Straight through the Heart

Chapter 26

Robin's POV

I rub my weary eyes and yawn. I have been running on little to no sleep lately. They have been piling work on me nonstop. Every time I am about to doze off, one of the guards shock me awake. 

I look at the metal cuffs around my wrists. The cuffs shock me in varying degrees of pain. The guards get a kick out of shocking me. 

I find myself drifting off once again.

Zap! 

A bolt of electricity painfully jolts me awake. "I'm awake, dammit." I mutter angrily.

They add another zap for good measure. They must have heard my mutters.

Everyday I work with either the guards or Lucian Barsetti breathing down my neck. The guards are all brawn no brains so they aren't always able to understand what I am doing. Thus, when they are around, I have some leeway to do some other work. However, the other engineers, scientists, and Barsetti know their shit so I need to tread carefully at their presence. 

I shudder at the memories the last time I was caught doing something I wasn't supposed to do. For an old man, Barsetti is very strong. He almost choked and beat me to death the first time I tried to disobey. In addition, I need to be mindful of my sister. 

As my thoughts go to my sister, I instantly feel despondent and furious. I worry so much for her. The only reason I am obeying Barsetti is because they can kill her instantly. They know I will do anything for her, and her for me. That's our biggest weakness, and they are manipulating it to their advantage. 

I glance up to see Barsetti watching me stoically from above. He has been making me hack into all of these different operations and organizations. I have been collecting intel for him, but I only break into firewalls. I am never allowed to actually see what intel he's trying to get. His other computer nerds retrieve the data, while I only break down the walls. 

Whatever he is planning, it's not good.

I have peeked carefully at some of the contents. A lot of the places he needs me to hack into are hospitals, research clinics, government organizations, and special organizations. I saw something on illegal experimentation on humans--mostly youth and young adults. 

I slowly try to find out what he's doing, but I'm kept on a very short leash. Every day there is someplace he needs me to hack into. Then, there's also the huge project he has me working on. 

It's scary. 

Think universal domination of technology. Think Fast and Furious God's Eye. 

"Let's see your progress." Barsetti comes up and looks at me expectantly. 

"I'm trying. There is a bug in my code and I am searching for it so I can debug it and fix my algorithm. I'll get it done as soon as possible." I explain carefully. I cannot read Barsetti's emotions so I cannot tell how he is going to react to my news. 

"You have until the end of today."

"I have thousands of lines to go through." I try not to sound too shocked. No matter how skilled I am with the computer, this is a hard feat for one individual to brave. 

"End of today." He looks at me coldly. 

"Fine."

"Treat him with respect." A guard hits my head with the butt of his gun. I grimace in pain as I fall sideways. 

"What did I say about blows to the head?" Barsetti directs his attention to the guard.

"Sorry, sir. I will not do that again, sir." The guard freezes as he realizes his mistake.