They started walking and Ari struggled to keep her pace relaxed. Finally, Patrick took her hand. It soothed her and reminded her of the role she played.
They walked for a couple of blocks. The click of her heels on the stone paths kept a steady rhythm. Then they pulled up short and there he was… Reed. He stood an arm’s width apart from Marco.
They spoke about something, but Ari couldn’t hear what. She should have dived into the code to see, but she was still in shock that he was here. A rush of memories flooded her mind as she took him in. His hair looked freshly cut, but that could be the program. His shoulders were strong and wide. Her body wanted to puddle in the middle of the walkway, real or not, while at the same time, guilt gnawed at her stomach. She had left him behind. He was supposed to be safe, not here in VLEX.
Patrick pulled her to the side as to not upset the flow of pedestrians. “Hey, you still with me?”
She snapped back to the present. “Sorry.” She stepped close to a shop. The crowds pushed them close together, closer than any business acquaintances should be, but her attention was on Reed and Marco.
Just then, she felt a tall presence behind her, breathing heavily. “And here I thought you missed me.”
Chapter 17
Ari didn’t need to look over her shoulder to know it was Reed. His voice, rich timbre tones, resonated in her ear. VisionTech had even got the smell down, his spicy warmth tugged at her emotions. She cursed her body’s immediate reaction to seeing him.
Turning her head, Ari saw the other Reed still carried on a conversation with Marco. Her brother didn’t realize they had more than one Reed here. As she turned around, she found the skin was modified slightly. VisionTech couldn’t have little clones walking around here, that would be too obvious. Even though she didn’t know how they got these two inside the program at all.
The person before her wore Reed’s face, but it had matured ten years or so. He had a little more weight in his cheeks and longer hair that was neatly pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck.
An odd feeling crept over her, like they had entered some aging stimulation to see how they looked when they grew older. It was disturbing, really. She realized his eyes were wrong, too dark and narrow. Enough that the average person wouldn’t recognize it, but Ari did. She who had studied that face for longer than she’d want to admit.
It wasn’t Reed. But it if wasn’t him, who was it?
Patrick stepped around her, putting space between her and the fake Reed. “Maybe we should take this discussion to another location.” He motioned down the street to Marco and the other Reed.
This fake Reed shook his head. “This way.” He turned, waiting for them to follow.
Ari looked at Patrick, questioning. “If they were going to attack, it would have happened by now.” Blur’s theory of warping triggering the virus could possibly be right.
Patrick nodded, and they hurried to catch up. He turned into an alleyway that opened to a private courtyard containing small benches and a few trees. She never remembered it being here. “That’s far enough,” Patrick said, stopping at the entrance. It still gave him a visual on Marco.
The impostor turned, a sick grin on his face.
“What do you want?” Ari asked, tired of the games.
His dark eyes held pleasure as he watched Ari. “I guess what you want is pretty obvious.” He motioned to his body, then waltzed towards her provocatively. “What is it about this form that draws you in? I would have thought you’d put your boyfriend in this skin by now if that’s what you’re really after.”
Patrick stepped in front of her before the man could reach her. “You’re going to a new low. Where does VisionTech find scum like you?”
Anger pounded in her heart, and she forced herself to control it before Joe pulled her out of the program. “Don’t protect me.” She spoke in low tones. “I could take him out with my bare hands.”
“Please,” the impostor spread his hands out wide in invitation.
Ari stepped next to Patrick. She didn’t need her abilities as a warper to attack. Even though she couldn’t do real physical harm, she’d love to try. She’d hate for Niomi’s training to go to waste.
“I’ll ask you again.” Patrick spoke calmly. “What do you want from us?”
“To turn yourself in. You play by different rules and act like gods in here with no thought of the real world.”
“God, Reed,” Marco said from behind. “Do you get uglier by the minute or what? That makeover is the worst. At least the last prick had the common sense to keep the hair short. Reed could never pull off long hair. He tried it once in the sixth grade. I spit gum in it on purpose just to do the poor guy a favor.” Marco pushed past the others and sat on a nearby bench.
“So the last one wasn’t him either?” Ari hoped one of these skins would be the real deal.
“Hell no. Didn’t have the nerdy charisma that drew you to him.” Marco lifted a leg on the bench casually, but Ari knew him enough to know he could be off the bench in a second.
“You had a long enough conversation with him,” Ari said.
“These wannabes are fun to chat with, aren’t they?” He motioned to the skin in front of them.
“Personally, I’m not enjoying it.” Patrick kept his eyes focused on the impostor.
Without warning, Ari felt the presence of others at her back. Two men and a woman. They weren’t there by accident. Ari stepped closer to Marco, trying not to feel intimidated.
“I didn’t think VisionTech had this many resources.” Patrick motioned to the others, while turning so they were no longer at his back.
The fake Reed shook his head. “This is bigger than VisionTech, when you had your girl announce to the realm that we couldn’t police our own. VisionTech is paying its dues and so will you.”
“If you had the virus, you would have used it by now,” Patrick called his bluff.
Ari wondered if that was true. If this was bigger than VisionTech, it had to be government related. Maybe whatever group ran VLEX was behind this. All of a sudden, Ari felt very small and very outmanned. Patrick and the team had resources, yes, but nothing like VLEX. They helped run the world. Sweat gathered at the nape of her neck. She tried to swallow and not be overwhelmed with the ramifications just yet.
The imposter just smiled at Patrick. “I wanted you to spread the word. We can go on killing warpers like you, such blood-sucking ticks. Or you can join our forces, and become functioning members of society for once in your life. Either way, your other teammates deserve a chance.”
Marco strode forward. “Functioning members of society? Do you hear the crap you’re dishing? Please tell me you’re making millions reciting this script?”
Ari stepped next to Marco, not wanting him in a line of fire clearly directed at her. “Please, Marco, let me.” Without hesitation, she punched the fake Reed in the face. He didn’t deserve to wear that face.
“Nice,” Marco said.
As the man recovered, Marco stepped forward fists up. Several others appeared behind the imposter who now held his bleeding nose. The alleyway exit that had been open to the public was now closed off. Either they were warpers or had one hell of a program.
Patrick swore under his breath. “They want us to use our abilities.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t need to.” She turned and sprinted towards them. Niomi had taught her doing the unexpected in a fight always had interesting results. She ducked low, hoping to take out a woman’s legs. Before she connected, she was flung back into reality, gasping as she stared at the ceiling.
Her limbs tingled as if ready to strike, but now had nothing but air to fight. Her head throbbed, the usual headache from her time inside. Rubbing her temples, she closed her eyes, trying to ease the pressure.
I’m Ariana Mendez. I’m eighteen. I’m in the real.
Patrick interrupted her normal mantra. Evidently, Patrick didn’t want to give anyone time to wake in the real. “That was so irrespon
sible and reckless. How dare you pull a stunt like that? We could have learned more by talking to them…” Patrick continued ranting while Joe came over and checked everyone’s vitals.
Ari winced as his loud tone aggravated her headache. Opening her eyes, she squinted against the bright lights. She turned her head to see Marco, who was already unplugged with a big smile on his face.
He turned to look at her. “That’s one hell of a hook. Where did you learn that?”
Laughter bubbled out of her. Completely inappropriate laughter. Yes, Reed was in danger, warpers were threatened, and who knew what came next. The world may be going to hell, but at least her brother approved of her fighting. He would have loved Niomi.
Patrick stopped talking and looked between the two of them, shaking his head.
“How mad do you think he is?” Marco asked her as if Patrick wasn’t standing there silently.
Ari pushed up, ignoring the lightheaded feeling and black dancing dots. “Patrick, I know I may have been rash back—”
“You think?” He raised his brows.
“Sarcasm isn’t your color,” Marco interrupted.
“Please, Marco,” Ari glared at him.
“Does he ever know when to shut his mouth?” Joe stepped back after finishing with Ari.
“No, unfortunately,” Ari told Joe then turned back to Patrick. “I know it didn’t go like you hoped but look at what we learned.”
“What? That you have a hell of a hook?” Patrick repeated Marco’s words. Patrick’s frustration kept him from seeing things clearly.
“We know they probably had warpers, but they weren’t that good. Not like anyone here. And the fact they could change the program in the VLEX during main hours means that either they don’t care if they are caught or something else. There was a reason they didn’t attack us. Maybe something we did triggered the virus.”
“Or they chose not to attack us,” Patrick said, sitting down on a nearby chair.
“Maybe… but why wouldn’t they?”
Joe returned to his computer. “Hoping that the virus is only triggered by our abilities is unrealistic. I think our abilities make us targets, maybe triggering an alert inside a realm. But if they really have the code for that virus, then they could use it on anyone. I think they were after something else.”
Patrick moved to look at Joe’s screen. “What did you find?”
“While you guys were inside, multiple people were hitting pretty hard at the IP addresses we had for you three. They were organized, focused, and would have broken through in seconds if I had let them. Both Blur and I worked furiously to counteract them to buy you enough time. I had to pull you when I knew we’d exhausted all our tricks.”
Marco cussed under his breath as he brushed the hair out of his face.
“You were talking to one of the impostor Reeds for a while. What did he have to say?” A small part of her couldn’t help but be disappointed that none of them were the real Reed.
“I knew right off that it wasn’t him. But they did a pretty good job replicating him.”
“How did you know?” Patrick asked, turning back to the two of them.
“I referenced the first and only girl we ever fought over, and he was clueless.”
“Who?” It slipped out before Ari could stop it.
“No need for jealousy, sis. It was our first-grade teacher.”
“What did he say he wanted?” Patrick brought the conversation back on track.
“He wanted to make sure Ari was okay. Wanted my help to get out. He asked more questions, wanting info, but I hinted that I was hiding out in the Ritz.”
She remembered rumors of the Ritz from when she lived at home. A fancy neighborhood Ari wasn’t even allowed to come within a mile of. “They’ll think you’re with Tessa.” Ari worried about the backlash with her friend.
Marco shrugged. “Probably, but she can take care of herself. Her dad’s into enough sketchy stuff, and they are well protected.”
Patrick picked up a nearby tablet and typed something in. “This is bigger than VisionTech. What they did in there without triggering an alarm… It could go as high as the board that controls VLEX. But why would they partner with VisionTech?”
“Maybe because of the affirmation you made me do before I could join the team,” Ari reminded him. Not that she completely disagreed with that decision. Governments needed to know the lengths companies are going to manipulate the vote, but she didn’t love being the poster child for that.
“We have protocols in place.” He tapped the screen one last time and looked up. “We expected a backlash, but not a virus. Genius really, if it wasn’t killing us. I need to go talk to Harini.” A determination steadied his eyes, and Ari knew that look. He left without another word.
Joe followed behind him.
“Are we supposed to follow?” Marco motioned to the others.
Ari shrugged. “He’ll go over it tonight. So, unless you want to follow Patrick, picking up the crumbs of thoughts he leaves along the way, I’d wait.”
“O-kay.” Marco jumped off the chair and headed to the computer.
“Whatcha doing?” Ari followed him.
“I just wanted to look at their attacks. Make sure we’re secure. If they tracked the skins we went in under, it’s not too long of a chain to find us.”
A chill went down Ari’s back, realizing that despite their remote location in such a large world, it can be very small with a single technical error. She watched over Marco’s shoulder as he flipped through the firewalls in place, double checking for a glitch in the system.
“He covered our tracks,” Marco motioned to the screen. “But they were definitely keeping us there as long as possible. It’s good we left when we did.”
“See, sometimes my rash decisions pay off.”
Marco chuckled.
“What’s that?” Ari pointed to a file sent to Patrick’s IP address.
“Huh? Let me scan that before I open it.” Marco’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “It’s message of some sort. Could be a warning from VLEX security for an IP we hacked. Give me a minute to see if I can see it without it coming back to bite my backside.”
Joe stuck his head in, “Hey, Marco, Patrick wants an extra pair of hands to run a test.”
“Sure thing.” He turned to the screen and it was still processing the file. “Let me know if it is anything,” he said to Ari before heading off.
Ari waited until the file opened. Inside was a message. She couldn’t tell who it was sent from, but the code at the top was instantly recognizable as longitude and latitude, followed by a date and location code. “If you want Reed to remain alive, be there.”
Ari stepped back until she hit the wall. After the shock faded, her mind sped through her options. Moving towards the fate that lay in front of her, she memorized the coordinates. Then, with a click of the mouse, deleted it.
Chapter 18
Standing in front of the screen, Ari realized the weight of what she did and ran through the consequences. There was no way she could leave Reed to that fate. None. But she couldn’t put others at risk rescuing him, not when they had so much on their plate with Tricky and the virus.
Even Marco had become a member of the team, enjoying his job, which Ari never thought possible. If she involved Marco in lying, sneaking out, and defying orders, there was no way to tell if Patrick or the others would welcome him back. They may even kick her out, but that was a risk she’d be willing to take.
“You okay?” Harini asked from the doorway.
Startled, Ari tried to smooth out her features. “Yeah, I’m good. What’s going on?”
“Patrick called everyone into Joe’s office. You coming?”
Ari checked her HUB and noticed a message from Patrick. “Yes. Of course.” She flipped off the screen and followed Harini down the hall.
Joe and Marco were intently working on the screens in front of them, Patrick watching from behind.
When Harini and Ari en
tered, Patrick lifted his attention. “Thanks for coming so quick. I had some files and people that needed to be vetted.”
“What happened this morning?” Harini asked.
“Ari can catch you up with the details, but the overall take away was that our targets have changed. While VisionTech may have played a role, there is someone bigger behind the attacks, possibly members of the Board.”
“Oh…” Harini’s shocked face seemed a bit exaggerated given the news.
Maybe these players were worse than Ari imagined.
Marco glanced up at his sister. “What did that last file contain?”
Ari stiffened. “Nothing.”
Raising a brow, Marco watched Ari intently.
“What file?” Patrick turned to her as well.
“Nothing, an empty file. Something Marco found looking over some of our IP addresses.”
“Ahh, good. Thanks for checking.” Patrick turned back to the screen.
However, Marco didn’t seem as easily convinced. He held Ari’s gaze for a few more seconds, his brow furrowed and eyes narrow. When Ari gave nothing away, he turned back to his screen.
Another shovel of dirt for the hole she was digging for herself. She didn’t have another option. It wasn’t fair to ask Patrick or the others to divert resources to help rescue Reed. Not when Tricky was still unconscious for most of the day. Anyway, these types of projects weren’t their forte. They excelled in computers, not hand to hand combat. She needed her old trainer for that, but that wasn’t an option either since she worked for VisionTech.
He glanced back up at Harini and Ari. “Joe has sent you the files.”
“Great. We’ll get to work.” Harini turned to leave, and Ari followed.
Harini asked about what happened, and Ari went through the events of the morning. She was grateful for the distraction. Yet even with the conversation, there was a little nagging reminder in the back of her head that the real trouble hadn’t even begun.
The next couple of days were filled with work, work, and more work. The information on those behind the virus came in bits and pieces. Thankfully, Joe’s contact on the dark web helped fill in the gaps and missing pieces. Unfortunately, Ari hadn’t come as far along with figuring out how to get to Reed.
Hard Wired Trilogy Page 63