by Jamie Davis
A broad grin crossed Taylor’s face. “’Tech witch.’ I like that. It’s a whole lot better than ‘garden-variety hacker.’”
Clark chuckled. Taylor’s inclusion in their little band had been the one part he’d initially resisted. He didn’t see how she was going to contribute until Quinn got her hooked up on a used laptop he had bought from a pawn shop on one of his regular runs into the city for supplies. Since none of them could go home to get their things, it was the best he could do, and she said she needed it to get them all some semblance of civilization in their new home.
She’d managed to fire it up, get them free internet from the cable box at the end of the lane, and even managed to hack into the power grid and get the power turned back on.
The real bonus was how she diffused tense situations with her quirky humor and ever-present positive attitude. Perpetually perky people like Taylor bugged him, but as soon as he saw the effect she had on Quinn, Miranda, and even him, he realized she was an asset to the team.
“Hopefully, you’ll live up to the moniker, kid. Now that I’ve figured out how to break through to Quinn’s inherent abilities, I need you and Miranda to come through in a big way.”
Miranda stood, pouring a fresh cup of coffee from the old drip coffee maker left on the counter when the previous residents moved out. “I don’t know what you want me to do. I don’t know anything about training a new hunter. You’re the expert there.”
“I can handle the training end, but I need you to come up with a way to duplicate the VR gear VirSync used to create their system. It had both tech and magical components. I think you two are going to have to work together to get it done.”
Taylor shook her head. “I’m not usually the one to crap on anyone’s ideas, but what you’re asking is nearly impossible. I saw their system and understood what they were doing. At least I thought I did before I discovered they were using magic against us, too. They had top-level equipment and customized gear much better than anything you could find in a random pawn shop in the city.”
“She’s right, Clark,” Miranda said. “Not to mention the issues we’d have duplicating the magic spells they used to get their system to even work. I wouldn’t know where to start conjuring something like that.”
“Oh, I can help with that,” Taylor said.
Both Clark and Miranda turned to stare at her. Clark said. “You just got done saying you couldn’t do anything to help.”
“I didn’t say that. I said I didn’t have the gear to do it and didn’t think it would be easy to find. The how of doing it is different. I got a pretty good look at the code they were using once when they left me alone in the control room for my VR suite. I couldn’t resist scrolling down to see how their system was coded. I never forget anything I read. Most of it is right up here.” Taylor tapped her head with one finger.
Miranda shook her head. “But that’s the code, the computer stuff. How does that help me come up with a spell?”
“Easy. There were things in the lines of code that didn’t make any sense to me at the time. Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, especially after talking with you about the nature of magic, I think I know what those extra nonsense lines of code meant.”
“You think they were some sort of spell written into the software?” Clark asked.
Taylor nodded and gestured to Miranda. “You told me last week that magical energy harnessed something somehow related to the magnetic field of the earth running along hidden lines in the earth around us.”
Miranda nodded. “Yes, ley lines.”
“I did some research because I didn’t understand how these hidden energy lines worked. I figured out they’re kind of like Longitude and Latitude lines, just more chaotic. As soon as I figured that out, the lines of code in my head kind of figured themselves out.”
Miranda smiled. “I think I see where you’re going. I couldn’t figure out how VirSync was teleporting the slayers physically out into the real world while still tapping into their VR world skills. If the code referred to ley line coordinates, they could be used to target a specific location on the map. That would enable the spell caster to send the slayers to that location while inside the training system.”
“Exactly,” Taylor said, a beaming smile spread across her face.
Clark looked from one woman to the other and back again. “I don’t understand. So can you recreate the VR system they used on you all to create the slayer assassins or not?”
Taylor and Miranda both nodded.
Miranda said, “If what Taylor says is true, then it’s possible we could pool our efforts together to create a similar effect, at least magically.”
Taylor’s smile turned into a frown. “The magic is the easy part. We still don’t have the right equipment to do what we need to do. It’ll take way more than just a two-year-old laptop to do what we need them to do. I can’t modify that hunk of junk to do anything approaching the computing power we’d need. I might be able to modify my old system at home if you’d let me go home and get it.”
Clark jumped in. “No. No going back to our homes, for any of us. It would be too risky, even for me, and I don’t think they have any tracking info on me. It’s definitely out of the question for you and Quinn. There has to be a way we can get the gear you need to do what is necessary.”
“Sure, if you have fifty thousand dollars and a dedicated team of assembly techs,” Taylor quipped. “What we need is gear from VirSync itself.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Miranda asked. “We barely made it out the last time we were there.”
“I know,” Taylor said. “It’s impossible to do. I was just trying to explain how specialized their gear is. Too bad we can’t get back in there for a few minutes. That’s all I’d need inside one of the store-rooms in the VR training wing. I saw one of them while I was there. There were several older versions of the VR rig in it. I’m sure we could get everything we need there and no one would even miss it. It’s outdated technology from their standpoint.”
Clark started to say “no” to the idea, but he thought about how hard it had been to train Quinn so far. It had taken a month to have the single breakthrough she’d had. There was something extraordinary about her. He could feel it deep inside. He also could feel that her abilities would only come to fruition if he could get her trained in time to make it count.
“We might not have a choice,” Clark said to himself in a low voice.
“What was that?” Miranda asked. “You’re not actually considering going back in there to try some sort of heist, are you?
Clark shrugged. “It’s worth thinking about. Quinn needs this gear to train. I don’t know why or how, but she does.” He glanced at Taylor. “How much gear are we talking about here? Are we going to need a big truck, or is it something one or two of us could carry out by hand?”
Taylor considered his question for a few seconds before answering. “I guess we could carry what I’d need with two people. It would be heavy, but I think we could handle it. It would be easier if we had a cart or something like that.”
“Okay, so if we can get in there, is there a way for you to watch as we go in and tell us what you need us to grab?”
Taylor crossed her arms. “I suppose that means you’re not taking me along?”
“It’s possible for Quinn and me to slip inside without being seen. I have no way to hide you.”
Taylor hmphed. “Fine. I suppose I could come up with a remote wireless camera system you could wear. Then I could help you pick out what I needed from the pile. I’d have to be pretty close by, though, because we can’t use a long-distance connection over the web. They’d surely detect that. A locally generated signal might be able to slip past their systems since it wouldn’t be on a standard Wi-Fi or cellular signal carrier.”
“I have no idea what you just said,” Clark replied.
“Of course not. That’s because I’m the tech witch, and you’re not.” Taylor laughed. “Yes, I can ri
g up a system to communicate with you so you can get the things I need. I’ll need a few more things from that pawn shop of yours and maybe a run to the mega-mart to get a few final items.”
Clark smiled. “Good. Make your list. I’ll make a run out to shop. You start putting the camera rig together. Once we have that working, we can figure out a way to get back inside the VirSync grounds.”
Miranda shook her head. “You know they’ll have plugged any of the gaps they had in their perimeter wards.”
“I’m counting on it,” Clark replied. “I want them to think they’ve got nothing to worry about. Then, when you and our little tech witch here hacks the magical and technological security systems, they won’t know what hit them. Put your heads together and come up with a game plan. I’ll go out and get the shopping done as soon as Taylor makes her list.”
Taylor already had her phone out and was tapping away with her thumbs. It was one of the burner phones she’d hacked to work together in a local network with the ones the others carried.
A few seconds later, a buzz in Clark’s pocket told him he had a text. He pulled out the phone and tapped the message to open it. His eyebrows shot up. “This is everything? You’re sure you can make what you need from this?”
“Yep,” Taylor said. “I’ve got this. Don’t worry. You’ve got Taylor, the teenaged tech witch, on your side.”
Clark resisted a groan, grabbing his car keys and wondering if he’d somehow created a monster with his label for the girl. Too late now, though. He hoped she lived up to the name once he’d filled her strange shopping list.
Chapter Three
Quinn rubbed the towel into her long dark hair, trying to wring the remaining water from it as she stood in front of the scratched and stained bathroom mirror. She couldn’t help but notice the dark circles under her eyes. Clark’s daily training bouts had taken a toll on her. Even with her ability to heal faster than most people, each night, her body felt like she’d been run over by a city bus until she got a good night’s sleep.
She knew she should be happier with her accomplishment. This was the first time she’d had any success during training bouts against her teacher. His infuriating passionless glare irked her. He drove her to press so hard to succeed that she dug into reserves in her unenhanced human stamina she hadn’t known she’d had before.
Quinn sighed.
Perhaps that had been the point. Her lacrosse coach in high school had driven her harder than she thought she could take on more than one occasion. It usually led her to a standout play and team victory. She didn’t want to admit Clark’s training regimen might actually have some merit.
She heard his old sedan’s engine fire up outside, and she walked to the window. Clark drove down the tree-lined lane to the main road a quarter-mile away. Where was he going?
Quinn hung the towel on the rod by the shower to dry and got dressed. She pulled her hair up into a high ponytail to keep it up off her neck and headed downstairs. Miranda and Taylor sat at the dining room table, huddled over the laptop, chatting about something.
“Hey, where did Clark head off to? He just went grocery shopping yesterday. Did he forget something?”
Taylor looked up from the screen and smiled. “No, he’s doing some shopping for me. We’re all going on a mission to break into the VirSync building again.”
“Why in hell would we want to do that?” Quinn asked.
“Because,” Taylor replied, “there’s stuff we need there to recreate the VR system. Clark thinks we need it so you can continue your training the right way.”
Quinn raised up her hand to stop her friend before she said anything else. “What kind of crazy idea did you all hatch while I was upstairs in the shower? I think I should have been consulted about anything like sending me back into that damned VR system.”
Miranda smiled and said, “It’s fine, Quinn. Clark’s idea makes sense. You’ll progress in your training faster using a VR system. This time it’ll be different. He asked Taylor and me to try to recreate something like it here. You won’t be in their system, you’ll be in ours. I promise you’ll be safe.”
Taylor nodded. “Miranda and I were just going through some lines of the VirSync code I memorized. I’m showing her the references to specific spell magic interspersed throughout the programming. With that, I’m sure we can make it work.”
“Taylor’s right, Quinn,” Miranda said. “I think I can extrapolate the spells they used to send people into their training system. If it works, we could create training scenarios with Clark that should allow you to unlock more skills to add to your huntress arsenal.”
Quinn smiled at that last bit. Miranda understood about Quinn’s insistence on using the feminine form of hunter when referring to herself. Clark resisted, of course, but he was just a pig-headed man. He’d get over it, especially if the rest of them used the correct terminology when referring to Quinn. He kept insisting that “back in the day,” the hunters who were women never referred to themselves that way. Her answer every time he mentioned it was to tell him it was a different world than it was eighteen years ago.
“It would be nice to have an easier time accomplishing things during the training sessions. He puts me through hell when I don’t succeed.”
Taylor laughed. “I wouldn’t count on that. I think he lives for new ways to come up with training that hurts.”
Taylor had been doing some self-defense training with Clark when he was finished with Quinn every day. She’d seen her friend limping around in the evenings enough to know he was as hard on Taylor as he was on his huntress pupil. It was like he only had one setting, and that was at maximum—hardcore difficulty level for anything he did.
Quinn returned her friend’s chuckle, “I can hear him saying, ‘Train hard to win hard’ or something like that. Seriously, he needs to take a break. I never see him take any downtime.”
Miranda shook her head. “He can’t afford to. He’s the last of his kind, or one of the last. If he doesn’t take every opportunity when it comes, he’s setting himself up to lose. For him, losing means death. I get the feeling he’s got something he has to do or make up for, like survivor’s guilt or something. He has that sort of drive in his eyes. I’ve seen it in a few mages I’ve known over the years.”
Quinn glanced at Miranda and tried to assess her age. The woman looked to be in her mid-twenties, but when she said things like that, it made Quinn wonder if she was older than she appeared. On more than one occasion, she’d considered asking outright but had changed her mind before she did. Miranda still had an air of sadness and loss around her. Ever since the deaths of her coven at the hands of the VirSync slayers, it seemed like she expected to die, too.
“How long is Clark supposed to be?” Quinn asked.
Taylor said, “I gave him a list, but he should be able to find most of what I need in the bigger stores around this area. I don’t think he has to go into the city, or at least not all the way downtown. He can get the things on the list around here. That’ll give Miranda and me time to nail down some of the code gaps I have in what I saw while I was a candidate at the company. That way, I’ll have a better idea of what I need him to collect for us once he gets inside the company grounds.”
“I still can’t believe he wants to go back in there. He spent the last month trying to keep me away, despite my desire to go and try to save some of the other candidates. Now that I’m over it, he seems to have finally given in. It’s a little frustrating.”
“In all fairness, honey,” Taylor said. “I’ve always been better at convincing people to do what I wanted than you. Miranda helped convince him, too.”
“Hey, don’t drag me in on this. It’s all on you.”
Taylor laughed. “Fine. I’m a big girl. I can handle the responsibility. Now, let’s get back to work on this. I want to have a wish list of what we need based on what you and I find in the code before Clark gets back.”
Quinn left the two of them alone in the dining room and headed int
o the kitchen to make herself a sandwich. Training always left her starving until she recharged with some food.
She sat down with her plate at the small round kitchen table and flipped through her phone’s news feed while she ate.
Quinn was still sitting there when Clark came through the back door with a brown cardboard box held in front of him.
He jerked his head back toward the door. “Hey, Quinn. There are a few more bags from the mega-mart in the back seat. Can you go get them?”
“Sure.” Quinn got up and went outside to Clark’s car. She retrieved the two large plastic bags from the back seat. When she returned inside, she heard the others in the dining room and carried the bags in there.
“Put them on the table, Quinn,” Taylor said. “Clark said he got everything on my list, but I want to go through the stuff myself to be sure.”
Quinn set the two bags on the table beside the big open box. It looked like it was filled with a strange assortment of odds and ends. She’d seen a soldering iron in one of the bags she’d carried in.
Clark reached into the box and pulled out two white boxes with cords wrapped around them. “Are we really going to need these? The guy at the pawnshop tried to congratulate me on the new baby until I told him he was way off the mark.”
Taylor smiled. “Oh, the video baby monitors? Yeah, they’re super important. They’re the linchpin of the whole set up. I’m going to use them to create a two-way video communication system so you can show me everything you see while I’m outside the complex.”
Clark shook his head. “I didn’t know they’d reach that far.”
“They reach farther than you’d think, but you’re right. I need to modify them, which is why I had the other stuff on the list. We should be able to increase the range significantly, at least for short-term transmission. I have some ideas about how we could use them with the VR system, too.”
Miranda’s eyebrows shot up. “You think we can use them to see what’s going on inside the VR world?”