mped in his seat. He sp

icking to her sweaty forehead. Cody immediately pulled his Ali

mered, holding a hand up. "If you want spare c

risp, hundred-dollar bills she had just extracted from the hospital lobby's advanced biometric ATM,

sh down hard on the table,

Her voice was an absolute, commanding bark that left n

d instantly overpowered his fear. He grabbed the cash, shoved

ver the glowing keyboard. She closed he

ral direct-l

moved so fast they were a blur, creating

screen snapped to black. Rows of green code

e was a computer science major, but the underlying lo

generated twelve layers of ghost IP addresses. She launched a brute-force ass

unter-measu

d. She injected a backdoor code writt

glass. Erica bypassed the security protocols and plunged

it-and-run. The core evidence-the dashcam video-ha

he NYPD badge logo flash on the screen. He realized this cr

that's a felony-" Cody st

him with a glare so lethal it felt like a physical blow to hi

stem's quantum fragmen

s across the entire eastern seaboard, hunting for th

they sounded like a jet engine taking off. A faint smel

d across the black scre

i

video popped up on the scree

wheel. It showed the impact. Then, it showed Colten arriving on the scene, dragging Erica's unconsci

her seemed to drop to freezing. Her chest

e encryption, she blasted the video to a secure, unt

r hit 100%, a loud POP

went dead black. A wisp of gray

ushed her hands togeth

id to Cody, pointing at the smok

ed to cry. But looking at Erica's terrifying, straight-

She had her money. She had her nuclear evidence.

the glass

stood directly in her path. He was flank

like she was the Holy Grail. He spread hi