Atight knot forms in my throat. "Ihad to keep you alive so theCostaswouldn't win."
"Bullshit," he whispers.Heleans closer, letting his nose brush mine. "Youcare.Isaw the sub-routine you wrote to hideBlake’sbakery orders so theIRSwouldn't flag them.Youwent out of your way to be kind."
Heatfloods my cheeks. "Ilike pastries.Sueme."
Hepulls back, a smirk playing on his lips.Hedigs into the deep pocket of his cargo pants, extracting a bundle of black fabric trailing a tangled wire.Hedrops it on the desk.
Thefabric unrolls to reveal a customized 60% layout mechanical keyboard with blank keycaps andCherryMXBlueswitches.Iused this exact model in my cabin before fleeing into the snow.
Istare at the keys, dragging my gaze up to his face. "Wheredid you get this?"
"Ikeep spares," he says, lifting one broad shoulder. "Inoticed you cramping up on the laptop's membrane board upstairs."Youtype heavy.Youneed the tactile feedback."
Iblink at the offering.Amidthe chaos of my kidnapping and the subsequent interrogation, this man managed to catalog my typing habits.Hecaught the wayIshake my hands out when membrane keys lack resistance.
"Youcataloged my hardware preferences?"Iask.
"Icatalog everything about you,Ghost."Hisvoice drops an octave. "Iwatch you chew your lip when you're thinking.Isee you favoring your left leg when you walk."
"Skiingaccident,"Imurmur. "Threeyears ago."
"Iknow."Hereaches out, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.Callusesscrape along my temple with shocking gentility. "Connectthe board.Showme what you can do."
Iplug theUSBcord into the tower.Thefamiliarclick-clackasItest the keys settles the frantic jumping in my chest.Hehands me a weapon over a peace offering.
"Okay,"Iagree, stretching my fingers over the home row.Thescreen flares to life. "Wewant to find theCostacompound.Ineed to bypass their localized jamming by piggybacking off a signal they refuse to block."
"Likewhat?"Danieldrags a second chair directly next to mine.
"Liketheir money,"Igrin. "I’mtracing the automated crypto-payments they send to their guards.Thesignal has to leave the compound to hit the blockchain.IfIcatch the handshake,Ican triangulate the source."
Danielwatches the screens asIstart typing.Linesof code stream down the center monitor.ThechaoticClubhousefades away, narrowing my world entirely to syntax and logic.
"You'refast," he notes.
"I'mhighly motivated."
"Stop."
Myfingers freeze over the keys. "What?"
"Line40," he points to the screen. "Youmissed a syntax loop.Iftheir firewall pings back, the server traps you."
Isquint at the code.Myexhaustion glares back at me through a sloppy coding error. "Damn.Goodcatch."
"Wedo it together."Hereaches across the desk, his forearm brushing mine.Hetypes a correction on his own keyboard, inserting it perfectly into my stream. "Itrack the packets.Youstrip the encryption."
Wefall into an intimate rhythm.Hackingusually demands absolute solitude, pitting me against the machine.Danielturns the process into a duet.Heanticipates my moves beforeImake them.WhenIneed a port opened, he clears the lane.Whenhe needs a decoy signal,Ispin up a botnet to distract the target.
Wemerge seamlessly into a single unit.
"Gotit,"Ibreathe.Islam the enter key with a satisfying clack.
Amap pops up on the third screen.Ared dot pulses in the middle of the jagged terrain along theEasternCliffs, miles past the town limits.
"That'sit,"Danielgrates. "Theold mining outpost.Weassumed the place sat abandoned."
"Farfrom it."Myfingers fly over the keys to overlay the thermal data. "Lookat the vent output.They’rerunning a massive server farm and full living quarters down there."