The Gambit (71 page)

Silence.

“I’ll send her right up,” the receptionist said.

“Thank you
so
much,” Natasha said, and I began to hear her heels again. “Oh! I almost forgot, I need a
huge
favor if you don’t mind.”

“Here we go,” Grey said. “It’s show time.”

“Pardon me?” the receptionist sounded caught off guard.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t want to be a bother to you, but I wanted to see if I could print off my letters of recommendation anywhere in here?”

“Uh, not really,” she answered. “There’s a FedEx Kinkos down the street. That might be your best bet.”

I smiled because I knew what was to come.

“Ah, I’ll even pay you for the paper,” Natasha pleaded. “I’ve just worked really, really hard to land this interview and my printer broke at home. I don’t want to waste four years of school on one little mistake.”

“Well…I mean.”

“All I have is this flash drive, and the two letters of recommendation are the only things on there. You have a printer here. You would be the
biggest
lifesaver if you could. Literally, all you have to do is just stick this in your tower and print it. It’ll only take twenty seconds.”

“I was your age once,” the receptionist cackled. “Sure, just hand me the drive and I’ll print it for you.”

“Ah! Thank you so much. What’s your name?”

“Evelyn.”

“Evelyn, you are a miracle worker! Whose boss do I have to sweet talk to get you a raise?”

They both began laughing together.

“You’re such a good liar,” Viktor complimented.

“She didn’t lie,” Grey said. “It will only take twenty seconds.”

A moment later I heard the printer spit something out.

“Here are your letters.”

“Thank you again, wish me luck!”

“Ms. Ericsson!” the woman called out. “You forgot your flash drive.”

“Oh my God, I almost forgot. Thank you again, Evelyn.”

“Take care and good luck,” the receptionist wished her well. The clacking of her heels began again, and I could hear Natasha’s breathing. She was worked up. The footfalls stopped, and I heard the ding of the elevator.

“Grey, did it work?” she asked, breathing heavily.

“I’m in,” I answered.

“Thank God,” she sighed in relief.

“Natasha,” Lucas began, “Megan’s office is the first one on the left. Go there. Rachel, you’re on deck, followed by Viktor.”

“Roger that,” Rachel said.

I began navigating the system as fast as I possibly could. We only had one real shot at this, and it would be a shame if I let it slip out of our hands because the meeting released for lunch too soon, or something of that nature. Originally, we were going to just hack into the system from Megan’s computer in her office. She informed us that the receptionists’ computers had access to the security feed, but hers didn’t. That was beneficial to us because the closer we could get to the area we needed to be in, the better. I needed to do two things, one of which I would do after Rachel was in the building. I didn’t want to alarm anyone too soon because that could be disastrous. The second, and most difficult, was to disarm the metal detector. Either that or I could get it to glitch right as she walked through. She was trying to bring a weapon into a federal building, and it was up to me to make it happen.

This was much more difficult than what I did at the airport. Being in the mainframe was like being a kid on a playground with an unlimited amount of toys to choose from. Now, I was taking shots in the dark. I found an encrypted ping in the event log from just three minutes ago. Someone walked in on camera, and it sent another. It was the metal detector. The ping Natasha’s walkthrough sent was quite different from the one I was looking at. I switched tabs to the cameras and saw that the person who had walked through had to do it again. He must have walked through with something metal on him.

Damn it
. In reality, I couldn’t do much with these pings. Sure, they were received by the event log, but the event log didn’t ping anything back to the metal detector. It was entirely one way. I began scrolling far into the history of the event log.

“Grey, how’s it looking?” Natasha asked.

“Could be better, but I’ll find a way.”

“You will,” she encouraged.

Suddenly, I found something new. It wasn’t a ping at all. It was just a system status, or a setting. It was a code. It pinged the code once late at night and then early in the morning when it was reset back to normal. Then, the frequent pings of people walking through restarted.

It must have been some form of sleep mode when the public was no longer allowed in the building. That made perfect sense. I had to use that coded system setting late at night and send it to the metal detector
now
, so Rachel could get through undetected.

“Give me five minutes, and I’ve got this,” I announced.

No one said a word. I used a program on my computer to decrypt the code. I had to make sure that what was extracted was the raw command that would turn the detector to sleep mode. I began typing faster and faster. I wiped some sweat off my brow.

Almost there
…

I knew it was going to work, and excitement began to bubble up within me. It was the closest I felt to normal since Owen died. I still couldn’t believe he was gone. It made me want to cry just thinking about it. All the memories growing up in Midlothian together would be just that—memories. Wherever he was, I just hoped he knew how much I admired him. As corny as it sounded, he was my hero. My best friend did so much good in this country, and I still felt honored to this day to have assisted him in his escape from the feds.

I never fully grasped the possibility that he might wind up dead. Guilt soaked into my mind all day long. I felt so horrible for having been the one to suggest to him the idea of going to Atlanta. It was me who planted that seed in his mind, and I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to forgive myself. The polls went up by twelve percent. The Convergence Party was now tied with the democrats, and I smiled at the thought. I knew Owen would be smiling, too. That was the only reason he went along with my plan—to revive his dying party—and it
worked
. Even if it was just a little bit, it worked.

Since he died, I wondered sometimes if he could hear my thoughts. Well, my brother, if you could hear this right now, just know I did everything you told me to do that night.
Everything
. No matter what happens, I would keep my promise I made to you that night on the terrace. Brothers kept the bonds they made—in life, and in death.

The command code was decrypted. I found the way to input settings on the metal detector, and I typed in the code I just found. The moment I entered it in, it pinged the identical encrypted code that the detector would ping when it was set in its sleep mode.

“Rachel,” I said. “It’s time to go.”

I stood up without hesitation.

“Are you sure it will work?”

“Positive,” Grey’s voice eased the knot in my gut.

I swallowed hard, and it felt like there was a rock in my throat. The air outside was cold, but my body felt like it was on fire. I walked towards the revolving door, as confidently and nonchalant as I possibly could. The beige-stone building towered over me, with its gigantic pillars running down the length of its crescent shape. I guess the government needed such a formidable-looking structure to hide its deepest darkest secrets.

That all ended today.

I arranged some curls in front of my face before I walked into the door. I didn’t want to be recognized before I had the chance to do what I needed to do. I took a deep breath and stepped in the revolving door. Immediately, the autumn cold was replaced with the warmth of inside. The same officer who greeted Natasha was there to greet me. He stood up from his seat behind a chrome counter and outstretched the bin to me.

“Put your belongings in here, ma’am.”

He sounded docile enough.
Breathe
. There was nothing to worry about. What belongings did I even have? I placed my pre-paid phone and my EPA ID inside. I had nothing else. How embarrassing and unusual for a female in 2016. I turned to face the metal detector, and I prayed inside that Grey was right. I held my breath and walked through.

Nothing. No beep.

“Yes!” Grey shouted in my earpiece.

Next step. I walked across the marble floors, with my heels clacking just as Natasha’s had. I saw the receptionist who I presumed to be Evelyn, and I began to walk past her.

“Excuse me,” she called out. “Do you have an appointment?”

I smiled. “No, I work here.”

She gave me a confused look.

“ID please,” she stuck out her hand behind the counter.

I handed it to her, and she examined it through reading glasses that sat on the edge of her nose. I grew nervous when she didn’t hand it back. She stuck it under a machine. I watched as a purple light shined down on the ID, and she looked at it again.

“All right, here you go,” she turned around and handed it to me. She shot me a weird glance.

“Thank you,” I said, turning around to head towards the elevator. The clacking of my heels was so noticeable it irritated me. Just another thing to draw attention to myself. When I made it to the elevator, it felt like an eternity for it to open. Once I was inside, I hit the button for the second floor and let out a huge breath. I was exasperated. Now, I understood why Natasha was breathing so heavy when she reached it. My nerves were on edge the entire time.