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“I did, but he ran.”
Fuck. “I need that code! Or I need you to come down here and bust this thing open.”
“On my way.”
I place my hand against the glass barrier, hating how helpless I feel. “Hang on, Sparrow.”
Her hand touches mine through the glass and our gazes lock. “I’m sorry,” she mouths, and I shake my head. She has nothing to be sorry for. Not a damn thing.
A crackle fills my ear and then Deck says, “Ryder and I are pinned down. I’m going to need a few minutes.”
“We don’t have a few minutes!”
Addie grabs my arm. “We need to start entering number combinations. You’re good with numbers and codes, Knox. This is just like one of your puzzle books.”
She’s right, it’s exactly like one of my code-cracking problems. Except it’s not. I have no idea how many digits I’m dealing with, and this is a life-or-death situation.
I meet Hunter’s molasses eyes, feeling an unbearable pressure building in my chest and crushing my heart. She’s going to die if I don’t get her out.
Her hand pulls back from the glass. She lifts four fingers and points to the keypad.
She’s telling me it’s a four-digit code. Then she blinks slowly, looking out of it, and gingerly touches her head. My heart cracks as she slowly sinks down to the floor.
“Knox! Punch some fucking numbers in!” Addie cries.
Pulling in a deep breath, wishing I could share some of my air with Hunter, I turn my attention to the keypad. Zero through nine. No letters, no symbols. A simple four-digit code. That’s ten thousand possible combinations.
I could solve this in my sleep.
But can I solve it in under two minutes? Because I think the carbon dioxide in that tube is making Hunter dizzy, numb,confused.She’s going to suffocate, Knox,a voice in my head tells me.Unless you use that brain of yours and figure it out like I know you can.
Angel.Addie’s mom always believed in me. Always said I was more than just a pretty face.
Time to put that theory to the test.
“I need a pen, marker, something.” A calmness washes over me from out of nowhere, settling my nerves, allowing me to focus on the problem. Possible number combinations swirl through my head and I begin tapping them into the keypad. There’s always the possibility I might get locked out after entering the first three and getting them wrong. I pray that won’t happen. It can’t happen. Hunter and I just found each other and I’m not losing her so soon.
The first three codes are wrong, and I quickly enter a possible fourth combination. It’s also wrong, but nothing locks me out of the system.Thank Christ. Addie shoves a marker into my hand that she found somewhere, and I scrawl out the first four codes I already tried. I keep working on every possible number combination, writing them fast and furious on the tube’s glass, and then Addie quickly enters them on the keypad.
The technique I’m using is pretty damn basic, no tricks involved. It’s brute force algorithm and solves a problem by trying every possible solution until the correct one is found. It’s a simple, straightforward approach that guarantees a solution if one exists, and basically involves trial and error.
However, I’m dealing with a person who chose this code, and when it comes to numbers, most people want something easy to remember. I cycle through all the most commonly-used PINs: 1,2,3,4…0,0,0,0…1,1,1,1…1,2,1,2…and so forth.
I’m writing so fast, my hand starts to cramp up, but I ignore it. Addie’s fingers fly over the keypad as she enters all of my combos. Why is nothing working?
Goddammit.
My attention drops to Hunter and her eyes slip closed. Is she unconscious?No, no, no.I write faster, the glass covered with my scrawls. Maybe it’s a date. A birthday or anniversary. Shifting my focus, I start writing every possible combination starting with nineteen.
“C’mon!” I can feel time slipping away, like the final sands are falling through the hourglass. Inside the case, Hunter’s head lolls to the side.
Suddenly, there’s a slight whooshing sound and the door slides open.
“Got it!” Addie cries.
I reach in, grab Hunter and drag her out. My fingers touch her neck, but I don’t feel a pulse. If she has one, it’s barely there.
Get her breathing,Angel commands.