Firewall (Magic Born) Read Online Free Page A

with someone who grew up in one of the few semi-civilized areas left in the Midwest. The son of a mechanic on a corporate biofarm, he’d insisted the movie was exactly what his childhood had been like. She didn’t believe him, of course. Not until she actually got a taste of the wastelands for herself. Then she believed about half of what he’d told her.
    His face floated up from the recesses of memory, all pretty-boy looks and vivid blue eyes and sun-kissed golden hair. Too good-looking, too blue and bright for a girl like her. Climbing up out of hell only earned prizes in fiction. Tuyet’s reality was its own stark wasteland, and there was no oasis other than memories that weren’t as buried as she liked to pretend.
    She blew out a breath. Three long years and Dale Hayes still wouldn’t get out of her head. So she did what she always did when he slipped like a ghost into her thoughts—she shoved the past away and focused on the mission.
    Forty miles from the city—they were on the very edge of the wastelands. It was unlikely they’d cross paths with any of the roving bandits who worked the transit lanes committing the same type of crime they were. That was one reason for choosing a refueling station so close to New Corinth, that and the back roads were still in somewhat decent shape. The other milk runs had been uneventful. Tuyet expected this one to be so as well.
    Her earpiece crackled and the voice of Nate Perez broke into her thoughts. “Cargo secured. Let’s go.”
    “Roger that,” she said. Their voices sounded muted and watery to her, a side effect of being in a working trance state. She blinked and the blue-white lines sharpened. Quickly, she launched a virus hex into the truck’s computer. It was designed to send conflicting commands to the autodrive unit. Ten miles down the road, the truck would ease to the shoulder right before its programming crashed and the electronics fried. By the time a manned unit arrived to investigate, the truck would have sat alone and unprotected by its security systems for hours. The cargo would already have been written off as a loss, assumed stolen by wasteland bandits.
    No one would suspect Magic Born involvement.
    Tuyet left the truck’s computer system, careful not to leave any trace of tampering behind. It was one of the greatest advantages that a witch like her had—Normal computer experts and hackers simply weren’t capable of recognizing the telltale signs of magic left by a trancehacker’s presence. Even so, she’d been taught to be diligent and never assume that she’d be the only witch in the wires. She just had to be the best.
    An engine rumbled behind the van, then the vehicle next to it came to life. She dropped out of trance as Nate climbed into the driver’s seat. He said, “Ready?”
    Tuyet nodded.
    Nate spoke into his comm unit. “We’re clear. Move out.”
    The three decades-old vehicles left the refueling station, Nate and Tuyet taking the lead. They drove over brush for several miles, slow and staying close together as they traveled without headlights. The two-lane blacktop she’d chosen for this run was some distance from the station and would make for a twisty, laborious trip home, but it had the advantage of being relatively intact. The two vans and one SUV they’d managed to acquire for this weren’t in the best shape and couldn’t handle too much rough travel.
    Nate’s phone beeped, the screen lighting up with a map he’d downloaded before leaving the city. He slowed and flicked the blinker to alert the other vehicles of the impending turn. Twenty feet of bumpy terrain later, they came to the road.
    He relaxed somewhat as the ride smoothed. “You coming to Vadim’s birthday party?”
    “He’s having a party?” Only Vadim would think to have a party under these conditions.
    “He’s gonna open up the dance floor for a night, waive the cover charge. Two free drinks for everybody, even.”
    “Free drinks? Wow. Is he dying or