"Which means we need a second set," Gideon said.
"How do we do that without standing in the blast radius when the bomb goes off?" Coulter asked.
Darwin took his glasses off and cleaned them on his shirt. "Can Zadie build the second credential set in advance? Sort of like we did the first time?"
"It’s too risky to dive back into the system that way," Gideon said.
"I could pre-build the framework, the shell of the credential package, but the actual encryption keys and permission tokens have to be written in real time using data I can only access once we're through the dual-key."
"Let me get this straight." Darwin put his glasses back on. "You need ninety seconds to activate the dual-key, plant fresh credentials using live data you've never seen before and establish a backdoor—all while the AI is chasing the burned first setback to your location."
"Let’s not forget that by that time, enhanced soldiers will have been deployed as well," Coulter said.
"That about spells it out," Gideon said.
"That's insane." Darwin leaned back.
"I'm open to suggestions." Gideon sat down and swiveled his chair back and forth.
"I don’t see any other way." Zadie tapped on her keyboard, and the screen shifted. "It means we’re down a man in the field, and that will last longer than the last time. But Gideon and I can do this. I know we can."
"There are some things we can prep before mission time," Gideon said. "The credential shell is eighty percent of the work. That can be pre-built and loaded on a portable drive before we leave the bunker. Once we're inside ORACLE's core, we pull the live encryption data, inject it into the shell, and deploy."
"It’s not as easy as it sounds. It's not four minutes of work. However, if I know exactly what I'm looking for—and I will, because you're going to walk me through ORACLE's core architecture tonight until I can navigate it blind—I’m sure I can get us where we need to be under four minutes." Zadie tapped her fingers on the desk.
"That still leaves the burn timeline," Gideon said. "The log sweep could flag the first credentials in thirty seconds."
"Then we control the timeline." Zadie uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. "If I can predict the sweep cycle, I can tell you exactly how many minutes we have between the credential authentication and the flag."
Gideon smiled. "You want to time the burn."
"I want to know exactly how long the fuse is before I light it."
"Can you do that?" Neve asked. "Can you predict that now?"
"We have traffic data from the node tap. The sweep cycle should be embedded in the routing logs, and all we need to do is find them." She tossed her braid over her shoulder, and her fingers flew across her keyboard. "Give me a couple of hours."
"This could be a gamechanger," Gideon said. "We activate the dual-key, Zadie plants the backdoor, and it’s possible we could be gone before the AI sends an alert and Isaac sends his team. They could arrive to an empty hub, and we’d have what we need."
Gideon looked at the map. SYN-7 sat in its valley, forty minutes from the place that had taken his career, his identity, and his purpose. Less than twenty-six hours from now, he'd be standing inside his own system—not to destroy it—but to destroy the man who’d taken everything from him.
And from the people who had become his team.
His family.
Chapter Fifteen
Gideon padded into the kitchen. His wrists ached. His fingertips were sore. And his eyes needed moisture. But most importantly, his body needed food. Or better yet, cake.
It sat on the kitchen counter in a glass dish with a lid that someone had replaced crookedly. That was the kind of thing that drove Gideon crazy. His mom had been a neat freak. She’d hated clutter, and she’d passed that obsession onto Gideon.
It had helped him in his career. The ability to keep code organized both on the screen and in his head made his creative process less congested. It also helped him keep the memory of his mom close.
He lifted the lid and the scent of chocolate hit his nostrils. It was rich and it didn’t smell like the kind of cake that came from a box. Not that he knew how to tell the difference, but this one had that bakery quality.
"Don’t tell Wynn that this is my second helping," Kane said.
"Christ." Gideon jumped. "You scared me."
