Vendetta

MOTHERLOAD 2/2

A short while later, Josh makes his way back into the Hacker-space and straight to his computers. My back is turned to the stairs and I'm leaning over Sitara at her laptop as she publishes a social media post on the DedSec app. Then, she picks up her laptop and moves over to Josh's desk and I turn to follow her, but I stop when I find Wrench has entered and he's resting his heavy-duty gun at the bottom of the stairs.

He displays '^' emotes and holds out his arms before letting them drop to his side. "I didn't die."

Quickly making sure the others backs are turned, I walk up to Wrench and pull him into a tight hug. I can feel he's shocked by my response, and before he can hug back I move away and push him lightly in the chest. "Good. That's good."

Wrench chuckles and sighs as he places an arm around my shoulders and directs us over to Josh's desk. "Ahhh, you're a weirdo."

I frown and begin to lift my hand to remove his arm from me... But I decide to leave it this time. I've gotten too used to it.

Ray initiates the full DEDS3C CH4NNEL call and Josh pulls up live camera feed around the Blume building on the left computer monitor, showing as all the lights on the outside of the building shut down.

"Damn, y'all did good," Marcus says.

Sitara looks up to Josh's screen in the middle of typing on her laptop with one hand as she holds it steady with the other. "Sending you the code to get inside. Dusan's assistant doesn't know he's been hacked. You'll have no surprises." I smile softly at what Sitara says. I could've said the same, but I'm tongue-tied now for some reason. Fear slowly begins to grip me, and I can see flashbacks of the rain and her gravestone again.

"Once you access blume's air gap computer, transmit everything through your phone and relay the intel back to the mothership," Ray says as he grabs his car keys and begins to head out, since he volunteered himself to be Marcus' driver once the mission was over. "Good luck, buckaroo." I hear over the call.

Just before Sitara can mute all our channels for now, I place a hand on her arm. She looks to me as I stare at Josh's screen as he flicks through the different cameras to follow Marcus.

"Marcus," I speak up firmly.

"El," he responds in the same tone.

"Don't just do this for DedSec, for everyone Blume has stepped on." I swallow, and then I feel the panic creep up as I try to push it down. Wrench takes a small step closer to me. "Do it for her. For Clara... Please."

There's silence over the channel for a few moments. Marcus has slowed his stride, and I can tell his mind is going over everything that we've been through in the last several months to get us to this point in time.

"I will." Is all he says before he picks up the pace and Sitara mutes our end of the channel.

Wrench pulls up two chairs and we take a seat behind Sitara and Josh who are at work following Marcus through the Blume building after he enters with no problem. Umeni guards litter the area as Marcus sneaks around to hack the main points before making his way back to the central elevator to head downstairs. I'm squeezing my arms with my eyes glued to the screen as I see Marcus dash by and quickly hide behind a column just before a guard turns around to face his direction. I take in a sharp breath and lean back in my chair as Marcus makes it to the elevator and begins to head down. He makes it inside and quickly heads up to the main control room. My hearing turns to static and my vision blurs as I stare into nothing and just sit there, until Marcus speaks up again.

"I'm using the admin cert that Josh scored to get into their guts. You guys getting this?"

"We've got access to the air gap computer. It's no longer off the grid. Downloading what we need." Josh types at lightning speed and Sitara gently nudges him in the arm with a smile on her face. Marcus then begins to exit down the stairs when alarms begin to sound throughout the Blume building.