Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Talk about dropping a bombshell. Rebecca could only gape as Scorpio admitted to enjoying having her nearby and then left.
Left to shower that naked hunky body. Not an image that helped.
What also didn’t aid? She kind of enjoyed his presence, too, and this despite him not being anything like the men she usually dated.
She tended to veer toward intellectuals who enjoyed fine dining and wore button-up shirts, not a guy who could have been a Viking with his tall blond bulky build.
At the same time, he wasn’t a dummy. Scorpio might not have a college degree—according to what she’d learned in his book—but the man possessed a brain and a sense of honor she admired.
He chose to be a hero, not because he had to, but because he wanted to.
Despite the fact Cetus tried to kill him, rather than be scared off, he appeared more determined than ever to go after them.
It was inexplicably hot.
Like her. She fanned herself as she waited, trying to not imagine the water sluicing over those toned muscles and slick skin. Failed, because when he emerged, she remained flushed and bothered.
“You okay?” he asked, towel-drying his hair while bare-chested and wearing hip-hugging combat pants.
“My body is still adjusting to the abrupt change in climate,” she lied.
“Give me a second to find a shirt and boots and we’ll head over to see Aquarius.”
Scorpio disappeared for a moment and emerged clothed, but it didn’t matter. She could still picture him in the buff.
“How many flights of stairs this time?” she asked for distraction.
“Not many,” he replied with a grin. “But say the word and I’ll carry you.”
“I can climb on my own,” she grumbled, ignoring the temptation to say yes.
As they exited his room, she asked, “Do you really think your friend will find anything about the orb and why they wanted it so badly?”
“Depends on how cocky they are about their server security. Many criminals don’t trust computers to keep their secrets, and at the same time, having information accessible via a network makes sharing simpler.”
“I am struggling to see how a metal ball can be so important.”
“I would imagine it’s what’s inside they’re after and, before you ask, no clue what that might be. All I know is Sage really thinks it’s important we be the ones to have it in custody instead of them.”
The floor he stopped climbing at proved more modern than she’d seen thus far. A copy machine sat against a wall. There were screens on the walls displaying news channels from around the world and clocks showing the various time zones.
She craned to look around. “Is this like Zodiac Command Control?”
“Yup. As our head dude, Aries has that big office over there.” Scorpio pointed to a closed door. “The computer lab is here as well.”
“If this tower isn’t visible or accessible to the outside, how do you get internet and electricity?” she asked.
“Space fairies,” he replied with a straight face.
She snorted. “You’ll never let me forget that term, will you?”
“Nope.” He laughed. “As with all other things, the tower gives what we need.”
“And that doesn’t bother you? Don’t you want to know why? Who made the tower? How does it work?”
“I don’t need to know how to make bread to enjoy eating it,” he replied, leading her into the computer lab, filled with, you guessed it, computers and screens and a thickly muscled fellow sitting in a chair that spun as he turned to greet them.
“Good timing. I was just about to buzz.” The man’s smile widened. “Oh, hello. You must be Dr. Guthrie.” He stood and held out his hand. “I’m Aquarius.”
“Nice to meet you. Call me Rebecca.” She shook his extended hand. “I hear you’re the tech guru.”
“Guilty as charged. And you’re a pretty well-known scientist.”
“I don’t know if I’d say that,” was her demure reply.
“I read some of your published papers. I can see why you graduated top of your class.”
Scorpio cleared his throat. “Sorry to interrupt, but hoping for good news. Did you get into Cetus’ server?”
“Yes and no.” Aquarius sat and spun back to his screen. “I’ve managed to get past the first few firewalls. I’ve currently got access to employee files and scheduling, lab results, purchasing orders, even a few of their current projects.”
“I hear a but,” Scorpio stated, leaning against a desk with arms crossed.
“I encountered another firewall, a good one, I might add.”
“Can you crack it?”
“Most likely, but it will take me a bit more time,” Aquarius stated.
“Any idea of what’s hiding behind?” Scorpio questioned.
“Could be something, could be nothing.” Aquarius shrugged. “Won’t know until I get past it.”
“Well, that fucking blows,” Scorpio grumbled.
Rebecca jumped in. “In the stuff you have access to, did you find anything about my trip to Antarctica?”
“Nope, and I’ve been looking.” Aquarius tapped at his keyboard. “Guess them keeping it a secret isn’t too surprising, given their true mission involved the orb. Oddly enough, while there is nothing about your work down there, you do exist on their payroll as a contracted employee.”
“What about their second facility?” Scorpio asked.
“Wait, what second facility?” Rebecca exclaimed. “I thought they had only the one office.”
Scorpio glanced at her. “Turns out they’ve got some kind of hush-hush location in Area 51, on loan to them from the government.”
“Area 51? You’re kidding, right? I thought that place was a hyped-up myth.”
“It exists, although they no longer have any alien organic samples or equipment to test. We cleared them out in the seventies,” Scorpio replied.
So matter of fact, Rebecca blurted out, “Why would the Zodiacs do that?””
“Sage saw bad shit happening if humanity copied the tech.” Aquarius waved his hands. “Something about us not being ready for advanced alien technology.”
“The Area 51 aliens actually existed,” Rebecca mused aloud. “Were they super tall and gray like the rumors claims?”
“Not quite. The aliens started out as larvae. Once they attached and gained control of their host, their feeding and growth process shifted the appearance of the person they leeched onto.”
“You’re saying the gray men I’ve seen portrayed were human?”
“Yup.” Aquarius nodded. “That’s what they end up looking like after a while.”
“If there’s nothing alien there, why would Cetus want to use the Area 51 facility?” she wondered aloud.
“Privacy? Labs?” Aquarius rolled his shoulders. “Who knows? I’m going to assume info on it, as well as your mission, are behind the mega firewall. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Fucking computers,” Scorpio complained once more.
“Give me a day or two. I’ve yet to meet a…” Aquarius trailed off as his gaze returned to his screen. His fingers began tapping rapidly but not as quickly as the screen rolling gibberish in front of them.
“What’s happening?” Rebecca asked, recognizing the numbers and letters as lines of code.
“Someone’s trying to hack the tower mainframe,” Aquarius exclaimed, sounding incredulous. “That should be impossible. I’ve got safeguards in place to ensure no one can back-trace.” Aquarius’ fingers flew on his keyboard.
“You must have triggered something,” Rebecca murmured, the lines of text moving too fast, not that it would have mattered. She couldn’t read computer code.
“It must have been subtle as fuck,” Aquarius exclaimed. “I’m going to sever their access.”
A tense silence descended, broken only by Aquarius’ furious typing.
Then the screen went dark.
“Did you stop them?” Scorpio asked.
“No.” Aquarius looked pissed. The Cetus logo suddenly popping into view on all the monitors didn’t help.
“Fuck me, they’re in.” Aquarius swore a second time before all the screens went dark. The humming machines all died at once.
“What just happened?” Scorpio asked.
Aquarius leaned back in his chair with downturned lips. “I was out-hacked.”
“Are you saying they stole our information?”
“Nothing important. As a precaution, we don’t keep any Zodiac stuff on any computers with outside access.
Not that it would have mattered. They didn’t even try to copy or download the files I did have.
Whoever hacked us wiped my hard drives clean.
Sorry, bro. I won’t be much help until I get my shit formatted and loaded. ”
“Meaning we’re fucked,” Scorpio huffed.
“Yeah, at least for a day or more. Luckily, I’ve got backups that aren’t connected, so I should be able to restore, but it won’t have the access I hacked into Cetus.”
“Bloody hell,” Scorpio paced, his body tense with agitation.
“One thing’s for sure, this Cetus isn’t some do-good climate group. That was some slick work, the kind that takes big bucks.”
Scorpio rubbed his chin. “I hate having to enter blind. Not to mention, where do I go? Office building or secret facility?”
Rebecca chewed the end of her thumb. “There must be another way to find out where they took it.”
“The longer we take, the more time they have to secure the orb, or hide it.”
Scorpio ranted the entire trip back to his suite. He paced, bristling with anger. “Fuck. I can’t believe they caught Aquarius poking. That’s never happened before. But even worse, they apparently know a little too much about us.”
“How would they have found out? I thought the whole Zodiac Warrior thing was a secret?” Rebecca flopped onto his couch.
“Who knows? Maybe they found an ancient text. Or someone broke their oath and opened their big yapper.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know, but they’re aware we’re onto them so their guard will be up. I should have hit them yesterday before they had a chance to beef up their security.”
“Um, unless they’re beaming across the planet, you do realize it’s something like twenty-plus hours to fly from Antarctica to the USA. More if there’s layovers. The relic is still most likely in transit.”
His lips pursed. “I hadn’t thought of that. But it gives me an idea.” He pulled out his phone, and his fingers flew.
“Who are you texting?” she asked.