Page 57 of Ignite

She glanced into the main living room of the Airbnb.

Hugo snored lightly as he lay back on the sofa. He came to visit her more often now, and she figured he was in protective-brother mode. Isaac was sacked out in the playpen with all four limbs limp against the mattress pad. These were two of the reasons she did this. There were many others. Her other nephews, who were at a church preschool, Bill and Madge, Liz, her parents, and of course, Wolf.

She sniffed back tears as she thought about all they’d been through these last few months.

She had to succeed. There was no choice.

“May the force be with me,” she muttered as she closed the door to her makeshift computer room and settled into the shaped gaming chair. She moved the keyboard to a secure position on her lap and leaned back to get comfortable.

The mouse moved easily and swiftly under her palm as she opened the dark net to dive deep into the cyber ocean waters. Her search was for the markers she’d placed the last time she submersed herself in this world.

It was hard to find them. Several false fronts were constructed to seem like the original site she sought out, but her signs were distinct. It took almost an hour to break through to where she wanted to be, digging through the pathways until she came to the center of the information vortex. Codes, numbers, sequences, all running in long columns as this criminal enterprise continued.

What would happen if she shut it all down? Could her special virus do it?

She needed a worm. One that replicated itself and jumped from network to network as a carrier of the virus.

Copperpot created a worm once. He showed it to her before he destroyed it. Scary stuff. Combine it with a virus and it would be an unstoppable disaster. Attack the electrical grid? Screw up missile targets? Bankrupt an economy? The damage that kind of duo could do would be catastrophic, and in the wrong hands, it could destroy entire countries. It was tough enough to keep control of the virus at all times. If it got away from her….

Nope, it couldn’t happen. There was no alternative.

The banks these people used were easy to hack. No, not people. They weren’t the ones who went to work every day and did their best to provide for their families. These were criminals, and she had to remember that. Parasites that thought nothing of stealing from others’ hard labor, taking and taking and taking until there was nothing left.

She delved deeper, searching for that central place where she’d been once before. The dark web was a maze that twisted back on itself, sometimes blinding the explorer with dead ends and circles. Page after page, site after site, she clicked and moved, testing links, trying different codes, backtracking and covering herself as she hunted for that sweet spot she needed.

Then she was there.

It was no less terrifying than the last time she was here. Streaming lines of numbers fell down the screens. Dates, times, transactions, phone data, millions in dollars and other world currencies, exchange rates. The beast was massive and interwoven with legit areas. People in multiple countries, all over the world, were being targeted. She would have to go in as precisely as a surgeon to make this work.

A burn started in her sinuses, a prelude to tears gathering in her eyes. She could either destroy or heal, and it was a crapshoot which way it would go.

She sniffed and wiped off her cheeks. “Let’s do this.”

The numbers flowed, and she watched for her chance. Just a chink. One little opening. Yes, she could force her way in, but that would leave a direct trail back to her. Whatever happened, she had to keep herself and her people safe. If anyone was really looking for her, that could lead them to her family. Her nephews who had lost so much. Hugo, who was scared to leave the group home campus by himself now but still insisted on being with her after what happened. Her parents, who still housed and took care of Liz. Bill and Madge, two people who just wanted to make a living and enjoy their lives.

And Wolf. The man she once watched and dreamed of from afar, now in her bed and in her life for the long haul.

There it was. A break in the numbers. It was small, but it was all she needed.

Her fingers flew over the keyboard, and she moved to upload her virus.

She hit Send.

Nothing.

The virus file bounced off, deflected as if a glass wall protected the streams.

“Shit!”

Another chink appeared, and she tried again. The code bounced off like a horse swatting away a fly.

“Someone put an iron-coated firewall around this sucker.” Jazz’s tears dried up as frustration took their place.

Another opening.

Another bounce.

Three times rejected. How long before her repeated attempts got noticed?

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