Two burly men stood guard next to the door in the room that had become Jet’s new prison. They had provided her with a new laptop and high-speed internet connection. Her instructions were simple: infiltrate the Collective or Black Iris’s network and infect it with the dropper malware program Jeremiah had provided.

Jet suspected that Nigel would make use of the computer lab at Milford High School. Her plan was to infect one system that Nigel used with a worm; the worm’s job was to infect as many computers that came in contact with the infected host as possible. The Collective’s computer network would be infected in a matter of minutes, assuming that Nigel triggered it.

If Nige is careful, he can avoid the trap. If he does, I have prepared a special gift for him. If the malware gets triggered, it destroys the gift. Choose well, Nige, Jet thought.

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“Is it done?” said one of the burly men.

“Yes, it’s done,” Jet replied.

Just as she uttered the words, the other man put a sack over her head.

“What are you doing?” Jet demanded.

“Don’t worry about it,” the man said as he restrained Jet.

Seconds later, sirens blared.

“Hold her while I check,” said the first guard.

As soon as the door to Jet’s room opened, she heard the man scream. The other man abandoned her. She tried shaking off the sack. It didn’t come off. Then moved around the room, trying to find something she could use to cut the straps. Her left arm was hurting again, and she stumbled until she thought she was at the door. Her body slammed the door, it opened. She fell on the cold, hard floor.