Ciphers by Matt Rogers (ereader with dictionary .txt) 📕

through the demolished plasterboard, grabbed the kid by the lapels and hauled him to his feet. Gavin groaned in protest, and King said, ‘You ever had a finger broken?’

‘What?’

‘You heard me.’

‘I… can’t think straight.’

‘Oh,’ King said. ‘That’s too bad.’

He took Gavin’s pinky finger in a vice-like grip and wrenched it to the left.

Crack.

Gavin moaned.

King didn’t give him a moment to soak in the pain. He seized hold of the ring finger on the same hand.

‘Here we go,’ he said.

Gavin turned white as a ghost.

‘Please,’ the kid croaked. ‘No. What do you want? I’ll give it to you.’

King shot a wry look at Slater. ‘See? That’s all it takes.’

Slater said, ‘What about all your idealism, kid? Where’d that go? I thought you were committed to this.’

‘He’s not familiar with pain,’ King said. ‘It always ruins so many grand plans.’

Gavin wheezed, sweat coating his forehead, staining his shirt.

King said, ‘The hackers running the show. They’re in this building?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

Gavin didn’t answer.

King said, ‘You’d better make sure you have a good answer. Otherwise I won’t believe you. And then I’ll keep breaking your fingers. There’s nine left.’

‘W-what are you talking about?’

King pulled him close. ‘Why, kid, did you set up your base in the middle of the city you were targeting? You got into the grid with malicious code. You could have done that from anywhere.’

Gavin’s eyes drooped to the floor, his hope shattered. ‘I knew… you would come. I knew you were here. I wanted you to see.’

‘I’m sure you figured we might have won.’

‘No,’ Gavin croaked. ‘Mason Walker was…’

He trailed off, consumed by defeat.

‘Mason Walker? That’s the guy’s full name?’

Gavin said, ‘He was a prodigy. I got my people to dig up classified intelligence documents. You, your government… they wanted him. They wanted him so bad. They made offers. Staggering offers. Whatever you two got paid… double it, triple it, quadruple it. They knew he was the best on the planet. He turned away from it all. Saw where the ladder led. Didn’t want to be a slave. I was so shocked that he accepted my contract that I got hotheaded. Set myself up here because… I thought I had a super soldier on my hands. Because I did all this for you, you see? So you two could see what happens when you push a Whelan too far.’

‘Why the power? Why the lights?’

Gavin’s solemn expression turned to a half-smile as he tapped into some final vestige of pride. ‘Because I could.’

‘How did you do it?’

‘I’ll take you to them,’ he said. ‘The people who did it. But … you need to believe me … it’s not up to me. You’re going to need to convince them to give up control.’

‘You’re the ringleader,’ King said. ‘You tell them what to do, they do it.’

‘You want the truth?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s more cultish than that,’ Gavin said. ‘That was the key to all this. I’m persuasive. Always have been, but I kept it close to my chest when I was just a spoiled kid with a powerful father, and uncles, and grandfathers. That’s how I got Rick on board, and it’s how I got Walker. I think they both realised I wasn’t an idiot, but they realised it too late. These kids… they’re too far gone.’

‘What kids?’

‘Let me show you. Sixth floor. There’s a vault.’

King said, ‘If you’re leading us to more of your men, I’ll break all your fingers, then all your toes, then I’ll get started on the rest of you.’

Gavin gulped, genuine terror in his face. He knew the pain of a single shattered pinky finger. King could see his mind struggling to process what sort of agony he’d be in if King truly got going with the punishment.

Gavin said, ‘I swear, I’m not.’

‘I believe him,’ Slater said.

‘Me too,’ King said.

He shoved Gavin toward the far wall. ‘Lead the way.’

Gavin moped away from them, his back turned, his shoulders slumped, not an ounce of resistance in his posture. King had seen it all before. It’s easy to inflate your ego in private, convincing yourself that you’re unbreakable, unstoppable, indestructible, but it’s a very different experience when you’re staring down the barrel of more physical pain than your mind can possibly handle.

The kid had caved, as King knew he always would.

Halfway across the floor, King’s phone buzzed in his pocket.

72

He pulled it out.

The screen was cracked, but the protective case had done its job, and the phone still worked.

The screen read: Violetta.

He swiped across, touched the smartphone to his ear and said, ‘Hey.’

‘Oh, thank God,’ she said.

‘Any news?’

‘I need to know how close you are to stopping this.’

‘Close.’

‘Can you give me a timeframe?’

‘Not long,’ he said, ‘but I can’t say for sure. All their forces are down.’

‘Great,’ she said. ‘I’ll send in the cavalry to secure the building.’

‘No.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Not yet. We have to be alone.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m fairly certain that the guy behind this radicalised a handful of college-aged kids,’ King said. ‘And Slater and I need to talk them out of it.’

‘If we bring them in,’ she said, ‘we can make them talk.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t think you can. Not with violence. We can’t either.’

‘But…’

‘Trust me,’ he said. ‘I’ve been in this field for long enough. If I’m wrong, I’ll hand it over to you. But give me thirty minutes.’

‘I can’t approve that,’ she said. ‘You know I can’t.’

‘Then we’re going to stay locked out of the grid, and it’s all going to hell.’

‘It already is,’ she said.

He paused. ‘What’s happening?’

‘A few gangs kicked off the looting an hour ago. It’s spreading like wildfire. We can barely maintain order.’

Silence.

She said, ‘We aren’t prepared for this, Jason. Everyone needs help, and we don’t have the information they need. All of our infrastructure — all of it — is down. Networks, transport, water, sanitation. We have millions of MREs stored in warehouses for this exact scenario, but it’s nowhere near enough. The meals will be exhausted in less than a week. We can use the Defence Logistics Agency to bring supplies in, but that’s