24 Hours

5:00 p.m.

I leaned back in the cushy office chair at the desk in the interrogation room. My body was limp, incapable of sitting up or grabbing the next device I was expected to hack into. A cloud had settled in my mind, blocking any brain function. I had no more energy. I was given a bucket full of phones to hack into. And believe me, figuring out the unique coding of each device, determining the weaknesses, and circumventing it was not easy. The deep concentration that the process demanded had completely drained me.

To make matters worse, Raven placed a clock on the desk. But not just any clock. It was a round, analog clock that made a ticking sound with every passing second. I could barely focus when I felt like there was a time bomb right in front of me, waiting to blow me to smithereens.

Outside, I heard voices. Raven burst through the door, followed by Falcon, Cougar, and Calico.

"We got it!" Raven exclaimed.

Parrot lifted his gaze from the phone cradled in his hands. He squinted at Raven as if to get his eyes to focus. He looks pretty tired, too. At least I'm not the only one. By this point, I was convinced that Parrot was the only member of the gang with any sort of humanity.

"Got what?" Parrot asked.

"The location for our final job."

"The people talked?" I muttered. I was hoping they'd conceal whatever information the gang wanted.

"We have ways of making people talk," Cougar answered, cracking his knuckles. I shivered. That sound gave me the heeby-jeebies.

"So where are we headed to now?" Parrot asked.

"The Capitol building." I nearly keeled over. What? They want to pull a job on the Capitol building? I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved!

And yet, what choice did I have?

"D-do we have to?" I stammered.

Raven looked at me with daggers in his eyes. "What do you mean 'do we have to?' Of course we have to!"

I gulped. "But isn't there another job you can pull, maybe one that doesn't involve the US government?"

The others exchanged a confused look.

"Um, no," Raven said. "We need to go to the Capitol building. And we're going to need your help for it. Don't even dream of ruining things for us."

I wanted to cry. I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. I want my mommy.

"I-I'm not in the right frame of mind to break into..."

"Well, you'll have two and a half hours to get into the right frame of mind," Raven snapped. "Now stop delaying. We have some plans to make."

Raven marched to the table and unrolled a piece of paper. It displayed a floor plan of the capitol building.

"According to the information we got, we need to target Senator Nelson's office. There is vital information that we need on his computer. Jordan, you are responsible for hacking into his computer..."

My eyes went wide. "Hacking into a government device?"

"Yes, Jordan."

"It must have a million firewalls and security systems on it. I'll—"

"Jordan, it's fine. You're a smart guy, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Now, Falcon, your job is..."

Raven's voice faded from my mind as I went into a tunnel vision. I'm going to prison. That's all there is to it. I'm going to be caught and sent to prison for the rest of my life. Good-bye, Mom and Dad. Thank you for all you have done for me. If you're not too disappointed in me, maybe you can send me a Christmas card every year. I guess while I'm in prison, I can catch up on how all my friends are doing. I've kind of fallen out of touch with many of my old college buddies. I'll finally remember to send out birthday and Christmas cards, maybe I can purchase gifts for them online...

"Ooh," Cougar said. I snapped out of my thoughts. Wait, what just happened?

"Yes, so as I was saying, Senator Nelson can't know that we're coming. It has to be a surprise attack."

The poor Senator will probably be in for the shock of his life when he finds out that a gang is after him.

"Do you think there's enough time to finish by midnight?" Calico asked.

Raven paused. "I hope so. You should ten minutes after eight. If you get in and out of there by nine, then there should be enough time for the final job."

"That's if we don't suffer more delays," Calico said.

"Well, I'm hoping that we're all sane enough to not delay things on purpose," Raven countered. He turned towards me, his steely, blue eyes bearing into me.

It's like he knows what I've done. I wanted to curl up in a ball and hide under the covers of my bed.

"Remember," he said. "You just need to hack into the computer. The others can take it from there."

I nodded slowly. Maybe there's a way that I can stop them.

Raven broke into a monologue of specific details for the others. My eyes fell on the bucket of cellphones. Hmm, maybe I can snag one and call for help. The detective agency is in Washington D.C. They'll help me out for sure. I glanced up. No one seemed to be paying attention to me. I slowly leaned down. My fingers stretched out, creeping closer to the box. A metal screen brushed my fingertips. Just a little closer, and...

I stopped. Wait, if I take on these phones, wouldn't that be stealing?

Maybe not. I mean it's out of self-defense...kind of. Right? I wouldn't be prosecuted, right?

I sat upright. I couldn't stoop to the level of these criminals, no matter how badly I wanted to call for help. I turned my attention back to Raven.

"I'm making a few arrangements. I'll join you in Washington for the final job in a few hours. Are there any more questions?" The others shook their heads, so I did the same. "Good, then get going. We're running out of time."