Down to the Wire Read Online Free PDF Page A

when he was nervous.
    Without looking up, TL motioned us in. “When you’re ready.” He pointed to me and Wirenut. “You two have a seat.” TL rolled his leather chair out and stood. “David, come with me.”
    “When I’m ready?” Wirenut asked after TL and David left. “What does that mean?” He looked at me. “You’ve got access to one of the doors. Apparently, you’re ready.”
    TL had given me access to the government’s highest-level computer lab. Although we had split from the government, we were still able to access their resources. My team knew that it was a computer lab and that Chapling worked in there, but I wasn’t allowed to give them the details of what went on inside. The secretiveness of the lab was both a curse and a privilege. Right now, with Wirenut’s remark, it felt more like a curse.
    “When I’m ready,” Wirenut mocked. “I could break into those stupid locked doors if I wanted to.”
    “Wirenut—”
    “TL should be rewarding me for having such self-control,” he railroaded on. “That in and of itself proves I’m ready. Maybe I should tell him that.”
    He was right. With his electronics expertise, Wirenut could break into anything. It was the whole reason TL recruited him. Right now, though, his stress was making him act tough and ridiculous.
    “Should I speak first?” Wirenut shifted in his chair. “Ya know, break the ice. Conversation comes easy for me. Light. Fun. Nothing serious. Who wants serious? Serious sucks. Silence comes easy, too. Hey, I’m not called the Ghost for nothing.”
    Wirenut expelled another short burst of frustrated air. “Okay, this is officially driving me insane. Why did TL tell us five minutes if he didn’t really want us here in five? I mean, it’s been seven minutes. Where is he? What, he wanted to see how long it took us to get down here? What’d he think, we’d drag our feet or something? What the hell, man, I don’t drag my feet around this place. If anything, I’m faster than the others on my team. Well, except for Bruiser. But come on, she’s like a freak of nature.”
    He was rambling to himself now. This wasn’t good. “How about we talk about something else,” I suggested. Wirenut needed to get his brain on another topic.
    He looked across the table at me, clearly expecting me tocome up with something to talk about. Oh, okay. Um…
    Suddenly the first day we all met popped into my mind. “Do you remember the first day we all met? The six of us sat around this same table.”
    Wirenut smiled. “We were all scoping out one another. Curious. Wondering what our new lives would be like.”
    I grinned as TL and David returned. Closing the door, TL took his seat at the head of the table. He opened a file and studied it. The header, QUID PLUOLIUM, ran across each page of small typed paragraphs. “Top Secret” had been stamped in red at the bottom.
    Squinting my eyes, I studied the upside-down paragraphs. But the small print and my lack of glasses kept me from making out the details. I glanced up at TL. He didn’t acknowledge any of us.
    Beside me, David waited patiently, his gaze calmly fixed on the windowless wall behind Wirenut.
    Across from me, Wirenut tapped his finger on the table, obviously as anxious as me.
    We waited in silence for what felt like hours. Nothing from TL.
    “So,” Wirenut finally interrupted the silence.
    Without looking up, TL shook his head in response.
    Wirenut tightened his jaw, and I sent him an it’s-going-to-be-okay, I-know-exactly-how-you-feel look.
    My impatience brought on a teeny bit of nerves, and justwhen I decided to run code sequences through my brain, TL closed the file.
    “Take off your monitoring patch,” he said to Wirenut.
    I smiled. I bet he was going on a mission. TL had taken my patch right before sending me to Ushbania.
    With some hesitation and a reassuring nod from David, Wirenut reached beneath his T-shirt sleeve and peeled off what looked like a nicotine patch. That’s what