Page 79 of The Honeymoon Hack

“Where’s Claire working?”

“Cluster thirty-four.”

The server rooms were laid out in a ten-by-ten grid pattern, housing one hundred clusters, numbered by column and row. Each cluster consisted of twenty two-foot-wide vertical racks of servers, with cluster thirty-four in column three, row four.

That’s where we’d find Claire.

Brie? Likely somewhere between there and cluster fifty-seven—two columns south of Claire and three rows east. Far enough Claire wouldn’t know she was still in the server room, and hopefully far enough Ronnie and I wouldn’t trip over her on our way to Claire.

As we passed cluster sixty-five, my stomach twisted. Good. That would help with the lie.

“Bloody hell,” I doubled over slightly, one hand pressed to my abdomen. “I think that burrito is coming back to haunt me.”

“The spicy one?” Ronnie barely looked over.

“Yeah.”

“Delicious, but I can’t handle them either.” He waved me westward. “Bathrooms are that way.”

“Be right back.” I hurried toward the bathroom signs, pulling out my phone. Cameras tracked everything, but with my excuse and my direction, security would ignore me.

I texted Brie:Ronnie’s got me checking power, but we’re doing a quick touch base with Claire. Maybe I’ll see you when you get back.

Hopefully, the message was clear enough: Ronnie was heading toward Claire, but I was coming to help my partner.

I ducked into the restroom to finish part one of my deception, waited a beat, then slipped back out. I stayed along the wall, every step deliberate and unhurried despite the urgency clawing at my insides. Security wasn’t my only worry, since other techs also busied themselves throughout the section, and running would draw exactly the kind of attention we couldn’t afford.

The maintenance bay near cluster fifty-one was my target. It controlled the wiring for the clusters from fifty-one up to sixty. I opened it, my fingers surprisingly steady as I studied the familiar layout.

This was a betrayal. Ronnie had taught me these systems, shared his knowledge freely, and treated me as a colleague despite my newbie status. Now I was using him.

But Brie’s safety—and our mission—mattered more than my discomfort.

I punched in Ronnie’s six-digit maintenance override code on the small panel inside the door. The screen flickered to life:Maintenance mode activated. Remaining time: 20:00

Twenty minutes. Not long enough and far too long at the same time.

I studied the coaxial connections, tracing their paths before disconnecting the three cables that would eliminate camera coverage around cluster fifty-seven. To the monitoring station, it would register as a routine signal loss during maintenance—just another scheduled procedure in a facility that ran on schedules and procedures.

I closed the panel and texted her:Did you pack my camera?

She’d understand it. She’d know this was her opportunity.

I headed south, farther away from Brie, but also farther away from Ronnie and Claire. When I reached the sixties, I headed eastward, trying not to run.

Near cluster fifty-two, I encountered two hardware techs deep in conversation.

“Hey, Will,” one called out. “Saw your wife about ten minutes ago. She looked a little lost.”

Ten minutes ago? Before or after she texted? Either way, plenty of time to reach the server.

Please be waiting for me.

“She’s working with Claire today.” I barely slowed, attempting a natural smile despite the chaos inside my brain. “Learning the server room layout.”

Both men grimaced. The second tech said, lowering his voice slightly. “That’s probably worse than working with Ronnie.”

“He’s not that bad.” Under different circumstances, I might have laughed. “But speaking of which, I’d better get back to him before he starts looking for me.”