“The best thing about virtual parties is the lack of hangovers.” Darsi wore comfortable grey sweatpants and one of Dex’s t-shirts. Her blond hair hung in her eyes while her warm breath tickled his ear.

Darwen hadn’t experienced drinking before; after mentioning it to the bottomless pit that was Pon, the Texan decided to give him a crash course in surviving virtual booze. “Those two are pretty cool. The Nix from the single-player game was nothing like that guy.”

Darsi had one leg slung over Dex’s hip while she snuggled against his back. “No doubt. Want to order some breakfast?”

Dex nodded; there was nothing to do until H & F contacted them. The job wouldn’t be possible unless Armageddon was in play. “I could eat.”

Darsi released her partner and rolled lazily onto an oversized pillow that she had tossed to one side. “They won’t pick up the seeds Mongoose planted?”

Dex shook his head, finally able to stretch since the blond was no longer hampering his movement. “I wrote it as disassembled code; until it gets activated, there won’t be any issues.”

“And when it gets activated?”

“It’s essentially a gateway that’s been taken apart; our encryption will reassemble the pieces. Once that happens, the gateway becomes active.” Dex squinted at the light coming in from the balcony window; it appeared to be mid-morning in Geneva.

Darsi knew the rest; Armageddon would ignore the gateway and allow them into the system without tripping any alarms. The explanation was simple, but she’d seen the code firsthand; Fucking Da Vinci wasn’t good enough to describe it. “There’s a nice harbor cruise that takes a few hours; if you don’t mind spending a few credits on your partner.”

**********

Day 5, Geneva, Switzerland.

Ed Heltier sat comfortably on his favorite seat, the open window ledge in his Uncle’s office. He was watching the performance of Armageddon while a handful of techies analyzed code. “Isn’t it just security management software?”

Sandbox shook his head slightly; the twenty-something hacker refused to answer to his given name of Samuel Griese. “I’ve counted seventy different countermeasures built into Armageddon. I thought the name was a joke until we took a poke at it. It’s not a fucking joke.”

Ed kept his opinion to himself; he already knew the security program was tight. However, his interest was in the ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics).

Sandbox was a thin man with a prominent nose that seemed out of place on his narrow face. His green eyes focused on the code scrolling across his hud. “Do we know who wrote this?”

Ed nodded. “The team that visited our office are the two writers.”

Sandbox leaned back in his chair, running both hands through his short brown hair. “One, or maybe both of them is Fucking Da Vinci. This is some sort of fragmented binary; not sure if I can crack it open.”

“Do your best.” Ed stared at the screen, his thoughts straying to Gina Nixon, the female of the pairing. “Have our team continue testing; let me know if anything odd happens.”

***********

“Tricky…” Darsi leaned against the rail of the small harbor boat as it cruised through Geneva Bay. Dex was talking shop, explaining how he wrote his binary code. “So it isn’t modified?”

Dex touched the tip of his nose with a wide smile. “Boom. People trick themselves into thinking that simple answers are complex. But, on the contrary, the code is ordinary binary. Typically everything is ones and zeros. The only change I made to that was to add fake ones and fake zeros.”

Darsi understood the basic concept. A one or zero would be active for a random amount of time; the length of this activation would decide whether it was true or false. A false indication meant that the code was the reciprocal of what it read. The timed event was measured in nanoseconds and tracked by a Dextron-written program called Cypherlock.

Five days later, the Bottom Feeders sat in a virtual conference room sponsored by the Spritzer Hotel. They were only touching base before Darsi and Dex returned to the Hive. H & F were about to begin the installation of Armageddon into their financial management software. The asking price was nearly half of what they were expecting to make from the Yuli job.

Gadget smiled at the report Darsi gave them. Although Armageddon would allow them a temporary doorway, the software itself was flawless. Moreover, the money from the sale coupled with the job itself would finance their operation for quite some time. “Something is going on with Syntax.”

The words immediately attracted Dex’s attention. “Meaning?”

Gadget glanced around at the four Bottom Feeders who still remained in the Hive. “The four of us have been noticing some peculiarities. It doesn’t answer when spoken to; there are times when real-time is dropped for no apparent reason, and it appears to be violating its security protocols.”

Dex’s frown deepened. A troubled AI? “Did you ask Syntax if there is a problem?”

Gadget gave a slight nod. “It seems confused by our questions.”

Dextron kept his face free of expression, despite feeling alarm. The last thing anyone wanted was a rogue AI running rampant. “I’ll take a look when I get back.”

When the meeting ended a few minutes later, the Bottom Feeders disconnected simultaneously, except for Dextron.

“Hmm?” When Dex tried to log off, his HUD ignored the command. Then, an instant later, a familiar black ball appeared in front of him. “Enigma…”

No message appeared on the tiny screen. Instead, a pattern of lights that resembled a rotating kaleidoscope reflected in Dex’s eyes. Enigma disappeared before he could say anything else, and he was forcibly logged out of the virtual room.

The trip back to the Hive was lengthy but uneventful. Their objective of pitching Armageddon to H & F was a resounding success. However, as part of the security measure to protect Dex and Darsi from an H & F investigation, the gateway into Armageddon would only last a short period of time. So naturally, this pushed the Yuli job to the forefront of everyone’s list. Once the security protocol went active, the doorway would last three days. After that, they would time everything down to the exact minute to complete the job moments before the gate disappeared.

A quick shower, followed by a light meal, was all the recovery Dex required as he slipped on his v-glove and goggles before closing his jumper.

An instant later, he found himself in v-Hive, floating above the floor of his bedroom. His buzzing HUD notified him that several of his failsafe alarms had been tripped.

“The fuck…” It was an expression that Dex heard Nix and Pon say several times during their drinking episode. However, no hint of amusement was visible on the young hacker’s face. Instead, there was anger, betrayal, and something infinitely more dangerous.

An hour later, a surprised Darsi opened her door to let Dex in. Since they spent the last week together, they both agreed to some much-needed alone time. Spending too much time together was unhealthy for anyone. Her welcoming smile faded when she recognized the severe look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Let’s take my bike for a ride..” Dex waited while she grabbed her riding gear and then led her to the elevator.