Chapter 46
“Can I get a status on the decoy file?” Wanda asks.
Sable leans back in her chair. “He’s having trouble with the PhantomByte program since there are so many file types.
Once they’re unpackaged from the container, the data seek protocol isn’t able to sniff each of them out.
It’s requiring him to bury a new VeriSync signature in each file the Splinter Module can find. ”
“Enough with the technobabble. Speak plainly,” Wanda commands.
Sable takes a deep breath. “It’s not working.”
Res6 bolts upright. “Not working? Just send the real files and be done with it.”
“Sorry. It wasn’t working. He’s almost done. Then he can run it through the Symul-a-tron—I mean, he can test it. Once we confirm it works, we’ll be good to go.”
“I don’t like waiting,” Res6 says, getting to his feet.
“Well, I don’t like the idea of handing them over your data. Who knows what they might do with it before we can stop them?” Wanda argues. “Let’s give him another half hour.”
“That’s what you said half an hour ago.” A few hours ago, he put a large digital clock on the particle pane. It displays a bright red 07:18. “What if they change their minds and hurt her?”
Wanda shakes her head. “There’s been nothing in their communications to suggest they’ll retract their offer, and our professional hostage team is standing by to collect her as soon as she leaves the building. We have a team in the building if they flinch.”
“Can’t they just raid them and be done with it?” he asks.
“Not until we piece together their motivations. I want to gather more evidence and determine if there’s a larger group involved. If we let them think they’re succeeding, they’re more likely to become lax and slip up,” Wanda says.
He clutches his knees, squeezing. “I don’t like this. I feel like I should be there when she’s released.”
“We’ve told them you’ve hired a crisis de-escalation service to manage the transfer,” Wanda says.
He frowns. “Electra is going to think I just threw money at the problem.”
“So are they. That is a key part of our plan,” Wanda calmly explains.
“Fuck,” he says, tugging at his hair.
After fifteen minutes go by with no word from Oro1, Sable says, “Res6, sit down. Your pacing is making me antsy. Better yet, go get us more coffee.”
Wordlessly, Wanda holds out her reusable mug.
He takes it, groaning. He knows what they’re doing.
Every time his nerves get the better of him, they send him for refreshments.
He glances at the clock one last time before he takes the cup.
07:33. The last thing he wants to do is run into anyone, and his staff should start arriving at the office soon.
He pokes his head out the door, looking both ways.
“Hey there, stranger!” Chryl shouts from down the hall.
He groans, jumping back inside the door and slamming it shut.
Sable stares at the door as if there’s a monster behind it. “What the fuck?”
“Be quiet and maybe she’ll go away,” he says.
Three loud knocks sound on the door, and then Chryl’s turning the handle. He presses his hand against it to hold it closed. “Go away!”
With surprising strength, Chryl pushes the door open. She takes one look at the three of them and then at the bright red digital clock, and bursts into tears. “Oh holy mother Zephyr! What’s happened?! Please tell me the world isn’t ending!”
She throws herself into Res6’s chest, sobbing. Then when she looks up, her red eyes landing on his, she must note his panicked expression because she cries louder, “Oh God, is it Electra?!”
The oh God, he’s guessing she learned from Electra. He pats her back. “I thought you didn’t like her.”
“Can’t a girl change her mind? She stood up for me about my FrogBlog, and I’ve been following her journey since before she was famous. It’s always the young ones that end so tragically. Just when their light is beginning to shine,” she laments.
Thankfully, Sable steps in, pulling Chryl away. “Electra is fine. We’re just having a bit of a situation.” Sable stills. She must be getting a message because her body language changes. “He’s got it done! The files are on the way.”
“What files?!” Chryl cries.
“Got them. It’s six packages in total,” Wanda says. “I’m removing the real files we were going to use just in case. Uploading the fake ones now.”
“07:43,” he says for good measure.
Chryl wipes her tears. “What files?”
Wanda adds files to the upload link. Once the sixth file is selected they wait. The upload time is six minutes.
“How long will the scrubbing take?” he asks.
“Should be quicker,” Sable says. “3 minutes tops.”
“How on earth would a physician know that?” he asks.
Sable shrugs. “I’m trying to reassure you. That seems like something a friend would do.”
“07:49,” he says, ignoring that she apparently thinks it still counts if you’re making things up.
The upload process finishes, and another window pops up. Scrub time 3 minutes.
“See, I told you!” Sable says.
“Lucky guess,” Wanda points out. They wait as the tenuous seconds pass. Finally, the scrub process is complete. Her cursor hovers over the word Submit for what feels like an eternity.
Electra can’t die.
Electra can’t die.
Electra can’t die.
“Are we sure this is going to work?” Res6 asks, one final time.
Chryl follows their lead as they turn and stare pointedly at Sable.
She crosses her arms. “Oro1 is the best hacker in MSP. If he can’t do it, no one can. Besides, it’s a little late now to question our decision.” She motions to the clock. 07:54.
Chryl whimpers as if she’s in true distress. “What are you hacking? And what does that have to do with Electra? And what happens at 08:00?”
“Who is this woman, and can someone get rid of her?” Wanda snaps.
“Chryl, please leave,” Res6 says, ushering her to the door, but she resists. If he weren’t so terrified for Electra’s safety, he might be fascinated with Chryl’s deduction skills.
“I don’t have to do what you say. You’re not my daddy anymore.” Chryl stomps twice for emphasis.
“Just verifying everything is there,” Wanda says.
“Her daddy?” Sable prods. “Is she another reincarnate?”
“No, but I’m considering recycling her when this is all over,” he answers, looking pointedly at Chryl. Of course he won’t do that, but with Wanda here, he can’t really explain Chryl’s evolving nature to Sable.
Wanda only chuckles, not removing her focus from her task. She presses the Submit button. The time on the wall is 07:56.
At 07:58, Wanda says, “They’ve got the files.
Now we wait for them to verify their authenticity.
” She taps her device as she does when she switches to communicate with her team.
“Team, prepare the extraction. I want a SAT standing by for when I give the word. Do not deploy it until we have eyes on the asset.”
Res6 slumps back against the wall. “Did they say how long the verification would take?”
“Half an hour at most, but we’ll see,” Wanda answers, leaning back in her chair to wait.
“Oh my Zorg! Electra’s been abducted! I have to tell her best friend!”
Sable darts around the desk, grabbing hold of her arm, to stop her from running out the door. “Wait, who’s her best friend if it isn’t Res6?”
“The crazy cat lady Sister Xelna! There are pictures of them all over the network. Let me go. I have to tell her. She’ll want to be here to comfort Electra when she returns.”
Sable looks to Res6 for confirmation.
“Absolutely not, Chryl,” he says. “This is another secret, for Electra’s safety.” He mimes zipping his lips like she’s prone to do.
Chryl jerks out of Sable’s grip. “Very inconsiderate.” She spins and storms out the door.
He considers calling security to stop her, but figures that might make things worse.
If Electra and the cat lady are photographed all over the network together, it stands to reason she’s who Electra’s been staying with.
That means Sister Xelna probably knows about Electra’s nature and will hear about her abduction too.
Or he’s too tired to fight and no match for Chryl.
When the door closes behind Chryl, Sable takes the cup he’s been gripping. “For the love of Zorg, sit.”
“I’m not some dog you can just boss around.” When her stare doesn’t relent, he moves around his desk, plopping into the guest chair since Wanda has taken over his.
Sable’s eyes flash. “Good boy.”
He rolls his eyes, grumbling, “How is this my life?”
“So what’s the deal with Chryl?” Sable asks as Wanda quietly works. “Yes, I’m trying to keep you distracted while we wait.”
He explains how Chryl came to be and her brief stint with him. Then how he gave her to Tommy, which is why she’s traipsing around his building. He widens his eyes, nodding to Wanda, hoping Sable will understand that there is more to the story that he can’t say in front of a NHOS inspector.
Sable’s eyes narrow. “I see.”
He runs a hand through his hair. “08:25.”
“You can stop telling us the time now,” Wanda says without looking up. “It worked. They verified it. They’re releasing her in a different connected building’s lobby in the same quadrant.”
“That’s a relief.” Sable flops down into the chair next to him. “I failed to mention he’s MSP’s self-proclaimed greatest hacker, but now that we know it worked . . .”
He clasps her on the shoulder. “I won’t have to murder you and dump your body in a batch of recycling?”
Wanda glances up. “Is that something you’ve done before?”
He and Sable both break out into peals of laughter, and he feels a little like he’s going insane. Must be the sleep deprivation.