The Girl Who Dared to Lead

by Bella Forrest

  It certainly was, if Sadie was a member of the legacy group. It had occurred to me before that she could be torturing him like she had Jang-Mi, but now somehow it was even worse. Leo was right: even though we were rushing things, we couldn’t risk Jasper being damaged any more than he currently was. Too much time had already passed. If Leo was confident, then I had to trust him.

  It wasn’t as if we had much of a choice.

  “All right,” I said slowly. “Is everything ready?”

  His entire face lit up, and he reached across the desk to place his hand over mine. “Thank you,” he breathed. “And to answer your question, no, not quite yet. Give me a few minutes?”

  “Sure,” I said with more confidence than I felt. Leo let go of my hand and began to type, while I leaned back and prayed that we weren’t about to make a colossal mistake.

  28

  I distracted myself from my nervousness by checking my messages, comforted by the unceasing taps coming from Leo’s fingers striking the keys. Most of the messages were largely ignorable, but there was a thank-you note from Sage waiting for me (yay!) with the vid file attached. I watched it quickly while Leo worked, and confirmed that, yes, the voice I had been recognizing was Baldy’s. His face had changed drastically, but that was probably because of the plastic surgery—I knew in my heart it was him. I sent the file to Maddox to let her know, and then sent a reply to Sage, thanking him for sending the file, and continued to go through my messages.

  Most of them were boring administrative stuff, but there was one from my brother that made me cringe just to look at.

  I had forgotten to net him. Again.

  He was going to murder me when he saw me next. I had to call him right now and beg for forgiveness—and tell him I really hadn’t been trying to avoid him. I opened my mouth to bark an order at Cornelius to contact him immediately, already planning to just tell him about yesterday. Once Alex heard what had happened, he would forgive me. I mean… it wasn’t every day that your sister survived a slashed throat, right?

  Leo cleared his throat, though, and I froze, mouth hanging open, looking at him with wide eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re ready,” I eventually expelled in a large gust, anxiety growing that I was about to have to delay calling Alex again. Leo nodded, and my guilt doubled.

  There was a pit in hell reserved for bad siblings, and I was going there. Five more minutes, Alex, I promised him mentally.

  Leo cocked his head at me. “Are you okay?”

  I winced and looked down at my pad, squirming slightly. “I haven’t talked to my brother since the funeral,” I admitted finally, my stomach queasy. I risked a quick glance up at him and found his mouth twisted in an O of surprise. “I’m awful, aren’t I?”

  He studied me for a second and then gave me a wry smile. “Yes, you are. Net him now; he can be on the line with us while we do it.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked. “If Sadie’s a legacy and is monitoring his net activity, she’ll notice that he and I were talking on the same day Jasper disappeared from her terminal. She’ll suspect something.”

  “Liana, who do you think you’re talking to?” He smirked, leaning back in the chair. “I’ve already devised a method of obscuring your net calls while you’re inside the apartment. Besides, it would help distract you somewhat from the task at hand, since I know you’re nervous about the plan.”

  I laughed at that, and relaxed a little. Of course Leo wouldn’t make that suggestion unless he was certain we would be safe. Besides, it was a good idea, and I was positive that Alex wouldn’t be opposed to the gesture. All he wanted was to be included, and I got that. It was just hard with everything that had happened the last few days.

  “Cornelius, contact my brother, please.”

  Leo smiled and then reached toward the keyboard. “Getting ready to send Rose,” he informed me in a low voice. I worked on trying to relax. I was about to try to defuse my brother while Leo sent an unstable AI fragment into Sadie Monroe’s computer to save another potentially unstable AI fragment.

  I totally had this.

  You’ve got some nerve, my brother’s voice suddenly snarled in my ear, making me cringe. Just because you’re the stupid Champion does not mean you get to ignore me! What the hell, Liana?!

  My cringe became a full-blown wince as his voice thundered through my ear canal. Alex, I know you’re mad, but you need to hear what happened yesterday.

  I don’t give a damn what excuses you’re peddling, Liana. I am your brother, and you ignored me! You cut me out of the investigation into Mom’s death!

  There was hurt in my brother’s voice, and I sighed. Across from me, Leo gave me a quizzical look, and I pointed at my ear and mouthed, “Alex.”

  He nodded in understanding, and then said in a low voice, “I’m sending Rose now. Transfer the transmission to the speakers when you’re done telling him what happened, okay?”

  I held a thumb up to tell him I understood, and turned my attention to my brother, collecting my thoughts.

  Okay, before you get too righteous, Alex, you need to know that I was attacked yesterday. It was bad. I almost died.

  There was a pause, followed by an Oh. Several seconds passed, and I could imagine the quizzical look on his face. Define ‘almost’?

  “Alex,” I said out loud, choking back a laugh. “Do you really want to know how bad it was?”

  Yes, I do. I want to make sure it was as life threatening as you claim, and not a damned black eye or something.

  I sobered immediately, the bite of the knife sliding into my thoughts, and I looked up at Leo. “I’m going to let Leo tell you that part,” I said out loud, so that Leo could follow along. “I don’t think I can talk about it. Cornelius, transfer net call to the speakers, please?”

  “It is my honor to serve,” the program replied.

  The buzz in my skull died, and I waited a few seconds before saying, “Alex, can you hear me?”

  “Yeah,” my brother’s voice replied gruffly. “I can hear you. Leo, what’s this about my sister almost dying?”

  “It’s true,” Leo replied, his eyes glued to the monitor. “But before I tell you that, I should let you know that we’re about to break into Sadie Monroe’s mainframe.” He glanced at me and smiled. “Her assistant just took the bait.”

  That meant the message containing Rose was on its way. And it was quicker than I had anticipated.

  “What?” my brother asked, his alarm and confusion evident in the way his voice squawked over the speakers. “Are you kidding me? Liana, what is going on?!”

  “Okay, don’t panic, Alex,” I said soothingly. “You wanted to be included in the investigation into Mom’s death, and this is part of that. I think Sadie’s working with the legacies that killed her.”

  “So someone was controlling the sentinel,” my brother replied excitedly. “I knew it! You think it was Sadie?”

  “I’m not sure of anything yet,” I told him, not wanting him to jump the gun and go after Sadie. She was involved, but that didn’t mean she was the one who had given the order. I had to figure out her place before I made any accusations. “Right now we’re just trying to rescue Jasper.”

  “Rose has been transferred to Sadie’s terminal,” Leo announced softly. “We’ll be out of contact with her for the next five minutes.”

  I glanced at my indicator—it was 11:13—and looked up at Leo. “How will we know if she made it?”

  “We won’t,” he replied grimly. “We’ll only know if something goes wrong. But everything’s going to be fine, Liana. Rose can handle this.”

  I gave him a smile, but I could tell it wasn’t very confident. I doubted so many things about this, and had no idea what we could do if something went wrong, but it was too late to do anything about it. “Okay,” I said.

  “Hey, not okay,” my brother cut in, breaking his silence. “What was this crap about Liana almost dying? What happened?”

  Leo’s mouth pressed into a thin line. Our
eyes met, and I saw a flash of the frustrated anger from yesterday come and go in a matter of seconds. “There’s no good way to say it, but someone cut her throat.”

  My hand itched to check my neck again at his words, but I clenched it into a fist and left it where it was. I waited for my brother to respond, but when time kept marching on with no sound from him, I blurted out, “I’m okay, Alex.”

  “Who did it?” my twin snarled. “I’m glad you’re okay, but I’m going to track down the idiots who dared lay a finger on you!”

  I sat back at the intense rage in my brother’s tone, and suddenly found myself reconsidering this entire thing. I didn’t want Alex running headlong into danger, especially in my defense. “Alex, I’m fine,” I told him. “And we’re still trying to find the people who did it. I couldn’t point you in their direction even if I wanted to! So calm down.”

  “Don’t tell me to calm down! You had your throat cut, and I wasn’t there to protect you!” he retorted. “What were you even doing when this happened?”

  I sighed and looked at my watch. Only 11:14. Four more minutes to go. We had the time, provided I could keep it short. I launched into the story, starting with the attack on the catwalk, and then moved on to discovering the boy in the Attic who led us back to the legacies’ strange house, and ended on our discovery of plastic surgery. The only detail I elected to omit was the fact that my attackers had left behind the materials needed to save my life. I figured my brother was already upset about them trying to kill me; why worry him further by telling him that they suddenly wanted me alive for some reason? By the time I finished, it was 11:16. Only two more minutes before Rose would be back, hopefully with Jasper in tow.

  My brother was silent for several heartbeats after I was done. Eventually, he said, “I think I’m going to need a transfer back into the Knights Department.” I laughed, taking it as a joke, but then my brother added, “I’m serious, Lily. You need as much protection around you as possible.”

  I exchanged a look with Leo, surprised by the seriousness in my brother’s tone. I considered it, but for some reason I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Alex was notoriously stubborn and hardheaded, and I worried about us clashing during the investigation if he was actually in my department.

  “Alex, I don’t think that’s necessary,” I eventually managed. “Besides, won’t it look suspicious if you transfer over here right after I become Champion? People will talk.”

  “Let them,” he raged. “I—”

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Leo said, though from the look on his face, he was anything but sorry. “But we have a little under a minute until Jasper gets here. So if you would hold off on the fighting, I would really appreciate it.” I smiled and sent him a thankful look, grateful that he had managed to distract Alex’s temper some.

  Alex went quiet with a sullen, “Fine.”

  Tension flared through me as I realized this was it—in less than sixty seconds, we would hopefully have Jasper and Rose back in our terminal, safe and sound, with Sadie none the wiser about what had happened.

  I held my breath and waited for what felt like eternity, but when the silence became thick and oppressive, I found myself babbling out a question to try to fill the space, needing any sort of distraction. “Out of curiosity, what makes an AI better equipped to hack a firewall?”

  Leo looked up in surprise and then flicked his eyes back to the terminal. “Emotions, really,” he replied. “To a firewall, it’s like we introduce a three into a stream of ones and zeroes. The system doesn’t know to process it and basically ignores it. But that three becomes a gateway, a microscopic hole in the code that we can stream ourselves through without anyone even noticing.”

  I blinked. “Strange to think that Jasper couldn’t break free using that,” I commented.

  He gave me a somber look. “We do have limitations, and if someone wants to keep us imprisoned and has the coding background to enforce it, then we’re powerless. It’s clear that these people do have that sort of power, given what they did to Rose.”

  I nodded, but it did little to reassure me. I checked my watch—11:18—blinked when I saw the time, and then looked up at Leo expectantly. His gaze was glued to the screen, his entire form still. “Is she back?” I asked nervously.

  “Any moment,” he replied. I bit my lip and tried to caution myself for patience.

  Seconds ticked by. Five, then ten, and twenty. Still, neither of us moved, and Alex said nothing. Finally, at thirty, I opened my mouth to ask what was going on. Then I heard a little chirping sound come from the terminal.

  “Is that her?” I asked hurriedly, leaning forward. “Does she have Jasper?”

  I looked up at Leo, but all of my excitement bled into horror as I saw his face grow pale. “Leo?” I asked.

  He looked up at me, his face grave. “It’s the beacon,” he said softly. “The one she was supposed to send if she got into trouble.”

  “Does it say what kind of trouble?” I asked as ice water filled my veins. I wasn’t sure why I even asked—any kind was going to be difficult for us to surmount—but I had to know. Leo clicked a button, projecting it to the screen behind him, and I read, Hostile program detected upon entry. Virtual assistant is currently disabled, but enemy program too powerful to overcome in this condition. Please render assistance. Rose.

  “Guys, what’s going on?” Alex demanded.

  “In a second, Alex,” I replied absentmindedly, trying to think.

  But for the life of me, I was drawing a blank. All I could think was that Sadie now had not only one fragment, but two—both of them trapped in the private terminal in her quarters.

  And we had no plan in place to recover either one of them.

  29

  “I’ll go in,” Leo said abruptly. “Liana, get Quess. We can cut the net out of my neck, download my program to your terminal, and do the same thing as before. I can get them out.”

  I met his gaze, fear uncurling in my heart. “Absolutely not,” I said emphatically. There was no way I was letting Leo go after them. If Sadie had a program capable of taking down Rose, then sending Leo was too risky. The legacies didn’t know he existed, and if they found out, they’d come after him with everything they had. They couldn’t allow him to remain in play if he could replace Scipio. He would destroy everything they had worked for—and they’d never stop hunting him.

  Not to mention, what would happen to Grey if Leo left him? Would it damage him? Or both of them, even? We had no idea if Grey and Leo were influencing one another, but I had to consider that if they were, then Leo’s request to download himself into the computer could result in killing not one of them, but both of them! My heart rejected the idea even before my head could, but both agreed firmly that it was a bad idea.

  “Liana, we have to do something!” Leo practically shouted. “If Sadie gets back to her quarters and finds Rose in there, she’s going to have control over two fragment AIs! She could figure out that we know way more than we’re supposed to. She’ll come after us!”

  His rising panic was not helping me maintain my focus. “I know that, Leo. Just let me think.”

  We couldn’t send Leo, and I was betting Quess and Leo wouldn’t be able to find a way to break in remotely. That only left one option, and it was one that we had only barely conceptualized: physically breaking into Sadie Monroe’s quarters. Today.

  “Liana, I really think—”

  “Leo, my sister doesn’t want you getting stuck in the same trap as your AI friend did,” my brother interrupted through the speakers. I blinked, having forgotten that he was on the line with us, and then felt a wave of gratitude toward him.

  “He’s right,” I said, looking at Leo. “I know you think you can handle it, and that may be true, but we can’t risk them ever finding out about you. If they learn that you can completely destroy everything they’ve worked toward for the past two hundred years, they won’t stop. They have more people than we do, and they’re able to change their faces. We’r
e on our back foot, Leo. We have to be smart, and that means breaking into Sadie’s quarters and getting them out of there ourselves.”

  Leo frowned at me, but didn’t argue further. I could tell he was angry, and I wanted to do something to reassure him that we were going to do everything in our power for him, but then my brother said, “Not to be that guy, but that doesn’t sound very smart to me.”

  “Well, there aren’t any other options,” I retorted. “Alex, Sadie’s doing an inspection of her Leads today. Is that normally an all-day affair for her? We need her out of her quarters for as long as possible.”

  There was a long pause. “It is an all-day affair for her,” he eventually said. “She’s supposed to spread them out over a month, but she likes to handle them all in one day. Dinah told me Sadie always inspects her team last, around four.”

  “What about lunch?” I asked. “Will she eat it at home?”

  “No, she has lunch with one of her assistants in the cafeteria, to talk about the results from that morning. The woman is nothing if not consistent.”

  Perfect. Sadie would be out of her quarters until after she finished Dinah’s inspection. And Dinah didn’t need to be back in her department until four. My brother would have to be with her as well, as Sadie would notice his absence, but it gave us a few hours to come up with a plan and execute it. For that to happen, though, I needed to consult with the man who’d been working on this particular thread.

  “Thanks, Alex. Hold the transmission, okay?” My brother made an affirmative sound, and I said, “Cornelius, patch Quess into the call.”

  “It is my honor to serve, Champion,” Cornelius replied.

  A moment later, there was a pop from the speakers, followed by, “How did it go?”

  “Not good, Quess,” I informed him. “Rose is trapped in Sadie’s computer. I need to know what you came up with by way of a break-in plan.”

  There was a long pause. “Are you kidding? We haven’t even finished scanning the schematics yet! We don’t even know where her quarters are!”