Page 78 of The Honeymoon Hack
Will
I staredat another set of digital bars on a small display. Ronnie grunted something unintelligible from the maintenance bay where he was checking voltage readings for the third time this morning.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and stared at the message from Brie:I’m working with Claire in the Atlantic today!
She was with Claire, not Ken.
If she was watching Brie’s every move, there’d be no opportunity for Brie to slip away.
On the upside, it would be excellent recon. She could learn the processes and find out what she needed to know for the next time she gained access. Plus, it was already seven o’clock, and we only had an hour left in our shifts. Likely too little time to make a dent in Meridian’s server.
“Hand me the multimeter,” Ronnie said, extending his arm aimlessly toward me.
I passed him the device, then my phone buzzed with another message:But it’s cold, so I’m going back to our room for a sweater. Do you have a break soon?
I read it twice, working through the coded message:Cold—she needed to leave wherever she was.Sweater—an excuse to sneak away.Did I have a break—she was asking if I could coordinate something with her.
She was signaling me. The mention of needing a break, the timing of her messages…
Brie needed me to disable the cameras. Which meant she’d somehow gotten away from Claire and was planning to access the Meridian server.
“Will?” Ronnie’s voice seemed to come from far away. “You fall asleep over there?”
“Sorry.” I pocketed the phone, forcing my emotions to the back of my mind. “Just checking something.”
If she got caught, they’d figure out she’d either stolen someone’s credentials or someone had tampered with her badge.
They’d investigate. Find Rav’s involvement. Discover our real purpose here.
We’d lose our best chance to find evidence to clear her father’s name and potentially remove the threat Fenix posed to everyone we cared about.
I needed an excuse to get to her. “Ronnie, I think I need to?—”
His phone rang, and he answered with his usual charm. “Yeah?”
I didn’t have time for this phone call. How long could Brie be on her own before someone spotted her?
“Claire’s doing what?” Ronnie’s voice rose. “Ken was scheduled to do those updates. I told Almeida earlier to be prepared for hardware support.”
More listening. His expression darkened with each passing second, while my brain remained focused on Brie. If Claire were truly suspicious of us, she wouldn’t have let Brie leave her sight, would she?
Had I been reading too much into her questions?
“Can’t you get Almeida to handle it? I’m busy.”
A pause. Ronnie’s shoulders sagged in defeat.
“Fine. But we’re talking about this at our next staff meeting.” He hung up and glared at his phone. “Fucking prima donna Bridge staff.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Claire Lawson’s making local updates without a hardware escort. She’s supposed to have tech present in case anything goes wrong.” Ronnie began packing our tools with sharp, irritated movements. “Especially dangerous during a hurricane when we need everything running smoothly, not hand-holding.”
“Didn’t you say Almeida was supposed to hand-hold?”
“That’s different. He’s good at that shit. For you and me? It’s a waste of resources.”
We loaded our crash cart and began moving through the Atlantic section. Ronnie continued his complaints about proper procedures while I watched for the right moment.
