Page 22 of Shadow Boxed (Shadow Warriors #2)
Chapter eighteen
“It’s definitely a virus of some sort,” the IT guy said through Clark’s laptop screen. As though that information, which Clark already knew, was worth the big bucks Clark was paying him. “It’s shutting down your systems one by one.”
Clark clenched his jaw. “How about you tell me something I don’t know?”
The ongoing systems shutdowns was why he’d called the jackass in the first place. The Nantz Building had already lost its wi-fi, elevators, and security panels. They couldn’t afford to lose anything else.
A grinding pain shot through his jaw. Damn, he was grinding his teeth again. Much more of this and his pearly whites would be nothing more than gritty nubs.
The IT guy was sitting in front of the main interface computer in the computer hub.
The hub was located on the second floor.
A good thing too, since the overweight and under-exercised computer nerd only had to huff and puff his way up a single flight of stairs.
Not that Clark had witnessed the huffing and puffing since he was currently stuck on the fifteenth floor.
Damn elevators.
He could walk down the stairs, of course, if he could access the security panel in front of the fifteenth-floor door.
Too bad the panel was inoperable. He’d been stuck here for three days, while various IT companies tried to get the infected systems back up.
None of the companies he’d hired had proved successful. Instead, more operations kept failing.
Luckily, the penthouse floor came with a suite of rooms behind his office. He had a kitchen, with a refrigerator full of food, along with a bedroom and full bathroom. All the comforts of home.
He might not be able to go anywhere, but at least his prison was a gilded one.
“Have to say,” the IT guy said around the pencil clamped between his yellow teeth, “I’ve never seen anything quite like this” He hammered away at the keyboard for what felt like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds, then leaned against the chair’s backrest and tossed down the pencil.
“This virus is quite...unusual. I’ve never seen code like this. ”
A comment that did not inspire confidence. Clark unlocked his jaw long enough to ask, “Can you clean it?”
The guy picked the pencil back up and twirled it between his fingers. “Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on whether I can crack its code. Any idea how you picked it up?”
“No idea.” Clark lied.
He knew exactly how he’d picked the virus up.
Hell, he’d installed it himself. Not that he could admit that.
It had been a serious error in judgement to hire TermX to create the virus.
And now he was looking at millions of dollars in damage for a virus that hadn’t affected the NNB26 prototype at all.
He’d tried to claw back the first half of the payment he’d sent TermX, but the money was long gone. Even worse, the second half of the payment, along with all the money sitting in that account, had vanished. The bastard had stolen over fifty million from him.
He found it enraging that he couldn’t do anything about the theft. But he couldn’t go to the authorities. Reporting the con would raise questions. Too many questions. Questions he couldn’t afford to answer.
“When will you know if you can neutralize the virus?” Clark asked.
“A day or two.” The IT guy mumbled, as he tapped at the keyboard, that disgusting pencil clamped between his teeth again.
“Keep me apprised.” Clark exited the video call and pushed back his chair.
He considered worst-case scenarios as he wandered over to the penthouse window and stared down at Washington DC. The view wasn’t as impressive during the day with all the sparkling lights and reflections muted. Even the White House and Pentagon looked tired and shabby.
Nantz Industries’s data was automatically backed up multiple times a day on an offsite server. The firewall around the server was virus resistant. If he had to ditch the building’s computer system, he wouldn’t lose anything irreplaceable. But damn, talk about a time and money suck.
Brrrrrrr Brrrrrr
He tensed at the ringing, but remained still, staring out the window, doing his best to ignore the summons.
Brrrrrrr Brrrrrr Brrrrrrr Brrrrrr
Each ring went through him like fingernails down a chalk board.
Brrrrrrr Brrrrrr Brrrrrrr Brrrrrr Brrrrrrr Brrrrrr Brrrrrrr Brrrrrr
He scowled when the caller didn’t give up and finally stalked over to answer it.
The landline was directly wired to the labs in the basement.
It was meant as a precaution, a connection to the basement labs if the wi-fi went down and cell phones couldn’t get a signal.
The old-style phone had been getting far too much use over the past three days.
So much use, he was tempted to rip the damn thing out of the wall.
He snatched the receiver up. “What?”
He didn’t bother masking his annoyance. This made what? The second time the woman had called today? “Look, I know your situation is...uncomfortable. I’m doing everything I can to rectify the situation.”
“You don’t understand—” Doctor Comfrey’s panicked voice bleated.
“No, apparently you’re the one who doesn’t understand,” Clark interrupted, his voice rising in frustration. “No matter how many times you call to complain, I can’t let you out. Not until the security panels start working again.”
Comfrey was the head of his biological specimen department, which included the bodies his cleaning crew had brought back from Karaveht. He’d rarely heard from the woman, until the computer system had failed and the failsafe had locked her, and her two assistants, inside the specimen lab.
“You have to break us out.” The woman all but screamed. “They’re waking up.”
Clark rocked back on his heels, what was she talking about now? “Who is waking up?”
Was she talking about her assistants? Those were the only people locked in the lab with her.
“Them!” she screeched. “The specimens!”
“Calm down. What are you talking about?” Clark shouted over her shrieking.
The woman was downright hysterical. He’d expected better of her. This panicked frenzy was not the way a professional reacted during an emergency.
A deep, gulping breath came over the line, followed by a strangled voice. “The specimens you recovered from Karaveht. They’ve reanimated.”
He must have misunderstood. “Repeat that, please.”
Her voice climbed again. “The specimens, the ones you removed from your test site, they’re climbing out of their mortuary drawers.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s impossible.”
“Yes. It’s impossible.” Her voice suddenly chilled and slowed. Possibly she resented his implication that she was crazy. “Yet, it’s happening. We heard...sounds...from one of the drawers. We thought a rat or something had gotten inside, so we opened the drawer. The specimen inside sat up.”
“An unusual biological reaction to decomposition then.” Although, it had been weeks since the specimens died. Wouldn’t the decomposition effects be over by now? No...no...she must be misreading the situation. “Trust me. The dead do not rise.”
“Tell that to the first specimen, which is currently moving from drawer to drawer, letting the rest of them out.”