Honeypot (WAYHAUGHT)

Chapter 1 - London

"Downloading now."

Nicole sat looking at a screen as the file she had been working on for months evaporated into the ether. So much work. No nearer to cracking the group she had been after.

Someone was eluding her capture. Whoever it was, they were good. Too good for Nicole. She was determined to find them, get them, neutralise their activities.

An expert on cyber crime, she had been brought under the wing of GCHQ to help with one of their cases. Her knowledge, their expertise, it was assumed they would find whoever was hacking major power installations relatively quickly.

It was late. The office was dark. Alone. Nicole had been working for over twenty hours. Coffee her substitute friend. Needing to slow the pace, but when you're onto something. When you can sniff a lead, it doesn't matter if you haven't eaten in the past how many hours. Your body keeps going. More precisely, your mind. Fuck the body.

Nicole knew she drove herself hard. It had always been the way. A student at college, an aptitude for numbers, problem solving, she was streamlined into MIT. A job at CIA beckoned.

She was good. Very good.

She rubbed her eyes. She needed to rest. The movement of getting up from her seat making her feel lightheaded. Food and her bed were needed.

She nodded at the security guard as she left the building. She wasn't the only one who lived for the night. She made her way out onto the concourse. The chill of the night air catching on her breath. She loved London. She needed to see more of it. Preferably in the daylight.

She waited on the pavement for a London taxi to go by. Only flag down London Black Cabs if their orange light is on, a work colleague had instructed. A taxi with its light lit approached. Waving her arm, the taxi pulled over.

"Where to?"

"Notting Hill."

She sat in the back of a London cab, watching the city go by. So, so pretty. So annoyingly congested. How did people drive through this Capital on a daily basis?

She was here to save this City.