“What’re youdoing?”
Jo was at the computer again. “Asking forhelp.”
“You don’t think they’ll try to preserveevidence?”
“Lone Star Rangers aren’t known for asking questions first and shooting later.” Jo didn’t have time to shoot him a dumb look, but she still felt it cross herface.
Someone,anyone, come to their aid. Jo reached out to every hacker she ever knew in her frantic plea. Hack their guns. Give them conflicting intel. Hell, she’d take a rogue helicopter that was no doubt circling them suddenly losing all computer function and plummeting into the men about to shoot themdown.
“TWO. . .”
“Anything?” Yuusuke was panting, like he’d just beenrunning.
All messages were dark, chats unaccepted. All her pleas were going unanswered. It was like they were alone, banished to an island the world hadforgotten.
“ONE. . .”
“I’m goingout.”
“Yuu, wait!” One of the messages lit up. Someone was responding. Jo leaned over her computer, desperate to see who was ready tohelp.
Gunshots fired like a mortar out of a tube on New Year’s, servers reduced to shrapnel exploding throughout the room. Jo screamed, fell to her knees, covered her head. When the hail of bullets and circuit board debris eventually ended, Jo’s eyes snapped back to her computer. The screens weredark.
“No, no!” She pounded on the keyboard, trying to bring it back to life. “Is yourcomputer—”
Jo turned, andfroze.
Yuusuke, her friend, her ally, her accomplice, lay on the floor, riddled with bullets. Crimson pooled around him like the infamous biblical tide rising to drown themboth.
She skidded to her knees, pressing down on the wound in his shoulder. Jo alternated to the one on his stomach. But she couldn’t seem to stave the bloodflow.
“No, no, no. . .” She shook her head and tears streamed down her cheeks. “Come on, man. . . W-what about the Black Bank, huh? Come on, Yuu. . .” Nothing. Jo saw his slack face go blurry more than felt the tears begin to well behind her eyes. “What about Blackbeard?” She tried, desperate. But even finally using his preferred alias couldn’t summon her friend back tolife.
Jo looked around oncemore.
No way out. She was faced with the same realization as before. Even if she could ask for help, there was no way it would come intime.
Beams of sunlight cut through the darkness, like a glimpse of a heaven she’d no doubt never see because she didn’t even know if she believed it was there. Jo closed her eyes andsighed.
This was how she died. This was the end of the line for her. She’d known it might come earlier than most, given her profession, but she’d hoped to at least make it pastnineteen.
In that moment, one of those beams acted like a spotlight on a piece of information in the back of her mind. Maybe it was the fear pulling her back to a time when things were easier, safer. Maybe life really did flash before your eyes in your final moments. She didn’t have time to consider the why; she was too busy thinking about hergrandmother.
The woman who’d been born ancient and worked as hard as she could to help raise Jo’s mother, and then her, up until there was no more to give. The feeling of her lap, the lingering scent ofpastelitoson her apron, the soothing sound of her voice—it was all there. But what was most vivid were her words:“Ven pa acá, mijita.I have a story foryou.”
The story itself was an old one, and most of the minor details were lost to time even before her grandmother had passed on the tale. But it was a fable Abuelita had spoken about with certainty. Jo recalled circles, wishes, and a spell that could make anythingpossible.
It wasn’t much to go by. But technology could not protect her now. Jo pushed herself from her knees, crouching over Yuusuke’s still intact computer for her last-ditch, impossible chance at a way out—somewhere between faith andfairytale.
Her hands flew over Yuusuke’s keyboard, stroking in her search query. Blood spattered the table around her, smearing the keys and blotting out theletters.
She struck deep, going straight into the heart of the dark web, searching with everything she had for something that sounded like her grandmother’s story. It took three blatantly ridiculous articles before she found one that struck a chord. There wasn’t any time to look for a fourth. This would have todo.
Without hesitation, she followed the instructions to theletter.
Step one: Cast thecircle.
Jo walked over to Yuusuke, ignoring the sounds of the megaphones from beyond the barn. It didn’t matter what they said; she knew what would happen next. Jo crouched next to her friend, tucking a stray bit of hair behind his ear. She spoke right to his wide, dead eyes. “I’ll join yousoon.”
