Page 218 of Claim Me
"Blue, please… I know you’re disappointed—"
"Maybe, but also…" he interjects. "One could argue that had you not illegally accessed my device, we would never have discovered someone else doing the same. As the popular expression goes,everycloud has a silver lining." He sends me a sour smile.
I truly don’t know whether I’m supposed to smile at that or feel worse, so I just look back at him, probably wearing some helpless expression while waiting for my sentence.
"Well. No point in wasting time. Let’s go. Simon is probably waiting."
"One more thing, Blue."
I push myself off the lounger and walk toward him. His eyes track every movement.
"I don’t think whoever’s responsible is operating from very far away. The signal behavior doesn’t fit. If they’re maintaining a stable live connection to hardware this sophisticated, there’s probably a local relay somewhere in the chain. A short-range bridge node, an access device forwarding traffic outward while staying close enough to preserve timing integrity." I glance toward the penthouse behind us. "That could be hardware planted somewhere in this apartment. One floor down. Hidden inside the building infrastructure. Hell, somebody could literally be carrying it."
Blue’s jaw tightens slightly.
"Tell me," he says. "If I grant you full access to my glasses, will you actually be able to determine all of this?"
"With a pretty high probability, yes."
"Good. We’ll deal with it after the meeting."
I lift my hands almost defensively.
"Whoa, wait, Blue. I really think you should cancel."
"Cancel?"
"Whoever was inside your system knows they’ve been cut off. If they realize they’ve been detected, they might decide to make their move."
"They would need to move very quickly. The meeting begins in approximately thirty minutes."
"Blue, please." Stress is building in my chest now, almost vibrating. "Cancel everything for today. We need to dig into this properly. Whoever did this is not an amateur. The intrusion was elegant. Subtle. If I didn’t have borderline eidetic recall for signal behavior and timing anomalies, I might not have noticed it at all. This person is very, very good, which makes it less likely this is about something trivial. Somebody invested serious resources into this."
Blue says nothing for a few seconds.
Then he speaks in a tone that ends the discussion before it even starts.
"I am attending the meeting. Afterward, we will return here and deal with this matter."
And just like that, he heads toward the door.
I want to keep arguing, negotiate, push harder. Beg him to handle this now instead of later. But I can already tell he’s made his decision, and we’re not exactly in a good place right now.
When we step into the elevator, I can feel the tight knot of tension inside him, irritation tangled up with something.
Is he this angry with me, or with the other person, the one who hacked into his glasses?
Hard to tell with Blue. His mind is logical enough that maybe he can frame this in terms of outcomes and utility, but does that cancel out the bitterness over what I actually did?
Then, as if he pulled the thought straight out of my head, he says it.
"The first thing that made me begin seeing you differently was trust, Gabriel. Trust that you were on my side."
I exhale sharply. This is bad. He may rationalize it, yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s not hurt. He mentioned it aspart of life, yet his disappointment is still real.
"Dammit, I am, Blue!" I blurt out in a shaking, high-pitched voice. "I really am. From the day I started working here, I always have been, and I always will be. Whatever I saw, Ineverused any of it against you. I need you toknowthat. I’ve been nothing but loyal." My voice nearly cracks under the pressure building inside me.
"I’ve made a pledge of loyalty to you, remember? I could never use it against you."
