Page 71 of Hold Me Down
“Then get to the fucking point!” Zeke yells at him, pushing Carter and Alex to protective, tense postures.
“Someone had to have used my code to hack into the system, and I think that same person is planting bits and pieces of it into the Attic’s security.”
“What’s makes you think that?” Carter asks.
"I started deciphering the code to match it to the house’s system—so I could see what you created and what was foreign.There are pieces of my code there as well, but not the whole thing.”
“The Attic’s security was built to notify us if someone was trying to embed a sleeper code,” I retort.
“Right, but only files larger than one byte—which is small as hell—but these fragments of code are only one bit a piece. That’s why no one knew it was there. It’s too small.”
“Okay, but what does this have to do with Satori?” Zeke asks as if he’s dying for the answer. Kade doesn’t look at him though; he keeps his eyes trained on me.
“Satori would’ve been the only one that had access to my systems, and no one else in our group knows how coding works…”
“Are you saying Satori hacked our security system? Because he saidyoudid that for him when you all first arrived,” Carter insinuates.
“What do you mean?” Kade snaps his gaze in Carter’s direction.
“The day of the mass poisoning?” Carter continues. “When Satori just showed up? He got all the way to the front door without us knowing about it, and we didn’t know until he flat-out knocked on it.”
Kade looks like he dies right then. His face pales and he doesn’t breathe. He turns back to me in a slow, eerie movement with wide eyes.
“D… I’veneverhacked your system.” His face turns red in an instant, like life comes back in unfitting rage. “Never.”
“Alright, alright. Hold up.” Alex holds his hand out, like he needs to catch up. I know exactly where this is going… Fury catches in my chest, making each breath I take feel like fire. “What exactly are you saying, Kade?”
He takes a deep breath like he’s preparing himself to admit a crime.
“I think Satori is up to something…and I think he has been for a long time.” He turns back to me with fear and anger dancing in his eyes. “I was wondering, after the attack in Seattle, why the hell Dust didn’t just finish us off. If they found not only our base there, but also in Texas, they could’ve easily found us at our secondary spot, but it just sort of…stopped.” Kade starts pacing the living room, bouncing his eyes to different spots on the floor like he’s piecing it all together. “And Satori’s immediate reaction was to join up with you? A small team dealing with local druggies? He didn’t have much interest when you first reached out, but suddenly, it seemed like a good idea? Satori’s not one to give up any of his power, and he certainly isn’t one to say he’s been bested.”
“He said it was your idea?” Ashia cuts in. Her tone is shocked and a little disbelieving, much like my confusion. I don’t remember that topic in any of our conversations, but there’s no telling what they spoke about while I was away. Kade stops in his tracks and focuses on her.
“No. It wasn't.”
“Get to the God damn point, Kade! If Satori is up to something, what is it?” Carter yells, his neck taut with rage. Ashia sinks into me, like she’s also putting the pieces together, and my body starts to hum.
“Satori’s been helping Avery…” Zeke mutters, slouching back against the chair. I can almost see the steam and fireworks billow out of his ears from how hard his brain is working. I can’t say that mine is any different. There’s a lot of unknowns about what has happened, and plenty that we don’t understand. For a while, we’ve felt that something was missing. This fills those holes almost perfectly.
“Why the fuck would he do that?” Carter asks. “What connection does he even have with him?”
“I don’t think there was any prior connection…but after they all but wiped us out,somethingchanged…” Kade clicks his teeth again. “I believe Satori made a deal with Avery and Hugo… Leave Sahara alone, and we stay out of the way.”
“But what does that have to with us?” Alex cuts in.
“As I said, Satori isn’t one to give up.”
“He wanted to rebuild with Devil’s Hands…” Ashia whispers, thankfully loud enough for us to hear. Those words shift into place, matching the missing pieces perfectly. Everything comes together in a hellacious storm, brewing a hurricane in both my mind and body. I’m not sure I can grip her any tighter, but a part of meneedsto. I know that I’m going to lose it, and she’ll be the only thing that stops that from happening.
“Please!” Zeke yells. “There’s no way in hell that Satori fucking Macher was stupid enough to think D would just hand that shit over to him!”
“That’s why he wanted me gone…” I speak up. “That’s why theyallneeded me gone… They knew I’d never stop.”
“That would explain why the logs at the Attic were fucked, and how the security here let someone into the house without notifying us…” Carter adds. “He was preaching for days that you had left on your own—that you just abandoned us. We knew he was full of shit, but now it makes even more sense…”
“Okay, but that begs the question of why not just kill him?” Alex asks and gestures to me. “Instead of staging this elaborate plan, why not just shoot him in the fucking head?”
“Theydidtry to kill him,” Carter reveals. “When Ash was poisoned, remember? We’ve always thought they were after Damien instead.”
