She got up and Annika sat down. Her hands worked furiously over the keys as more data sped by in a dizzying blur.
“Whoa. What’s going on?” she heard Matteo ask.
There wasn’t time to even look over her shoulder at him. Or explain. Someone else could do that.
It was Stella who answered. “We’re hacking into Marlot’s HR system. We need to get the biometrics for his eye.”
“What?” Matteo asked.
Annika couldn’t help but chuckle. She knew Daddy didn’t live in a techy world—and she loved that about him.
Daddy was old-school.
Still typing, she managed to tell him, “We need to get the files associated with his eye so we can fake out the retinal scanners.”
“Oh,” Matteo said.
She sighed as his reassuring hands came on her shoulders and gently massaged them. “You can do it, honey. I know it.”
Annika reached up briefly to pat one of his hands, but she quickly got back to pounding the keyboard.
“But you all can’t just hack to get the info we need to take him down?” Matteo asked.
“Nope,” Stella said. “Because he keeps that server offline.”
“Yeah. I remember. Just wishful thinking that maybe you’d found something since then.”
Annika shook her head. “Marlot’s too smart for that.”
That was all she could say. She was getting so close to breaking the encryption! The security software was good. Probably the best in the world.
But she was one of the best hackers in the world. Stella was no slouch, either. Together, they just about had it defeated.
“And… got it!” She rolled back triumphantly, stood up so fast the chair started spinning, and did a little dance.
Everyone clapped. She and Stella hugged.
“Pull it up,” Stryker said. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
A moment later, an image of an eye appeared on the screen. Next to it was a drawing of that same eye in what looked to be a blueprint.
“Can you work with that?” Stryker asked Lana.
Lana grinned and nodded.
“Oh yeah. I can work with that.”
Five hours later, the Littles—minus Lana—were sitting around the den just talking.
Annika’s nerves were still a bit frayed, but it helped having her friends there.
Lana was over in the corner, working at a table that had been erected to hold a laptop, the 3-D printer, paints, and other materials.
The printer hummed with life every now and then.
“Is everyone feeling okay about tomorrow?” Annika asked the group. “There are no hard feelings if you want to back out. This is a lot to ask of you all.”
“You kidding?” Eli said. “I’m with you all the way. Besides, if we pull this off, it might just be the greatest prank I’ve ever taken part in.”
