Hacked (Warriors of Light Book 5) (2 page)

Chapter One

“Mercury, sir, I think you’ll want to see this.”

Looking up, Demaratus saw the young Marine waving over the base’s commanding officer. While he was wary of having humans around, he did appreciate the fact that many of them had knowledge of things that the older warriors did not.

“What is it?” Mercury muttered when he rolled his chair over to where the lad was working.

“It looks like the files that were taken from your site were put onto another site. The person that took them apparently believes that it’s an author’s work.”

For a long time, it was oddly silent in the room. “They think it’s for a book?” Mercury asked in a tone that went from his normal deep one to something in a much higher pitch.

The Marine shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. “Yes, sir, it would appear so. They’ve set up pages for what they think are various books. Works of fiction, from what I’m reading. They have tabs for each, with a description of the hero and what looks like a sneak peek of the work. It’s being called ‘reality-based fiction’.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Gaius asked.

“It means they think that this author is using figures from history to create his, or her, stories. Everyone is up on the site, except for Mercury. But he’s also the only one that doesn’t have a file on the base system.”

Everyone looked toward Mercury, who ignored them all. Demaratus found it interesting, yet not particularly odd, that the one who had started the guardians didn’t have a file to be hacked.

“We need to shut the site down, permanently,” Mercury was saying.

“I can try, sir, but you really should have the one that created it do it. Given the level of hacking required to break through all your firewalls, safeties, and other traps that were put into place, she probably has backdoors so that she’d be able to put it right up again as soon as I shut it down. And she’ll likely put in some form of a password that wouldn’t let me even attempt it the next time around.”

Frowning, Mercury nodded slowly. Demaratus knew the man’s mind was working fast and hard on the problem. While this technology wasn’t any of their fields of expertise, not one of them was an idiot. They could all think logically and strategically when it came to fighting a foe, even one unseen.

“Can you tell me where this person is?”

“Maybe, sir. Let me…” The Marine turned to face the computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard as images, words, and things Demaratus couldn’t understand popped up onto the screen, vanished, or morphed into something else.

“Best I can figure, sir, the person’s in Nevada,” the Marine muttered. “Damn, this one’s bouncing their signal around like a deranged Mexican jumping bean. There,” he said. “That’s as close as I can get you right now. If we got some equipment on the ground, we could narrow it down, but with whatever they’ve got going on with their system to protect it, and themselves, I can’t do any more from here.”

Leaning around one of the others in the room, Demaratus frowned at the monitor. The spot the Marine was pointing to was just southwest of Vegas.
Damn close. Really damn close.

“Demaratus, take Alexander with you and a couple of the Marines to collect this individual. Say nothing, but black bag their ass back here. We need answers, and we need to know if this person is a threat or just an idiot.”

“We’ll also have to confiscate all the equipment,” the Marine added as he got to his feet. “It’ll help me figure out how the site was constructed and ensure that they can’t ever do it again.”

“Right, bring anything and everything back relating to us or to this person’s online activities.”

Sliding off the desk, Demaratus nodded. “Understood, sir.” The part that no one had to say, but he read in Mercury’s eyes, was that if this person was in less than perfect health upon their arrival at the base, Mercury wouldn’t be all that displeased. Might even thank him in the end. Not that Demaratus would set out to cause harm. It wasn’t in his nature. But he also wasn’t about to allow anyone to undermine the work they did or expose them to the public unnecessarily.

****

“Oh, someone is being very naughty,” Holly said as she saw the flag pop up to alert her that someone had tried to get into her system. “Not so easy, is it, sunshine?” She backtracked the hack and laughed. “Oh, you are so close. Wait, this is where the files came from…” She hummed, a sucker in her mouth, as she let her fingers fly.

She also put in an order for pizza.
After all, a woman has to eat, right?
She swiveled in her chair and grinned once the hack was complete. “There, hope that whoever you are, you like furry porn, you asshat.” She didn’t like anyone touching her systems. It irritated her like mad.

When the doorbell rang, she looked at the screen and frowned.
Well, that’s not pizza
. She opened the com and asked, “Who are you, and why are you here?”

“United States Marine Corps, ma’am. Could we have a word, please?” the one in front answered. He was holding up identification and in full dress blues as he stared into the camera. He didn’t look all that surprised that it was there. In fact, the guy looked bored, if anything at all.

“Huh, I don’t know if I talk to Marines. You see, I dated one back in the day, and he went all gung ho and left me high and dry.” She lied through her teeth as she began to dump her systems and delete the files on them. “You are also a redhead, which, sorry, but I can’t trust redheads, so I’m going to have to pass on the whole having a word sort of thing.”

Something hard pressed to her temple. “Lift your hands away now.” The warning was low and chilling with the added pressure of whatever was against her skin.

Another person moved around the room. Then, coming into her view, he yanked the power plugs from the wall, effectively stopping her purge. “Don’t blow her head off yet. The boss still needs to have a talk with her.”

A growl sounded from behind the weapon. “Let the Marines in. They’re the ones that wanted this crap.”

A faint frown flitted over the other man’s face, but he nodded slowly. He went to the door and pulled it open. “She was attempting to do something to her systems. I pulled the plugs on everything here, so hopefully something will still remain from her antics.”

One of the Marines, not the one who had been on camera, moved in closer to her desk as he looked at everything. “We’ll have to make sure we don’t plug anything in until I’ve got a better idea of what she’s done.”

“You’re just no fun. I haven’t done anything bad,” she grumbled, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest. She looked sideways at the man holding a gun to her head and gasped. “It’s you. I don’t understand. You’re just a dream.” She couldn’t believe it. The man she had dreamed of most of her life stood there before her. A man who had comforted her when she had been a child and helped her embrace her gift for all things electronic. “How can you be here? You aren’t real.”

The man with short blond hair gave a laugh and said something in a guttural language to him. He responded in the same language, she was guessing, with something that sent the one in front of her into a fit of laughter.

One of the Marines moved closer and smiled. “Hands behind your back, please.” He spoke in a tone that told her it wasn’t a suggestion.

“Not on your life. I would rather have them in front of me. If you wouldn’t mind, that is.” She shifted, then added, “Besides, what do you want with me? I haven’t done anything.”
Too bad.

“It actually wasn’t an optional thing, ma’am.” He took one of her wrists and pulled it behind her back, securing it with what felt like zip ties. “The other one. Or do I need to wrestle you for it?”

Reluctantly, she gave her other hand to the man and said, “I want to call my attorney right now. I get one phone call, right?” She was at the point now where she was starting to get scared and that was not good. She did bad things when scared, like shorting out anything electronic in her sight.

The gun finally lowered. “You are under the mistaken impression that you are under arrest. You are being detained until further notice, as a security risk. Which means no calls and no attorney. As of this moment, you cease to exist unless we say otherwise,” the big guy who’d held the gun to her head said, stepping back right before something was tossed over her head. The man she had been seeing in her dreams all of her life. He was the man with the dark and dreamy eyes. The man who had stood tall against forces clad in ancient armor, leather, and swords and held them off. He was a man who had defended with honor and more. He had saved her sanity in more ways than one, and she didn’t understand it at all.

After her hands were zip tied, a dark hood was pulled down over her head and cinched beneath her chin. In the next moment she was hoisted off her feet and over a broad and hard shoulder, to be jostled around as she was carried off. The upheaval had her nearly vomiting. “Seriously, big and studly, doing this is going to make me puke down your back.” Well, at least inside of the bag. Since she couldn’t see anything now, she was doubly terrified. “Why in the hell have I been dreaming of you all my life?”

She had blurted out that last question without meaning to, so she changed tracks. “You can’t do this to me. I’m an American citizen, and I have rights, you ass.” She wiggled. “And the moment that you broke into my place, cameras began to record you, so in five minutes you’re all hitting the Net as America’s Most Wanted.”
Oh yeah, I can do that. Nice, lovely fail-safes are awesome.

The sudden stop made her stomach lurch. “If that happens, you will never be freed. What you did has international security ramifications as it is. Either stop it, or we burn the place to the ground,” her captor told her. She was flipped off his shoulder, the hood ripped away, and her back slammed into a wall with his hand at her throat. “You’re already in enough trouble as it is. Do not compound it with this stupidity. Stop it now, or I’ll do something that is guaranteed to test the limits of your control over your stomach contents.”

“I can’t do anything with my hands bound behind my back.” She gazed up into his deep brown eyes and licked her lips. “I’ve seen you on the deck of ancient Greek ships. I’ve watched you on horseback. Who are you?” She’d had the weirdest dreams of this man, and this wasn’t the time or the place to discuss them, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

She saw the look of shock in his eyes. It was only the smallest flicker of that expression but it was there. “Who I am doesn’t matter.” Spinning her around, he cut her bonds before whirling her back again. “Stop it, now,” he snarled at her. He drew the gun again and cocked it before pressing it to her thigh. “If I think you’re making it worse, I’ll put a bullet through you. It won’t kill you, but it will fucking hurt. Are we clear?”

She rolled her eyes and looked at the redheaded Marine. “You know, talking to you is looking better and better,” she muttered. “I’m not planning on making it worse, but I’m also not going to let you guys wipe me out of existence, either. So we need to get that fact straight right now. You could start by telling me why this fuss and grumble. Why in the world would the Marines show up at my doorstep?”

She glanced back at the man with the long, dark hair, the man she couldn’t seem to stop staring at. “And you. You aren’t a Marine, but you do have a military background, so talk to me. Who are you guys?”

“Quit digging your hole deeper with him,” the blond replied. He wasn’t a Marine, either, but the way he held himself also suggested some form of military training. “Do what he told you to, and quickly, before he gives in to the urge to shoot you. He’s not having a very good day, and your lies only made this situation all the worse.”

“I’m not lying, just telling it like it is.” She shrugged. “I’m just trying to figure out who the hell he is.” She was feeling things that she shouldn’t feel, not for someone who had held a gun to her temple and now her leg.

Walking back to her front door, she hit some buttons on a keypad hidden on the wall. “There. Cameras aren’t recording, and the feed won’t go live. Well, that is, it won’t go live unless I turn up dead somewhere. I have a program that will find my dead ass, too.” Well, she hoped, at least. “Or, if I don’t check in on it in three days. So there, you boys have three days to tell me what this is all about. I haven’t hacked anything that would require the military to come at me, so talk. Please,” she added as an afterthought.

“You did lie,” the big blond said. “When you answered the door, you were lying. The rest doesn’t matter, as it has nothing to do with what you went and got into. Pack it all up, boys. We’re going to need it back on the base. Hopefully by then D will have gotten over his upset or shot her. Either way, the boss is waiting for her in some form or another for interrogation.”

Her arms were yanked behind her again and secured. The hood went back over her head, despite her protests, and she was up and over a shoulder. This time, they didn’t stop until she was tossed into what felt like a vehicle seat, buckled in, and the door slammed at her side.

Demaratus. That was his name. She knew it. She had treasured those moments with him when she slept. But the real man and the dream man were two different beings, and she wasn’t so sure she liked the former very much. “I don’t like the dark.” She wasn’t trying to get out of the hold of the seat belt, but she needed them to know. “I can’t breathe.” It wasn’t a lie. She was starting to freak out.