Page 105 of The Honeymoon Hack

“It takes as long as it takes.” My voice shook as I flailed my hand at the KVM. “I’ve got three different ways I’m searching for your information.”

“I thought you already broke into this server?” The muzzle inched closer to my chest.

My fingers returned to the keyboard, and I forced myself to look at the monitor in front of me. “I did, but I didn’t have enough time to find it. I need to continue searching for the information and upload it once I find it. This isn’t a movie. It takes time.”

His nostrils flared, but he lowered the gun and walked backward to rack fifteen. Thirty feet away.

Maybe I could run. But he’d chase me. And I couldn’t outrun a bullet.

So instead, I switched terminals.

I took a deep breath.You can do this. Rack fifteen, server nine.Come on, come on!

The Meridian server opened, showing me the Linux prompt. I navigated directly to the folder I’d found before—the one withreferences to Dad’s case. My brain had been churning over this for hours. I knew the files I needed. I knew where to send them.

First, the email confirming the fifty-thousand-dollar deposit to Joseph Reynolds’ account. Second, the shell company records. Names and financial trails that could prove he’d been framed. Then, everything.

I initiated the upload to my secure cloud server. The progress bar crept forward: ten percent, fifteen percent.

As the evidence made its way out, another idea sprang up. My scorched-earth script—the one I’d written on the jet. Thirty seconds to download from my server, another thirty to execute. It would infect every system connected to this server—every computer, every phone, everything that tried to connect to it.

It would crawl through Fenix’s systems for three days and delete it all.

I could destroy Fenix’s digital operation.

Get as much as you can first.

Adding more folders to the upload, I called out, “Still blue?”

Twenty-five percent uploaded.

Thirty percent.

“Still blue.” But his voice was too close. He was coming back.

Shit. Fucking tunnel vision.I switched frantically back to the Orchid server, but the authentication process took precious seconds. The login screen was still loading when Lark appeared beside me.

“What are you doing?” His voice was deadly quiet.

The bile rose up my throat again. “The connection dropped. I’m logging?—”

His hand cracked across my face like a whip. The force sent me sprawling, my head slamming against the metal floor. Stars exploded across my vision—white-hot pinpricks dancing with the strobing red emergency lights and the constant blue haze from the data center.

Pain radiated through my skull.

Seven dead men. Seven.

The taste of metal flooded my mouth. Everything spun.

He’s killed seven people today, Brie. Why would he even need you anymore? You already got him into the server.

“You were logged out,” he snarled, grabbing my hair in his fist. He yanked me upright, and fresh agony streaked through my scalp. My cheek throbbed with each pulse of my heart. “Why were you logged out?”

The gun barrel pressed against my chest. The red lights kept flashing, casting his face in hellish shadows.

He’s going to kill me. Right here. Right now.

“The system automatically logs out after inactivity periods,” I lied, my voice shaking. “It’s a security feature. I was running automatic searches. Let me get back in and find out?—”