The Midnight Watch: A Sigma Force Short Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

side of her keyboard. He began typing rapidly with one hand, while manipulating her wireless mouse with the other.
    “Interesting,” Jason mumbled.
    Sara drew closer. “What?”
    “The hackers seemed to have targeted any of your files tagged as N_sis .” He glanced back to her. “What does that stand for?”
    “It’s just my shorthand for Neanderthalensis, ” she answered. “Those are my files comparing Neanderthal sequences with those of modern man, highlighting those genes we obtained from our long-lost ancestor. Most of us carry a small percentage of Neanderthal genes, some of us more than others.”
    Kowalski waited for someone to glance in his direction at this last statement, but thankfully no one did.
    Jason suddenly swore, lifting his hands from the keyboard. Files flashed on the screen, opening and closing on their own, as if there was a ghost in the machine. But it wasn’t any ghost .
    “We’re being hacked,” Jason realized. “Right now.”
    J ASON KICKED HIMSELF for being so stupid, so shortsighted. He considered yanking the power cord to the computer, but he knew it was already too late. In just that fraction of inattention, they’d stolen everything.
    “What’s happening?” Sara asked, watching as he furiously typed.
    “As soon as you logged on, the first thing I did was cut your computer off from the Internet, from the world at large, but someone attacked your server through your LAN. Your local area network.”
    “And that means what?” Kowalski asked.
    “The hacker must still be in the area, close enough to have connected to the system locally. Probably in the same building. They must’ve waited to ambush the system but first needed Sara to unlock it.”
    No wonder the enemy tried to avoid killing her at the outset. They wanted her to return here and access her computer.
    “Even the false alarm must have been used to lure Masterson’s forces away,” Jason realized aloud, “long enough so that they could get an operative close enough to orchestrate the attack.”
    “But where are they?” Kowalski asked.
    Jason continued to type. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out, but whoever did this mirrored their trace across eight different computers.”
    Sara clutched her arms across her chest. “That’s the number of computers networked in this building,” she said, confirming his fear.
    “Doesn’t matter,” Kowalski said, swinging toward the door. “I know where they’re at.”
    Jason looked over a shoulder at him. “How?”
    K OWAL SKI COLLECTED L IEUTENANT Masterson and the other officer on his way out the door and down the hall. “One of you, head outside and canvass the perimeter. The other, stay in the lobby and cover the front door.”
    Just in case I’m wrong.
    He had a narrow window to catch the culprits red-handed and retrieve what was stolen. He left Masterson in the lobby as the other officer ran for the front door. He headed to the left, to the hall he had noted Sara glancing down earlier—when the tiger had roared.
    He remembered her earlier words: Anton’s generally a pussycat, but he’s notoriously cranky when woken up early.
    He hoped she was right on both counts.
    He had initially written off the tiger’s outburst as a complaint against their arrival, but what if whoever had bothered the tiger was closer at hand, invading the animal’s private space? Maybe that was what had made him cranky.
    It was a thin lead, but better than nothing.
    He reached a set of double doors with a sign that read D EPARTMENT OF R EP RODUCTIVE S CIENCES. He hoped Jason was as good as he claimed to be. The kid had said he could hack into the building’s security system and unarm all the building’s electronic locks, opening a path for Kowalski.
    He tested the knob, and it turned freely.
    Good job, kid .
    Leading with his Desert Eagle, he cracked the door enough to slip inside, then closed it behind him. The hallway ahead was dark, flanked by small offices. The main