Chapter 175

[ 1,405 words ]

Marcus

“Fuck,” I shout, knocking over the energy drink tower to my left.

My eyes burn and I know I need rest but I can’t leave. I can’t walk away knowing those kids are out there being put through Goddess knows what.

I scrub my face with my hands forcing myself to focus.

Whoever is setting up this system must have a bot changing the path every day and hiding the original server underneath a Russian nesting doll cover up sequence.

It gives me only twenty four hour time periods to try and crack through each one.

I’m getting closer, I can feel it.

A knock at the door draws my attention.

“Marcus, it’s me.”

Eliza.

My wolf perks up at the sound of our mate’s voice.

*I’m coming in.”

The door opens. She is pushing it in with her hip, balancing a tray of food in her hands.

I jump up to take the tray from her.

“By the moon, it smells like a used sock in here,” she goes to the windows and opens them up.

Then she takes the trash and starts to throw out all the empty cans.

“You don’t have to do that,” I try but she holds up a hand.

“No. I gave you your space to work and left you alone for three days but enough is enough. I can feel how tired you are through our bond. So now you are going. To sit your ass down, eat something and then take a nap.”

“I can—”

“Don’t,” she grinds out, taking the tray from my hands and putting it down where the stack of cans used to be. “I know how hard this is on you, but you’re going to find them. Just not like this. You’re no good to anyone when you can barely keep your eyes open.”

I stay quiet because I know from Eliza’s face there is no arguing with her when she sets her jaw like this.

“Sit,” she orders.

I drop down on my seat.

She gives me an approving stare that goes straight to my cock.

Lust slides down our bond like warm syrup.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she narrows her eyes, “You’re going to eat then sleep.”

“But baby,” I complain.

“Eat,” she says again with more of a bite to her tone.

I grumble but turn and pick up the fork.

She continues to work cleaning around me while shooting me disapproving glares Everytime my eyes flick back to my computer screen.

Once I’m done I look behind me and my cot is already out and set up.

“Get on it.”

“I really don’t have time,” I say.

“You can afford to take a four hour nap,” she side-eyes me.

“Fine but you have to take one with me.”

I sit on the edge of the cot and hold out my arms. Slowly, carefully she walks towards me but stops a few inches from my hands.

“Lay down.”

I lean back and once she joins me I pull her up onto my chest.

Her weight settles over mine, claiming me in a way that nothing else can. I rub her head, inhaling her scent, drinking it in and letting the weight I’ve been carrying finally lift from my shoulder.

The exhaustion clouds over and before I know it my eyes are starting to droop.

“I feel like I’m running out of time,” I confess.

“I know,” she quietly whispers.

A knot forms in my throat. “If anything happens to them—”

“It will be the fault of those horrible people who took them,” she asserts.

“It’s my job to find them.” There is no question in my tone, just an unyielding sense of duty.

“So then close your eyes so that way you can get back to work,” her words are coaxing.

She rubs her small hand over my chest and I let out a rumble that is close to a purr.

The movement hypnotises me, lulling into sleep.

When I close my eyes, I see a wall of code. The jump from one point to the other.

And a clock whose countdown spirals downward like a riptide.

***

I startle awake. An idea forming in my mind with such clarity curses myself for not thinking of it sooner.

Eliza wakes with me. “What’s wrong?”

“I think I might have figured out the pattern,” I say, rushing over to the computer and waking up the monitor.

As expected, the code is still consistent from this morning.

I look up at the clock.

I have eight hours until the pattern changes.

The door to my room bangs open and Ransom rushes in. “I have a delivery for you.”

The hopeful glee in his voice is what draws me in.

“What is that?” I ask as he hands me a USB drive.

“A friend of a friend created something to help you blast through the encryptions.”

I raise my brow. What he is talking about is high level programming.

I take it, attaching it to my port. “Who did this?”

“I’ll explain later. Right now just focus on doing your thing.”

“That I can do.”

I open up the folder on it and study the lines of code. The more I read the more my excitement builds.

My wolf paces with a renewed sense of purpose beneath my skin.

And just like that we’re back in the game.

“Fuck me, you brought me a battering ram,” I say, my hands flying over the keyboard as I start to apply upload my new weapon.

“That’s good?” He asks.

“Better than you could understand. It’s like handing me a flame thrower in a knife fight. I’m about to set every ablaze.”

Ransom’s smile is a little unhinged. “That’s exactly what I was hoping for.”

With this and my new technique together it’s only a matter of time before I pin a location.

Armed, I work through the first series of gates opening the Russian dolls defense system.

Game on.

I drill through the first series of code, using a new toy to hold open the chain so I can see the breaks more clearly. In five minutes, I’m in and working on the next wall.

Ransom is standing behind me, body right with the same swirling anticipation I can feel.

Eliza walks up on the other side, kissing my cheek. “I have to go check in for my duties, I’ll be back to check on you when I’m done.”

“Okay. See you later, baby.”

She leaves, and I remind myself to give her extra quality time once this assignment is over. She is always so understanding, she deserves to be reminded just how special she is.

I smash through my fourth wall, a hit of adrenaline pumping through my blood.

Then another

And another.

Until finally, I reach the final barrier standing between us and those fucking weasels.

I attack a code scrambler to tear down the wall and start the locator program to read the open pathway.

The moment waiting for the code to be interrupted feels like time is slowing, like life is moving at the speed of a backwards crawling snail.

Suddenly, my second monitor pings and the extremist group that airs these “shows” lights up with a new announcement.

“Keep your eyes on the locator, I’ll deal with whatever this is,” he says, taking a seat beside me.

“Fuck!” he curses, just as the code cracks.

The service information begins to download.

“What happened? I ask you to keep an eye on the download percentage.

“They just annoyed a new show, tomorrow night at midnight they’ll be broadcasting live.” He turns the screen to me. “They have a picture of the juveniles in the thumbnail.”

My head whips to the screen and I feel the unease and disgust rolling through my stomach as I see the age of six incapacitated juveniles in cages.

It looks like our time has officially run out.

“Sick fucking pedophile bastards,” I spit. “We won’t show mercy when we get them.”

The computer beeps, letting us know the load is complete.

With a heavy heart, I look away from the screen.

On autopilot, I push the images of the teens aside and run the world map program as the system traces back the signal.

“Please tell me that is what I think it is,” Ransoms says.

“Don’t jinx it,” I reply.

The map light and rotates, shifting this way and that as it analyzes.

With every light heart thumps.

Tonight.

They’re going to hurt them tonight.

But who is to say they haven’t already started.

My wolf lets out a thunderous growl.

Yeah, we’re going to rip them apart.

The computer beeps, a red pinpoint glowing on the map.

Ransom looks at me with a grin that would make men stop cold in their tracks.

I mirror the smile. They thought they were clever, hiding in plain sight. Thought they were strong, targeting the weak.

Now, it’s time to show them how far we’re willing to go to protect our own.

“We got them,” I say.

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