Red Zone (Red Zone 1)

“We got sound with this?” His voice was harsh. She liked to think of it as his commander mode.

“Yeah, but that’s a different file. The data chips were damaged a little, and the files aren’t running simultaneously like they should do. Give me a minute.”

She reached up, took hold of her husband’s hand, and held it tight. He caressed her hair, letting her know she wasn’t alone. She’d never be alone again.

“Right, here it is.” Hunter played the audio, but it was too low to hear, telling her that she’d picked it up in the background but hadn’t consciously listened to the conversation. “Wait, let me enhance it.”

The images on the screen were mesmerizing. This was the reason half the world was after her. The reason she’d almost died. All because of this. One split second where she’d seen something she shouldn’t have and heard something she hadn’t even realized she’d heard.

“Okay, here goes,” Hunter said, and then Miriam Shepherd’s voice filled the room.

“I don’t want any mistakes, Arnold,” she told the leader of the rebellion group.

“Don’t worry. There won’t be any. Not for this much credit.” He laughed.

“Make sure you get the prototype,” a male said.

“Of course.” Arnold sounded smug. “Your new chip won’t be worth much if the competition still has their prototype. Don’t worry. We’ll make sure it all goes up in smoke.”

“We need to talk about ladmium output,” another female voice said—Sandrine. “We need to increase production to meet the market demands in time.”

“Especially seeing as we’re guaranteed a monopoly

in the market once our friend here gets done blowing crap up.” A male voice sounded amused.

“Serge!” Miriam reprimanded.

“The ladmium needs to be refined before use,” a new voice said.

“There’s no time. We’ll use it as is.”

“Then the chips will be compromised.”

“But the profit won’t.” There was more laughter.

The voices faded as Friday had obviously moved out of range of the meeting.

There was silence in the Red Zone cavern.

“They’re going to implant faulty data chips,” Ignacio said. “They’re willingly endangering people.”

“And Freedom is helping.” She felt ill at the thought. “Without their competitor’s product, everyone will jump at updating to the new implants from CommTECH.” She felt herself pale as she looked up at Striker. “People will die. You have no idea how dangerous unrefined ladmium can be. We have to do something. We can’t let this happen.”

“No,” he said. “We can’t.”

And then he kissed her and took all the worry from her head.

For now.