Zero Day, стр. 17
Well, it would have been true four years before, or three, or even perhaps the year before.
But not now.
Sitting here in the underground catacombs of an old Czech castle—his tomb, his doom—Kelvin decided he could not think merely of himself anymore. If anything, his prayer was for God to free Yona.
She didn’t deserve the punishment.
This was his fault, not hers.
His own doing.
He had no one else to blame but himself.
Before he could continue his confession to God, the door opened to a rumble of noises and voices.
All three prisoners had hoods over their heads. Surrounding them were the same armed men who had ushered Kelvin into this room hours before.
“Please! Please!” A woman’s voice from under one of those black hoods.
It didn’t sound like Yona’s, but it was familiar to Kelvin. She sounded like…
One of the men lifted the hood off her.
“Danika?” Kelvin couldn’t believe his eyes. “Danika Svoboda?”
“Kelvin!” Danika rushed forward, but the men held her back. “I thought you were dead!”
“I thought you were dead too.” Kelvin waited for the other hoods to come off.
And he would’ve fallen off the chair had he still been sitting.
Vivek Rao in flesh and blood.
Vivek, who was supposed to be dead in the USA over a year prior.
Were these clones? The thought ran through Kelvin’s mind, though he knew they could not be true—not in this day and age.
Vivek yelled when he saw Kelvin and started charging at him, even though his wrists were tied up. “You! This is all your fault!”
The men held him back. Muttered to one another—something about needing to babysit the hackers.
“I’m sorry,” Kelvin said. Whatever it was, he was sure Vivek was right. “It’s my fault.”
He wondered how Vivek and Danika were still alive, considering the DNA results…
Ah, the DNA results could have been fabricated by interfering with the computers they were stored in.
Who’d do that though?
He could only think of one person.
Ulysses.
As soon as the men released Danika from her bonds, she pressed her fingers on Vivek’s arm. “I’m not dreaming.”
“Neither am I.” Vivek looked at Danika a certain way.
“That can wait, lovebirds,” Kelvin said. “Where’s Jamal?”
Nobody could answer him.
Maybe Jamal wasn’t dead either. Cayson would be happy to hear that. In fact, he’d be happy to hear that most of his team wasn’t dead.
“What do they want from us?” Danika looked at Kelvin, as if he’d know.
He shrugged. “We’re all waiting to find out.”
All the screens flickered on at once. A wall-mounted screen came to life.
Reuel appeared on the screen. “To answer your question, Kelvin, your assignment is to hijack MedusaNet.”
“MedusaNet? It was destroyed last year,” Kelvin reminded his captor.
“Nope. On the contrary, Ulysses is trying to rebuild it. You’re going to take it away from him.”
“For what compensation?” Vivek asked.
“Your life. You capture MedusaNet, we release you.” Reuel said it as if he meant it.
That was when Kelvin decided that Reuel couldn’t possibly be telling the truth. If they wanted to live, they had to find a way out themselves. But not without Yona.
“Where is Yona?” Kelvin asked.
“Our insurance is right here.” Reuel motioned to someone off-screen.
Yona was pushed into the camera view. She looked a bit disheveled.
She gasped. “Whoa. Is anyone else not dead?”
Chapter 14
The problem with a team whose members knew they were going to die was that it killed their motivation. Nothing Kelvin said—whether explicitly or implicitly—could make Vivek and Danika do what Reuel wanted: take over the new MedusaNet from Ulysses.
Kelvin found himself working hard alone, surrounded by Vivek and Danika squabbling with each other in their last days on earth.
As soon as Reuel appeared on the screen again, Kelvin threw up his hands. “Kill us already!”
The door clicked open.
“What did you ask them to do to us?” Danika screamed at Kelvin.
The men came in, and without a word, they cuffed Vivek and dragged him out.
Danika pounded the door. “You can’t do this to us! We’re human beings too!”
Onscreen, Reuel cleared his throat. “From your conversation with each other, I realized that you need an incentive to get this project completed.”
Kelvin glanced at Danika. What have you done?
“We’re holding Vivek and Yona until we have control of MedusaNet,” Reuel said.
Kelvin raised his hand.
“What, Kelvin?” Reuel frowned.
“It’s not called MedusaNet anymore. Ulysses renamed it Telemachus.”
“Son of. Hmm… Not unexpected.”
Kelvin had no opinion. If Ulysses—real name unknown—wanted to name it after his mythological son, Telemachus, who was he to object? However, to keep it all Greek, Ulysses should have called himself Odysseus, rather than the Latinized version of his name.
Then again, what did Kelvin care? He was stuck in here without a bargaining chip, imprisoned with a screaming woman gone berserk who might not be able to do the job without her beau.
However, since he had nothing to lose…
“Reuel, three meals a day together with our friends, daily showers, and clean clothes. Is that too much to ask?” Kelvin went for it.
“No sleep? You’re not asking for beds?”
“Considering you seem to be in a hurry to take over MedusaNet—Telemachus—I wouldn’t think we’d get much sleep.” Kelvin paused, as if thinking, which he really was. He pointed to an empty corner by the wall. “However, since you mentioned it, a couple of cots over there might be a gesture of kindness and good faith.”
Reuel laughed. “I can see why Aspasia kept you alive. You don’t take sides, do you?”
Kelvin used to take the side of money, but now that he was older, money had no hold on him as much as people.
And God.
He had repented.
Yet, he was still in this hole in the ground that he had to crawl out of. Galatians 6:7 came to his mind in a flash.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Kelvin knew he was reaping the sin he had sown. His soul was forgiven, but that didn’t remove the consequences of his sin.
This could be his death sentence, though he would go to Heaven with a free conscience.
“Please?” Kelvin asked.
“You’re asking for a lot. Three meals a