Encrypted (42 page)

Oh
,
G
od. Zach used to play basketball with him.

Ninja priests were no longer so cute.

* * *

Zach tensed his jaw. Revenge would come
l
ater. Now he had to put aside the rage building just beneath his breastbone. Not just his office was under attack. The entire world was. And this crazy old man was important enough to lay an FBI field office under assault. Important enough for Zach to bottle that pressure in his chest and put it up on a shelf, brewing and growing until he let it out again.

He moved them forward in the near dark. His memory of the office
guided
them around desks and potted plants. Zach pulled Ronnie behind a hibiscus as two bloodied agents ran past them into the street. He didn’t blame them. At least they were alive
—
unlike
Markum
. They were up against a callous, callous enemy. As soon as the agents left his line of sight, Zach motioned Ronnie to get them on the go.

Tightening the grip on his gun, they pushed through another set of glass doors into the main bull
pen. Even in the low light, blood glistened
.
M
en he’d known and worked with for years lay dead on the ground. Their unseeing eyes star
ed
blankly at him. So many wives, husbands, and children to be notified. But no more. Not if he could help it.

The tiniest
pop
sounded
at
his left. Jerking Ronnie with him
,
Zach dove under a desk. So they’d left a sentry. A gunm
a
n to secure their exit and provide sniper coverage against reinforcements.

Zach lifted his weapon to return fire, but Ronnie grabbed his arm.

“Wait.” Ronnie indicated the screen of the palmtop device she held. Zach assumed
that
he’d be looking at an infrared screen to track body heat, but instead
,
the image was the polar opposite. It tracked the least
-
warm objects in the room. Unfortunately
,
that meant the rapidly cooling bodies flared a bright blue. “Quirk, do you have control over the power supply yet?”

Zach watched as she cocked her head
,
listening. Either she had an earbud implanted
,
or
,
as Warp had long suspected
,
Quirk and Ronnie truly did have mind talk. She nodded
at
the unknown reply. “Copy that. You see that vent behind him?”
s
he asked. “All right. You know what to do
.
”

Zach queried her with a look as shots rang out from the other side of the office. He glanced down to the screen. Their guy held on tight to his position.

“Just be ready,” Ronnie whispered.

“For what?”

Ronnie indicated the sniper. “Quirk.
Now
.”

B
illow
s
of cold air rushed from the vent, startling the gunman. Instinctively
,
he surged forward,
away
from the cover of the desk. Zach shot, tagging the guy in the shoulder
and
spinning him around. Pings sounded above their heads as the guy’s shots went far wide of their mark. Zach aimed for the chest and pulled the trigger.

Perhaps revenge wouldn’t have to wait. The shot drove the guy back
,
but not down. He must have been wearing a vest. Well
,
the vest did not protect one place
. Zach popped off a shot, square to the forehead. The assailant wobbled
,
and
then crumpled to the ground as Ronnie gasped behind him.

He turned to find her face blanched
,
and the usual spark in her eye extinguished.

* * *

Ronnie felt Zach catch hold of her arm as she stared at the gunman. She’d seen death before. But never up close. She’d even killed a man,
Jorge,
to save Zach. But she had simply had to press a button from far, far away. Even Quirk’s simulations of the C4 earbuds had used the
Po
werp
uff
G
irls as examples. A little hard to get queasy over cartoon blood.

This time
,
though, she’d actually seen a man die. She had seen the life vanish from his features. Even though he was an enemy
,
she couldn’t shake his desperation in the end.

“Ronnie, get down!” Quirk yelled in her ear.

She shoved Zach down with her as the too
-
familiar
ping
of a silencer sounded as
bullets
whizzed
past her ear. Well, not past Zach’s. The tip of his ear now bore a red line. A bullet track.

Ronnie gulped. She didn’t have time for shock, survivor’s guilt
,
or even freaking out as shouts carried from deeper in the building.

“Quirk, get Warp whatever juice he needs,” Ronnie ordered as loud FBI fire was returned. “And try to figure out a way to flag us as friendlies.”

“Will do, but it looks like the main fight is in front of the holding cell. Might want to take the back route.”

She turned to find Zach studying her.

“Good to go?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Totally a lie.

Zach looked down at her hand
, which
clutched his tightly. “Not that I mind, but
it’s
probably best if I aim with both hands…”

“Oh
,
sorry,” she said, dropping her grip, but she didn’t feel quite so stable as a moment before. “Quirk thinks
that
we should take the side hall and double back around through the kitchen.”

Ronnie went to point out the route
,
but found
that
her finger
was
shaking too badly.

“Got it,” Zach said
,
but studied her face again. Ronnie put on her best “I’m ready for a good
ol
’
gunfight
”
face. He must have bought it
, for
he turned and checked his corners before ducking under an adjacent desk.

She followed close on his heels, relieved
that t
he shouts and mayhem subsided the f
a
rther they followed the side hallway. Ronnie knew that at some point they would need to head back toward the action, but for now
,
she would rest her ears and nerves.

Zach put up a hand. Ronnie stopped as he ducked his head around the corner. “Crap.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Warp’s got all the lights back on. We’re never going to be able to sneak past the doorway.”

Ronnie pulled up the schematic
.
“No worries. I can just have Quirk
—
”

The sound of metal bouncing its way down the hallway diverted her attention. There, spinning end over end
,
was a grenade. A live grenade. Strangely
,
all Ronnie could think was…
damn
,
these ninja priests
are
well armed
.

“Move!” Zach yelled, grabbing her arm
and
flinging her around the corner. He was on her tail as the explosion lifted them up and off their feet. Fire hit the end of the hallway
,
splashing some in their direction. They scrambled back, dancing from the flames.

“In here!” Zach jerked open the door to the tech room.

Warp rose from his chair. “Agent Hunt!”

“Get down!” Zach demanded, shoving both her and Warp to the ground as he spun on his heel, firing behind them. A grunt answered as a dark figure retreated beyond view. “Stay here,” Zach whispered as he inched his way to the door.

The FBI tech tried to rise, but Ronnie tugged him back down. “When Zach says to stay, you stay.”

For the first time
,
Warp seemed to register that she was even there. His interest had been so focused on Zach that he seemed shocked
that
another person was in the room. Ronnie had always suspected that the shaggy-headed Warp had a guy-crush on Zach,
and
now she was sure
of it
.

“But, but…” Warp pushed his glasses up
on
his nose. “They are saying
that
Agent Hunt is doing this.”

“Warp, you don’t believe anything the ‘man
’ says,” Ronnie scolded. For a G
overnment
-
sanctioned hacker, he had a
very
trusting view of
B
ig
B
rother. “I need you to coordinate with Quirk.”

He blinked twice. “Quirk?” Pulling away, the geek ran his fingers through his hair. “But that would make you… That means you are…”

“The Robin Hood
h
acker, yeah,” Ronnie acknowledged, really needing to get him back to his keyboard.

“Oh
,
my
G
od. Oh
,
my
G
od. Oh
,
my
G
od,” Warp said
,
wheezing as his hands flew to his chest. “Oh. My. God.”

Ronnie was used to tech boys gushing over her…online. To see one do so in person was a bit disconcerting. Plus
,
the whole “another grenade could fly in at any moment” thing
was a problem
.

“Breath, dude, breathe,” Ronnie encouraged.

“Yeah, have him hang around you for a week and see how he feels,” Quirk added in her ear.

The tech’s eyes darted from Zach near the door to Ronnie and back. “If you aren’t attacking, then why are you here?”

“Okay, so we did
plan
to break in,” Ronnie admitted
,
not having time to develop a plausible lie. “But come on, Warp, is this my style at all?”

The tech shook his head sharply. “No. I told them you would have tried to breach through the elevator shaft after incapacitating all the alarms.”

“Not bad,” Ronnie said. Actually
,
he was too freaking close to their original plan.
She and
Quirk were going to have to get more creative. “So
,
you have got to know
that
we wouldn’t come in
with
guns blazing.”

“You don’t even carry a gun.”

Ronnie nodded. Warp wasn’t just a fan boy
;
he was a
huge
fan boy. And because he was tasked with tracking her down, he was king of the Robin Hood
h
acker fan boys.

“And now
,
we need your help to stop any more agents getting killed.”

“Hey,
you
may
need
his help,
but
I don’t,” Quirk argued in her ear.

Luckily
,
Warp couldn’t hear Quirk’s
disdain
. “Okay, yeah,” Warp said. “What do I need to do?”

“I don’t like it. It’s too quiet.” Zach stated from the door. “Where’s the guy
who
threw the grenade?”

“Quirk?”

* * *

Maybe it was best
that
they brought on Warp
,
since Ronnie clearly thought
that
Quirk could somehow counter hack the assault hack, keep track of each and every assailant,
and
grieve the loss of
“T
he One.
”

Quirk checked the monitor, flipping into infrared mode. “He’s backed away and stationed himself toward the lobby. I don’t think you’re going to be able to exit in that direction.”

S
ome static
was
on the line as Ronnie moved around. If only she’d let him hire a doctor to surgically implant her
mic.

“Zach and I are going to head out
,
” Ronnie said in a rush. “You and Warp work on cutting off the ninja priests
’
countersurveillance.”