Beneath the Fallen City, Jamie A. Waters [ebook reader .TXT] 📗
- Author: Jamie A. Waters
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Kayla touched Carl’s arm to get his attention. “What’s the deal with Lisia? Every time I see her, she looks like she wants to throw a screwdriver at my face.”
He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Lisia’s childish behavior needed to stop. He’d been hoping her attitude would have improved by now, but it seemed to have gotten worse over the past few days.
“It’s not you. It’s me. I, ah, got involved with her a few months back. It was a mistake, and I ended it almost immediately after it began. She didn’t take it well.”
Kayla’s eyes widened as she looked down the hallway where the girl disappeared. “She still has a thing for you?”
“It looks that way. I’m hoping she’ll get over it soon.”
“Hmm…” Kayla crossed her arms and studied him. “I guess I can’t blame her. You’re kinda nice to look at.”
Carl chuckled, returning her assessment with a long look of his own. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I could definitely say the same.”
He brushed her hair behind her ear and trailed his fingers down her cheek. When he rubbed his thumb over her lower lip, her cheeks flushed, and her mouth parted slightly. Although he wanted nothing more than to pursue her, he recognized the need to give her some time to adapt to her new surroundings. Summoning his willpower, he took a step back, giving Kayla a long perusal.
“I need to take care of a few things. If you need anything, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll see you a bit later.”
Kayla watched him walk away, trying to ignore the familiar flutter in her stomach she seemed to get every time he was around. Leaning against the wall for support, she mentally kicked herself.
Damn, damn, damn. Get it together, Kayla. He’s a trader.
Forcing herself to turn away from his retreating figure, she looked at the box with disinterest. The thought of unpacking wasn’t appealing. Instead, she headed over to Veridian’s private area.
Shoving a box aside, she sprawled out on his bed.
Veridian cocked his head at her and then gave it a slow shake. “I haven’t been here for an hour and you’re already taking over my area.”
“Oh, shush. If you really minded, you’d kick me out.”
He chuckled but didn’t argue with her. Taking that as a victory, she fluffed up his pillow behind her. “What did Leo say? Was he pissed?”
He shrugged, but Kayla noticed his shoulders tense. “It’s probably for the best you didn’t come back last night. I got stuck listening to a Leo rant that should have been directed at you. He’s worried about Ramiro though. To be honest, I think he’s going to miss you.”
Kayla frowned. She’d known Leo was going to be upset, and she felt guilty for letting Veridian take the brunt of it. More than anything, though, she was worried about how the camp would fare without her. She guessed that was Leo’s main concern too. She hoped Carl would keep his word and allow her to transfer some credits back to them. Until they found a replacement scavenger, it would be difficult on them. “I doubt that. He’ll just miss having someone to argue with.”
“That’s probably partly true. You know, he wants us to come back when we’re done after the year. He wanted me to tell you that.”
Kayla propped herself up on her elbows to see him better. She was normally pretty good at reading Veridian, but she couldn’t tell how he felt about the turn of events. When they were younger, he had joked about joining a trader camp, but he hadn’t said anything about it in recent years. In fact, he’d always supported her anti-OmniLab campaign, especially after the situation with Ramiro.
“We’ll see. You know, we could always take off and start our own camp or something. We could even leave OmniLab territory. There are other places where we could start over.”
Veridian gave her a sharp look, and she barely managed not to flinch. “You’d better be considering options for a year from now and not thinking what I think you’re thinking. We’re not breaking the contract. We’d be blacklisted by every single OmniLab trader. There’s no going back from that, Kayla.”
Kayla groaned and fell back on the bed in frustration. So much for her fantasy. Staring up at the ceiling, she declared, “Fine. Have it your way. I won’t do anything crazy.”
Veridian turned back to the box. “Carl and his crew seem like decent people. You said yourself he wasn’t a bad guy.”
Kayla couldn’t stop the silly grin from spreading across her face. “He’s too damn pretty to be a trader.”
“Kayla!” Veridian stared at her in shock.
“What?” she asked, feigning ignorance. “He’s got these amazing eyes. And his body… Oh man, I want to bite his ass.” She let out a dreamy sigh.
Veridian threw a shirt at her in disgust, and she laughed. Unable to resist teasing him, she added, “Don’t get me started about the way he kisses.”
“I left you for one night!”
“Yeah, but nothing happened last night. I fell asleep.” Unfortunately.
“Then when did you… Oh.” Veridian frowned. “That’s why you didn’t kick his ass when he paid Leo to keep you above ground.”
“Yeah, he distracted me.” Kayla bit her lip, thinking of that day. The man wreaked havoc on her senses. “I really like him, V. There’s something about him. It feels like he actually sees me. I haven’t felt that way in a long time.”
Veridian’s brow furrowed, and he sat down next to her. His voice turned serious. “Kayla, tread carefully. There’s no future with him. At some point, he’s going to go back and live in those towers. This is temporary for him. Not only that, but he’s technically our boss now. If things go bad with him or you piss him off, we’re stuck.”
Kayla looked away, knowing he was right. Yet, she wasn’t willing to dismiss her feelings based on some future possibility. It might not be the practical thing to do, but she knew better than anyone how short life could be. She might as well live her life to the fullest. There might not be a tomorrow.
Kayla offered a weak smile. “When have you ever known me to do anything sensible?”
He shook his head and sighed. They both knew there was no good answer to that question.
Kayla stared at the monitor in amazement. The security system in Carl’s base was more sophisticated than she’d first guessed. Numerous, seemingly independent layers actually overlapped each other to create a complex web.
Her fingers flew across the screen. Fascinated by the intricacies of the design, she shifted through yet another layer and admired the way it aligned with its predecessor. She pulled up another monitor to line up the two layers side by side. There were definitely some security holes, but she could fix them.
Marking off the vulnerable areas, she shifted the screen to pull up the next layer. She would work on reinforcing those areas once she had them mapped out, but she wanted to see what she was up against first.
Cruncher leaned over her shoulder. “What was wrong with that last one?”
She pulled the previous layer back up and pointed to the areas she had isolated. “You’ve got some holes in your system, pal. It’s leaking like a sieve.”
“Shit, you’re right.”
“It’s not that bad. This is actually a sweet system. Who designed it?”
“OmniLab, but I made a few tweaks. Unfortunately, Ramiro’s security is similar. He’ll be familiar with the ins and outs.”
Kayla’s eyes glinted mischievously. “Oh, really?”
Cruncher nodded. “Yeah. The system was designed to protect against ruin rats and other troublemakers. Traders don’t usually go up against traders.”
Kayla pulled out her commlink and scrolled through her files. “I had to analyze Ramiro’s system when I scouted his base a year ago. I didn’t bother with his security system because it would have taken way too long, but I did play around with the maintenance and monitoring systems. They weren’t well protected.”
“What are you saying?”
“You can circumvent the security by going through the maintenance and monitoring systems. Your security system isn’t linked to everything. We need to fix that.”
Kayla located the file she was looking for and uploaded it. She displayed the code on the screen. “I can make a few changes to this and link them together. I’ll essentially add another layer, rather than modifying the existing ones. I still need to plug those other holes, but this is a pretty big threat.”
Shock and disbelief came over Cruncher’s face as he looked through
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