“Something is not correct,” the AI said. “What did you do?”
The construct began to flicker. The data streaming through the figure began to flow in spurts and irregular patterns.
“Got to go,” Jacob said.
He came out of the link still dazed, and there was a buzzing in his ears. No, it wasn’t a buzzing. It was Kat.
“Jacob! Jacob! Can you hear me?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
“Thank God.”
“I got the code.”
“Good. You need to get out of there, now. We’ve got five minutes.”
“I need to take a minute...”
“I don’t know if you have a minute.”
“All right. I’m going.”
He steadied himself with the edge of the desk and stood. He tried to open the door. It didn’t open. Then he remembered the zip cuffs and got back on the chair and cut them with the knife he took from Slade.
The brightness of the hallway seemed more intense after the time in the AI construct. He took off his net glasses and put on his sunglasses.
“What just happened?” Kat asked with concern in her voice.
“I’m fine. It’s just so bright.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I’ll put them back on.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He turned a corner and saw Slade still cuffed to the door, a small pool of blood forming at his feet.
Jacob started to say something when the hallway was filled with the sound of alarms.
Chapter 55
“Sandy, can you get down there?”
“I can’t,” Sandy said. “I’ve got to stay linked to the security system.”
She felt helpless. Jacob was in trouble, and she was stuck in a restroom. She hit the side of the stall in frustration. She had to stay put. Maintaining the link with the security system took constant monitoring. The system had been trying to regain control and kick her off from the start. If she went on the move, she could miss its next counter-attack, and if the system kicked her out, Kat would be blind.
She blocked the thought. She had to focus on the task at hand. Jacob would have to take care of himself. She hoped he could. Right now, she had to set up the cascading failure virus that would wipe the security system’s data, wiping any record of their being here, or of Two-Step’s trip to the infirmary. Assuming that part of the plan was going well. She hated not knowing what was going on outside of this damn stall she'd been in for what seemed like hours.
Just get your part done, and have faith it will work. Isn’t that what she told Xia before? Things work out when people act as if it will. She just needed to do her part and finish the hack and bring down the system. The sooner she did that, the sooner she could go help Jacob.
Kat called to Jacob and got only silence in response. She ignored it and worked faster. No mistakes, she told herself, just flow with the code.
The restroom door opened. The sound of heels on the tile came toward her stall and stopped. “Ms. Clarke? Are you in here?”
Shit. The receptionist from the interview room. She stopped inputting code. How to handle this? Disguise her voice and say she’s not here? Tell the woman she was sick? She’d lost track of how long she was gone. The woman might not buy she was sick. She had no choice. She flushed the toilet.
“I’m in here.”
“Are you okay? You didn’t return for your interview, and the front desk said you didn’t check out. I thought I should come look for you.”
“Well, it’s sort of embarrassing. It seems I’ve got some stomach problems. My boyfriend took me to a real meat burger place last night, and I’ve never had one before. Well, as I said, it’s a bit embarrassing.” She flushed again to drive home the point.
“Oh. I see. Well, I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll just go back to my desk. If you would like, you can come by after you… I mean, if you want to set up another interview, I can help you with that. I’m going to go back now. I hope you’re all right.”
“Thank you,” she said.
Heels clicked on tile again and the door opened and shut.
“That went well,” Kat said. “But then again, who’s going to argue about diarrhea?”
Sandy laughed and went back to coding. “Almost there,” she said.
“Good. I still can’t get Jacob. He hasn’t come out of the room yet. He must still be linked with the network.”
Sandy put the finishing touches on the code and checked it. It was clean.
“It’s done,” she told Kat. “How do we want to handle this? After I deliver the packet, you might have another minute of visual before the system fails. And there’s the possibility the system has a failsafe and alarms go off when it goes down.”
“How fast can you get down to Jacob?”
“The stairs aren’t far. I can run down eight flights pretty fast if I need to.”
“You do.”
“Any word from Xia or Two-Step?”
“No. If there is a failsafe and he’s not out of the building yet, he could get burned.”
“Think positive.”
“Hold on,” Kat said with excitement in her voice. “Jacob’s moving inside the room. He’s out of the link.”
Sandy felt a rush of adrenaline. “I’m going to send and haul
