Bad Nerd Falling Read Online Free Page B

passage, where
else?”
    A hidden panel had been added to the
prince’s suite centuries ago to protect the prince in the event of
war. Or, in more modern times, terrorist attacks. The only person
who regularly used it and the ensuing network of tunnels throughout
the palace was Emerson. He figured it amused Emerson and he
probably stayed busy keeping them clean. He was the only man Aleksi
knew who could pass even the strictest white glove test.
    “ What is that?” Emerson
asked again and pointed to the USB stick.
    “ I was just going to ask
that same question.” Maks stood on the other side of his
desk.
    “ See,” he pointed out to
Emerson, “Maks used this thing we call a door. You can find them
throughout the palace.”
    “ Regular doors are
boring.” Emerson used his chin to point to the USB
device.
    “ Vlad just gave me
this.”
    Both of his friends turned their full
attention on him.
    “ Vlad as in my brother?”
Maks asked.
    “ The same.”
    “ What does it
say?”
    “ I don’t know yet. It’s
password protected.”
    “ And the list of your
father’s passwords don’t work,” Emerson concluded.
    “ That is
correct.”
    They all stared at the USB
drive.
    “ That means it’s
important.” Emerson stroked his chin, his gaze
assessing.
    Maks frowned. “What could Vlad know
that we don’t?”
    “ He seems to have trusted
my father.”
    “ Vlad has always respected
your father. I remember a big disagreement he had with the parents.
Your father stepped in and Vlad didn’t argue with him. The matter
was settled as far as he was concerned and my parents learned
something.”
    “ What’s that?” Emerson
asked.
    “ That if they wanted Vlad
to do something, they needed to go through Prince
Aleksandr.”
    “ I wonder why?” he asked
this but he didn’t get an answer from either of his two friends and
didn’t expect one.
    His guess was that this USB drive was
the key to discovering that answer.
    Now he just had to figure out the
password.
    ***
    After he handed over the drive, Vlad
headed down the hall. He was sorely tempted to return to the lab.
In that room was the woman he longed to spend a lot more time with.
There was so much they still didn’t know about each
other.
    Sure, he had kept up with her life
while he was away. Still, he didn’t know all that much about her.
She knew next to nothing about him. It had to remain that way. At
least until they figured out exactly what they faced during the
next few weeks.
    It might be nothing. On the other hand
it could be an all out war that Rurikstan, as it stood right now,
wasn’t prepared for. In fact, they would definitely come out on the
losing side as the military wasn’t competent yet. There weren’t
enough men who were trained as they should be in order to win the
type of battle he suspected was about to befall them.
    On the other hand, perhaps the teams
he worked with had managed to discourage the different factions
they knew were watching Rurikstan and its wealth with greedy eyes.
Yet he had lived long enough to doubt that scenario.
    The device he kept in his pocket
vibrated and he dug deep to remove it. He stepped into one of the
hidden passages and then into a chamber that he doubted even
Emerson knew about. He had found this room his eighth year. It was
fairly spacious and only the former prince knew of its location.
Aleksi might not even be aware of it.
    The coordinates were likely on that
USB stick, but for now Vlad was using the room as his
communications center. “Hello,” he said into the device.
    “ Are you in place?” The
voice that spoke was as familiar to him as anyone in his immediate
family. More so because this voice had sometimes been his only
contact in a few of his darkest hours. The only one he spoke to
while he trained in the art of war. It had kept him encouraged,
kept him alive, threatened him, helped him.
    In essence, this man and his team had
become Vlad’s family.
    “ I’m in place.”
    “ Have everything