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Sebastian massages the bridge of his nose. “What did you do?”
Slumping in his seat, Owen deflates as he remembers our encounter with Ariah earlier.
I open my mouth to explain, but Mr. Edgewood holds his hand up, signaling me to stay silent. “They can fill you in on that later. Just know the plan hasn’t changed. We expect you all to continue following orders. Stay away from Ariah Bradford until further notice.”
I slam my laptop close. “Why can’t I find anything?” I grumble, pushing away from my desk and standing.
It’s been four hours since the meeting at the Fraternitas, and I’m no closer to finding a way to deactivate the chip. I can’t find Eshe. There’s no trace of her anywhere. Which means she’s either in hiding, being held, or dead. I’m desperately hoping it’s the former rather than the latter because if she’s dead, we’re fucked.
Groaning, I pull out my phone and dial Thomas.
“What’s up?” He says, not wasting time with any greeting.
“Are we secure?” I inquire, not wanting to say anything if we’re being tapped.
He grunts twice and hangs up. Not secure, then.
A minute later, a text appears.
T: Teagan…ten minutes….
I know not to reply, and the text vanishes, like it was never sent, once it shows I’ve read it.
Striding to my desk, I sit back in my chair, then push the button on the left side, and my wall opens up to two rows of monitors. Then, I place my thumb over the sensor and level my eye to the scanner. The drawer pops open. I pull out my encrypted wireless keyboard and token, then connect it to the encrypted server. The screens come online, and I enter the newest code and wait.
The screen comes to life, and Teagan is on the other end.
“Long time no see Levi,” she greets.
“I wish it was under better circumstances.”
She grunts her agreement. “I’ve been updated. Eshe is dead. She was found two days ago with her throat slit.”
“Fuck,” I exclaim.
“Fuck is right. With her went any real hope of deactivating that chip. Short of getting a hold of the man who inserted it in Owen, there are very few other options.”
My hands ball into fists at my side. There has to be another way. Owen would sooner kill himself than let Samantha force us to marry her. There’s an expiration date on his willingness to cooperate.
“You said ‘few options.’ What else is on the table?”
She smiles. “You know how much I like solving the unsolvable. I’m working on hacking the chip.”
My eyebrows arch in surprise. “Is that possible?”
We might be able to get out of this after all.
I always held out hope, but despair grew as each day passed, and I was greeted with only dead ends.
“It’s going to take some time, but I’m sure I can build a code to hack either the chip or the device that vindictive bitch is using to control you all,” she explains.
“Do you think you can do it before this dumbass engagement party that’s happening in a little over a month from now?”
“I’m running round-the-clock code. You’ll be the first to know as soon as I have an answer.”
Nodding, I ask, “Is there anything I can do?”
“If you can find a way to clone the device Samantha is using, that can speed this process up exponentially.”
