“Why isn’t he leaving?” Ari practically screamed at Blur.
He focused on Patrick, an empty look in his eyes that told Ari she was working in the code. “He’s trapped. We can’t help from inside here.”
“We’re not near him. He can’t be trapped. He’ll never…” Ari couldn’t say it.
Harini better be running far and fast, because Ari would strangle her with her bare hands if she ever found her. How could she leave Patrick trapped? Stuck in a VR with this virus eating up his brain?
“I can’t leave him.” Ari’s gaze turned blurry with tears. As she lifted her eyes to her friend, her world blackened around her.
Ari choked on a sob as she woke up in the small VR shop. The onslaught of pain shooting through her mind was nothing compared to the ache for her friend. They were thousands of miles from Patrick. Harini, who she’d counted on as a friend, was gone, leaving him to die alone. Ari shoved back the grief and the dark hole she wanted to bury herself in. She needed to get to Patrick.
Ripping out the cable, she found Blur already up and grabbing their bags. “We have to get a message to the others.”
Joe and Marco were in Taiwan and much closer to Patrick. They had pulled out early, probably already delivering the file and missing the confrontation. They could get there in within the day if they pushed it.
Ignoring her skewed vision, she pulled on her bag. “Let’s go.”
She followed Blur through the now busy streets as he sprinted through the crowds. If Harini worked for Maxim now, they weren’t safe. No one was. Her head throbbed with every step, but she ignored it. She had to focus on Patrick.
My name is Ari. I’m eighteen. This is the real. I can do this. We can get to Patrick in time. Her mantra changed, but it helped focus her scattered thoughts with her pounding headache as she followed Blur.
“Here.” Ari pulled Blur into a nearby motel. It looked more like a brothel than a motel, but hopefully it had a connection they could use to contact the team.
Blur turned back and with a quick nod followed her in. She paid for the room as Blur worked on the HUB on his arm. They had protocols in place for a breach like this. Not that anyone would dream that the breach would be from Harini. Being warpers, they valued their privacy like gold itself, they all had chat rooms and extra IP addresses that they used. Having paid for the room for two hours they headed to the back.
They didn’t speak, but just pulled out their small computers and started the alarm system for the others. Those at home would have to know they were in danger, and any predestined meet up wasn’t safe either. Anything Harini knew, they had to assume Maxim knew as well.
“I’ll reach Tricky and those at the house if you contact Joe,” Ari said.
“Tricky already knows.” He didn’t even glance her way. “We have an emergency signal through a couple of channels no one knows about. I messaged her while we were running. She’s going with the others to find a safe place. She’ll reach out when they are settled.”
Ari let out a deep breath. “She’ll take my mom with her?” With Harini and Patrick out of commission, Ari worried how committed to the team everyone else was. Maybe it was everyone for themselves?
“And Sketchy and Sue.” He paused for a moment, his eyes bloodshot and ragged. That last meeting in the VR cost him more than showed. “She’ll take care of them. She knows how to survive.”
Biting her lip, Ari nodded. “Thanks.”
He went back to his screen. “I sent Joe and Marco a message that we’ve been compromised. They may be in the sky right now, though. We’ll need another way to contact them not using our regular channels.”
“We have to assume Harini told them everything.” She struggled to believe that Harini would betray everyone like that, but Ari remembered her cruel face. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. Maybe Ari didn’t really know her at all.
Ari paused, letting her thoughts travel. Blur and Tricky had a way to connect as siblings. Of course, they were twins and a little closer than her and Marco, but where could she find Marco and get a message to him?
“Tessa’s game!” Ari bent back to her screen and searched for the chat room associated with Tessa’s game.
“I can help.” Blur moved next to her, his computer on his lap. “Will he recognize the address?”
“Yes. It’s how he and Tessa communicated over the last year.” Ari pushed the last key that sent the message off.
They both froze staring at the screen as if willing for a reply.
“We’ve done what we can,” Blur said and began packing up his gear. “We shouldn’t stay here much longer. If Harini hasn’t given our destination away yet, it’s only a matter of time.”
A bing sounded on Ari’s computer, the most beautiful noise she had ever heard. “It’s him.”
Blur hurried back to her side as she messaged back and forth with her brother. Joe and Marco had no problems delivering the file and were out before the alarm sounded. With no time to waste, they signed off with Marco and Joe promising to find Patrick. Finally, Ari shut her screen, her heart heavy as the reality of what Marco and Joe would find sunk in.
“Tricky was in that virus for minutes and we saw what happened. Patrick has been in there ten times that already and will be in for hours by the time they get there.” Her throat tightened as she packed her gear. She couldn’t fall apart yet.
“Don’t go there.” Blur told her. “Not yet. Someone there could pull him out. Or maybe that bitch Harini’s heart melted just enough to pull him out before she left.”
“Maybe…”
“You ready to go?”
Ari nodded. “Are we going to join up with Tricky?”
“That’s the plan. Regroup and decide what’s next.”
Pulling her bag on her shoulder, Ari shoved her grief aside for her dear friends and she almost imagined her heart icing over. If she couldn’t let herself feel the loss of Patrick and betrayal of Harini, she’d feel the anger and hatred she had for Maxim and those that did this to them.
“If Tricky can keep the others safe, how about we go somewhere else?”
He turned back from the door. “Where?”
“A safe VR, probably not in this town. Do you still have the virus?”
His eyes narrowed in question. “Why?”
“I can’t go back, spending weeks in meetings trying to rebuild what Patrick did while protecting us from Maxim. I can’t.”
“What do you want to do?”
“You know where he is?” Ari asked. Since Tricky got sick, Blur had delved into Maxim’s world, learning as much as possible. If anyone knew Maxim, it was Blur or his sister.
“Not particularly, but with an ego his size I don’t think he’ll be hard to find.”
She pictured Maxim and the glum smile that she wanted to tear off his face. “Good. I’m not done with him yet.”
Chapter 33
Ari had counted on Blur’s drive for revenge, and he didn’t disappoint. They quickly got out of town. Worried about being tracked on any electronic device, Blur hacked into a car at a mall and they drove the green two-door vehicle away.
Ari turned to look out the window as the city flew behind them, her chest loosened slightly. She fidgeted in her seat, trying to block out all the thoughts she didn’t really want to think about. Patrick…
She rubbed her hands on her pants and turned to Blur. “What’s the plan? We should have a plan, right?”
He glanced at her obvious unease.
“How the hell do you remain so calm? Are you turning into Joe or something?” Ari couldn’t help the panic bubbling up inside of her.
“No, but what other choice do we have? We all go by nicknames for a reason.”
“To protect our privacy.” Ari knew that, but never thought beyond.
“Because we’ve been betrayed more than once by people we loved, people that were family. Harini… it hurts because I liked her. Hell, we all liked her. But she’s human like everyone else.”
>
With that depressing thought, Ari turned back to the window and saw a small town approaching. “How about there? Big enough to get lost in and have a VR hookup?”
“You think we should go farther maybe? Just to be safe?”
“We only have the element of surprise. The sooner we go back in the less prepared they will be.”
“Okay. They would probably assume we’d regroup with the others first, anyway.” He took the exit towards the city.
“I only hope Maxim is back online. Would he have gone into hiding?”
“He isn’t one to hide in fear. From what I saw, his whole enterprise is based online. VLEX has never gone down, not since its creation five years ago. The Board can’t afford to keep it down. Not with voting sessions finishing up. If they can’t keep the pretense that everything is okay, then countries will start going elsewhere. If VLEX is up, we’ll find them. They are in crisis mode and the Board should all be there trying to put on a good face.”
“I’m counting on it.” Ari watched the sun fall behind the horizon and the colored lights of the city slowly begin to flicker on. Another city, another skin, it didn’t matter who or where she was anymore. They needed to be safe, then she could run and never plug in again.
The city teemed with a night life, people walking on the streets drinking without care.
“I think there’s some type of festival going on,” Blur said.
“Looks like it.” Ari hoped it would give them extra coverage.
Pulling out one of the many IDs he had, Blur checked them into a private VR room. Ari was grateful they didn’t question him. With his bloodshot eyes and solemn demeanor, it looked like he was ready to murder someone. Ari probably didn’t look too much better. Maybe that was their cover as they both probably looked like VR junkies going for a fix.
“Are you sure you know how to use this?” Blur asked as he worked on the computer that the machines were linked to.
“I think so. Just copy the code and insert it into their mental feed.”
He nodded. “And you know we don’t have secure machines? They’re recent, a couple years old actually.”
“I know. If things turn south, I’ll pull out right away.” Ari turned to him. He had been quiet on the drive, and she worried something was wrong. “Make sure you get out in time as well.”
His gaze looked empty and haunting, and he didn’t reply.
“Blur, promise me. Because Tricky will kill me if anything happens to you. Are you well enough to do this?”
He rubbed his face for a moment. “Yeah. I’m here. I can do it. Just tired from the last trip.”
“Yea, me too. But you’ll run? I want him as much as you, but it’s better to live to fight another day, right?”
“Right. I will. It’ll only take a few minutes to load the virus.” He finished with the computers.
Ari paused for a moment. “Is this the right thing? Patrick left me in charge if he…” She couldn’t finish that sentence. “And instead of making sure everyone’s safe, I’m running to—”
“To rid the world of Maxim and those that abuse their power. None of us will ever be safe. Hell, no one in the world will be safe until he’s gone. They can kill anyone with the touch of a button. No one should be trusted to hold that kind of power alone.”
“Except us? We’re going to use that same weapon on them.”
“We’re protecting our family.” His jaw tightened, and his eyes held a well of emotion.
Ari’s stomach tightened, and she wasn’t sure which way to go. Was she running toward a disaster, or preventing one in the future? The screen in her backpack beeped. Pulling it out she found a message from Marco.
“They got there faster than I expected,” Blur said as she read it.
She stared at the screen for a while, not ready to accept the words in front of her. No. It couldn’t be real. A numbing sensation poured over her body, and she felt cold, so cold. Her world shattered around her with shards of painful glass that all showed her the same thing: Patrick was dead.
Blur came to her side and read the message for himself. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Of all the places I’ve gone to, Patrick started to make this one feel like home.”
The taste of blood entered her mouth. She lifted a hand and realized she’d bit her lip. The pain didn’t register though. Nothing did, except Patrick was dead. They may not have been a couple in the romantic sense, but there was something about him that made people feel like they belonged. How could she care so much for a man when she didn’t even know his last name? But that’s how Patrick was. He instilled hope in people that didn’t have any.
Dark thoughts crept in. Old fears from when she first learned about her power. From day one, she had tried to make those around her safe, protected, and even happy. She took the assignment from school to help provide for her mother. Look how that backfired. She’d tried to make those she cared about safe. It got her family kicked out of their home country, and Reed kicked out of school and stolen by VisionTech. He was only safe now because she left him alone. Everything she touched seemed to fall apart somehow. Even Patrick was now dead.
Instead of ignoring those dark words that told her she was a ticking bomb that destroyed those around her, she used it. She had power, and if she was a ticking bomb, then she would destroy those that started this. She turned to Blur. “Let’s do this.”
He moved to his chair and they both plugged into the ports at the back of their necks. They glanced at each other once last time, no words spoken. Then Ari turned towards the ceiling and melded into the program.
This time VLEX appeared dimmer, like the sun was setting. There was no sunset in VLEX. As Ari and Blur appeared in the center of VLEX, next to the large fountain, she noticed a large sign.
It reported the recent security breach and that VLEX was in lockdown mode. It limited the people inside and uploads allowed. Thankfully, being warpers they weren’t bound by those same rules.
“We don’t have long. They know we’re here,” she turned to Blur, who wore the same assistant’s skin as before.
“There.” He pointed to the tallest building inside this virtual world, one with spirals on top. “Top floor is where we’ll find them. Follow me.”
Figures. Ari eyed the top floor, a good fifty stories or higher. When she looked at the code it appeared there was some sort of barrier, like they would have to unlock a file or door of some sort.
He crouched down and waves poured off him. He was doing something in the code that the program didn’t know how to translate into the virtual world. Then he shot into the sky, flying.
Huh? Looks pretty badass. Ari focused on code and then followed Blur into the sky. She didn’t have the finesse of her friend, but it worked. They flew towards the top suite.
“Remember: no talking. Just attack. I’ll take Maxim, you take the next one in line. Anyone with Maxim will be armed.” Blur spoke in a normal tone as they were less than a foot apart, not as if they were flying through the sky with the wind rushing in her ears. Normal rules obviously didn’t apply to Blur, or her for that matter.
Turning to the job ahead, she focused on the code, flashing back and forth between the code and the virtual. It was easy to find Maxim’s office. It was the only one she couldn’t see through. Locked away, just like Blur said.
But then she watched Blur work. He began tearing apart the code, not hacking it but using his ability to tear it to shreds. Ari followed his lead and by the time they reached Maxim’s office, they burst through the glass windows effortlessly.
Alarms sounded in the distance. Maxim was in the room, along with many other men. Too many to count. Blur was true to his word and began attacking Maxim. As Ari turned to attack, she hesitated. Did theses strangers deserve to be affected by the virus? Possibly, but despite her anger she didn’t have the stomach for it.
With a wave of her hand, she pushed everyone else out of the window and sealed it up after them. Their screams echoed even through the gla
ss. It wasn’t real, she reminded herself. And the pain of the fall should push them out of the system.
Turning back to Blur and Maxim, she found Blur kneeling in front of Maxim, blood dripping from his ears. How did that happen so fast? Blur wasn’t infected with the virus though, not yet.
Ari charged. Running towards him she focused on the code, inserting the virus right where Blur told her to. The problem was it kept moving. How was his mind moving? Did he have a protection against the virus? She wasn’t sure how that was even possible, but a few months ago she wouldn’t have thought anyone could be killed through a virtual.
Tired of chasing Maxim’s slippery mind, she struck out with her fist. His faced recoiled with the punch, and he froze for a moment, his head tilted to the side. As he slowly faced her, he dabbed at his lip with the edge of his shirt.
“You’re going to pay for that.” Maxim struck out with a speed she would have only thought possible from a warper. He wasn’t a warper, but somehow his programmers had given him abilities inside.
She dodged the first two swings, but a kick took her down. Rolling to the side, she jumped back up and attacked again. If she could keep Maxim busy, maybe Blur could finish him with the code.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blur stand, holding onto a nearby table. He may be down, but not out. How could Maxim still be in here, fighting like a warper? Who or what did he have in his arsenal?
Just like Niomi taught her in training, Ari continued to push harder and faster, searching for an opening in the code. Then an explosion sounded. She watched a bullet or missile of some type speed by. Then she saw the code, and embedded inside of it was a virus or hack of sorts. Blur sent it towards Maxim and then collapsed to the floor.
She had a fraction of a second to decide if she should pull out and unplug Blur or end this once and for all. Knowing Blur and Tricky, she knew what they would want. She followed that bullet.
Hard Wired Trilogy Page 75
