Netminder by Jeff Adams

Author:Jeff Adams [Adams, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult
ISBN: 978-1-64405-001-9
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2019-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

AS PROMISED, Westside brought me to a conference room where three others sat, laptops open in front of them. A massive screen at the front of the room showed someone’s desktop—featuring a starscape. Westside didn’t introduce anyone.

Dean and I had spent the past two hours reviewing what Westside had shown in his office.

It helped looking at all the code again. Dean and I talked about possible exploits in what they’d shown me—although the eye typing drove me crazy. At least I felt prepared for whatever came next.

We decided Dean would continue to record, but it was becoming an urgency to get the phone charged. Despite the capacity of the battery, it couldn’t last much longer.

The session with Westside and others on the team was three hours of fairly interesting project overview. A notebook and pen had been at my seat when I arrived in the room, and I made some notes of items I wanted to think about and maybe talk over with Dean.

As horrible as this plan was, I couldn’t deny it was technically fascinating. It was a horrible plan that I couldn’t help occasionally geeking out on.

What kind of person was I? I’m not supposed to like any part of this.

Maybe I didn’t have to come up with an elaborate way to stop it, though. The team here couldn’t figure out how to do this, and while I’ve got skills, I could just be one more smart person who couldn’t crack it.

“Why do you think I can do this? I understand the idea and the attempts made, but this is significantly big.”

“Everything we know indicates you’re the guy for this.” Westside walked to one of the tinted windows and looked out. “We’ve reviewed the work and research you’ve done at MIT. We know firsthand how you’ve thwarted us with how you destroyed the network in Denver.” He turned back, and his eyes pierced into me in a way that they hadn’t since I’d arrived. “All signs point to you. You’re going to figure this out.”

I held his gaze while I sorted out what to say next. This was more than about me getting hurt or even killed, it was about a world full of people.

“How do I know you’ll keep your word if it turns out I can’t do what you want? Just because you think I can doesn’t mean it’s true.”

I kept it earnest. Part of me was legit scared that I’d fail, and my friends would be targets.

“Do you need other people? Tell us who they are. If they’re TOS people, we’ve got most of them and maybe you can persuade them to work with us. If it’s somebody else, we’ll go get them.”

He wasn’t giving an inch.

He nodded while looking to the guards at the door. Before I could react, the guards had me zip tied to the chair—arms bound at the wrist and legs just above the ankle. My reflexes were usually better. Maybe I wasn’t fully recovered.

“What the hell?” Frustration boomed through my voice.

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