Nigel entered the crowded conference room with his group of unlikely companions. Gratzano seemed to be grilling Freeman about something, and the kid looked like he was headed for a nervous breakdown. Everyone—including the giant Ezekiel—gave Nigel and his companions a wide birth.

“There he is, the man of the hour,” Mr. Tage said.

“Do you have the material?” Dr. Ash said.

Nigel opened his bag and produced a medium-sized metal cylinder. Solomon grabbed it out of his hands.

“Is this what you need to get started?” Mr. Chen said.

“Yes,” Nigel replied. “I’ll start my work as soon as I get back to the lab.”

Freeman’s mouth was wide open, and he glared at Nigel. He looked both frightened and surprised at the same time.

“Show me how everything is constructed. I need to know everything if I’m going to help you,” Nigel said to Freeman.

“About a week ago, a series of phishing emails went out to the victims that would act as my zombies. The malware was successfully installed on those computers, and I confirmed I had control over them. Everything looked perfect until we launched the Kraken code,” Freeman explained.

Nigel grabbed Freeman’s computer as he was typing.

“It will be faster if I just look at what you’ve done here,” Nigel said.

Freeman attempted the take his computer back, but Dahlia grabbed Freeman’s hand.

“Let him work,” Dahlia said.

Nigel compared the code on Freeman’s computer against similar code he had written himself. About fifteen minutes later, Nigel looked up at one of the screens.

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“The traffic is getting rerouted away from our location and back to the intended eastbound hub. There was an error in the code you acquired from ProgHub. It created an internet black hole.”

“Our cell phones don’t work,” the Sultan said.

“What Freeman did overwrote some internet service providers’ routes to the internet, which caused all local traffic to be routed to an invalid location. This caused a denial-of-service attacks on all local networks,” Nigel explained.

“Have we been compromised?” Mr. Chen asked.

“It’s too early to tell, but my gut tells me someone has been tracking you. I need to dig into the logs a bit more to know for sure.”

“Good job, Nigel,” Dahlia said.

“You just hold up your end of the bargain,” he replied. “I want to see Jet tonight!”

“It will be done. Blanka and Vedrana will accompany you,” Dahlia said.

“We should have hired Nigel from the beginning—Freeman almost cost us everything. See, Chen? I told you Nigel is the best hacker I’ve seen,” Mr. Tage said.

Freeman flushed with anger.

“Is your girlfriend JetaGirl, by chance?” Freeman taunted.

Nigel just stared at Freeman.

“Your friend Dahlia put a contract on her. But I think the true culprit is Tony Gratzano,” Freeman said.

“Is this true?” Nigel said to Dahlia.

“You better watch yourself, kid,” Gratzano said. “If I want someone dead, they don’t stay alive for long. And besides,” he turned to the rest of the room, “why would I want Nigel’s girlfriend dead?”

“Maybe it’s because she killed your father? I think she was escaping captivity from him,” Freeman spat as he pointed to the Sultan.

“How do you know this?” Nigel asked.

“I’m not the only one who does his homework,” Freeman said.

Moments later, Gratzano grabbed Freeman by the throat then shoved a gun in his mouth, pulling back the hammer. “Choke on this, you insolent little roach.”

“Stop this!” Mr. Chen demanded.

The room went silent. Moments later, Gratzano withdrew his weapon then pistol-whipped Freeman, who screamed and cowered from Nico’s assault.

“The board has changed,” Vedrana said.

“They have restored cell phone service,” Kurtzen said.

The bot net traffic was normalizing, and the network beaconing traffic was no longer being routed through the black hole.

“Is that it?” Mr. Tage asked, trying to change the subject.

“No,” Nigel said, “there are plenty of other things we need to check before we can call it. But before I help, I want your word that Jet will be safe. She’s already been stabbed by that crazy cyborg.”