He had his own gun out, aiming down.
This was going to turn into a blood bath quickly, if Raven lost his patience and temper. Maybe he was good with a gun, but he was still outnumbered and none of the rest of us had weapons.
Axel had said the goal was to give them exactly what they wanted, and to walk away. We could case them later when we got everyone cleared of harm. What we needed was for Alice and her team to actually leave the premises without any hostages.
I studied Alice, who was looking at the screen and then at Corey. She curled her fingers at him. “Come sit next to me,” she said. She sat near the computer. The goon guarding Brandon pulled him down onto the floor. Alice patted the spot near her. “We’ll do this together.”
Corey eyeballed his brother and then settled near the computer, checking out the screens. He pressed at the monitor. “The encryption is pretty integrated.”
“Can it be taken out?” Alice asked.
Corey tilted his head, thinking. “Maybe. It’ll take a few minutes to see.”
Alice held something in her hands, I saw a glint of something glass. She must have had more of that poison. She was going to give it to Corey somehow.
Avery moved then, quietly. He was right next to Alice.
He held something, a similar looking bottle. He was going to try to swap it out?
Avery the magician.
He needed a distraction though.
I was on the farthest side of the room. I considered what I had. The radio…
I pulled it from my pocket and fiddled with the buttons, but keeping the frequency. I pressed the call button, and rubbed my finger quietly over the mouthpiece.
A radio in the room went off. It crackled with noise.
Eddie pulled it from his pocket, adjusting the volume. He pushed the button and spoke into it. “Who’s that? Check in.”
When he released the button, he got more of the same crackling. I held the button down. If I kept the line busy, it meant they couldn’t communicate with people downstairs.
“Fuck this core,” Eddie said. “It’s messing with our signal or something.”
“Or something happened downstairs,” Alice said. She placed her poison on the sofa next to her to pat Corey. “Don’t pay any attention.”
There was a quick movement. Avery reached over the arm, replacing the poison.
I turned off the signal, and then pushed the button, sliding my finger across, trying to make different noises.
“Someone should go check on them,” Eddie said.
“No one moves,” Alice said. “We’re going to get out of here soon.”
It wasn’t much, but at least Alice didn’t have her poison. I was wondering if she even carried the cure.
She looked back at Corey, who was typing at the monitor. “Is it working yet?”
“I’m not taking out the code,” Corey said. “If you want him to be able to continue using it and not notice it’s been altered, you’ll need the security packet to stay in place.”
“Maybe you aren’t as smart as I thought you were,” Alice said. “I thought I made it clear that we want access to the data.”
“I’m not taking out the packet,” Corey said. “I’m changing it. It still secures the line, but it reroutes information to a single phone.” He looked up. “Tell me where you want the information sent to.”
Alice squinted at him. She looked at Eddie and then back at Corey. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll be part of the data collection,” Corey said. “You’ll get part of the information.”
“We don’t want part,” Eddie said. “She wants all of it.”
Corey shook his head. “How were you going to access the data, even if I simply left the encryption open? It only flows through here.”
“That’s why I married Ethan,” she said. “To stay here and collect data in pieces while I could, learning passcodes and secrets as I wished.”
“Look,” Corey said. He pointed at the screen. “You won’t have to do that. If I make a cell phone able to pick up chunks of data, you’ll be able collect some on the go. You don’t have to stay. To users, it’ll look like the service stalled a minute, but it’ll pick back up. They’ll just have to hit refresh.”
“And Ethan won’t notice?” she asked.
“Nope,” Corey said. He gave off a smile, a little crooked. He was forcing it. “You could walk away. Pick up the cell phone data from anywhere. You’ll just have to remember to clear your memory every once in a while. It won’t be everything, but it’s sacrificing all data for mobility.”
Eddie coughed and then shook his head. He nudged Alice’s arm. “That’s not what you wanted,” he said. “You can stay here and collect the data from the source. What’s to say he won’t just make it not work once we’re gone?”
Alice considered this, staring at Corey, as if weighing out his proposition. “We don’t need all of the data here,” she said. “A little at a time to make use of…And all directed to a singular cell phone.”
“Just tell me the number where to send the data,” Corey said. “The security dog packet will remove the encryption just before the last tower, and the final destination of the receiving call. That means you pick it up after the encryption.
“Let’s see if it can do what we want first,” Alice said. “Show me.”
Eddie frowned, grumbled, and walked over to the window, looking out.
Corey was giving them a chance to walk away. My heart was in my throat. The dizziness was trying to take over. I glanced at Brandon, still on the ground. He had his eyes closed, unmoving.
Corey looked down at his brother. He nudged him with a foot. Brandon wasn’t moving. “What did you do to him?” Corey asked.
“He’s tired,” Alice said. “Been up for days. Don’t mind him.”
Possibly poisoned. I had a suspicion…did the poison work faster the more stress you were under?
My heart was thudding. Was I being poisoned slowly now, too? Being exhausted, my body wouldn’t be able to fight it much.
Corey frowned and then focused on the screen. “I need the number. Who will be getting the data?”
“I should,” Eddie said.
“Nonsense,” Alice said, and she smiled sweetly, looking at Eddie. “I should. I’m the only one who could possibly use it.”
“I don’t trust you,” Eddie said. “I’ll give you the data a little at a time. When you get something good from it, I’ll give you more.”
Alice’s lips twitched. I gathered she didn’t like being told what to do. “Okay,” she said.
Eddie gave Corey the number. He typed it in.
Moments later, Eddie’s cell phone started buzzing to life. He pulled it from his back pocket.
I got an eyeful of the gun he had in a holster behind him. So he did have a weapon.
Eddie checked his phone, scowling. “What’s this?”
Corey stood. This caused a reaction from the guard to aim his gun closer in warning. Corey held up his hands. “I’ll just take a look,” he said. “To make sure it’s working.”
The guard looked at Alice
, who nodded. The guard lowered his gun.
Corey leaned over, looking at Eddie’s screen. “Yeah,” he said, and pointed to the phone. “See? You’re getting in text messages like they’re being delivered to you. Open up your browser.”
Eddie did. “It’s moving on its own.”
“Every window you open, it’ll show you someone else’s use of it. What you’re seeing is a live stream of someone else’s cell phone’s signals being sent out. Flashes of websites from across the network. Except now…” He pointed lower on the screen. “The encrypted data isn’t there.”
“I can see a password,” Eddie said. He showed it to Alice. “Someone’s bank account.”
Alice smiled. “Surprisingly useful.”
“The information will be random,” Corey said, “but you’ll be able to get it from anywhere in the city. You’ll just have to be within range of one of Ethan’s active towers.”
“So we can’t go overseas?” Eddie asked. “Back home?”
Corey shook his head. “You’ll lose contact with the right towers. It won’t work.”
“We can’t go far,” Alice said. “But we don’t have to stay here.”
