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she continued the hard climb, both up the stairs and through the myriad of cyber defense s.
    “You’re going to have to stop running, Ronnie.” Before she could interrupt, Quirk continued, “ T he beads are registering e ach impact of your feet as a keystroke.”
    “Okay,” Ronnie responded, “That’s clearly a design flaw.”
    “Hey ! Those are state - of - the - art, pressure - and directional ly sensitive ceramic fusion — ”
    Ronnie shook her head vigorously , even though Quirk couldn’t see her . O f course, she kept going right on up the steps . “Whatever . T hey’re not working now.”
    “Because they are supposed to be used in a dust-free, static-controlled room cooled to fifty - two degrees.”
    “Like I said . Design flaw .”
    Before Quirk could retort , another “Access Denied” flashed across her screen.
    “Bitch all you want,” Quirk added. “But you ain’t hacking any deeper until you stop clod-hopping .”
    As much as it pissed her off, her assistant was right . She stopped, turned to the wall , and used it as if it were a keyboard, making sure each stroke was accurate and precise.
    “That’s better,” Quirk stated.
    This time, “Access Granted” bloomed on her screen . Q uickly , the two billion dollars began to transfer into her little ol ’ account.
    “No, that’s better,” Ronnie stated as she resumed her ascent.

 
     
     
    CHAPTER 2
     
     
    Second Undisclosed Location
    9:21 p . m . , MST
    Quirk pulled on a cashmere sweater, making sure he didn’t muss his hair gel as he watched Warp once again try to thwart his boss’ attempts to drain the insurance company’s account .
    “Sorry, Ronnie, but you’re going to have to keep up the pressure until the account is drained.”
    She must be heed ing his advice , because suddenly her proficiency rose steeply . Why did she put herself through this ? Why wasn’t Ronnie content sitting in a cozy room like this ? Quirk surveyed the snow - white walls punctuated by plasma screens . Why risk exposure — or worse, capture — when you could snuggle up with Project Runway , or …
    Quirk sat up straighter and watched the telecast . Sure enough , another plague bulletin . Like he already didn’t have enough to worry about with Ebola and the West Nile virus ? T he plague , too ? Did his suffering never cease?
    “Is it just me, or are they getting better at this?” Ronnie asked . Was that a hint of desperation he heard?
    Quirk focused his attention on her laptop feed . Sure enough, she was smack - dab in the middle of a standoff . The great Robin Hood hacker was stymied . H e was actually happy that , every once in a while , Ronnie was reminded of why she needed him and his very specialized expertise.
    “Warp may have made some improvements, but no one is as geeky as I , ” Quirk said. He knew how to drag out a dramatic pause . “We are going cold .”
    With flamboyance that Liberace would have been proud of, Quirk pressed a button , and a panel under the main computer tower opened up . Even at fifty-two degrees ambient temperature, frost poured out from the chamber of liquid nitrogen . Slowly , the tower lowered into the vat of freezing solution.
    He watched as all processes on her laptop sped up exponentially.
    “Whoa, there,” Ronnie said as her typing accelerated to keep pace with the processor speed . “You are lord of the geeks.”
    He knew that, but it was still nice to hear it every once in a while . N ot all was hunky-dory though . “Yeah, the only downside is that we have to finish the transfer before the chips completely freeze.”
    “And how long is that?”
    “Yeah, um . I’d hurry.”
    Quirk watched the computer ’s internal temperature plummet as the red dots converged toward Ronnie’s glowing green sphere . “And I mean spatially as well as temporally.”
    “Huh?”
    There was no way to say it gently . “They’re closing in on your position.”
     
    * * *
     
    Zach paused . Were those footsteps in the