The guy in the cap held his phone up, showing the screen to the gopher.
“Firewall’s down. Our man on the inside has done his job.” Gopher smirked.
Sean investigated. Even though he was rusty, his fingers flew across the keyboard, digits filling the screen. “The firewall’s still up.”
“Stop fucking around, Rattigan,” Gopher said, and looked at the guy in the cap.
Cap guy checked his mobile. Shrugged.
Gopher was twitchy as fuck. He headed closer to Sean’s side, pulling out his gun as he did so.
Sean eyeballed him. “Your insider is obviously as twitchy as you are.” He gave a wry laugh. “Shield’s down now.”
Gopher’s eyes narrowed. He wanted to take this outside every bit as much as Sean did.
Sean nodded at the piece he held in his hand. “You going to put that thing away so I can begin? It’s not exactly conducive to the ideal hacking environment.”
Reluctantly, his adversary pocketed the weapon.
Sean turned back to the laptop.
His fingers flew over the keyboard, loading code, testing the system. At one point he thought he saw evidence of an extra layer of security, but he couldn’t be sure. It spurred him on, his end goal materializing on the periphery.
“What’s taking so long?” Gopher eventually asked, practically throwing off his skin with impatience.
“Not familiar with the fine art of hacking, are we?” Sean replied, without pausing to look up from the task. “I could be here for hours before I even get in.” He knew which of his tools would unlock the accounts, but he was leaving it until last.
“We don’t have hours.” It was the guy in the cap.
Sean restrained his smile. It was good to know he was getting to them all. There was pleasure rattling the cage, but beyond him the gopher was now walking up and down, looking nervously out the window at the parking lot behind the warehouse. Even the two bouncers looked restless.
Time passed. The office was stuffy as hell and didn’t smell good. His companions were only adding to the general air of stagnant unease.
“What’s taking so long?” the guy in the cap asked, striding closer.
“If hacking was easy anyone could do it.” Sean took the opportunity to study the guy’s features.
“We don’t have hours.”
“Not my problem. I’m upholding my part of the bargain.”
“Delahane said you were the man for the job.”
Sean shrugged. “Maybe he needs a better man for a hack this big. I’m a small-time hacker. Maybe Delahane made a mistake.”
“You better bloody do it.”
Sean ignored him and carried on.
Once he was in, he picked the account with the smallest amount—which was still astronomical—and typed the numbers in. “We’re in.”
The guy in the cap breathed out, audibly.
The air was now stagnant. Sean’s skin felt damp and he was uncomfortable.
Meanwhile a world of possibility was now there in front of him on the screen, in monetary terms, but it left Sean cold. He knew what he wanted in life, and if he didn’t get it all the money in the world wouldn’t help. He’d always hacked for the challenge, for fun, or for pocket money at most when times were hard. This set up was alien to him. It went against every instinct he owned to steal on this scale.
But it was getting harder to delay. And there was no sign of intervention.