It was nearly impossible to take his focus off his sister, but Ash needed clues to her location.
It definitely wasn’t her hospital room. Instead of gleaming white walls, grim beige ones surrounded the bed. The equipment was older, but he recognized the machines as the same types Hope had had at the Tremaine hospital. That was good. He hoped she was getting the care she needed.
The screen cut to black. “There, you’ve seen her,” Caspar said gleefully.
“Bring it back.” Pain surged through Ash.
“You wanted proof of life. I gave it to you.”
Ash clenched his jaw. When he got his hands on Caspar... “You proved you have her, but that video could have been taken at any time. Show me the monitor with the current date and time to prove she’s still alive.”
The screen flickered back on, zoomed to an extreme closeup of the monitor. Ash confirmed that it was now and watched the lines and listened to the rhythm of the beeps. After five years of visits, he knew most of them by heart. He closed his eyes and focused.
Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Nothing unusual.
“Thank you.” He had to play the game, even if he didn’t know all the rules.
When he opened his eyes, the screen was black once again. Although it nearly killed him, Ash knew that he wouldn’t get anything more from Caspar until he did what the other hacker wanted.
“What do you want?”
“I told you. I want into the Tremaine system.”
“How do you expect me to get you that?” He gripped Taryn’s hand hard.
He hated the thought of betraying Portia, but he had to save his sister. If only there was a way to do both.
Caspar tsked again. “You’re a hacker, Fenix. Hack.”
“No shit, Caspar. I can get in just fine. How do I let you in? Where will you be waiting? How do I contact you? Are we supposed to do this side by side like partners?” Sarcasm coated Ash’s voice. He was trying to get a rise out of Caspar. Maybe the other man would make a mistake.
After a short silence, Caspar spoke again. “Valid points. I’m sending you a piece of code. Use this to let me know you’re in. At that precise moment, no sooner. Don’t try to snoop around and ping it. It’s alarmed quite heavily.”
Ash’s phone pinged and he stared at the file. He wouldn’t know for sure what it did until he opened it, but odds were good he could use the packet to track Caspar. His warning was almost enough to stop Ash from trying. Almost.
Ash had too much on the line to ignore such a valuable lead. There had to be a way around Caspar’s security. He just had to find it. Find his location, find his chair. Hopefully Hope would be in the same place.
“You have twenty-four hours to get me into the Tremaine system. After that, well, let’s just say it becomes a lot more expensive to care for a comatose person.”
Ash’s stomach dropped. “How long will you need inside?”
“However long it takes.”
God, how had he ever found this asshole worthy of emulating? Today, Caspar reminded Ash of a petulant child. “Give me a way to contact you inside the network.”
The corporate network wasn’t a physical space, but it did have dimensions and a structure. With the right directions, you could maneuver easily through the space. But finding another person, especially one trying to stay hidden, was more difficult.
Caspar sent Ash a tiny piece of code. To the average user, it didn’t look like much and it certainly wouldn’t tell a non-hacker anything. But Ash had worked with Caspar and was used to things like this.
Like the first code, he segregated it from his main comm system as soon as he received it. Ash wouldn’t put it past Caspar to send a virus.
“I’ll let you know when I’m in and ready to receive visitors. It will be a small window of opportunity, so be ready,” Ash said.
“I was born ready.” Caspar’s reply sounded like a cut-rate superhero.
“Who’s watching my sister while you’re under?”
“Lots of people,” he said. “Your twenty-four hours have already started.” With that threat, Caspar hung up.
