Deion smiled. “So what happens when the Army guys get the data?”
“If it has potential commercial use, they send it to their contacts in companies across China. If it has military use? I don’t know. There’s a firewall rule that allows outbound connections to an offsite Army data center.” He ran his fingers through his greasy hair and smiled. “Tell me what you’re looking for. Maybe I can help.”
Deion glanced at Mark, who shrugged, then decided to risk it. “We’re looking for a document from the EOS Corporation. Do you know it?”
“Yeah,” Wei said. “I remember. It was a long time ago. They had a vulnerability in their firewall. When it crashed, it phoned home on reboot. We DOS’d the firewall until it rebooted, and intercepted the phone-home with malicious packets that overflowed the buffer and gave us root access. We tunneled back out and grabbed everything we could before they switched to different hardware.”
“Can you trace the EOS data?” Deion asked. “Without getting caught?”
Wei laughed, a short braying sound. “I’m the best. If I poke around, nobody will know.”
Deion hoped the young man was right. The stakes were high. If Wei was caught, there would be no second chances. “Find out. Don’t write anything down and don’t take anything out of the building. Memorize it. We’ll meet you here tomorrow.”
Wei nodded. “If anyone can do it, I can.”
John was bored out of his mind. He sat on the floor of the office, watching the flashing lights from the rack of equipment against the far wall. Even the blinking lights had lost their appeal. He tried to engage Nancy in conversation but quit after numerous one-word answers.
They had been waiting for most of the night with nothing to do. He checked his watch for the hundredth time and found only a few minutes had passed since he last checked.
I should have brought a deck of cards. “Is it possible for time to stand still?” he asked Nancy, who was reclining in the desk chair.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re not the only one who doesn’t like waiting.”
He grinned. “I swear, it was 3:45 two hours ago.”
She snorted, stretching her arms and making fists. “I just want to hit somebody.”
There was something about Nancy that reminded him of some of the soldiers he’d served with in Iraq. The way her eyes skipped over his face, the way they always seemed slightly out of focus. It was the same with the soldiers who had seen heavy combat and lost a lot of friends. They were the dangerous ones.
Plus, she knew the truth about him. She’s the Old Man’s daughter. She has to know.
He slumped against the wall and closed his eyes. His arm and leg still ached, and his prosthetic was still sending sharp pains up his leg. He slowed his breathing and stilled his mind, on the verge of sleep.
There was a soft rustling outside and his eyes snapped open. Nancy was wide-awake, motioning for him to move. He stood and she hopped off the chair, cat-like, and they pressed themselves against the wall next to the door. There was the scraping of a key in the door lock, then a click. The door swung open and someone stepped inside and turned on the light.
He blinked in the sudden glare, but as the door swung closed, he saw a short Asian man with spiky black hair in an expensive suit. The man turned, his eyes widening in surprise as he realized he wasn’t alone in the office.
John didn’t wait. He rushed the man, planning to tackle him to the floor and grapple with him, but the man caught his arm, rolled, and sent John crashing across the tile.
He smashed his head against the side of the desk and tasted coppery blood where he had bitten his tongue when he struck the desk. His vision swam as he struggled to sit up. He reached for the floor to steady himself and swallowed a mouthful of blood in the process.
He blinked and saw Nancy fighting the man. It was like watching two tigers in battle, all hands and feet striking and blocking.
He shook his head, trying to clear it, then staggered to his feet and lunged at the man. He caught the man’s legs and they tumbled back against the door. John’s head struck the wall, and there was a tunneling effect as everything shrank to a narrow black dot.
He felt himself blacking out, a warm numbness that threatened to pull him under. He shook his head, trying to restore his senses, and grabbed for the man’s throat.
He recoiled in pain as the man’s thumb rammed into his eye and he blinked back tears.
This guy is going to beat me.
No, he couldn’t allow it. He grabbed for the man, desperate to take him down, but it was too late. There was a zap-zapping that echoed against the office walls and his muscles locked up as electric fire surged through his body.
That bastard is tasing me!
He tried to move, but his body wouldn’t respond. The stun gun stopped and the man shoved him off, then he heard the zap-zapping again, followed by a soft thud as Nancy hit the ground.
He squinted through his good eye and saw her, helpless, on the floor. There was a sharp pain in his ribs as the man kicked him aside, clearing him from the door’s path.
He struggled to sit as the man opened the door, then the man kicked him in the chest, knocking him back.
It wasn’t anger as much as plain stubbornness that made him sit up. He wasn’t about to let the man get away, not after knocking them both senseless. He only wished Nancy had allowed him to bring his M11.
It took every ounce of energy, but he managed to stand and stagger into the hallway. The man had stopped at the elevators and was frantically stabbing at the down button.
John took a limping step and the man turned to him, his eyes widening.
“Get him,” Nancy growled from behind. He turned and saw her hunched over, following as best she could.
He pushed himself to move faster. The man saw this and turned, desperate to find a way out, but the stairwell was behind John.
He’ll have to go through me to escape.
The man stopped, his face suddenly resigned, then reached inside his suit and pulled something from it.
John flinched, expecting a gun and a hail of bullets, but the man didn’t point it at them. Time froze as John recognized the smooth black shape. His stomach lurched as the man smiled and pulled the pin, then held the object in the palm of his hand.
Grenade!
He turned and saw Nancy’s eyes widen as he threw himself on top of her. They hit the floor in a heap. Nancy cursed but he relaxed his body, smothering her, and then a terrific clap of thunder took his breath away as the grenade detonated.
There was a steady squeal of noise in his ears. He rolled off Nancy and stared, dumbly, at the smoke and splattered blood against the floor and walls.
So much for light duty.
Nancy managed to haul herself to her feet and grabbed his arm, mouthing something that he couldn’t make out over the ringing in his ears.
“What?” he shouted.
She screamed louder and he could finally make sense of her words. “We have to go!”
Eric held the door for Valerie as they entered the headquarters of the EOS Corporation. The building was a thirty-story steel-and-glass triumph of architecture, and it rose like a shiny arrow to the heavens, in sharp contrast to the drab gray buildings near it. A looped infinity surrounded by a circle was plastered across the building’s main floor in eight-foot lettering.
Valerie tilted her head to stare at the logo. “Very tasteful.”
“I thought Palmer was down-to-earth? A man of the people?”