“Good,” Ruck said. “The cops sniffing around is an inconvenience, but our focus has to be on these two factions of The Collective.”
“Is the rest of the organization mobilizing?” I asked.
“No, thankfully they’re hanging back to see what these two can do.”
“Probably still don’t realize our capabilities,” OD said with a smirk.
“They’ll figure it out once we start busting some heads,” Strike replied.
“It’s going to be better than that,” Ruck told him with a grin.
“What’s better than busting heads? Cracking them open?” Relay looked genuinely perplexed.
Flir sighed. “Simpletons. Yes, you get to crack open some skulls of theveryeasily replaceable dirtbags. But we’ve found something better than that.”
I laughed, because for this group not only was there nothing better than cracking heads, there simply wasn’t anything else. The confused group just stared at Flir in complete non-comprehension of what he was saying.
Ruck arched a brow at Flir. “We? I don’t remember you hammering at a damn keyboard while Glitch barked orders at you over the phone.”
“Glitch gets a bit…overbearing…when he’s working,” OD said with a grimace.
Ruck snorted. “That’s putting it mildly. He’s lucky he wasn’t sitting next to me. By the way, we’re going to have a vote and decide on one of you to work with him.”
“One of us?” Kilo asked with a grimace.
“Don’t worry,” Flir told him. “It won’t be you.”
Kilo scoffed at that. “Why not me? I could do that shit.” Then he paused as he realized he’d just worked against himself by declaring that.
“The fuck you could,” Relay said with a laugh. “We’ve seen you use a computer.” He mimed hunting and pecking at a keyboard.
Kilo flipped him off, but didn’t say anything else. He didn’t actually want to get stuck as our tech guy. And none of us wanted to learn from Glitch. Overbearing was a nice way of describing Glitch while he worked. Add in trying to teach someone without inherent computer skills to hack? It was going to be a nightmare.
Ruck nodded. “Yeah. One of you.”
“What about Ryan or Teddy?” Drifter asked.
We all stared at him.
“Well shit,” I muttered. “Why didn’t any of us think of that?”
“I did,” Ruck replied.
“Then why are you saying one of us?” Kilo asked.
Ruck pointed over at a silently fuming OD. It only took a few extra seconds for the VP to lose his cool. “Are you implying that we put one of my kids in charge of a bunch of illegal shit?” he asked, scowling at Drifter.
“They’re young,” Strike pointed out. “Good with computers-”
“Way better than most of us,” I added, then closed my mouth when OD’s furious gaze landed on me.
“And they’re eager to learn,” Strike finished. “It’s a great idea, actually. I can’t believe you thought of it.”
Drifter rolled his eyes at Strike, but didn’t get the chance to respond to the dig.
“Oh sure. Great idea,” OD snapped. “Except that it puts under-aged kids in potentially dangerous situations.”
“They’re doing some hacking, OD,” Relay said. “We’re not arming them and bringing them along when we go to kill shit bags.”
