Page 2 of Hollow Code
"You’re the only dude I know who spent time in the military who prefers first names."
It wasn’t so much that Gideon preferred using them. It was just that he wasn’t in the military anymore, and this was a corporate setting. "Shocker you're still bringing it up after seven years."
"Has the data come over yet?" Isaac leaned against the back desk and folded his arms. He’d been a part of this project from the beginning, and Gideon valued his opinions. He just didn’t like how Isaac inserted himself before asked. Like just because he was a senior analyst, it gave him the right to be part of everything and involved in all the decisions. It was a delicate dance, and it had taken Gideon a good year to figure out the steps. Every once in a while, he landed on Isaac’s toes, but mostly they’d worked well together.
"Not yet," Gideon said. "Waiting for conformation of transmission. They’re sending it all at once, trying load the system with as much data as possible. It’s overkill, but we need to see if there are any breaks in the transition."
"Or if there’s was interference from other data running on a parallel system."
"Exactly."
"I’m happy to help decrypt the data and interpret it."
"I appreciate that, but I need you in the YAROS project management team meeting. You know that system better than anyone, and I need you leading it," Gideon said. All of that was true. Isaac had been in charge of that project from inception. Yet, Gideon understood that Isaac believed he was not being fully utilized given that the system had been operational for twelve months, and supervision and upkeep had become the principal responsibilities.
"The junior analysts can handle it."
"Maybe, but I’d rather go through the data first, and then have you been the second set of eyes."
That should be enough to feed Isaac’s ego, and it hadn’t been a full-blown lie. Protocols needed to be followed, which meant data and reports had to be double-checked. However, Gideon didn't want anyone standing over his shoulder. He needed to watch the live stream alone. Maybe it was a control thing, but at this point, he didn't care.
"Fair enough." Isaac knocked his knuckles against the desk. "Give me a shout when you're ready for me."
"Will do."
Isaac pushed off the desk and headed for the door, pausing at the threshold. Glancing back at Gideon's monitors, his gaze lingered on the screens for a moment before he walked out.
Isaac wanted more responsibility. That wasn't a flaw. Ambition was a good thing in a senior analyst, provided it pointed in the right direction. Gideon had managed bigger egos in the military. This one just needed the occasional bone thrown his way and a seat at the table when it mattered.
He turned back to his monitors and waited for the data.
He drummed his fingers on the desk, nervous energy twisting his gut. Even his leg rattled, and that was something that rarely ever happened. But this was his life's work. This was what he’d been dreaming of ever since his parents died in a car crash on a remote stretch of highway. Their injuries, while devastating, were survivable if only they’d gotten to a hospital in time.
His mother had died during transport. His father fifteen minutes after he’d been rolled into the emergency room.
A message popped up on the screen.
"Yes." Gideon rubbed his palms together and pulled his keyboard closer.
Gideon: Confirm to send in 2 minutes.
Gideon let himself savor the rush—the quiet, bone-deep satisfaction of the last couple of years falling into place. This wasn’t about ego. It wasn’t about recognition. It wasn’t even about money. He couldn't care less about any of that. He was confident enough in his own ability that he didn’t need accolades. Some might call that arrogance. He called it doing the work.
And he’d spent most of his life poor. Money only made it easier to forget where he’d come from. He’d rather remember.
The butterflies floating around his gut was a sensation he hadn’t experienced since he was eighteen and had sex for the first time.
But this? He wasn’t sure anything could top it.
Ten HELIOS devices. Five Canadian coordinates. Five international. All transmitting through the ETHER system. Or at least he hoped.
The data dump would take thirty minutes. Each encrypted burst of biometric data was only two minutes long, with a brief pause of three minutes between information cycles.
Gideon tapped his fingers on the screen and accessed the fourth layer of the system—the ORACLE or ORC-6D. Before it arrived there, it had to go through three other layers, plus the military's AEGIS protocol, after leaving HELIOS. Each layer important for different reasons.
He flipped the information on his screens so he could see the entire system on one screen and just ORC-6D on another. And on the one in the center, the encrypted files that were time-stamped and ready to be pulled.
Moving as close to his desk as he could without being on top of it, Gideon began the decryption of each test "patient," and it was like Christmas fucking morning.
