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systems without me?”
    Jonesey looked at his feet again. Hui approached them from the restaurant.
    “We should get on with the job,” he said.
    Jonesey opened his mouth to say something, but Hack cut him dead. “Yeah, let’s get this over with. In and out fast, that’s the plan, right?”
    His friend looked like he could have hugged him. Hui gave a mocking laugh.
    “ In and out fast, ” he repeated. “You two sound like real professionals. You’re not… bad men, are you?”
    Hack ignored him and started in the direction of the express lift to Level 77, closely followed by the other two.
    “Your friend should lighten up,” Hui told Jonesey as they wove through the crowd. “He’s too serious for his own good.”

 
    4
    Two IFC tower was accessible by public lifts and several keycard-controlled express lifts to the upper financial trading floors. A dedicated lift for Levels 75, 76 and 77
wasn’t marked on any of the official maps of the building. Its entrance was located in an anonymous, dimly lit corner of the basement level. Goodware occupied the floors serviced by this lift
– the three most secure in the entire building.
    At 9 p.m. every evening, the general security detail for the tower changed over to the night shift, making it the perfect time for any type of incursion. During the changeover, the eyes of the
security guards studying the CCTV cameras positioned around the tower were most likely to be distracted.
    “Stop here,” Hack said, as they stepped off the escalator from the mall levels and walked into the corridor containing the access lift. He pointed to a CCTV camera in the ceiling
opposite the doors. Jonesey and Hui waited as he moved forward, keeping close to the wall and out of the line of vision of the camera. He stopped level with the lift doors and placed his hand flat
against the wall. If the architectural plans Jonesey had provided were correct, his palm was over a cavity containing electrical wires for the light fittings, sockets and the camera itself.
    Closing his eyes and channelling his power, Hack was able to visualize the wires as he made contact with them. Quickly isolating the coaxial cable that delivered the camera feed back to the
security control room on Level 5 of the tower, Hack sent a surge of energy along the wire. He looked up. The green operation light on the side of the camera had gone out. The malfunction would
bring one of the guards to investigate eventually, but not before they’d conducted their business. Hack ran over to the lift and beckoned for the others to join him.
    The lift doors were plain grey metal with a numeric keypad in place of a call button. Access for the lift was controlled by a ten-digit keycode that changed every seven days (and sometimes at
shorter intervals). Hack had no idea what the code was that week, but he didn’t need to know. He placed his hand over the pad. Blue electricity flashed around his fingers as he accessed the
encrypted code within the device. The doors opened.
    “Nice work,” Jonesey said, slapping Hack on the shoulder.
    “We’re not there yet,” he replied as they stepped into the lift. Hui leaned against the back of the car as the doors closed. There were only three buttons to choose from. Hack
pressed for Level 77 – the software development lab of Goodware Inc. – and the lift zipped up the shaft towards one of the most protected locations in the city.
    “So, there are no security guards on this floor?” Hui said.
    “The tower guards only cover the entrance to the lift,” Jonesey replied. “Everything on these floors is run by Goodware’s personal security team. They don’t trust
the IFC employees.”
    “And they don’t have any private guards on patrol?”
    Jonesey shook his head. “Uh-uh. The Goodware board doesn’t trust human beings in general. Everything is automated: motion sensors, sound traps, laser trip wires. If an alarm gets
triggered, there’s a fast-response security team