24 Hours

12:00 p.m.

"I can't believe he's sleeping."

I opened my bleary eyes to see Raven and Parrot standing over me. Ow! My side and neck throbbed. I had bent over on my side so that my face lay on the wooden desk. Probably wasn't the smartest sleeping position.

"What time is it?" I murmured. My jaw stretched into a yawn.

Raven glared at me. "It is noon. Did you fail to get into the Federal archives and sites on the deep web?"

Blindly, I felt for the mouse on the table. My hand settled on the plastic device, and I jostled it. I lifted my head just enough to see the screen light up with the Federal Archives database.

"The dark web stuff is in another browser," I mumbled. My head collapsed on the table. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep.

But my mind had already been activated. I remembered what had happened after Raven left the room. I had spent the first hour hacking into the various sites, which left me two hours to sleep. I must have fallen asleep and not even realized it.

It actually was scary how easy—and natural—it felt to hack into the sites. It somehow made the criminal act worse. I didn't want to be a naturally talented law-breaker.

Raven surveyed the work I had done. Slowly, he nodded. "Good work. This will provide much of the information we need."

Don't tell me you're going to try to rob Fort Knox, or pull another really big job. But why else would they need access to a Federal Database?

Those were the least of my worries. Raven motioned for the other gang members to sit down. By now, I knew what that meant. It was time for another briefing, which meant that soon I would be whisked away to complete another job. No! I just want to sleep!

"We need to move on to our next job. Please sit down in your normal seats."

His remark was pointed towards me, since I was still sitting in the chair behind the desk. I forced myself to stand up, no matter how tired I was, no matter how much I wanted to fall asleep. I stumbled to my wooden chair right in the center of the room. Even with two hours of rest, I was still exhausted. It can't be healthy to go without sleep for so long.

Raven squinted at me. He picked up my coffee cup and removed the lid. "Oh! No wonder you're tired. You haven't drunk your coffee." He opened the box of donuts next. In the whole dozen, I had only eaten one. "And you haven't properly eaten."

I wouldn't exactly consider donuts 'proper' food, especially when they could have been poisoned.

Raven handed me the box of donuts and my coffee. "Drink it up. We need you to be alert. If you need a second cup, let me know."

Too tired to argue, I raised the cup to my lips and poured the bitter liquid down my throat. It was room temperature now, edging on cold. And to make matters worse, it was completely black coffee. I grabbed a donut to mask the taste. Now that I wasn't starving, it tasted too sweet and fatty. But I did feel more awake, so that was a plus...I guess.

"The next job is going to be at the Silver Spoon Diner, right here Richmond, Virginia. It's only twenty minutes away, fortunately, since this is a two part job."

"Was that a location named on the tape?" Cougar asked.

"Yes. We got everything necessary for the job, so it's all set."

"That was fast," Cougar remarked.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Now, here's what we've decided. We're going to round up all of the occupants of the diner, including the staff and customers. We will tie them all up and bring them here for interrogations. The people who aren't useful will be released. The rest of them will be detained. Here are your stations."