Phoenix Phire

Dex shrugged slightly. "I have no idea who that is. This pod was pulled out of a landfill by my friend, Saul."

Quicksilver's smile faded into a frown. "The pawnshop owner?"

"Yeah. Six of them were dumped in a landfill a while back; he cannibalized five of them to make this one operable." Dex's mood darkened considerably; these people were playing for keeps. "I need to know everything you know."

The blond stared at him for a long moment before slowly nodding. "Like it or not, you are already in the shit."

"Does that mean they'll come after me?"

"I don't think it has come to that yet." She brought out a wrist hud and used the wireless interface to access the hard drive. "Any idea what happened to the other pods?"

"No. Saul said that he used them for parts." Dex considered his friend's habits. "If he had pieces left over, I know where he might stash them."

"Hmm… Nothing new here. Quiz time, Dex. What did you learn from this hard drive when you hacked it?"

"I isolated the outside commands that coincided with your initial arrest and the accident at Gladis Corp. I assumed that you had a partner that did the second job, but I see now that is unlikely."

"Smart… You recognized my Exe?" Quicksilver smiled at him. "What did you think?"

"Sleek bit of work, but I have better."

The blond raised an eyebrow at him. All hackers think their shit is the hottest. "I'll give you a chance to prove it!"

Dex ignored the challenge; hacking anything that offered real-time counters would be disastrous with his current gear. "Can you fill me in?"

Quicksilver leaned back in the chair, her blue eyes scanning the hud. "Sixteen pods from the accident were never recovered. These were the ones on the lowest level of the Gladis facility. Recently, a number of those started surfacing."

Dex raised a hand to interrupt her. "The lot where the facility was located was recently sold. It may have been cleaned up as part of the new construction requirements."

The blond touched the tip of her nose with a slender finger. "Exactly. The clean-up crew found a large number of pods, despite Gladis Corps' claim that they had removed them all. My job is to find all of them."

"What for?" It didn't add up; countless experts would have examined most of the pods that had been recovered. Dex took a seat next to Quicksilver, his eyes looking at the same thing she was. "I didn't see that command on my interface."

Quicksilver shook her head slightly. "Because you were hacking it with a toaster!"

Dex cleared his throat. "Clothes dryer, actually. The toaster is just the housing."

"Let me see it, and I'll spill everything."

Dex left the hacker by herself and went downstairs to retrieve his contraband. He wasn't worried about her being alone in his loft. There was nothing there that a hacker would be interested in. He did take a quick peek at the stairs to make sure she wasn't looking before he rolled his motorcycle off of the loose floorboard.

Quicksilver had shut down her hud by the time he returned a minute later. "This one is the same as the others. The smoking gun isn't here."

Dex sat his array on the kitchen counter, smiling when she grabbed it. "What smoking gun?"

"When I went into their system the second time, they activated the explosives that destroyed the facility. Seventeen people died as a result of this missing command." Quicksilver shook her head in amazement as she started analyzing his array. "Might have to change your name to Sexy Dexy. I want to see this array in action."

Dex covered his embarrassment with a cough, turning slightly so she wouldn't notice. "If that executive command could be proven, then those subsidiary companies would fry."

Quicksilver nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but I've scanned nearly all of the hard drives that are accounted for; the order wasn't recorded."

Dex pushed back his chair and walked toward the pod. "Doesn't make sense. Creating an executive order that disappears isn't difficult. Gladis Corp would have been smart enough to do that. You may be wasting your time."

She placed the array on the counter and moved back to the pod. "I think so too, however the people I work for remain unconvinced."

Dex reinstalled the hard drive with the help of Quicksilver and started refastening the panels. "Say the proof doesn't exist. Why would Gladis Corp be acting so aggressively?"

"That's the million-dollar question." Quicksilver picked up one side of the 'S' recliner and waited for him to grab the other.

"I already know why." Dex smiled at the surprised look on her face. Together they lowered the chair and started attaching it.

Quicksilver smiled sexily. "If you figured that out, we might have to team up."

There was nothing he could do about his face turning beet red. "Their aggressiveness has nothing to do with the missing commands. Those would have surfaced way before now if they existed. It's something else, something they are willing to kill for."

"How old are you, Dextron?"

"You already know, I'm eighteen."

Quicksilver shook her head. "I mean your real age; a rider like you probably has three or four years of deep-stay hacking already."

Dex shook his head, wishing his face would go back to normal. "My biological age is identical to my chronological age. I was fifteen when I was quarantined from the virtual world."

The blond whistled softly and ruffled the younger hacker's hair. "My bio age is around twenty, but chronologically I would be thirty-two." Quicksilver smiled slightly, "Most of my adult life has been deep-stay hacking. I only leave stasis on rare occasions to spend time with family members."

"That explains the college co-ed looks." Dex felt himself relax suddenly. "So, Grandma Quicksilver is in her thirties… Good to know."

Quicksilver faked a glare. "Sexy Dexy wants to die?"

"Preferably no." Dex grabbed his virtual interface from the counter and stood by the pod. "I have to be inside when I start up the array."

Quicksilver nodded and climbed in first. "Let's see the kid in action."

The closed pod was somewhat snug for two people, but not uncomfortably so. Dex hooked up the hardline that connected his ankle bracelet to the array and then activated the virtual interface.

"Shit… You're fucking Da Vinci." Quicksilver leaned closer and swiped at the virtual keypad. "If I'm ever stuck on a deserted island, I'm bringing you with me."

Dex smiled at her words. Flirting with her was beyond his abilities at this point in his life. He had no clue what the Da Vinci reference meant. Did she want him to paint something? "What now?"

Quicksilver stretched slightly and covered a yawn. "Can you show me how to stealth up my ride?"

Dex nodded. "It's fairly straightforward. We'll head to the Aircraft Museum later, and I'll help you get the materials. After that, I'll talk you through everything I did."

She shook her head slightly. "I'll bring it here; my pod is in my RV."

"Really?" Dex hadn't considered going that route; the power requirements for a pod were beyond what an RV could supply. Instead, she would have to hook up to an external power source. "I do have a question for you."

"Shoot, Dextron!" Quicksilver leaned closer, deliberately getting into his space.

"How did you warn me when I was in deep-stay? You shouldn't have been able to send a signal to me unless you were hardwired in."

"Warn you?" The blond stared at him for a moment. "I didn't warn you."

Dex felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "I was fast-forwarding through the sleep cycle when Enigma buzzed me awake. He told me to log off and that they were coming for me."

Quicksilver leaned closer. "Enigma? Did Nix give you Enigma?"

Since Dex had no room to retreat, he put up with her pleasant smell and soft skin as she pushed against him. "How do you know about Nix and Enigma?"

Quicksilver pursed her lips slightly. "I play Colonial a bit. Nix and Enigma are part of Colonial lore. But you are playing Flight of Dragons, right?"

Dex nodded. "The single-player version, you already looked at my pod. Unfortunately, it isn't capable of interfacing with an outside network."

"Shut it down, Dex. Turn everything off, right now!"

Dex complied with her request since her tone was no longer playful. When he pushed open the lid a moment later, she leaped out before he could move. "What's going on?"

Somehow Quicksilver had already arrived at the broken window. She quickly scanned the driveway and road. "Going to offer you two choices Dex, you may not like either one."

Dex finished closing up the pod and started stowing his array. "What choices?"

"Either I take the pod, and you stay here. Or I take the pod, and you come with me." Quicksilver was using the virtual interface on her wrist hud while she spoke.

Dex frowned at the choices; she was taking the pod no matter what. "You already know the pod is clean."

Quicksilver shook her head. "No more discussion. Coming or staying?"

Dex glanced at the pod and then back at Quicksilver. The choice was fairly easy. "I'll be going with you."

Quicksilver smiled sincerely. "Welcome aboard, Dextron."

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