Crash and Burn

Chapter Thirteen

Layla's POV:

<Alpha>
Code Red. They've started giving out the Beta Testing collars today. My pet and my brother's pet got one. My mother personally gave it to them.

It didn't take long to get an answer.

<Beta1>
Holy shit really? This is bad. We've got an extraction coming up for god's sake. Those collars are top tier from what I've heard. Luckily only about 30 or so pets are going to get them. Beta Testing is risky.

<Alpha>
I know. I'm worried. Why would Mother give one to Scarlett and Everly but not Jasmine and Ava. They're older and probably have a very low chance of getting resold if the collars fuck them up. Why damage young new ones? Sorry. Ugh I'm acting like them now.

<Beta2>
No you aren't. You're thinking logically. Your Mother might be suspicious. An out of the blue new collar on your supposed pet would slow you down to keep from being discovered. Listen we'll find something else. Plug it in and take a look through the files and stuff. Tell us if you find anything.

<Alpha>
Alright I will. According to Scarlett Mother is giving me and Zane the rundown on how to collars and remotes work. A lot of stuff is apparently automatic. And a "new feature" that requires injections. It hurts to literally put the collar on. For 5 minutes.

<Beta2>
What the hell. Really? That's definitely new.

<Beta1>
Check over the collar well and look through it. We're checking all of us. Some have high up parents as well that work in the Tech department. I'll do some digging and prepare for another breach.

<Alpha>
Got it. Alpha out.

I closed my laptop and put it back in its hidden spot. Scarlett glanced up from her iPad. Yeah, the surprise was her own iPad. No more close calls. She put it down.

"What happened?" She asked. I shook my head and looked through my drawers until I found what I was looking for. Holding up the thick black wire I connected one end to my laptop and waved Scarlett over. I pulled over a chair and had her sit down. The USB port was exactly where it was for the old collars and I had to stop myself from sighing in relief.

"What are you doing?" She asked this time. I didn't answer, keeping my eyes glued to the screen as the connection bar began filling up. Thank god for fast internet.

"What. Are. You. Doing" She asked again, sounding it out like she was talking to a little kid. It loaded and I finally looked at her.

"Going through your collar. Mother should just dismiss it as me wanting to put an AntiVirus on or simply checking to make sure you didn't download anything and try to bury it." I explained just to get her to be quiet. There were a lot of things on here. I left the systems stuff to avoided breaking it and browsed through everything else. Mother really did a number on getting these made. A lot of new features and files. Finally I found one important thing.

"Look" I said, pointing to the screen. She squinted to look at what I was looking at and even leaned closer.

"What the heck am I looking at. It's just a bunch of code stuff. I think? I'm trying to like form words out of it. Is that it?" She replied. I rolled my eyes.