Page 97 of Iron Willed Warrior

I could feel the seconds ticking by. Time I didn’t have to waste. Yet I couldn’t leave without knowing more.

“I’m Brianna. Ryker kidnapped me because I know about Stillwater, and that’s a problem for him.” That wasn’t accurate, but it was close enough for my purposes. “You have to make a choice. Are you going to help me, or are you going to side with Ryker and his Stillwater bosses? You have two seconds.”

I raised the gun again.

“I’ll help you! I mean, I’ll try. I just work here, you know? I didn’t even know what I was signing up for.”

How many times had I heard that excuse? “What exactly do you do here for Stillwater?”

“Keep it all running. See, Stillwater used to rely on servers overseas.” He tripped over his words as he tried to answer as quickly as possible.

“I know Stillwater uses the dark web.”

“Yeah, simplistically speaking, but?—”

“I don’t have time for an advanced degree in this,” I interrupted. “Give me the fast version.”

“They wanted to create their own anonymous marketplace for Stillwater members to buy and sell whatever they wanted. Here, Stillwater can host on servers that only they control. No third parties, no interference from foreign governments.”

Buying and selling. That, I could understand. An exclusive online marketplace for Stillwater members to sell drugs, weapons, stolen information, even human beings. And they’d placed it here in the desert, powered by and hidden beneath a seemingly innocent solar energy plant.

I’d heard of other dark web marketplaces. Governments were constantly chasing after them, trying to shut them down. Stillwater was keeping itself several steps ahead. And doing it here in the good old US of A instead of overseas.

Hiding in plain sight.

“But this many servers? There must be hundreds atleast.” Even with my small amount of knowledge, it seemed like overkill.

“Mr. Westwick has big plans, I guess. He doesn’t share all of them with me.”

But I could come up with theories myself, based on what Westwick had said to me about spying on powerful men. Maybe these servers had something to do with that. Building an empire in the shadows. “And you’re their computer expert. Helping them get this all set up. You must be proud.” I couldn’t keep the disdain from my tone and expression.

“I swear I didn’t know! They hired me to be discreet. Made me sign an NDA and all that. Which isn’t so strange in this industry, because a lot of companies want to keep their IT setup secure. By the time I figured out what they were really up to, what the hell Stillwater even was, it was too late for me to get out. It was supposed to be a five-week gig, housing provided. I haven’t left this place forthree months. They monitor all my communications. I’m just trying to keep my head down until they let me go.”

“Assuming they ever plan to let you leave.”

He went even paler. “Shit, don’t say that.”

But some part of him had to know it was true. He knew far too many of Stillwater’s secrets.

I dipped my fingers into my purse, pulling out the flash drive. I held it up.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Something that’ll undo the damage you’ve helped cause.”

“They’ll kill me.”

“Or I will. Your choice.” I tossed him the drive, and he caught it.

“What do I do?”

I told him how to open it. Josiah inserted the adapter intoa port on the side of his computer. The screens flickered momentarily, then came back to life.

I kept a close eye on Josiah to make sure he didn’t touch anything else. Since River had written the virus on that drive, I assumed it would quickly worm its way into Stillwater’s systems.

And talk about hitting the jackpot. This wasn’t just Westwick’s phone or laptop. This was mainline access to all of Stillwater’s servers. Its soft underbelly.

Josiah stood up, brushing off his hands. His color had returned. “What now? Because I’d really like to live through today. And if Ryker finds you here, that’s not gonna happen.”

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