Chapter 658: Troubled Syntax (1/2)

”The best thing about virtual parties is the lack of hangovers.” Darsi wore comfortable grey sweatpants and one of Dex's t-shirts. Her blond hair hung in her eyes while her warm breath tickled his ear.

Darwen hadn't experienced drinking before; after mentioning it to the bottomless pit that was Pon, the Texan decided to give him a crash course in surviving virtual booze. ”Those two are pretty cool. The Nix from the single-player game was nothing like that guy.”

Darsi had one leg slung over Dex's hip while she snuggled against his back. ”No doubt. Want to order some breakfast?”

Dex nodded; there was nothing to do until H & F contacted them. The job wouldn't be possible unless Armageddon was in play. ”I could eat.”

Darsi released her partner and rolled lazily onto an oversized pillow that she had tossed to one side. ”They won't pick up the seeds Mongoose planted?”

Dex shook his head, finally able to stretch since the blond was no longer hampering his movement. ”I wrote it as disassembled code; until it gets activated, there won't be any issues.”

”And when it gets activated?”

”It's essentially a gateway that's been taken apart; our encryption will reassemble the pieces. Once that happens, the gateway becomes active.” Dex squinted at the light coming in from the balcony window; it appeared to be mid-morning in Geneva.

Darsi knew the rest; Armageddon would ignore the gateway and allow them into the system without tripping any alarms. The explanation was simple, but she'd seen the code firsthand; Fucking Da Vinci wasn't good enough to describe it. ”There's a nice harbor cruise that takes a few hours; if you don't mind spending a few credits on your partner.”

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Day 5, Geneva, Switzerland.

Ed Heltier sat comfortably on his favorite seat, the open window ledge in his Uncle's office. He was watching the performance of Armageddon while a handful of techies analyzed code. ”Isn't it just security management software?”

Sandbox shook his head slightly; the twenty-something hacker refused to answer to his given name of Samuel Griese. ”I've counted seventy different countermeasures built into Armageddon. I thought the name was a joke until we took a poke at it. It's not a fucking joke.”

Ed kept his opinion to himself; he already knew the security program was tight. However, his interest was in the ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics).

Sandbox was a thin man with a prominent nose that seemed out of place on his narrow face. His green eyes focused on the code scrolling across his hud. ”Do we know who wrote this?”

Ed nodded. ”The team that visited our office are the two writers.”

Sandbox leaned back in his chair, running both hands through his short brown hair. ”One, or maybe both of them is Fucking Da Vinci. This is some sort of fragmented binary; not sure if I can crack it open.”

”Do your best.” Ed stared at the screen, his thoughts straying to Gina Nixon, the female of the pairing. ”Have our team continue testing; let me know if anything odd happens.”

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