"Marcus, you need to get back here right now," is all I hear Josh say through the earpiece I'm wearing. I quickly share a look with Marcus as he gets the memo too through his own comms before he focuses back on the road.
"What's going on?" He responds through the DEDS3C CH4NNEL as he makes a quick left turn, heading back to the Hacker-space.
"Nothing good. Hurry," Josh says, his voice a little shaky. It's not long after the call ends that Marcus stops just outside Gary's Games & Glory and we hurry inside and downstairs.
"Shit shit shit shit shit..." Josh paces back and forth, muttering.
"Hey man, what's, hey what's going on?" Marcus says as we head over to him. Wrench, Sitara and Horatio peak over and move closer to the three of us.
Josh says, exasperated and in between breaths, "I was looking at our numbers, how many people downloaded our app, how much processing power we had available, that's when I saw it..."
"'It', what 'It'? what?" Wrench asks, his eyes in the form of question marks.
Josh fidgets, obviously distressed. "A chunk of our followers and bots came from inactive or dead !Nvite accounts."
"Hey wait... So someone used a social media site to boost our numbers? Who?"
"And how many fucking accounts, man?" Wrench adds after Marcus, his gesture showing that he's obviously pissed. I place a hand on the side of his shoulder, but he aggressively shrugs me off. Not taking it too well, a frown prints itself onto my face as I fold my arms tightly and take a step closer to Sitara.
"I don't know who, but it came from inside !Nvite. Someone with admin access, I'm sure of that. As for how many?" Josh quickly moves over to Sitara's laptop and we follow. He pulls up a pie chart, 3/4 of it yellow and 1/4 red.
Wrench turns around. "Fuck me!" He exclaims, throwing his arms up, exasperated.
"Sorry, sorry. I didn't check. No, it's all my fault, I didn't check, no I didn't—"
"Josh, hun, it's not your fault," Sitara lays a reassuring hand on his shoulder, cutting in between his freak-out.
Horatio steps forward. "You know maybe someone inside !Nvite is a fan?"
"Yeah, or maybe we're getting set up to get fucked," Marcus says, leaning on the main desk. "We need to find out."
"Marcus, I'll find you a way inside," Wrench says, pointing at him before walking to his workbench, opening up his laptop.
"I should have checked, I should have, I should have just checked."
"Josh," I step around next to Marcus. "Josh. It's not your fault, hey? Hey, we all saw the numbers. You're the only one who caught it. You did good, this helps us! Yeah?"
He nods, still nervous and fidgeting. "Ok."
Marcus pats him on the shoulder before Josh wanders back to his desk and Sitara to hers. I move over to Wrench. He was probably reacting out of emotion before, so I try not to hold it against him.
"Hey, you need any help—"
"—Can you just let me work?" He cuts me off.
Anger fills my eyes as I step backwards. "Yep." I pop the 'p', my frustration coming through.
Marcus closes his laptop and starts to head upstairs again, as do I.
"Whoa, where are you going?" Sitara says, causing me to stop a few steps up.
"I'm in on this one."
YOU ARE READING
Vendetta
FanfictionA Watchdogs 2 / Wrench Fanfiction. After being recruited into the San Francisco DedSec team, Elysium grows her hacker toolbelt as well as her friendships. But as she begins to grow closer to Wrench, Elysium must decide whether to lean into the natur...
