Down to the Wire (5 page)

“Should I speak first?” Wirenut shifted in his chair. “Ya know, break the ice. Conversation comes easy for me. Light. Fun. Nothing serious. Who wants serious? Serious sucks. Silence comes easy, too. Hey, I’m not called the Ghost for nothing.”

Wirenut expelled another short burst of frustrated air. “Okay, this is officially driving me insane. Why did TL tell us five minutes if he didn’t really want us here in five? I mean, it’s been seven minutes. Where is he? What, he wanted to see how long it took us to get down here? What’d he think, we’d drag our feet or something? What the hell, man, I don’t drag my feet around this place. If anything, I’m faster than the others on my team. Well, except for Bruiser. But come on, she’s like a freak of nature.”

He was rambling to himself now. This wasn’t good. “How about we talk about something else,” I suggested. Wirenut needed to get his brain on another topic.

He looked across the table at me, clearly expecting me to
come up with something to talk about. Oh, okay. Um…

Suddenly the first day we all met popped into my mind. “Do you remember the first day we all met? The six of us sat around this same table.”

Wirenut smiled. “We were all scoping out one another. Curious. Wondering what our new lives would be like.”

I grinned as TL and David returned. Closing the door, TL took his seat at the head of the table. He opened a file and studied it. The header, QUID PLUOLIUM, ran across each page of small typed paragraphs. “Top Secret” had been stamped in red at the bottom.

Squinting my eyes, I studied the upside-down paragraphs. But the small print and my lack of glasses kept me from making out the details. I glanced up at TL. He didn’t acknowledge any of us.

Beside me, David waited patiently, his gaze calmly fixed on the windowless wall behind Wirenut.

Across from me, Wirenut tapped his finger on the table, obviously as anxious as me.

We waited in silence for what felt like hours. Nothing from TL.

“So,” Wirenut finally interrupted the silence.

Without looking up, TL shook his head in response.

Wirenut tightened his jaw, and I sent him an it’s-going-to-be-okay, I-know-exactly-how-you-feel look.

My impatience brought on a teeny bit of nerves, and just
when I decided to run code sequences through my brain, TL closed the file.

“Take off your monitoring patch,” he said to Wirenut.

I smiled. I bet he
was
going on a mission. TL had taken my patch right before sending me to Ushbania.

With some hesitation and a reassuring nod from David, Wirenut reached beneath his T-shirt sleeve and peeled off what looked like a nicotine patch. That’s what he told anybody outside the ranch who asked about it.

He gave TL the skin-colored device. “Why do you want my tracker? Did it malfunction?”

“No. You don’t need it anymore.”

Wirenut grinned. “Does this mean that I’m a full-fledged Specialist?”

TL chuckled. “Yes, you’re a full-fledged Specialist.”

I loved when TL smiled and laughed. It made me all cozy inside. He didn’t do it enough. He seemed too focused and serious most of the time.

He held up the device. “Do you remember what I told you when you first put this on?”

Wirenut nodded. “Yep. You said, ‘Understand that your public education is part of your training. It’s socializing; learning to lie to others regarding your past, current situation, and future. Each of you will wear a detection device for monitoring. Everything you say and do will be recorded. You will wear this until I feel confident you’ll do fine without it.’”

Wow. How unbelievable that he remembered every single word.

Wirenut leaned back and folded his arms, looking very full of himself. “How was that?”

TL shook his head, like he did every time he had no clue what to do with Wirenut. “Nicely done.”

“Thank you very much. Feel free to applaud.”

TL’s lips twitched. “All right, all kidding aside. I took GiGi’s device before she left on her mission to Ushbania.”

Wirenut sat up. “Does this mean I’m going somewhere?”

TL held his hand up. “I’ll tell you what I told her. You’ve proven to be adept at your cover. You’ve gone about your day-to-day activities smoothly, naturally, and without a second thought. You’ve seamlessly merged into this world. But what I’m most impressed with is that you’ve had a lot of temptation. Not only around here, but at school. And not once have you given in to the mischievous urges that drove the Ghost.”

Wirenut grinned, obviously pleased TL recognized that.

“The old Frankie would’ve been sneaking around the ranch at night, trying to break into restricted areas. I know you wouldn’t have stolen anything. You would’ve just tied a yellow ribbon and gone on your way. But the fact that you haven’t tells me you’re ready to move on to the next stage of your training.”

Wirenut grinned again, and I could just visualize the happy dance going on inside of him.

TL stood. “Follow me.”

We left the conference room and headed down the underground hallway.

As we passed Chapling’s and my computer lab, TL nodded to it. “Later on this evening, GiGi will show you around her lab.”

Wirenut and I exchanged surprised glances (more on my end than his). In a few hours, Chapling’s and my computer lab would no longer be a secret. It sort of bummed me out. I liked having something just mine and Chapling’s.

We stopped at a door ten feet from my lab. “This will be your studio,” TL said to Wirenut, stepping to the side. “Do your thing.”

Oooh, neat. I was about to see inside another one of the mysterious locked doors. Wirenut must be ecstatic. Okay, now I couldn’t
wait
to show him the lab.

He scrutinized the steel door and then tapped it with his finger. “Four-decibel, hollow echo. Double-reinforced. Lined with…” He tapped it again. “Glass. Interesting. Counter-sunk hinges.”

Leaning down, he studied the lock. “Triple-plated. Imbedded.” He sniffed. “Copper wax. Rigged with a laser crawler.”

He got down on his knees and put his ear against the door. “Bottom left quadrant.
Tsss. Tsss. Tsss.
One-second electrical surges. A dom sensor.” He held out his hand. “I need my tools.”

David extended a triple-folded leather pouch.

Wirenut took it from him. He closed his eyes and rubbed it between his hands. He brought it to his face and inhaled. “Old
leather, oil, and metal. It’s been a long time since I’ve held this. I never imagined I’d miss an old pouch so much.”

He spread it open on the tile floor beside him. He slipped out three wrenches, some silver wire, a lighter, a stopwatch, and some electrical tape. He inserted one wrench in the lock and wedged one in the door’s upper-right corner. “This last one will be taped at a sixty-two-degree angle in the lower-left quadrant.”

Sixty-two-degree angle? Jeez, that’s precise.

With the lighter, he soldered silver wire to each wrench, connecting the three. He touched his knuckle to the wire. “Laser crawler rhythm is
cchhh. Chch. Cchhh. Chch.
”

He pressed the stopwatch. “On the eleventh second, the door will open.”

It clicked open, and my jaw dropped. Wow. Wirenut knew his stuff.

He did what he called his victory shoulder-roll dance. “Go, Wirenut. Go, Wirenut. Go. Go.”

David shook his head. “We’ve had the best of the best test out our security.”

TL slapped Wirenut on the back. “You’re the first to successfully break in. Congratulations.”

Wirenut’s face beamed with pride. “Thanks.”

I knew the feeling. Nothing felt better than pleasing TL.

David pushed open the door and turned on the light. “Get your tools and go on in.”

Wirenut packed up, and we followed him in. He skidded to
a stop, and I nearly ran right into him. “That’s my stuff. That’s everything I’ve ever sold online.”

All kinds of electronic contraptions lined the tables and shelves.

Wirenut shook his head. “How di— Where di— What’s going on?”

TL picked up a remote control from a shelf. “You may have had ghost accounts and rerouted IPs, but I rigged it so that I was always the highest bidder when you auctioned things off.”

“You mean you’ve been buying my contraptions for years?”

TL and David nodded.

“Man.” Wirenut laughed. “That’s too funny. I guess I’m not as clever as I thought.”

TL pointed the remote control at the back wall, pressed a button, and the wall slid open. Wirenut sucked in a breath.

Thousands of the latest electronic devices jammed the shelves of a hidden mini-warehouse.

I laughed at his amazed face. I was sure I’d looked the same way when TL had first shown me the computer lab.

Wirenut stepped through the secret wall. “Optotronics, micromodules, semiconductors, circuit protection, passive components, audio devices, sensors, enclosures, transformers, protoprods…. Do you have any idea”—he picked up a cable—“how much this xial costs?”

TL folded his arms. “Yes, I do. I sign the bills around here.”

Wirenut stood there a few seconds, holding the cable,
staring at everything. Then, slowly, he paced down the center of the warehouse and back, scanning the metal racks. “It’s everything I’ve ever wished for. Like Santa dropped the mother lode.”

We all laughed.

“You’ll have time to look through everything later. Anything else you need, let me or David know, and we’ll get it for you. But for now, put down the cable and come on out.”

Wirenut put it down, stepped out from the mini-warehouse, and TL showed him how to use the remote control to close the door. We left Wirenut’s room and made our way back to the conference room, where we resumed our seats around the table.

TL tilted back in his chair. “I want to express a concern I have.”

Wirenut nodded. “Okay.”

“You’re confident with your abilities. That’s good. That’s important. But sometimes your confidence comes across as a little too cocky.”

Wirenut’s brows drew together. Nobody wanted to disappoint TL. “Sir—”

TL held up his hand. “Let me finish.”

Wirenut wisely closed his lips.

“I’ve watched you. I know that when something is requested of you, you become a different person. You become focused. Attentive. Ready.”

“You know how to prioritize important things,” David added.

Wirenut’s face relaxed a bit with their compliments.

“I want you aware of the fact that cockiness and overconfidence can get
any
person into trouble. Fast. Do we understand each other?”

Wirenut nodded. “Yes, sir.”

TL was right. Wirenut did come across as cocky sometimes. But it was a funny conceited, not a serious one. It was mostly for show.

“Before a job I always say to myself, ‘Game’s on. Don’t get too confident. Never know what might happen.’” Wirenut shook his head. “Don’t know why I just told you that. I guess so you know I know that flaw about myself.”

“Good. That’s good.” TL opened the file. “As long as you’re aware of your talents and your shortcomings.”

“I am.”

TL tapped his finger to the open file. “Do any of you know what quid pluolium is?”

We all shook our heads.

“Quid pluolium is a neurotoxin. One drop kills thousands of people.”

I blinked. Thousands of people?

“Quid pluolium,” TL continued, “is currently under development in a private lab in Rissala. Yesterday, someone broke into that lab and stole half a dozen vials of the toxin.”

“Rissala? Where’s Rissala?” I asked. Geography had never been my strong point.

“It’s a small country located near Greece,” David answered me. “It’s bordered by the Mediterranean Sea.”

TL pulled a piece of paper from his folder and slid it across the table to us. “Whoever stole the toxin left this.”

We all leaned in.

“What language is that?” I asked. “What does it say?”

“It’s written in Rissalan. Parrot translated it for us. It says that there are three data-encrypted messages hidden throughout the country of Rissala. These messages are some type of computer code. The first message leads to the next, and that one points to the final. The final message reveals where the stolen neurotoxin has been hidden.”

Wirenut scoffed. “Sounds like someone’s playing a twisted game of cat and mouse.”

“Yes, it does,” TL agreed.

I raised my hand, my stomach clenching with nerves. “Um, computer code?” I didn’t feel good about this.

“You’ll be working from home base on this one,” TL answered my unspoken question.

I blew out a quiet breath. Home base. Sounded good. Sounded
more
than good.

“Octavias Zorba,” TL continued, “is a very wealthy entrepreneur in Rissala. He funded the quid pluolium research and development. He has hired us to find these messages and recover the toxin.” TL tapped the paper written in Rissalan. “This says the first encrypted message is hidden in a small ceramic egg in the Museum of Modern Art. Chapling has done some
preliminary work and discovered this ceramic egg is protected by the Rayver Security System. As Wirenut knows, he is the only person to have ever broken through the Rayver System.”

Wirenut straightened in his chair. “Does this mean I’m going to Rissala?”

TL didn’t answer him and instead got really quiet. Seconds passed, and then TL took a breath. “That piece of paper also says that one of the encrypted messages is hidden in the hilt of a seventeenth-century, double-bladed, lion-engraved sword.”

Wirenut went very still. I’d never seen him look so paralyzed with fear.

I glanced at David, and he shook his head.

What was going on?

Wirenut shoved back from the table, and I jumped. “Forget it. This is insane. You have to be an
idiot
if you think I’ll do this.” He jabbed his finger across the table at David and me. “And this is
none
of their business. None of
anyone’s
business. Find someone else. I’m not going to Rissala.”

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