Page 192 of Only Fools Rush

I scratched the back of my neck and grimaced. “I could knock it out for longer, but we risk creating bigger problems citywide. Hospitals, emergency services, all the big important stuff runs on the internet—and they all probably have their own backup systems as well. But Lucia is experienced and prepared enough that she’ll boot up the backup. The other systems will eventually come online, but rolling outages of this scale are sure to gain attention, anyway. There will probably be investigations intowhat happened, and the longer I keep the internet out, the more risk it poses to us, too.”

“So a minute and thirty,” Leona said. “That’s the sweet spot.”

“I hope,” I responded. “I didn’t want to cause absolute havoc throughout the city—though I absolutely could if I wanted to. This felt like the best option to force Lucia into action while minimizing collateral damage or unforeseen consequences.”

“What if she’s in our grid?” she asked, pressing her finger to the location of the penthouse on the map.

“As always, you’re brilliant,” I said, then quickly kissed her forehead. “Yes, that is the one glaring hole in this plan. I can knock out our grid last, and already be connected to my satellite backup, but we still run the risk of outage. If we are in the outage spot, I can’t find her.”

She pursed her lips. “That’s why you kept our box the smallest.”

“That’s right. Fingers crossed that we can find her in another grid first.”

I’d been tracking Lucia’s fake name and travel papers since narrowing down that she was Max’s hacker. She had arrived in New York City a week ago, and I hadn’t seen any other movement via planes, trains, rental cars, or ferries. It was possible she had changed names, or that she had caught a ride somewhere outside the city, but that felt unlikely. If she came here, it was a fair assumption that she’d stay close to Max.

An assumption we’d just have to hope was correct.

“Ryuji, Wynn, Caspian, and I need to be casing the city,” Obi said.

“Ah, yes,” I said as I pulled out a marker and took off the cap. I drew four dots strategically around the map. “Once we get a ping on her location, we need to collapse on it so she doesn’t relocate. I’m guessing she’s skittish, and she’ll bolt if she catches a whisper of us on her trail. She may even recognize that I’vepinged her satellite. So, if the four of you start at one of these dots, you’ll be placed in the most optimal positions to respond when I get a ping. The rest of us can haul ass to get there and cut off her escape.”

“Well done, Ciel,” Obi said with a nod. “This is excellent work.”

I swallowed, glancing at Leona, who was beaming at me. Obi had never openly praised my work, at least not like that. “It was Leona’s idea,” I mumbled.

Obi shook his head. “The credit belongs to you for bringing this plan to life.”

“You’re a fucking genius, babe,” Leona said as she raised to her toes and kissed me. “Accept it.”

I grinned, my chest ballooning with pride.

Finally, we were going to take out this thorn in my side. Lucia had been haunting me, like a ghost whispering taunts in my ear, since the night of the club explosion and I’d lost Max’s trail. Now, I’d get the upper hand back. It was about fucking time.

I caughtthe satellite upload by the sixth grid.

This grid was in Vero territory, right on the border of Tommaso territory. The alert flashed across my computer screen. The sight sent my heart racing.

There you are.

Leona sucked in a breath beside me. “Lucia? Is that her?”

My fingers raced across my keyboard. Within thirty seconds of the internet going out in this grid, an outgoing signal locked onto a satellite and restored connection to this IP address. Itwas much too fast for someone who didn’t know what they were doing.

I followed the signal, flipping through my programs to pinpoint the location.

“There,” I said when my computer locked on an apartment building in one of the affluent neighborhoods. I relayed the coordinates to our comms. “Obi, you’re the closest.”

“Copy,” he responded. Each of the guys had taken one of our vehicles and was stationed at the four points I’d marked down earlier. “Meet at this location.”

“You got it,” Cas responded. He was the next closest. We thought it best to not place him in Vero territory, just in case, but he could reach Obi’s location in about ten minutes. The rest of us would follow shortly after, so long as we didn’t get caught up in any traffic.

I nodded to Leona as she helped me disconnect the tablets I’d linked to my system. We could keep our lock on Lucia’s trail while still going mobile. I had her IP address, but I also wanted to hack into any surrounding security cameras to track her in case she tried to flee. At the same time, I was actively trying to break into her systems and shut her down.

The last thing we wanted was her calling in backup.

“I’m sending more pictures of her to you,” I said through my earpiece to all the guys. “Remember, she cannot be harmed. We just have to get her away from her systems and keep her under control for the time being.”

“Do not make enemies of the Camorra,” Obi added. “Caution and control.”