INTRUSIVE

CHAPTER 6

It was Friday, and that meant one thing: Ember didn't have to go into work. The job called for four days at the office, three days off, if there were no clients to work for on the weekends. Right now, there were none.

Ember was in the office, anyway. It was absolutely deserted. The elevator doors opened to the floor she worked on and she stepped into darkness. Normally, the cubicles here were filled with people: receptionists, ex-hackers, little fish on the food chain. Most were good, but they had no idea what really went on behind the closed office doors that belonged to Rylan and Ember.

Ember made her way across the space, stopping at Rylan's office. She tried the door, but it was locked. It made no matter to her. She had just wanted to be sure that Rylan wasn't in. She had work to do.

Ember took her time walking to her office. She could barely believe what she was planning. After dinner, she'd spent half the night figuring out her plan of action. She worked through just how much money she would need. It was always a balancing act, in more ways than one. She needed enough money to survive and get her feet under her, but that could vary based on hundreds of circumstances. Additionally, how much she withdrew could be the difference between walking away unscathed and ending up in a jail cell.

If she withdrew too much, she risked flagging the different security systems. She would get flagged, of course, no matter what. But the more she withdrew, the more different accounts she would have to use, and these were located all across the world. It took more time, and drew more attention. Most people wouldn't be able to connect the dots, but she knew that Rylan would.

So she had to be smart about how much she took out. She could be smart about it. She already was.

But this was dumb. There was no other way to think of it. Stealing from an agency like this, crossing Rylan, was just stupid. Most people would never dream of it, and most would never get away with it. I will, she thought. She knew.

She still had to actually do it, though. And that made her nervous. She'd done it more times than she could count, when it didn't really matter. When she'd been hired to steal and sometimes, escape. And she'd always passed with flying colors. This is no different. She kept telling herself that, though she didn't know if she actually believed it.

And then there was the entire problem of getting to the airport and booking a flight. Then she would have to get through security, get on the flight, and get out of the country as soon as possible. It was doable, but it would be tough. She would have to book the flight at the airport. It was too risky to set up everything in advance, but that would slow her down.

I can do this. I have to do this. She didn't see any other way around it. She could practically feel Michael closing in around her.

Ember unlocked her office and entered. It was just how she had left it. She collapsed in the chair. It wasn't necessary to do the money transfer from here, but it would buy her some time. The authorities would be focused on someone working from the inside. They wouldn't be wrong, but Ember wouldn't be one of their first targets: she wasn't supposed to be in today.

She'd also chosen a man by the name of Brad Martin to take the fall for her. He worked a floor downstairs: a perfect target. He'd be cleared within a day or two, of course, and she felt terrible about it. But it was something that had to be done. She'd need someone else to take the blame while she fled the country. She would deposit a fraction - a very large fraction, all things considered - into the man's account, all while covering her trail.

It was the perfect plan. She'd even loaded all of her personal belongings up into a rental car filed under a false name. She'd grabbed some clothes, a few pictures of her family, and some spare cash, stuffed it into a carry on, and left it in the trunk.