“Quite a good night,” Yuri said as everyone got out of the SUV.
“Where should we set up to work?” Gomez asked.
“There are tables in the back,” Chen said. “That can wait. Evgeny should be here any minute.”
Jacob went to a pallet and opened a crate. Inside were 144 code decks. He counted the crates on the pallet. Twelve. There were eleven more pallets like this one. “That’s a lot of decks to break.”
Sandy and Xia went to a different pallet with smaller crates. Sandy opened a crate and looked inside. “And a lot of chips.”
“I hope you didn’t have anything else to do this weekend,” Chen said.
Gomez approached another pallet. The cases on this pallet were a different size from the others.
“You don’t need to worry about those,” Chen said. “Only the decks and the chips.”
Gomez stopped. He gave Jacob a questioning look. Before anything else could be said, a black sedan came to a stop in front of the bay doors. A well-dressed man who looked like he could be a Russian movie star got out of the back and straightened his tie. Though they had never met, Jacob was sure it was Evgeny. A large, bald, Chinese man in a suit got out the other side of the car.
“Gomez,” Evgeny called, “how are you, my friend?”
“Looking forward to finishing this job,” Gomez said, walking to Evgeny and shaking his hand.
“Always with the business. Gomez, this is my associate, Mr. Li.”
Gomez shook Mr. Li’s hand.
Jacob thought it was interesting that members of the SRS seemed to travel in pairs, one Russian and one Chinese. It was probably a smart thing to do, but it also showed a lack of trust. Of course, no one trusted the SRS for long, so why should they trust each other?
“And you must be Jacob,” Evgeny said, extending his hand. “I know you have done excellent work with our organization before, and it is a pleasure to finally meet you.” He turned to Xia and Sandy. “And these lovely ladies are?”
“Sandy.” She shook his hand also.
“I’m Xia.”
There was a slight nervousness about her voice. Jacob tried to will her to be calm.
Mr. Li said something to Xia in Chinese.
“Hong Kong,” Xia said. “My parents' families got out when they were teenagers.” She paused, then added, “After the crackdown in the early 20s.”
Mr. Li smiled. “Well, we are all friends here. What is it they say about bygones?”
Xia half-smiled.
“Yes, well,” Evgeny said, “on to more pleasant things. We have the goods?”
“Yes,” Chen said.
“Did the operation go smoothly?”
“For the most part. There were a few setbacks, but nothing that couldn’t be taken care of,” Chen said.
“Perfect.” Evgeny turned to Gomez. “So, you and your team feel that you can unlock the decks and the chips?”
“We can. We’ll have to get inside them and see what we are up against.” He walked to the open crate of code decks and took one out. “These are the latest model from NirvanaWare. None of us has ever seen one, and the corporations are always adding new layers to keep them secure. But between the four of us, we can handle it.”
“Do you have an estimate on how long?” Mr. Li asked.
“As soon as possible,” Jacob said.
“I hope so,” Mr. Li said.
Jacob looked at Mr. Li. He didn’t like the man. He could tell Mr. Li saw this situation as a you-are-working-for-me relationship, not a we-are-working-together relationship. This may have been the truth, but the air of condescension from Mr. Li annoyed Jacob and, from the looks on their faces, everyone else.
“We should get to it,” Gomez said, breaking the tension.
Chapter 20
They set up to work in an office at the rear of the warehouse. Xia explained the best approach would be to unlock a deck first. In theory, the chips would accept any code from the decks. That was the theory, but they were not familiar with this type of chip either. The pharma-tech corporations were constantly upgrading their hardware, making the older chips and code obsolete, forcing people to upgrade if they wanted the latest pharmaceutical code. Everyone did. Anyone with a heart condition or diabetes or depression had to upgrade. And insurance always covered it. It was easier to get insurance to cover a new chip than it was to get them to cover a broken arm. There was always a chance you were at fault with a broken arm, but who could blame you when NirvanaWare or Your Better Life or anyone else introduced a new chip?
Jacob and Xia worked next to each other, while Gomez and Sandy were at separate stations on the other side of the room. As they were setting up, Xia kept checking the time. An hour into the work, Jacob noticed she checked more frequently. He was concerned. She was out of her element, and he wasn’t sure how she was handling it. Jailbreaking stolen code decks in a Sino-Russian Syndicate warehouse was a long way from doing code on a peace mission. The situation was stressful enough for Jacob, and he woke up with an idea where the day was going. Xia, on the other hand, had this dropped on her.
When Xia checked the time again, Jacob asked, “You good?” as he turned a code deck in his hands.
Xia took a breath and held it for a second before exhaling, her lips forming an O. “My anxiety code isn’t scheduled for another,” she checked the time again, “two minutes. And trust me, I could use it right now.”
“You should’ve said something. I could’ve flicked some code to you. I still can.”
Xia shook her head. “I can’t do that. The corporation has been cracking down hard lately because of the new project. Everyone gets a random log scan at least once a week to make sure they aren’t using any non-prescribed code. They’ve fired at least three people this
