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Seconds feel like hours as my heart beats hard into my ears, and my mouth goes dry as my blinking cursor turns into an acceptance code. And just like that, I’m in again.
Everything outside of my immediate surroundings fades away.
This is it.
A quick search of his server shows me Maxwell’s team put up their own protections against an outside attack. This would have stopped me had I not remembered what I needed.
Maxwell’s team is decent, but compared to me they are entry level.
Maxwell is arrogant, and his amateur IT team is no different. They never thought to protect themselves from the inside out, and I access the hidden file I need and let it go to work from behind their firewall.
It’ll run for a minute before it is detected, and by then, it’ll be too late.
I access the first piece of information I need in seconds: Maxwell’s current location. He’s in a remote area southeast of San Diego near the California–Arizona border.
Switching my attention back to Cypher’s servers, I search for a way into their entire network.
On my own, I’ve never been strong enough to take out Maxwell, but Cypher has something I don’t: a connection to much bigger guns to bring to this knife fight.
I had no idea of Cypher’s reach until Logan told me about their base in Arizona. Now that I know I’m searching for more, I’ll be able to access their entire operation. If I do this right, Arizona won’t even know I’ve taken over until everything is done, as the orders to proceed will be coming from Link himself.
My heart skips a beat when I find what I’m looking for, and I send my first transmission out to their away teams to be ready to deploy.
I only have one more hurdle. I need Hunter out of the way, and I need to type in the codes to finish the program. And they both need to be done at the same time.
“Hunter. There should be a cable attached to the back of the computer in the side room. It’s blue. Disconnect it and bring it to me.” I hold my gaze on the screen.
He pushes off the wall and walks into the smaller room. I glance through the door to see him wedging himself between the wall and the desk. I have seconds to make my move.
I key in my last piece of code to gain control of Maxwell’s servers, then I hit the lock button on the side room door. As it clicks, I jump up and lunge across the room as Hunter tries to disentangle himself and get back to the door from his side.
My pulse racing, I beat him by a fraction of a second and close the door before he can wrench it out of my hands. Then, stepping back with my arms raised, I look around the room and see all eyes on me, mouths open.
Time stands still, and everything freezes in complete silence.
No one knows what the hell I’m doing.
I’m not even sure if I know.
But whatever it is, I’m now in complete control, and it’s time to begin what I always set out to do.
Hunter pulls hard on the door handle, but it won’t open. It’s sealed as tightly as his own fate.
I turn to the desk and take a seat.
Then I go to work hacking the rest of the way into my only way out.
For a brief moment, my conscience makes an appearance. I feel guilty for what I’m about to do. I want Jack to see the good in my intentions, but that is exactly what the road to hell is paved with. It’s fitting—since I’m going after the devil.
I tap a key, cutting off all outside communication and pulling up their away team’s details. They are already heading toward Maxwell, and I zero in on one unit.
It turns out their Arizona base has two Black Hawk helicopters, and one of them has not yet been deweaponized. They are both in the air and heading to the general location I transmitted, along with three teams on the ground.
I choose the one that has active ammunition on board, scan their call sign information, clear my throat, and open up a direct line to the pilot.
“Ranger Three, this is TacCon. Come in, Ranger Three. Do you copy?”
My heart hammers into my throat, and I second-guess using the call sign for Link’s tactical control. One wrong step, and I might be questioned.
