Fake: The Scarab Beetle Series: #3 (The Academy) Read Free Page A

Murdock’s Core,” the German said.
    “Are you insane?” Brandon asked. “That’s impossible.”
    “Since when was anything impossible for DepthCrawler? That was your signature, wasn’t it? You should be able to get it, you wrote the Guard Dog security packet they utilize to keep people out. Don’t you remember?”
    Now they were talking over my level. What core? I could only guess it was something valuable. Maybe access to credit card information?
    “Why don’t you ask the guy who owns the core if you need access so bad,” Brandon said. “That’d be the easiest.”
    “Because he died, Mr. Henshaw, or else we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
    “That’s too bad,” Brandon said. “Guess you’re out of luck.”
    “No,” the German said. “There’s still you.”
    “I’m telling you, I can’t get you access to the core. I’d need access to the building, and they’re not going to let me near the place long enough to fiddle with their server. Hacking it from elsewhere would be near impossible and could take years if I’m the only one working at it. And if I could access it, what would stop me from using it? Or selling it to someone else?”
    A figure stepped forward, his shadow harsh against the onslaught of light. It was the German, from the shape of him.
    “You’re going to figure out the key and deliver long distance to the core to me, so I can use it whenever I wish. You’re going to break down the security and find a way. You can break through your own security protocols, can’t you?”
    “Why me?” Brandon asked. “There's a bunch of hackers who would love to give this a try.”
    “We’re asking you,” the German said, “because we’re sure you can do it again.”
    Brandon turned his head. I could almost feel his teeth grinding and his jaw clenching from the strain on his face.
    I didn’t totally understand what was going on. What kind of hacking was Corey roped up in? Is that what he does?
    How did these Germans find out?
    “And if I do this, you’ll leave us alone?” Brandon asked.
    “We’ll even give you a percentage.”
    “I don’t want it,” Brandon said quickly.
    The German shrugged and I got hit by a beam of light as he moved. I was going to go blind tonight.
    “If you say so. If you don’t do what we ask, we’ve got you, and we’ll find your girlfriend and will make sure neither of you get back home. We’re really good at that.”
    The car returned. A voice spoke, even though a car door didn’t open. “She’s not in the street from here until the Mark Clark. Either she’s dead from flying off the bride on the way here because she jumped early, or she’s already hitched a ride and is on her way back. Or maybe she called the police. It’ll take more than two of us to find her.
    “Don’t worry about her. You can’t use her to get to me. It won’t work. This whole thing is pointless,” Brandon said, his voice rising. “How am I supposed to get anywhere close to the core?”
    “We emailed you before. You should know. Or did you trash it without reading it? You really should pay attention to your email,” the German said.
    “What do you want me to do? Sneeze on the fucking thing?” Brandon yelled at him. “I’ve got my hands tied, and the moment they’re free, I’ll be swinging. Because that's about as much as I’ll do for you.”
    “You do realize we could kill you,” the guy said.
    “Don’t give a shit,” Brandon said. “Supposedly you need me for the core, so you’re not going to kill me while I can still be useful. And I know your face and could track you down after, which means you’ll more than likely kill me after I do the job anyway. So I do the job, get you what you want, and then die, or I die early without you getting what you want. Seems like I’ll go with both of us not getting what we want.”
    “We’ll find her. We could do a lot of things to her.”
    “I doubt it. You don’t know her. She’s a million miles from