Page 44

Paige’s breath hitched. “We’re getting somewhere.”
Cody leaned in, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. “Keep going. We’re close.”
But then, disaster struck.
Paige’s fingers froze over the keys. “The file’s empty.”
Tai stared at the monitor, his face paling. “There’s no code here. Nada. Are you sure you grabbed the right drive?” He directed the accusation at Cody, his eyes narrowing.
Cody’s heart sank. “It’s the correct drive. I’m sure of it.”
Paige stepped in, her voice calm but firm. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. Cody wouldn’t lie about this.”
Tai clenched his fists. “Then where’s the virus?”
“I don’t know. But we need to figure it out, fast.” Cody could only pray Paige, and the others, would believe him.
Paige scanned the screen. “We’ll find it.”
They had to. Cody’s mind raced, trying to piece together what had gone wrong. The drive they stole was supposed to contain the virus. But if it wasn’t here ...
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to focus. “Let’s go over everything again. There has to be something we missed.”
Paige’s fingers resumed their dance over the keyboard. Cody held his breath as she delved back into the layers of code.
They couldn’t afford to fail. Not now. Not when they were so close.
“Come on,” he whispered. “Show us what you’re hiding.”
Paige pushed back from the table, shaking her head. “The files are completely empty.”
He squinted at the screen. “Erased?”
“Blank,” Tai corrected. “It’s a decoy.”
Of course it was.
The weight of the Consortium’s deceit pressed down on him, grinding him into the floor.
He replayed the scene in the lab through his mind and groaned. The memory was as clear as day. When he ordered the techs out, the tall woman had snatched up a tote bag. He’d thought it was her lunch, even remembered the faint scent of bologna and mustard. But her desk was closest to the computer attached to the drive. There’d been a minute there where he noticed her body blocked the unused computer station from view. Could she have had enough time to punch in a passcode and eject the disk?
Very possibly.
His stomach sank. He stared at Paige. She pressed a hand to her belly, her eyes widening with realization. “One of the techs took it,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Yup.” How could he have missed that?
Tai threw his pen down on the tabletop. The clatter echoed in the silent room. “Game over.”
Cody’s gaze flicked to Tai, then back to Paige.
She put a hand on Tai’s arm, but she spoke to Cody. “Not over. Just ... complicated.”
27
Paige staredat the computer screen, her eyes burning from the hours of intense focus. She’d searched every corner of the internet she could reach, legally and illegally, but there was no mention of the virus.
No leads. No clues. Nowhere to start the search.