“It’s in your court now,” Eddie said.
“Working on it,” Murph said. Eddie could hear the sound of Murph’s fingers furiously hammering his keyboard.
The screen remained unchanged. “How long will this take?” Eddie asked.
“I’ll know in a second if this will happen.”
All Eddie could do was wait. He couldn’t leave without the USB transmitter or Mallik would know his system had been compromised.
A few seconds later, Murph said, “His encryption is good. I’m not getting in without his password. We’ll have to go with the barnacle.”
Eddie removed the USB device and took out a smaller item about the size of a hearing aid battery but rectangular like the USB port. It was called a barnacle because it could be inserted into the machine without being noticed.
He picked up the laptop and inspected the two USB ports on it. The right-hand port had a tiny bit of wear on it, while the left-hand port was pristine.
Eddie plugged in the barnacle and verified that it couldn’t be seen unless you were looking directly into the port. It would only be detected if Mallik tried to plug something into the left-hand port, which seemed to be the less used one.
Now, the next time the laptop password was entered, the barnacle would secretly download a bit of software into the computer that would force it to connect to the internet and give Murph access to its contents. The downside was that they had no idea when that would happen.
“Let’s get ready to leave,” Eddie said to everyone on the comms. “And Murph, tell Hali we’ll be leaving in three minutes.”
“He just texted me that he’s currently pretending to be lost,” Murph said. “Apparently, he’s getting an earful from the real Kiara Jain and will be relieved to drop her off whenever we’re gone.”
Eddie closed the laptop and headed back to the stairs.
“Eddie,” Linc said, “two guards just came looking for our friend in the bathroom. I told them he said he was going downstairs for something, but they said that’s where they just came from. They’re on their way up toward your floor. So am I.”
“We have a situation in the ballroom, too,” Raven said. “The woman from Jhootha Island just wheeled in a giant cake.”
* * *
—
When Raven saw Mallik looking at the giant novelty cake with surprise and confusion, she knew he was not expecting it. The band began to play a lively fanfare as it rolled in.
“Something’s about to go down,” she said to MacD.
“Ah know. Bomb, you think?”
“Maybe. If she tries to exit quickly, we’ll know.” Raven also noticed that the woman kept her face shielded from Mallik and Torkan as if they might recognize her.
“Ah’ll go stand by the kitchen door to keep her from leaving,” MacD said.
“And I’ll see if I can find out what she’s up to,” Raven said.
The woman backed away from the cake, turned around, and took out her phone. Raven remembered that Juan said Rasul had used his phone as a launch control for the BrahMos cruise missile. If the woman was here as part of an attack on Mallik, the phone would be the perfect trigger.
Raven walked up quietly behind her.
“Excuse me,” Raven said. “Do you know where I can find some seltzer water?”
The woman shook her head and shrugged, barely acknowledging Raven.
“It’s just that I spilled something on my dress and I don’t want it to stain.”
This time, the woman looked at Raven. Her eyes were focused and fierce.
The woman struck with a lightning punch, but Raven was able to turn away to minimize the blow. Then she returned with a left to the jaw. The woman only staggered and spun around, intending to lash out with a kick, but Raven moved quickly out of reach.