Zero Day, стр. 18
“Do you want Telemachus or not?” Kelvin kept his voice even, although his heart was beating fast.
Reuel paused. And then he nodded.
An hour later, one cot appeared in the corner. Kelvin and Danika had to hot bunk when they took turns to nap.
Kelvin checked on Danika from time to time. “You okay?”
Danika was still crying. Her mascara ran down her cheeks, making her look like some punk rock star. Her purple hair—with her blond roots showing—didn’t help. She looked a mess.
Several hours later, Kelvin and Danika were taken separately to a shower. The water was slow and cold, but Kelvin didn’t care. They had given him a bar of soap, and he almost used it up, scrubbing gunk off his scalp and skin.
Feeling clean, Kelvin waited for Danika. She also looked better after her shower. In fact, her face looked brighter.
Kelvin prayed for Danika. He wasn’t sure if she was saved, but the main thing right now was for God to keep her calm. If she could stop screaming, they might make better progress in their work for Reuel.
Armed guards came to usher them to a room with no chairs or tables. On the floor was a large plastic sheet. And paper plates of food.
“Where do we wash our hands?” Kelvin asked.
Danika laughed so hard it echoed in the room. Then she slapped him on his arm. “You’re always the optimist among us.”
Kelvin had never looked at himself as an optimist. In fact, he still felt that he was the prodigal son.
I want to come home, Lord. Please take me back.
He knew God had forgiven him, but he didn’t feel it. His situation currently didn’t help.
When the door opened again, and Yona walked in, Kelvin nearly cried.
Stale bread, old apples, questionable water.
That was their lunch, but Yona was simply happy to have some food and be with Kelvin—
Wait. What?
She knew that whatever they said would be recorded for Reuel and Issachar.
Yes, Issachar.
Her once-mentor, now an enemy of the state of Israel.
God will judge him.
How could she speak in cryptic messages to Kelvin? How could she tell him that Issachar was part of the setup? That the entire situation was bigger than them?
Then again, was that important?
It was all in the past. All done. All over.
If she only had five minutes to spare with Kelvin, she had to make every minute count. There was no guarantee Reuel would let them eat lunch together tomorrow.
She felt uncomfortable when Vivek and Danika kissed in front of her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen anyone kiss before, but they were in prison!
When she looked back at the apple core in her hand, she felt someone touch her arm.
“How’s your ankle?” Kelvin asked quietly.
“Better. I get to rest a lot, so no pressure on it.”
“Good. Are they treating you well?”
“For a prisoner, I guess. Reuel told me you asked for a picnic.” Reuel also told her more, but Yona didn’t need to get into all that right now.
Kelvin seemed genuinely happy to see her, and she didn’t want to spoil his joy by telling him that she knew he had been interested in her for a while now.
To be fair, she hadn’t given Kelvin much thought until Reuel fed her erroneous intel about Issachar’s non-murderer.
“Not exactly a picnic. I asked for three meals a day. I guess he didn’t want Danika and Vivek to hurt each other if we had tables and chairs.”
“Yeah?” Yona chuckled. “They don’t look like they’re fighting at this moment.”
Vivek and Danika weren’t shy about their public display of affection.
Kelvin drew a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Yona.”
“We all are.”
“I’ll make up for it,” he whispered in her ear.
Yona didn’t push him back because she realized this was how they could communicate. She leaned in toward his ear. “Homing beacon.”
It was all she said.
Kelvin ran a thumb across her chin and smiled. He planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Brilliant,” he whispered.
Chapter 15
A call to action. A directive. A suggestion.
Call it whatever, but Kelvin had his marching orders now.
For the next several days and nights, as he and Danika hacked into Telemachus to gain control of the VPN for Reuel, he looked for ways to plant a homing beacon that would call for Leland Yang-Joule, the only person Kelvin knew who might be able to read it as a call for help.
Might.
Nothing was a sure thing.
Kelvin wished he could have more hands on deck. He voiced the concern to Reuel the next time he appeared on screen.
“You realize that Vivek is part of my team,” Kelvin reminded him. “Yona is neither a hacker nor a systems specialist.”
The elderly man made a face, and the screen cleared.
Some time later, Vivek returned to the computer room, accompanied by a guard, who didn’t leave.
Kelvin wondered why the guard didn’t leave.
Whenever Danika scooted her chair over to Vivek’s workstation, the guard made some sort of low level grunting noise. It sounded like grrr or something.
Kelvin couldn’t help chuckling.
Reuel had sent a watchdog.
“How far along are we?” Vivek asked.
Kelvin spun around in his chair. “DMZ. Glad you’re here. We should be able to get in soon.”
“Nice to be needed.” Vivek nodded. “Hey, thanks for asking for the meals. I think I’m gaining all the weight I lost in the last few months.”
Kelvin didn’t want to ask more, but he figured they ran too. Perhaps they had it better than he did because they ran together.
Kelvin had been alone in that abandoned building.
Well, not entirely alone.
He had Mordecai the stray cat.
And God.
Most of all, he had God.
God never left him nor forsook him.
Thank You, Jesus. Help me succeed, please.
They spent the next few days chipping away at the security system around Telemachus. It was military grade, but nothing Binary Systems hackers couldn’t handle.
Ulysses must not have had proper help because at the core of Telemachus was the network structure that Binary Systems had put in place several years prior. Kelvin and Cayson had designed it.
If he planted the