Hurricane // Danger Days (Book 2)

18.

These are not explosives, Storm thought. How the hell am I supposed to do this? I mean, wires are relatively useful, but not now!

Well, there's no going back now. I have to go in.

Then he noticed something poking through the wires. He reached into the bag and pulled it out.

It's a laptop! A laptop that I could connect to another computer with a wire... one of these!

And just like that, he had a plan.

He opened the door, slid inside, and closed it. It was almost entirely dark inside, except for some black lights on the ceiling. It took a moment for Storm's eyes to adjust. But once they did, he instantly knew where he had to go.

He looked around to see if the coast was clear, then set off. He peeked into each of the rooms along the corridor, until he found the one he was looking for.

There were several computer monitors on a desk, connected to a complicated looking computer system. There was a Draculoid sitting at the desk, but it didn't appear to be doing anything. It was probably just a drone.

Storm slipped into the room quietly, closed the door behind him, and locked it. Then he took out his gun, walked over to the Drac, and shot it in the back of its head.

He shoved it out of the chair and sat down. He powered on the computer system, took out his laptop, and got to work.

Here's the thing about Storm: he was a serious computer nerd. He never showed it, but he was. He had loved computers (especially hacking and anything to do with advanced weaponry) his whole life, and had studied them up until he left the city. Since then, he hadn't had access to any computers to mess with, and no one except Sunset knew of his obsession. But now, this assignment seemed like a breeze.

He plugged the laptop into the computer system in two places to give him maximum access, then the computer monitor brought up some Javascript for him to decode.

So what I need to do is get into BLI's interface, he thought, talking himself through it. He was a bit rusty with his typing, but was typing at unimaginable speeds within a few minutes.

And then he was in.

He stared at a map on the screen, which he quickly realized was a map of all of the known Killjoy locations, as well as BLI territory. Each BLI location could be clicked on, and all of its information would pop up in another tab.

"Holy shit," Storm muttered. "I'm better than I thought!"

He couldn't find the Nest on the map, which he silently thanked Destroya for. It took a couple more minutes of scanning to find the gas station he was in now, on the far edge of Zone Three.

His new flip phone vibrated in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out, flipped it open, and whispered, "Hello?"

"What's your status, Hurricane?" Grenade's voice asked.

"Well," he began, taking a deep breath. "The bag didn't have explosives in it."

"We noticed that too," she sighed. "You must have grabbed the wrong bag. But you're still in there, so there has to be good news."

"Yeah, I managed to hack into their computer system," he told her.

"Wait, really? I didn't know you could do that!" She sounded shocked.

"Well I suppose I can," he replied, still reading over the base's information.

There was a small sound, then a pause, then Night's voice popped up. "Cane! I got a job for ya."

"Let me hear it."

"Every time BLI takes over a Killjoy base, they know there's a risk o' bein' attacked and the base bein' taken back. So what they do is they put land mines under the buildin' so they can blow 'em up if they need to. I think you'll be able to get to it through the computer."

"Wait, really?" Storm's eyes widened. "Holy shit!" He immediately started searching for it.

And then he found it: a piece of underlined text labeled "AUTO-DESTRUCT PROGRAM".

"We're gonna let you be now, Hurricane," Grenade said, back on the line. "Get out of there as soon as you can."

"Will do." Storm hung up the call and stared at the button. Wait, he thought, I could self destruct any other BLI base in the Zones! I just have to press the button...

And he did. He cleared Zone Six first, then worked his way in. The closer you were to the city, the more bases there were. He only had to click once, then the dot on the map that represented the base would disappear. The best thing about this is that I'm not actually hurting anyone! he realized. There aren't any innocent people in these bases. It's a win-win! Storm: 1, BLI: 0! He cleared Zone Five, then Four, then Three (except for the one he was in, of course).

Then he heard the sound of someone trying to open the door. The knob wiggled, then someone started banging on the door. "Hey, open up!" A monotone voice said.

Shit! Storm knew what he had to do. He saw the boarded up window across the room, ran over to it, and kicked the boards off of it. Then he clicked on the base he was in on the map, and clicked the "AUTO-DESTRUCT PROGRAM" button.

Then he ran and jumped out the window, rolling on the ground outside and jumping back up. He ran like hell away from the building, and pulled out his flip phone. He dialed Grenade.

"Get me the hell out of here," he managed.

Then the building behind him blasted into pieces, throwing him forward. Storm landed on his stomach, ears ringing. His left wrist seared with pain, and he rolled over, clutching it.

He waited for what seemed like an eternity before he caught sight of the black van. He sighed in relief, then closed his eyes.