By Sun by T. Thorn Coyle

Author:T. Thorn Coyle [Coyle, T. Thorn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: PF Publishing

20

Jack

Jack was holed up in the cave Olivia called her office, wincing slightly at the Norwegian metal blasting from her speakers. His head was better. It still ached a bit from his overindulgence the day before, but he didn’t dare ask Olivia to turn it down. He knew she worked best with her music cranking, and they had a lot to get done.

He worked on Olivia’s second setup because he had to buy himself new gear. Thank someone-or-other that his tower hadn’t fried, at least. And he had all of his work stuff backed up online as well, but losing his monitors, including his favorite gaming screen, really blew.

Olivia sucked down another high caffeine cola, crumpled the can, and tossed it toward the squat, overfilled recycling bin in the corner. Jack couldn’t exactly tease her about her habit, considering his own food and drink intake, but it was still incongruous that a jock like her was such a typical geek in so many ways.

“You need anything?” she asked.

He quirked his mouth up. “You ever heard of this thing called natural light?”

She snorted. “Open a curtain if you want to, though why you want to fight the glare, I don’t know.”

He needed to get up and stretch, anyway. Maybe get some water. Pee. They’d been at it for hours.

While he was up, he slid one of the heavy navy curtains over, letting a slice of sun into the room. The light slid across the hardwood floors, the big metal desks, and the racks of computer gear. Olivia’s room was strictly utilitarian. Her partner’s touch—so apparent in the rest of their one-story home—was lacking here. No way Grace’s chair would fit around all the cables in here, anyway.

“I’m taking a breather,” he said. “Do you want anything while I’m up?”

“Nope. I’m good.”

Olivia turned back to the twenty-four-inch screen streaming with code, her yellow-tinted computer glasses reflecting the harsh glow. It didn’t take long until she was clearly back in the zone, fingers tapping out a rhythm only she kept time with. The singer growled from the speakers, over crunchy bass and rhythm guitar.

Jack massaged his temples. He’d been wondering what was next in his life. Wondering when the boredom and dissatisfaction would resolve itself. Well, that “something next” turned out to be taking a short leave from his current projects in order to get whatever the hell this thing was done.

He was answering the call.

After Jack’s monitors had blown, and given the damn stabbing behind his shoulder blades when he even talked about doing something other than figuring out the cryptic messages trying to come through, it was clear that he wouldn’t be allowed to work on anything as prosaic as a game to pay his bills.

It seemed that he had a bigger debt to pay. To some guy with a spear, apparently. Some ancient Irish God named Lugh, and how weird was that?

And since—coincidence of coincidences—Olivia had been getting a group of hackers together to mess with the DHS anyway, Jack jumped on board.

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