Code Breakers: Alpha Read Online Free PDF Page B

purple lips and licked at the blood before darting back in.
    “This one’s salty,” she said quietly, her breath shallow. “Like pretzels.”
    “Pretzels?” asked Gerry.
    Petal turned her face to Gerry and pulled the goggles off her face. Her eyes were no longer the shiny black orbs from before. Gerry was silent. Fixated. Her eyes glowed scarlet, like LEDs. He couldn’t even make out her pupils. Something swirled inside.
    “Beautiful, ain’t they?” Gabe said.
    “What are you?”
    “I can do some strange things. My eyes are like this because it’s the manifestation of the things I contain. You’ll get used to it, eventually. The effects aren’t always the same. It’s pretty cool, right?”
    “You’re containing the demon code inside you? Isn’t that—”
    “Look, we ain’t got much time. We need to leave town and dispose of it,” Gabe said.
    “How do you do this? Is it some kind of new tech, or…”
    “Petal’s special,” Gabe said. “She’s disconnected from City Earth’s grid like me and, of course, you now, but she’s her own special kind of ring-fenced network. Ain’t that right, girl?”
    “Yeah, I ain’t the same kind of hacker like Gabe here. I’m impervious to data. I can kinda block code demons, bad AIs, and viruses inside me, like a secure safe house for bad code. But when I get full, like now, I need to dump ’em somewhere safe. And we need your help.”
    “What do you need?”
    “To get out of the city,” Gabe said.
    Gerry choked on spit and wanted to laugh. “Are you both completely insane? No one gets out of the city. There’s nothing out there!”
    “Oh, Gez.” Petal patted him on his head. “You’ve got so much to learn. Don’t worry, though. You’ll pick it up as we go along.”
    “Pick what up?”
    “You’re one of us now. You’re gonna work with us. And you kinda owe us for saving your life.”
    “Yeah, but, what—”
    Petal stood up and disconnected her cables. She pulled her goggles back down.
    She leant into his ear, real close. He could smell something sweet on her breath: a perfume of sorts. Her lips brushed his ear as she spoke. “You’re a Techxorcist now, Gez. You’re gonna help us track and contain our next target.”
    “What target?”
    Gabe turned to face Gerry.
    “A particularly nasty AI that’s gunning for President Kuznetski. It’s already breached City Earth’s outer network. It’ll get to him in a matter of days. It came on the coattails of yours. It’s much more complex, though. Real evil. But first we need to empty Petal’s internal storage. We leave in five minutes.”
    “What does this other AI want? Who’s behind it?”
    “That’s what we’re gonna find out, man. We’ve stuck a trace on it for now.”
    “Shouldn’t we just alert City security? At least let me get in touch with Cemprom. Tell them what happened to Mike. They’ve got good hackers there. They can—”
    Gabe shook his head. “Nothing goes in or out, ya hear? I suspect it’s an inside job. We can’t risk it. We’ll nuke it before it gets to him, and then we’ll see what’s what.”
    President Miralam Kuznetski, a grandson of a Croatian diplomat, was one of the first proper immigrants to the City. The Family brought him in due to his heritage and his father’s support of the Family during World War III. Although he portrayed himself as an independent leader, guiding the City Earth Council for the benefit of the citizens, he’d often tried to dictate the direction of Cemprom’s research.
    Although Gerry didn’t trust him, he was still the appointed helmsman of the City, and stability was important. If he was taken out, affected by the AI, the ramifications could run through every department of the City.
     
    ***
     
    Gerry sat alone in the drawing room, his head swirling with confusion. It was all moving so fast. He thought about his family. No doubt they would find out soon enough about his numbers and go through the formalities of a ceremony.