Cerberus 02 - Terminal Secrets by Andy Peloquin

Author:Andy Peloquin [Peloquin, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2020-05-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Dread clung to Nolan as he opened the door to the Boones’ home and wheeled inside. Agent Styver’s lies about Wolfe and the stolen IAF weapons had him suspecting everything and everyone. He was getting damned tired of jumping at shadows and seeing enemies everywhere. He wanted to take advantage of the few moments of quiet he now had to rest, recover his strength, and give his body time to heal. But he couldn’t. He had a mission to get on with.

“Any progress on hacking the Silver Springs Company mines in our hunt for Elden?”

“Still working on it,” Taia said. “I believe I’ve found a subroutine that might give me access to what I want, but Silver Springs has halfway decent firewalls. It might take me a few hours to get through.”

Hours. Nolan ground his teeth. That’s all I’ve got left.

According to Agent Styver’s intel, the suspected attack would take place within the next forty or so hours. The chances of it being a real SST terrorist attack were slim, but until Nolan was absolutely certain Elden didn’t plan to use his stolen IAF-grade weapons to go after a civilian target—such as Fracture Lake mining, which would serve Gavin’s purposes of eliminating the competition perfectly—he had to treat the threat as genuine.

However, until Taia got him access to the Silver Springs Company surveillance networks, he had to rely on the old-fashioned methods of intel-gathering. That meant getting information from a source he could trust. At that moment, Callie was that source, and she was coming here. When, he wasn’t certain, but she’d take at least another hour to reach him, maybe two. After all, she’d have to cross all of Grindbanks to get to the farmhouse, most likely taking a circuitous route to evade or shake pursuers. She’d be on full alert after the vehicle interdiction they’d just barely survived.

That gave Nolan plenty of time to look around.

To his surprise, the lights flickered on when he flipped the switch. Though a thick layer of dust covered every surface and the house had a distinctly uninhabited feel, it seemed Callie hadn’t fully abandoned the place after her parents’ death.

Nolan kept the few lights he turned on as low as possible—no sense risking anyone unfriendly catching a glimpse of him in the farmhouse. The dim illumination brought back memories of the nights he’d spent here with Callie, seated on the stuffed, plaid-patterned couch playing games, listening to Papa Boone read stories to Hayley, or simply talking and enjoying each other’s company. Papa Boone’s favorite book—an Old Terran novel with the odd title Moby Dick—still sat on the living room table, the faded microsilk tassels of his paper bookmark dangling onto the blue-and-white-checkered tablecloth that Mama Boone had scolded a younger Nolan and Callie for staining with spilled hot cocoa.

Nolan’s eyes went to the living room table and its six hard-backed synth-wood chairs. How many nights had he and Jared sat there at dinner with the Boone family? How many times had

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