Bromwick Hotel, 11:46 p.m.

Freeman’s red phone chirped. It was Dahlia again.

She’s been calling me every hour.

“We need you in the war room.”

Before Freeman could respond, the phone disconnected. Moments later, Freeman entered the conference room where he’d first met the Cabal. He scanned the room for the red-haired girl, but she wasn’t present. He only saw the deranged adults who called themselves the Cabal. To Freeman, it was like an old person’s clubhouse. Dahlia, the woman who hired him, was present with two young apprentices. The middle-aged man known as Mr. Chen, his massive Polynesian-looking bodyguard, was an imposing force. Freeman didn’t want to go up against someone so formidable. The man who looked like a sheik, an old man known as Tage and several other mean-looking men all stared at him like a piece of meat on display.

“Good, you’re here. I need you to give a status on the deployment of the malware,” Dahlia said.

“It’s ready to go,” Freeman replied. “All we need to do is press the ‘go’ button.” He plugged in a wireless communication device that synchronized the enormous conference room monitor and his dashboard, which showed a world map, appeared.

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“What are the orange dots on the map?” Mr. Chen asked.

“These are the malware distribution hubs. They will send commands to the dormant machines,” Freeman explained.

“How many of those do we have?” Mr. Tage asked.

Freeman pressed another key on his laptop and the screen filled with red dots. There were so many that the entire map was red.

“Wow, it will affect everything!” Gratzano said.

“All industries will be affected in some way. Businesses won’t be able to function without their computers. Many will consider this the start of a cyber war,” Freeman said.

“Can you explain to the group what will happen once the malware detonates on the machine?” Dahlia asked.

“When an infected machine receives my encoded message and decodes it, first it will check for updates. Then, unless the update contains other instructions, the computer will remove all data and system files. The system will be useless after that,” Freeman said.

“Then we need all agents in place before this detonates,” Mr. Chen said.

“Vedrana and Eva are in position and awaiting further instruction,” Dahlia said.

“Good. What about the cyborgs?” Mr. Chen asked.

“They are awaiting instructions. We have them outside the Ohio Valley,” Dr. Ash said.

“Are you sure the Ohio Valley Nuclear Reactor will be offline?” Solomon asked.

“Yes. Vedrana was able to coerce an employee into inserting an infected flash drive. Now we own all systems within the Ohio Valley Nuclear Reactor,” Dahlia said.

Mr. Chen rubbed his hands together. “Excellent!”

“When do we launch?” Freeman asked to no one in particular.

“Soon. We will monitor local and international news from this room,” Mr. Chen said.