“Oh… hi.” I said awkwardly.

  Les glared. “Where the hell have you been?”

  I stepped out into the room, and Seph followed, closing the part of the wall that had opened behind him. I glanced into Seph’s eyes, and shrugged. “We were just…” I trailed off. “Looking for something.”

  Les’ eyebrows raised in suspicion. “What was it?”

  I sighed, and pulled out the USB chip. “The CIA took it.”

  Les reached to grab the chip, but I recoiled, bringing it closer to my chest.

  Les then stepped back, glaring directly at me. “What’s on it?”

  I wasn’t feeling in a particularly gracious mood. After all, I was having the best night of my life and now Les came along and ruined it. “Wouldn’t you like to fucking know?” I sneered, and turned.

  Seph grabbed me roughly, his skin now cold against mine. The stretched fabric along my neck pulled me so, so close to him.

  “Listen,” he hissed. “He doesn’t need to know that… but he’s our leader here. So don’t be a dick.”

  I sighed. But, he was right. I pulled away, and turned back to Les, who was looking at me with one of the most spiteful expressions I had ever seen.

  “I truthfully don’t know,” I said. It was half-true. “A client wanted it, and I didn’t quite figure out what it was. I didn’t make it to deliver the data.”

  Les leaned closer. “You think it’s important?”

  I scoffed. “It’d better be.”

  “And what was that?” Naomi asked, gesturing toward the part of the wall that had opened, now looking perfectly normal.

  “Just a door,” Seph said quickly. “Nothing else.”

  Mel quietly approached it, and no one made any effort to stop them. They quietly felt along the walls, pushing gently in a few specific spots. After about ten seconds of silence, there was a click, and the passageway opened.

  They quickly closed it again, and walked back to Naomi’s side, without saying a word.

  “So…” Seph trailed off. “Can we just… sleep now?” He slid his way directly into his room, and closed the door.

  I shrugged, and did likewise, closing the door on Les, Naomi, and Mel, who were all standing there - trying to process what just happened.

  I immediately slumped in my chair, holding the USB drive directly in front of me. I studied it, slowly turning it around in my fingers. It was familiar, so warm against my skin. The shape, the metal, everything.

  It was strange.

  I was in such an unfamiliar place. Hell, I had only been here for a week and a half. Already, my life had changed. In so little time, I had gone from working against the government to working with it.

  Strange, how life worked. Also strange how everyone had gone from hating and fearing me to trusting and supporting me. A little too strange…

  I slipped the USB drive into the computer and booted it up. The standard desktop screen showed. My files loaded. And I waited.

  Ping!

  The drive connected.

  Boop.

  I sighed. The file had flashed, and then disappeared. Of course they wouldn’t make it this easy. Because with the government, nothing is simple or concise.

  I removed the chip, then connected it again.

  Ping!

  Boop.

  “Fuck.”

  I rubbed my temples slowly. Come on, Cade! I yelled at myself. It is literally your job to bypass security!

  And yet… I felt hopeless.

  I knew I could do it.

  But my body didn’t.

  I sighed. Trying to do it won’t hurt.

  I reached out, and flicked my desk lamp on. Instantly, the small room was illuminated, and a bit of heat began pulsating from the bulb. I blinked a few times to get used to the brightness.

  I reached into my drawer, producing a paperclip. With practiced efficiency, I unravelled the loop. Holding the USB drive plug up, I began to pick through it with my new pin.

  At first glance, everything seemed normal. All of the metal was in the right place. I slowly slipped the paperclip into the plug, slightly adjusting different parts to get a better view. Absolutely nothing.

  Damn, I thought. I might have to open this thing up.

  Unfortunately, doing that ran the risk of ruining the data within. But I had no other choice. If it failed, I would call the project a bust and move on.

  I carefully found the top of the drive. Thankfully, removing the cover would do nothing. And if the problem is physical, then the CIA already did this and managed to put it back together. Which did look good for my chances. Unless everything they did was within the data, like hiding a bit of code among everything else.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  I bit my lower lip, and bent the paper clip again, making a spoon-like shape with a sharp end. I dug that into one of the small screws, and slowly began twisting it. It was tough not having a screwdriver, but I continued pushing.

  With a satisfying clink, the screw dropped onto the floor. I sighed, and continued working on the remaining three screws.

  One by one, they fell onto the floor, until I was ready to get rid of the most outer layer. I stuck the bent paper clip into a small bit under the plastic, and carefully applied pressure.

  I felt the plastic lift a little, so I worked the metal bit deeper. The process continued, until the plastic part came off with a clack.

  The inner bits were now exposed. I looked over the parts, identifying the key electrical components. The controller, the flash memory, the test points, and…

  Something unfamiliar. It was a little bit of extra circuitry attached to the controller. Well, that’ll do it, I thought. The controller was the bit that would direct the data and allow the drive to properly interact with the computer. Any bit of extra wiring could stop it.

  But, the difficult thing would be removing it without damaging anything else. I brought it close to my eyes. This attachment was done carefully, but not carefully enough. There was a bit of space between the controller and the extra bit. I inserted the paper clip to draw both pieces a bit further apart.

  Three wires connected the two bits. I frowned. I could carefully remove the cap off of the extra part, and maybe cut a hole into the control area. Then, I could scope this out better.

  I repeated the process that I used for the outer shell with the extra attachment. It revealed a smaller, plastic container that didn’t block the circuitry in, but kept it in one place. There was a mess of components that the three wires came into. But, that wasn’t the hard part.

  I reached into my pack, and rummaged through it briefly. I soon produced my knife. This process would be hard. Cutting through plastic with metal wasn’t easy, unless you had heat. I looked around, before my eyes landed on my lamp.

  “Oh my god,” I whispered. “I really don’t want to do this.”

  Despite my better judgement, I did it.

  I walked right over the electrical plug, and stuck a bit of my knife into it. I rubbed it fast. After about a minute of doing this, sparks began to fly. I only wasted another two minutes continuing to do this. I then ripped the knife out, and began showing at the cover of the circuit. A cut started forming, but the process slowed after about twenty seconds of cutting.

  Damn.

  I repeated this slow method: heating up the blade, then cutting. Bit by bit, the cover wore down. Eventually, I was able to pull the plastic piece away, revealing lots more wires.

  I examined the setup closely. The three wires had been redirected from their past connection to go straight into the extra piece.

  Theoretically, all I needed to do was connect the chopped wires once more, and the data could transfer. I searched through the desk drawer, and grabbed some tape.

  A bit of bubbly excitement began to build in my chest. I was doing it! Just a few more steps, and I would have all of the information I’ve been working for.

  I quickly cut through the wires. I then matched the thankfully different colored wires with the colors they were matched to. After a bit of tape, everything was final. I stared at the work I had done.

  Not shabby, I thought. But it would be dangerous to keep the circuitry exposed. I dropped to the floor, and collected each of the smooth, cool metal screws.

  I quickly positioned the piece of plastic, and inserted the first screw. I made quick work putting everything back together. After I had completed everything, I held the USB port up.

  It was a little more loose than before, but it was fine. Good as new - almost. A warm feeling of pride flared in my chest, along with a re-established confidence in my abilities. I had done that like it was nothing. And it felt quite good.

  I breathed in, feeling light and float-y. Any weight on my shoulders had since toppled off, leaving me free.

  I once again started the computer, and plugged in the drive.

  Ping!

  The file appeared. I waited, waited for the boop, for it to disappear. But it never came.

  I nearly whooped out loud. The file was there, waiting to be opened. I navigated my mouse to click on it, and opened it up.

  The data appeared in the ‘notepad’ app, and it was incredible!

  But it was also the most shitty sight ever.

  Encrypted.

  The data is fucking encrypted.

  “Son of an absolute bitch,” I muttered, scrolling down. Symbols, numbers, letters, characters in different languages - it was all used.

  And it was all nonsense.

  I wanted to cry, but instead, exhaustion washed through me. There was an ache in the pit of my stomach and an elephant on my shoulders.

  I barely managed to close the computer before I had laid my head down and drifted off.

  ??

  I awoke, like every morning, to a blaring alarm. But this time - it was different. It was more urgent. I sat up, still feeling like I got absolutely no sleep.

  Last night was present in my memory, but it was really just a blur. A bunch of incoherent events that meant nothing to me now. I stood, and stretched. I was surprised to still be in my day clothes, but even more surprised to be at my desk.

  I stood shakily, and made my way to the door. Upon turning the knob, I came face-to-face with Vivian, glaring at me.

  I jumped back, startled. “…hi,” I said cautiously.

  When Vivian spoke, her words were slurred slightly. Her movements were jerky, something not quite right about her. “T-the fuck did you do in my tunnels?”

  I frowned. “Your tunnels?”

  She flopped her head to the side. “My tunnels.” She repeated.

  “You - um - you…” I trailed off. “I don’t think I need to tell you that.”

  In an instant, she lunged, pushing me onto the floor. “You, you, you,” she swayed a little. “Did something in my tunnels.”

  She promptly fell directly on top of me.

  ??

  The girl swayed slowly as she walked through the forest. It was such a strange place, such a magical place. Especially to be in a place so ugly and brutish.

  Not to say where she was going wasn’t ugly and brutish.

  Jeers and shouts from where she was going filled this place, this sacred place. They were ruining it.

  And for that, they would die.

  In due time, of course. Not much could be done tonight. She would maybe have a little drink, meet some people, and scope out the energy of this so-called ‘secret bar.’

  Of course, that was not how the night went.

  By the end she was chugging beer like it was the last drinkable substance on the planet. Playing cards flew across the bar like confetti. And all of the men were drooling after her.

  What a funny thing.

  When the girl finally emerged, babbling, with blurred sight, and the taste of far too many things still in her mouth.

  And when the girl emerged, much was happening on the other side of the world that she still didn’t know about.

  But, damn, would she get hell about it later.

  ??

  There were shots outside of the central Russian military camp that day.

  Shots, so many deaths, so many wasted opportunities.

  But Valamir Uldrich just sat and watched through the window, a watchful spirit. But this spirit would not be giving blessings.

  He would serve the damned everything they deserved.