Out of options and unable to get in contact with HQ, he gave in. “What do you have in mind?”
She grinned viciously. “I watched S hack that computer too, you know? I saw the IP address and name that cropped up and it’s hardly a stretch at this point to guess you’re looking for whoever is behind it. I ran it when I got back to my room. It’s local and my resolver should be done tracing it by now. With any luck, that’s where they took Syler.”
Arthur fixed her with an appraising look as he moved to collect their spare equipment. “If this goes to shit, don’t blame me.”
“Oh, I’ll exclusively be blaming you. Hurry up now.”
---
“Alright,” she murmured, ensconced in the armchair at the desk housing her small computer network. “Yes, okay, this is definitely a local spot. The map points to this warehouse, here.” She pulled it up on a secondary monitor, highlighting the specific building. “Let me just—”
“Thanks.” Arthur was already turning to leave.
“Oh settle the fuck down, Sparky. Let’s see if he’s even in there before you go running off.” Arthur paused, waiting. Emily’s hands flew over her keyboard, systematically pulling up the street camera security footage. “This is definitely the van that took him pulling into the parking garage.”
“You saw that?”
“Had a stupidly great view of it through my window. He looked absolutely livid,” she replied. “Let me work on getting into the warehouse security cameras.”
“Don’t,” the blond warned. “Their system will notice and I’d rather they not know I’m coming.”
“Or where you’re going?” she countered hotly. “Or even if he’s alright?”
Arthur snarled. “Don’t you for a moment imply that I don’t care about him.”
The blonde woman snorted, decidedly unimpressed, and rolled her eyes heavenward. “Oh, S just would find himself a hot headed pretty boy with a hero complex. I’m never leaving him alone again.” She pushed back from the desk, shoved her equipment into her computer bag, turning to face him. “Alright, here’s my proposal. Instead of you rushing in blind like a fucking idiot, guns blazing and getting both of you killed, I’m coming with you. I’ll hack the cameras on site from a safe distance away and try to keep whatever the fuck that security system is made of busy for a bit. If you move a bit faster this time, you can go in with that much working in your favor.”
“You think you can hack through their firewalls when the demonstration computer knocked you flat on your ass in under ten minutes?”
She grinned. “Yup, because penetrative attacks are much, much easier. Honestly, has Syler never explained this to you or did it all fly over your lovely head, Arm Candy? I just need to pinpoint where he is, match it to the blueprints I’ve already downloaded, and send you off. So,” she swung her bag up onto her shoulder, “let’s go!”
“Yeah, alright.” He passed her an ear piece, gesturing for her to put it in. “I’m driving.”
“Of course you are.”
---
“Hello there.” Syler was unceremoniously dumped in a chair and reintroduced to the land of light, the bag torn carelessly off his head forcing him to squint under the glare of the overhead fluorescent bulbs. “Pleasure to finally meet you.”
Once the spots stopped dancing in front of his eyes, he was greeted with the sight of a stocky man near his age sporting overly long brown hair that curled at the nape of his neck where it was slicked back with entirely too much hair gel. The man was shorter than Syler and dressed down to a convention worthy degree. Where his hired hit men were all black holsters and menace, he had opted for the casual hoodie and jeans look that served as uniform to computer techs the world over. “I take it you go by Jonathan Byron?”
“You can call me Jon,” he answered, somewhat nasally voice undeniably pleased. He dropped into the chair across from him, sprawling in a graceless slouch, one arm hooked over the upholstered back. “And you’re Syler.”
“So my mother decided, yes.” The hacker chuckled with a tone better suited to old friends. “Don’t suppose you feel like untying me for this little chat?”
“Mm, I suppose that’d be polite.” He leaned across the low table set between their respective armchairs to adjust his glasses instead, setting them level across the bridge of his nose. “My friends were rude to knock yours half off. I absolutely hate when mine go sideways.” He adjusted his own to underscore the point. They made his eyes look beady to Syler, but perhaps he wasn’t the best person to ask for an unbiased opinion.
Jon, as he called himself, though Syler very much doubted that was his real name, gestured for one of the guards to come over and cut the ties around his wrists. Once the hired muscle had retreated back to his position at the door where another guard waited, Syler relaxed a bit, rubbing the chafed skin at the base of his hands to get the blood flow back. “Thanks,” he tossed out, equal parts civil and sarcastic.
The hacker grinned. “So, tell me, what do you think of my dear Pyrona? Isn’t she fantastic?”
“She’s certainly something. Fantastic is probably a matter of who’s side she’s on.” And didn’t it just figure that this maniac named his AI with all the reverence that Arthur named his damned cars.
“I’ll grant you that,” he laughed. “I’ve been working on her for years. Adaptive computer learning. And where better to use her than in securing systems?”
“Funny,” Syler muttered. “Today was the first time I had the opportunity
