Are you going to shoot me or take the drive? The man on the floor asked this in a voice that was shaking and wet with blood and fear. Damian Cross did not even blink. He kept his gun pointed at the man's chest. Who sent you? Damian asked him. His voice was completely flat and cold. The man said You would know. He said You are the one who can open this. The man coughed, it was a sound and he held out a small metal box. It was a kind of drive that had a lot of security on it. Take it now he said. Please. They are coming for us. Damian did not put his gun down. He had been hiding for three years. Always looking over his shoulder. This had made him very careful. He was not an accountant anymore. He was like a ghost.. Ghosts do not take chances. Drop the drive on the floor and step away Damian told him. The man let the drive fall to the floor. He stepped back holding his side. He was a man but his eyes looked very old and scared. They know you are here the man whispered. I did not t

Pull the car over now Damian said. His voice was really quiet. It cut through all the noise like a knife. He stared at the dashboard, which was all shot up. He could not believe what Elara had just told him. Marcus Hale, the man who taught him how to survive was behind everything. I am not pulling over Elara shouted back. The police are over the radio. If we stop they will surround us. We will be dead in no time. Pull the car over Damian yelled. He slammed his fist on the console. It cracked. Elara jumped. She turned the car down an alley behind some old factories and slammed on the brakes. The car stopped behind a dumpster. It was really quiet. The engine was making a noise because it was damaged. The rain was hitting the roof. Sophia Bennett was sitting in the backseat. She had her knees up to her chest and a gun in her lap. Who is Marcus Hale she asked. Why are you so upset? Damian did not answer her. He got out his tablet. Started looking at some codes. He checked the addres

The basement archive smelled of ink and ozone. Elara held a scalpel over Damian's collarbone. The blade shone under the light of a single desk lamp."Are you sure about this?" Elara asked. Her fingers trembled as she adjusted her grip on the scalpel handle. "If they find this during the scan you won't make it past the processing floor. They will kill you in the holding cell.""They won't find it " Damian said. His voice was flat and rhythmic. "The outer casing of the micro-drive is made of an alloy. It doesn't contain metals or high-density polymers that would trigger a standard scan."Damian looked at his chest. A dark purple bruise was forming over his cracked ribs."Make the incision three centimeters below the clavicle " Damian instructed. "Just deep enough to clear the layer. Slide the drive horizontally beneath the skin then seal it with adhesive."Sophia turned her face away. "You are completely insane Cross " she muttered. "You are treating your body like a piece of contraband

The strobe light ripped through the darkness. It was like a powerful flashlight that turned the server room into a crazy confusing mess. Damian didn't shoot. He didn't have a gun.. He had surprise on his side and he was desperate to survive. The lead cleaner, blinded by the light shining through his night-vision goggles fired wildly. The bullets hit the servers making sparks and coolant spill everywhere. Damian quickly got low and out of the way sliding on the floor. He crashed into the cleaner's knees making him fall backward. Before the cleaner could hit the ground Damian used his combat knife finding the gap between the cleaner's heavy chest plate and collar. The blade went in deep. The cleaner gasped, his finger slipping off the trigger. Damian didn't wait to see if the cleaner was okay. He took the cleaner's gun. Rolled to the side as the other cleaners started firing at where he was last seen. The strobe light kept flashing making the cleaners look like they were jump