Anticipation stirring in Riley's gut, she sauntered up to the alley for Wrench's garage, hearing the loud rock music even from outside. She gripped her bag a little tighter and bit back another wide smile. She was dressed in something a little fancier—and, dare she say, a little more risqué—than what she was used to. But, it was a special occasion, she supposed. She had a reason for it.
It was her birthday, and she was eager to spend the night with Wrench. Of course, he'd promised to have something special planned for her the week before since she hadn't had any plan or clue as to what she wanted to do, but he hadn't given her any clue as to what he had in mind. The anticipation had been killing her all afternoon, but she'd refrained from texting him, wanting it all to be a surprise. He'd done so well for their first real date, that she wanted to give him the same room to work his magic again for her birthday.
Still, unable to sit at home, and with it being already 9 at night, the sky black and inky now that the sun was gone, Riley hadn't been able to take it anymore and had decided to show up to his garage to see what he had planned for her.
Gripping the handle of the door, she sauntered her way inside, making sure to give her hips an extra sway just in case Wrench happened to be looking her way as she entered. Maybe give him a little preview of what she-
Oh.
The smile was wiped from her face, spotting the massive stack of empty and partially crushed beer cans on the floor by the couch. She spotted an arm slung over the side of the couch belonging to the masked hacker himself, lying limp and dangling there. Careful not to step on any of the cans, she made her way to the front of the couch to see the scene better.
Sure enough, both Wrench and Marcus were passed out on the couch, obviously the beer had been too much for them. They snored nasally, puncturing the garage with long drags of breath. Wrench had his mask sitting on the couch beside him and Riley picked it up idly, staring into the eye slots where his emoticons would always appear.
Had he simply forgotten about her birthday, or perhaps he didn't care? Maybe he hadn't wanted to spend the day with her after all? If that were the case, why would he promise to plan something special for her? So the more likely option was that it had simply slipped his mind. But, honestly it didn't really matter how innocent of a mistake it might have been.
To say Riley was pissed was a severe understatement. She'd taken the time to get herself ready for a nice night with her boyfriend, doing all of the necessary self-care things needed for something…a little more after their birthday date together. It was the first time she would have offered up such a suggestion, encouraged by the special occasion and by the closeness of their 6-month anniversary of their relationship. Riley didn't really believe in celebrating the milestones in between the full year marks, but she supposed it was still significant in some way.
And to see the boyfriend in question casually passed out after having what she could see was an apparently very fun night of hanging out with his best friend on her birthday of all nights, Riley couldn't help but feel slighted. Forgotten. Neglectfully ignored. The longer she stared at his sleeping form, the more it just angered her.
Fine. There wasn't any other reason to stay here, besides riling herself up more by having to stare at the heavily sleeping Wrench. She tossed his mask back beside him carelessly and trudged her way back to the side door, not caring how many beer cans she noisily kicked over along the way. It wouldn't have woken them up anyway.
Wrench stumbled into the hackerspace the next morning, still somewhat fuzzy due to his lingering hangover from the night before. Marcus was only a step behind him, sunglasses in place so the lights of the basement wouldn't blind him. They'd both been lucky not to cause an accident driving the way here. The sun had been so blinding they both swore they'd crash the vehicle.
Sitara stood at her printing machine and looked up at the two arrivals, but his eyes immediately sought out his lovely girlfriend who currently typed away at her laptop from the couch. A happy expression on his mask, he separated from Marcus and wandered over to her, a spring in his step.
"So, watcha workin' on there, my beautiful hacker babe?" He asked curiously with a wink, stooping down to her level to see the screen. Frown still set in place, she gave him a sidelong glance before snapping the laptop shut and sitting up. Confused, he backed up a space as she stood from the seat and walked away.
"Ok, so…not a good nickname?" He called after her, but she only slung her bag further up her shoulder and disappeared behind the stairs to the game shop above. Wrench cocked his head, unsure whether he should go after her or let her cool off from whatever was bothering her. He'd never encountered this particular mood from her before. What was her problem?
Well, if she wasn't in the mood for talking, maybe Sitara was. That female was a hell of a gossiper, and if there was anyone who knew what had Riley's panties in a bunch, it would be her. They'd grown closer over the past few months and she tended to talk about her problems to the only other female around. He sauntered over and pointed towards the stairs.
"So…any idea what that was about?" Question marks appeared on his mask, emphasizing that he had no clue what was going on.
Sitara looked unamused, pissed off even, and crossed her arms. "Yeah. What about you?"
"Uhh…" He froze for a second, trying to search through his foggy brain, as if this was some puzzle he knew the solution to. "No? That's why I'm asking."
The artist shook her head and rolled her eyes. "She's pissed because you forgot her birthday."
Wrench cocked his head, even more confused. "It's not until the 19th."
"No, dumbass. It's the 14th." Sitara corrected with an attitude, clearly unamused by his ignorance. "Which was yesterday."
It was as if the Red Sea had parted to reveal the answer to his question, and Wrench's mask cleared into two wide circles. He stood straighter, as if the involuntary defensive reflex would somehow help against the shame that washed over him.
No wonder she hadn't responded to any of his texts that morning. And he'd been too wasted with Marcus the night before to think about texting her while they had hung out. Then again, she hadn't reached out to him at all but…shit. He forgot her birthday? That was like…rule number one of the boyfriend code!
"So you've got some hella explaining to do if you're gonna get on her good side again." Sitara continued, still flaunting her disappointment and irritated expression. He'd nearly forgotten that females got pissed in packs. As soon as one was slighted, they all were, once the drama was out. "I wouldn't keep her waiting, to be honest."
"God damnit…" He muttered, already taking the steps two at a time up the stairs to the game shop. Hopefully she was still there if he was lucky.
No such luck. Riley had already left by the time he got up to the building, and she was nowhere to be seen even when he checked both ways on the sidewalk outside. Gone. Fuck. He pulled out his phone and called her, hoping she wouldn't hate him too much for doing this by phone.
"Yeah?" Was her monotone reply when she finally picked up. Not her usual cheerful greeting he normally received. Yeah, he was definitely on her shit list today.
"So, uh…I'm so sorry about yesterday. I completely spaced your birthday, I thought it was on the 19th! I was planning something for you and everything-"
"Wrench, I specifically told you a few days before what the date was. You told me you'd take care of it. It took me like two hours just to get ready and then I go over there to find you and Marcus passed out in the garage? Is it unreasonable of me to be a little pissed off right now?" Well, she certainly sounded like she was. And now that she spelled it out, he could see why she was.
"No, it's not and I know…" He said, but she interrupted again.
"Just leave me alone for awhile, ok? I don't really want to talk right now."
And with that the call ended. Wrench held the phone up to his face to see the screen, in slight disbelief that she'd just…hung up on him. His kind-hearted Riley was being so cold to him, and he didn't quite know how to handle it. She understood that she'd be mad but…was this really necessary?
Shaking his head, both because he was pissed at himself and because he wished Riley would just listen to him about this, he turned around and walked back towards the hackerspace.
Riley stared up at the ceiling from her position on her couch, unable to shake the irritation that Wrench's carelessness had caused. It should just be some simple, stupid thing that the brunette could forgive easily, but for whatever reason the anger still stuck with her. It wasn't even that big of a deal, when she thought about it. It was just a birthday. They could celebrate it a few days late. It wasn't the end of the world. But the fact that he'd just forgotten and she'd spent so much time in anticipation just to be let down wasn't easy for her to let go.
She'd been looking forward to an actual fun birthday this year. Last year's had been spent staking out some warehouse where a supposed drug deal between major corporation figures was to take place. That had turned out to be a bust and she'd spent hours sitting in a parking lot in the middle of the night waiting for something that would never even happen. And by the time she called it quits, she'd been too tired to even care about buying herself a birthday cake on the way home.
So much for turning 23. It came and went without fanfare or celebration. Just another day on the job.
So it went without saying that she'd expected this year's to be enjoyable. Her DedSec friends were a zany bunch to begin with. But Sitara and Josh had been the only two to even remember that it was yesterday. They'd wished her a happy birthday in private, at Lexi's request, because she truthfully just wanted to spend the day with Wrench.
The disappointment just stung too deeply to let go without mulling on it a while longer. Maybe that made her a bitch, but the brunette was too upset to care. She deserved to feel angry every once in a while.
It felt…tense in the hackerspace. Not only did it lack a brunette presence he'd come to enjoy having around all the time, but the only other female in the room was also pissed at him on her behalf. He could feel Sitara burning a hole in his back every time he wandered anywhere else besides his Wrench Bench. As if his own guilt wasn't already doing enough to make him feel bad about this.
Riley still had yet to talk to him, and it was midday. She hadn't made an appearance to the hackerspace either, maybe ignoring him or avoiding him. Ok, sure he deserved her anger for forgetting her birthday, but a part of him was irritated by how long it was taking her to even talk to him again. This was getting ridiculous and was bordering on petty.
Marcus was away for the afternoon too, checking up on a lead that Ray had uncovered in the Galilei hack. Wrench had wanted to go with, but it really only required one person since they weren't even sure what they were going to find.
So Wrench was stuck in the graffitied basement of the game store, sulking on his loneliness and slowing growing more frustrated with his girlfriend's behavior as time went on. At this rate, he'd have more reason than her for being angry.
"Hey Josh, run this picture through your database and see if you can find out who he is. Focus on Asian colleges or graduate programs." Sitara said, coming up to stand beside him. Wrench heard what she said from across the way and came to investigate what was going on.
"Should just take a second." Josh took the picture from the artist and scanned it into his computer, holding it out for her to take back, but Wrench snatched it out of his hands before she could get to it.
"What're we looking this guy up for? Have you discovered a new genre of bondage porn?" He inquired, noticing the bloody nose and zip-tied hands, but she only rolled her eyes.
"Marcus found him in the Shu's shipping container. They smuggled him in, complete with an expensive luxury suite on the inside. He's got to have some sort of value for them to have used such resources just to get him over here." She explained, cocking a hip and placing a hand on it. She snatched the photo back from him and placed it in her pocket.
"Got him." Josh said, eyes already scanning the contents of his profile. "Marcus was right. He is very well educated."
Sitara read his profile over Josh's shoulder before patching through to Marcus on the comms again. "Marcus, I found your guy."
"Whatchu got?"
"Graduate of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He's got a double Masters in Statistics and Business…" She quoted from the file, scanning lower to his credentials. She put two and two together fairly quickly. "He's a quant."
"They definitely need him to number crunch that Stock Market data, which means the Auntie Shu boys are in the business of insider trading."
A small grin grew on the hacker's face, and she rubbed at her chin thoughtfully. "I have a contact in Chinatown who's connected to the Auntie Shu boys. I'm sending you his coordinates. Maybe he can help you get some answers."
"Got it. I'll keep you posted."
The comms disconnected and the three hackers broke apart. Sitara's curiosity temporarily distracted her from the irritation she was feeling towards Wrench. But when he spoke again she was reminded of his own idiocy once again.
"You're not giving Marcus all the fun missions again, are you?" He pleaded in a sad tone, and she shrugged.
"You're not off the hook with me just yet. Make it up to Riley and maybe I'll let you blow something up today." With that, she walked back to her art station.
"Alright, would you like the good news or…ahh…the bad news first?" Marcus asked with a hiss over the comms, and Sitara sighed.
"Please tell me you found something at the safehouse."
"Well, these maps and charts I found in their safe definitely pinpoint a floating server farm out in the middle of the ocean. Auntie Shu's base of operations for the Stock Market hack if I were to take a guess."
The hacker smiled. "Well, it's a start. We'll have to see if we can use the satellites to figure out how to go from here. Now, what's the bad news?"
"There is a 100% chance that I sprained and or broke my ankle while getting these documents. Fuck…that hurts!"
"Damnit, are you out of there?" Sitara went into worry mode, ready to pull out her laptop and start hacking if it gave Marcus a better chance of getting to safety.
"Yeah, grabbed a car out. On the way to the hospital to see if they can take a look at it." He hissed again, holding back another curse from the pain. "You'll probably have to have Wrench do the rest of this op. I'll be down and out for several days at the least."
Sitara glanced over at the hacker in question, who was moping and grumbling over at his Wrench Bench. His mood was slowly souring the longer Riley gave him the cold shoulder. She could use this as an excuse to get him out of the hackerspace. Wrench was bringing the atmosphere down a major notch, and Sitara figured it was time the couple made up. It had been just an honest mistake, no matter how much shit she was giving Wrench for it.
"Alright, I'll take care of it. Just…get better, ok?" She tried not to let the worry seep through the comms too much.
"Don't worry about me, girl. I'll be back at it in no time." He said, reading her mind. There was a buzz on her phone a moment later. "I just sent over the maps. Have Wrench take a look."
She disconnected with Marcus and stood from her printing machine. With a sigh, she pulled up the files Marcus had sent and went over to talk to the masked hacker.
Riley threw her car into park and grabbed her laptop, getting out of her car and slamming the door behind her. The lighthouse had a lot of visitors today, and she blended in well with her sunglass, crop-top, and shorts. San Francisco was in the middle of a heat wave, and most tourists were dressed in the absolute minimum required to stay decent.
"I'm here." Riley relayed over the comm system. She was still sort of pissed at Wrench, but she wouldn't let her sour mood get in the way of the operation. Right now all she wanted to talk about was the barge and anything to do with it.
"I'm almost to the dock." Wrench said, obviously disappointed that she wasn't in her usual cheery mood. But he wisely said nothing about it. "Did you get the coordinates I sent you?"
"Yeah. I should be able to find the barge without too much trouble." She replied, crossing the wooden bridge to get to the lighthouse itself. She was already inspecting the building, trying to figure out a way to get to the top. Visitors weren't permitted up that high. Damn. With all these witnesses too, it wasn't going to be easy.
"…" There was a silence on the comms. Quite strange, considering Wrench's normal personality. Riley missed it. But she was also still upset with him. He had yet to try to make all of this up to her, after all. No effort on his part. Hmph.
"…you're still mad about the whole birthday thing, aren't you?" He finally questioned in exasperation.
"Yup." She said simply, circling the lighthouse building to try to find a way up. They did a good job of discouraging climbers. Not too many places to climb up at all.
"I said I was sorry. I can't go back and change it all. Besides, it's not like I'd get upset if you forgot my birthday or something!"
"That's because I know when your birthday is. April 4th, not April 1st as you like to claim." She stated in a deadpan. "So your argument really doesn't matter because it wouldn't happen."
"Oh come on. You're just being like this to be petty now." He complained.
"Maybe. I don't know. Yet you still haven't made it up to me, have you?" She glanced around for any possible spectators to what she was about to do, before grabbing onto one of the large pipes against the side of the building and pulled herself upwards. It was the only way she could see to proceed.
"Ugh, if I didn't like you so much I'd really hate you." He grumbled, just loud enough for her to hear.
Riley couldn't help the little upwards twitch at the corners of her mouth. Despite her sour mood towards him, he was still adorable as ever. She tried not to be too hard on him, but she wanted him to redeem himself for not putting her as the first priority. Just this once.
"At least I'm talking to you now though, right?" She offered.
"It's not the same…you've been so distant."
"I'm sure you'll get over it."
There was more silence over the comms, and Riley focused on making her way up the ladder to the actual lighthouse itself. She made it in no time—it honestly wasn't really all that high—and took a seat at the very front. Grabbing her laptop from the bag on her back, she opened it up and got to work.
She patched into the group comms to keep everyone in the loop. "Alright, thanks to Ray's protocols, I'm in the satellites."
"So, what's the plan?" Sitara asked, leaving the answer up to anyone who had one.
Marcus, predictably, took the reins from there. Despite being stuck at home, confined to bed, he was determined to help out how he could. "If I read those blueprints right, there should be cameras you can hack into, Riley."
"Then what?" Sitara asked again, not quite seeing what they expected to do.
"We hack the shit out of it. Whatever I can get my hands on, that is." Riley said with a grin, already hopping satellites to pinpoint the barge's location. She zoomed in and spotted what she thought the correct one was, targeting it with her own code.
"That's crazy…I love it." The female hacker responded with, no doubt smiling a wicked smile of her own back at the hackerspace.
"We need that main server. But we'll have to bring it closer in order to get our hands on it. Think you can do it, Riley?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
With one last tap of her key, she was granted a look on the inside of the barge. A man stood in front of several screens, monitoring whatever data he was supposed to. Everything was made of metal, by the looks of it, but it was much more spacious than what she was expecting.
"Don't keep us in suspense…what do you see?" Wrench begged, his curiosity winning out over his bad mood.
"This thing is no joke. Top-of-the-line hardware, upgraded security measures, an admin terminal too. I'll need to find the credentials to get into that."
Ignoring Wrench's mumble about not getting any of the fun missions, she focused on trying to find another camera to hack, wanting to get a better view of the barge and what was inside. The camera she'd first hacked didn't offer a lot of resources at her disposal. She spotted a string of coding off to the side, in range of the camera's view, and she hacked into that.
Her point of view switched to nearly the floor, and she discovered they had a portable little bot, similar to those that DedSec used to do mobile hacking.
"Huh. Looks like they've got a few toys of their own." She mentioned absentmindedly.
"Josh toys? Or…Sitara…toys?" Wrench asked, trying to slip his usual lighthearted humor into the conversation. Riley suspected he was hoping it would soften her up a bit. He'd have to try a little harder than that though.
"Well, the kind that needs batteries, and that you can control remotely." Riley said vaguely, not giving Wrench the satisfaction of knowing for sure.
"Now you're just playing with me. Not cool."
Riley smirked, using the little bot to navigate around the barge. She tried to make it's movements as inconspicuous as possible. It dodged around walking crewmen and skirted along the edges of the walls. If they spotted it and got suspicious, she doubted there was another on board she could hack into.
One crewman in particular looked important, and she drove the little bot right behind the oblivious man. With a few codes, she hacked into the man's phone with ease. The bot picked up the code of the log-in needed for the admin terminal. Nice.
"Alright, I've got the log-in info." She reported, already moving back to where the admin terminal was.
"Crack open that bad boy and play it like a fiddle." Sitara encouraged with enthusiasm.
The little bot weaved through legs, back and forth, across the metal hallway and finally reached the terminal by accessing the vent system. It fell down in front of the computer, and Riley started the hacking process as the long arm inserted the USB. Within several minutes, she had her hands on what she needed.
"Ok, pretty sure I can access the barge's systems now." She announced, flicking her wrist and hitting the enter key to prompt the code break. Perfect. Riley felt good, knowing she was being a valuable asset to the team right now. It made her smile.
"Any idea how you're bringing the barge closer to shore?"
"Uhh…hmm. Didn't quite think that one through yet." Riley said, suddenly stuck and at a loss. She couldn't exactly brute-force the navigational auto-pilot controls. Someone would notice in the several hours it would take to get back to San Francisco. That wouldn't work. Nor, she thought with a grin, would posting a threatening message on their screens demanding they return to shore. Damn.
Luckily, Wrench was around with his foolproof plans when they needed them most.
"You should totally spoof the fuel gauges, make them think they have a leak."
Yeah. That would do it. That way, they would turn around of their own accord. Of course the anarchist would pick the least destructive way to make this baby turn around. How ironic.
"Good idea." She said, giving credit where credit was due. A few taps and clicks and a small alarm began to go off at the terminal where the man was standing. The man said some things in Chinese that she didn't understand, but from what they were doing, it looked like it had done the trick.
"Looks like that did it. They're turning around and changing course." Riley snapped her laptop closed and stood from the lighthouse deck. Her job here was done.
"I'm still in the process of getting us a boat. We can just grab it and go once the barge comes in." Wrench said hopefully, almost expecting her to refuse.
"Good. And don't think about leaving me behind if you know what's good for you." She threatened light-heartedly, excited for taking part in this operation. She liked being depended on.
The barge took about 5 hours to get back to San Francisco Bay, and the sun was close to dipping below the horizon. It still sat about a mile off the shoreline, but it was close enough to get to with relative ease and a water vehicle.
Wrench had procured the two of them a boat earlier in the day, and he'd texted Riley to meet him at the dock. She jumped up from her chair and grabbed her car keys, ready to go. She'd changed from her shorts and crop-top into something a little more practical, since the evening brought with it slightly cooler temperatures as well. No need to go sneaking around the barge half-naked and freezing.
Wrench stood patiently on the wooden dock in front of the boat, turning to look at her when her footsteps echoed on the wood.
"Hey." He said lamely, more to test how she was feeling towards him right now than anything. His mask showed two small circles, watching her closely.
"Hi." She replied shortly without smiling, stepping past him to get on the boat. Behind her, Wrench sighed. Not the response he was hoping for. Oh well.
They didn't speak much after that, Wrench focused on getting them to the barge, and Riley on watching the sun disappear behind the ocean waves. The boat bounced up and down as they went, and Riley had to hold onto the side to keep her still.
The rush of the wind and water at her back felt amazing. She hadn't ever really sailed before, but this feeling…she just might get into the hobby. She wondered how much a boat cost, then remember that it honestly didn't matter now. She could go out and buy herself a boat tomorrow if she wanted to.
Wrench, on his part, was happy that at least Riley wasn't glaring a hole into his back. He'd glanced behind him to see what she was up to while they rode in the boat. She just sat and watched the water. Her side profile was visible, and she looked happy being out on the water. Hmm. He filed that away for later, hoping that he could somehow redeem himself soon. Maybe a day out on the water would improve her feelings towards him. Maybe. He hoped.
It didn't take long to reach the barge, and Wrench began to slow the craft until they came into the side at an easy drift. They both stood and reached out to grab one of the ladders that extended down into the water in case people went overboard. Riley tied a rope around the rungs and kept the boat in place. This was their only way off the boat. Getting stranded on here and sent off into the middle of the ocean wasn't a pleasant thought.
Both hackers started up the ladder, hoping that there wasn't anyone around at the top. Wrench couldn't help but watch the way Riley's ass shifted back and forth as she climbed, and he enjoyed the moment while he could.
"Stop staring at my ass." She said without looking back at him.
Wrench deadpanned, feeling somewhat chastened. He couldn't even look at her without some rebuke.
They made it a few feet from the top of the ladder, and Riley slowed her ascent. She peeked her up just a bit, peering around to see if there was anyone close by. Then, she suddenly ducked down, craning her neck beside her so no part of her body showed.
Wrench said nothing, not wanting to blow their hiding space. In the silence, footsteps right above them walked unhurriedly to the left, finally disappearing from hearing after a tense minute.
Riley dared another look, before silently climbing up the rest of the way and on the deck. She waved Wrench forward too, urging him to hurry.
With both hackers onboard the barge, they hid behind a large vent to get their bearings.
"There's probably hundreds of servers onboard. I'll have to find a terminal and locate which one we're looking for." Riley said, pulling out her phone to see if she could find some cameras to hack.
Wrench didn't seem to have an argument to that, and nodded. "I'll go below desk, see if I can take out a few guards along the way."
"Be careful." She said, eyes glued to the screen, looking for what she needed.
"You too." Wrench spared her one last glance before disappearing around the corner towards where the lower deck entrances were.
Finding the terminal she needed wasn't the hard part. Getting to it was.
Swiping the admin log-in credentials was a piece of cake. The guy was lounged in a chair in a room with an observation deck on the top level. The important people always made sure they looked important, so it made that part of the task so much easier.
With the log-in information in hand, she hopped cameras to get a general idea of how to get to the terminal itself. She didn't bring an RC bot with her. On a boat, it didn't seem necessary, but now she regretted it.
Occasionally, she caught a glimpse of Wrench stalking the lower halls of the barge, dodging passing security personnel and IT specialists as he got a gist of the layout. Occasionally, he placed small little blocks on the walls. She wasn't sure exactly what they were, but if she were to take a guess, it was probably some form of explosive. Figures. The one idiot who would bring bombs onto a boat. Which could sink. And drown them.
"Are you really planting explosives on a boat?" She hissed in an exasperated whisper through the comms. "We're a mile from the shore!"
"We'll be off of this thing before I blow them. Don't worry!" He replied nonchalantly, as if there wasn't a problem here.
Riley shook her head. Sometimes this man aggravated her so much. Ugh.
Instead of replying to his strange reasoning, she focused instead on finding the terminal. A much more worthwhile task at the moment. She used the camera access on her phone to help determine when it was safe to proceed without being spotted, so far not running into any trouble.
She grabbed onto the knob of the door and entered the admin room, closing it behind her quietly.
"Alright, I'm at the terminal." She reported quietly, hoping that Wrench still hadn't been spotted. He said nothing, but she was already tapping away at keys, inputting the log-in information to gain full access.
A full console and map popped up on the screen, and she sat in the chair to work more comfortably. She'd been correct. There were hundreds upon hundreds of servers on this barge, all serving their own purposes. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much data this thing contained, or how much of it would be incriminating to one company or another. Oh, what she wouldn't give to be able to examine this place a bit more extensively.
Josh had given her a bit of information to help her identify which server they were looking for, and she compared them all to match up what she could. An automatic program did it for her, thankfully, so all she had to do was sit back and-
The door to the admin room opened, and she whipped her head back in time to see a man entering. He stopped, then shouted something in Chinese and charged at her.
She stood, but wasn't fast enough to stop him from pushing her against the wall forcefully. She tried struggling against him as best she could, but he was strong. Her squirming, however, prevented him from reaching for his radio to inform the rest of the security staff, so it had some sort of purpose.
"Riley? What's going on?" Wrench asked, no doubt hearing the sounds of struggle through her earpiece.
"Everything's…fine!" She ground out, still pushing back as much as she could against the man. Finally, unable to think of any alternative, she slammed her forehead into the man's face. He cried out and stumbled backward, clutching at his nose. It hurt like a bitch against her own head, but she was sure it would get better soon enough.
The space between them allowed her to whip out the billiard ball weapon and she smacked him once in the head, dropping him soundly against the floor.
"Do you need any help? Are you ok?" He asked again, a bit worried this time.
"Nope…all…taken care of…" She heaved through panting breaths, hands on her knees as she caught what air she could. That had been a bit more strenuous that she'd intended it to be but he'd been strong. "I don't need your help…all the time, Wrench. I'm not a damsel…in distress."
"That's not what I was implying…"
"Then let me…do my damn job."
"…" He said nothing, finally deciding to drop it and continue on with what he was doing.
Riley took another moment to recover, then returned to the terminal. In all the scuffle, the program had found the server, highlighting the string of code and matching it to a location and storage number below deck. "Alright, I've got it. It should be in Section 3, Storage #8369…oh, shit."
"What?"
"Well, from the terminal's schematics, this thing is a lot bigger than we first thought."
"How big, exactly?"
"Industrial sized. There's no way we're getting it onto the boat. We'd sink in a second." Riley mused aloud. "Hang on, let me patch through to the others, see what they think."
Riley tuned into the group frequency. "Alright, so we've found where the server's at. Only problem is, this thing is way bigger than what we can take on the boat. Any suggestions?"
"Damn. There must be a shit ton of goodies in there for us to crack." Sitara mentioned.
Josh interrupted her. "I may have a solution but you'll have to bring it to the top deck. I'll let you know once I have it figured out."
"Thanks Josh." She said, leaving the group channel. "You still there, Wrench?"
"Yup, and you know I can't read Chinese. These signs on the wall are pointless to me. How do I get to the right place?"
Riley rolled her eyes but started navigating through the cameras again. "I just sent the nav to your phone. Check it."
Wrench started to make his way to the storage section of the lower deck, with Riley providing surveillance in the areas he travelled. There didn't appear to be too many people in this part of the barge, thankfully, and before long he'd found the server in question.
"Jeez, this thing is big. Whatever Josh has it mind, it's gotta be even bigger or this puppy ain't moving." He commented, hacking into a nearby lift machine to move it. "And, another question…how are we getting this thing topside?"
"The lower deck should have a service elevator shaft. That should work."
Riley heard a little giggle on his end. "They say the shaft is a bad mother-"
"Shut your mouth!" Riley said in amusement.
"I'm talkin' about elevator shaft?" He said snootily, as if it had been obvious the whole time.
"Whatever. Just get it to the top deck and they'll take care of the rest." Speaking of which, Riley patched into Josh's frequency. "Any word on our solution, Josh?"
"It's on it's way. About 3 minutes out."
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud alarm blaring through the whole barge, red lights dotted occasionally along the walls glaring brightly. Someone spoke over the intercom system in Chinese, no doubt alerting the crew onboard that something was amiss. Shit.
"Josh, I'm keeping you on our channel, keep us posted about your reinforcements. Wrench, what did you do?" She asked, patching the channels together.
"It's probably on a tripwire system! Nothing I could have done." He said, and Riley accepted it. Nothing they could do to fix it now. Everyone knew they were here. For now, she figured she was safe inside this room, since dozens of people were running through the halls right now looking for them.
"I'll see what I can do to cause some distraction for you." She said, hopping between the cameras to hack into what she could. Well…detonating Wrench's explosives were always an option, but they were still on the fucking boat. Nope. She wasn't touching that. No need to be part of the second Titanic.
Instead, she burst open steam pipes and vents, causing confusion and disarray up above while Wrench rode the elevator up to the top deck. It was slow going.
"Josh, how're we looking?" Riley asked again.
"2 minutes out."
"I'm up top. Riley, you should get up here now. Don't want to be left behind, do you?" Wrench asked, and she shook her head, grabbing the USB from the admin terminal and standing from the chair.
"You'd be dead as soon as I made it back for leaving me behind." She promised.
She peeked out into the hallway, exiting the room once the coast was clear. Wrench would have to figure out the rest on his end from this point. She had to focus on meeting him on the deck without getting shot.
Now that she was inside the barge, everything looked a little different. For a moment, the brunette couldn't remember how'd she'd gotten down here, before spotting a familiar-looking sign and going from there.
In her haste, she ran around a corner to get to a set of stairs, and stopped short when she spotted the two guards holding assault rifles in her direction. They saw her immediately and shouted something in Chinese, aiming the weapons at her. Eyes wide, Riley threw her hands up and cooperated.
"Fuck…" She muttered, more to herself than anything, but Wrench was still on the comms and heard it.
"More trouble?"
"You could say that." Was her mumbled reply.
"I'm a little preoccupied at the moment, so you're on your own." Wrench said, the sound of gunshots audible in both the earpiece and somewhere above her.
The two men approached her slowly, no doubt looking to subdue her. She couldn't reach for her weapons at her back without them shooting her…damnit she was out of options.
Well…maybe. It was not something she wanted to do, but…well, they were two men. Hopefully it would work like it did in the movies.
When they got close enough to almost touch her, Riley reached down and lifted up her shirt and bra, revealing her chest in a flourish. Both men immediately dropped their guards, eyes now focused on her breasts. Ugh. This felt dirty.
Before they could fully understand why she was flashing them, she grabbed the closest assault rifle and slammed it into the man's face, knocking him to the ground. The second man tried to bring up his weapon, but Riley got right into his personal space, rendering it useless, and knocked it out of his hands. She kicked him in the groin just to finish things off, pulling her shirt and bra back down as he collapsed to the floor in a mess of pain.
She wasn't going to stick around and wait for one of them to recover, so she sprinted down the hallway. All she could think of was that at least Wrench hadn't seen it. She honestly sure what he'd do if he knew two strangers had seen her breasts before he did. She couldn't help but smile, almost wanting to find out.
"1 minute out." Josh reminded them over the comms, and Riley picked up her pace.
The sky finally came into view, and she hurried along to where Wrench was waiting. The top-deck was a mess of dead or unconscious men. No doubt Wrench's handiwork. He'd sure done a number on most of them.
She jogged over to the server and Wrench, who stood to the side holding his rifle, looking out for any Auntie Shu boys left. "That took way longer than I wanted it to." She said, checking over the server to make sure there wasn't any damage.
"As much as I like to kid around, I wouldn't actually leave you behind." Wrench promised, looking at her over his shoulder to give a wink. Riley grinned, shaking her head.
"I know."
"Anytime now, Josh!" Wrench said, eyeing the ocean for any sign of an incoming craft or the like.
"I'm 29 seconds away."
Wrench's mask showed two underscores and he tilted his head. "Really?"
"What? I like to be punctual."
The two hackers waited in anticipation for whatever Josh had coming their way. As they stood there, the distinctive sound of 1000 angry bees floated right at the edge of their hearing. The brunette and anarchist shared a confused glance, before the sound became louder and a huge aircraft came into view.
"Holy shit…" Riley muttered, watching as it came closer to their location.
"Is that your drone?" Wrench asked in excitement, giddy at the sight of such a magnificent machine.
"Surprise!" Josh said, pride showing through his voice. "Custom built for us."
"That's amazing." The brunette said. As they stood there, the drone lowered a cable down to the server.
"You'll need to hook it up to the drone and secure it."
"Already on it." Wrench said, grabbing the cable and finding the best place to attach it to. He climbed on top of the server itself and tugged, just to test out the strength. "We should be good to go."
He held out his hand to Riley. "Ready?"
Swallowing back her hesitation, because this was the only way they were getting off this barge, Riley took Wrench's hand and allowed his to hoist her up onto the server as well. "This thing doesn't look very stable." She said, holding not other cable as well. "Wah!"
The whole thing tilted to the side a bit as they were lifted off the ground. In a panic, she gripped onto both Wrench's vest and the cable in an attempt to keep herself on the server.
"Relax, I won't let you fall." He reassured, wrapping one hand around her waist and holding the cable in the other. Wrench's hoodie was blown off from the wind, exposing his unkempt blonde hair. Riley's own hair whipped around in unruly tendrils.
His happy expression stared down at her, and she smiled up at him. Then, a sobering thought made her sigh heavily.
"Sorry I've been such a bitch today. I was just really disappointed after yesterday."
"Ah, don't be. I get why you were upset. I do still intend to make it up to you." He said with a wink. "And the first thing on that list is buying us dinner."
Riley smiled. "As ironic as this may be…can we get Chinese? I'll call it good if we do."
Wrench looked at her with question marks. "Really? That's all?"
"Yup." Was her honest reply. He still looked confused, because after all of that attitude from before, Chinese food was the perfect solution? It seemed too good to be true. "You couldn't possibly comprehend what Chinese food means to me."
Wrench laughed and shook his head. "I'm still not convinced you're not really genetically Chinese. By now, your blood is probably teriyaki sauce or something."
ns 15.158.61.12da2
