Brainrush 05 - Everlast 02: Ephemeral by Richard Bard Read Free Book Online

as if daring him to try something. When
Marshall didn’t react to the taunt, the man clicked his tongue and shared an
amused look with his partner. The second guard was smaller than Chang but every
bit as tough-looking. His knuckles were covered in calluses.
    Marshall watched the door as it swung closed behind Jiaolong
and the others. Then he looked at Chang and raised an eyebrow. Chang grinned,
placing his index finger over the remote.
    “No!” Marshall said.
    Chang gave the button a tap and a current shot up Marshall’s
arms. His shoulders flinched from the excruciating sensation. It was over in an
instant, though the pain lingered. The guards laughed.
    Marshall blew out several breaths. “Assholes,” he muttered,
turning his back on them, waiting for the next jolt. But it didn’t come.
Instead, the guards chuckled and took up positions at the back of the room. They’d
made their point.
    I owe you one.
    Marshall stared at the big screen, and that’s when he realized
that he recognized most of the player handles in the tournament. There were
fifty-four in all, ranked in order of their overall standings since the beta
headsets were sent out. TurboHacker—Alex, in this case—was in the number one
position. His kill-to-death ratio was double that of the closest competitor,
and Marshall once again marveled at the kid’s gifts.
    Like father, like son.
    But it was the names of the other competitors that ratcheted
his concern. He knew most of them, if not personally then at least by
reputation. He’d worked with several of them on joint security projects and had
gotten to know many of the others during various cyber conferences, workshops,
and other gatherings. One of them was a geek friend from high school. The guy
had earned himself some serious jail time for one of his hacks, but he’d gotten
an early release when he accepted recruitment into the NSA. Three others had served
with Marshall on a top-secret advisory panel for the FBI’s Cyber Crime
division. But the American handles represented less than a third of the entire
list. Marshall recognized others from major countries across the globe, including
several from China. These weren’t your average gamers. These were the world’s elite
cyber warriors, whose combined expertise protected some of the most secure
facilities on the planet. The fact that they’d been gathered together, even if
only in a virtual space, raised alarm bells.
    For the first time since his abduction, Marshall had a nugget
of a clue to focus on. He set his emotions aside and allowed his analytical
mind to take over.
    Like programmers, hackers, and computer geeks around the
world, the players on the board shared a common love for video games, a
weakness that would’ve been easy to exploit. They’d probably been lured into
the beta testing in the same way he had—with a gold invitation that included a
very-cool-looking Spider headset, with personalized log-on credentials and a
thought-responsive system that was levels beyond anything on the market. What
geek in his right mind could pass that up? Hell, he remembered his own
excitement when he’d first opened the package. He would’ve been all over it if
he hadn’t needed to leave that afternoon for a six-week project and then fly to
Rome to meet up with Lacey.
    So when Jake and his son had driven him to the airport, he’d
passed it on to Alex.
    And made the kid a target.
    But a target for what? He glanced toward his pod. The
Spider was still on the chair.
    Time to find out.
    ***
    Back in the control room, Jiaolong
paced anxiously, trying to keep his anger in check. Having Jake Bronson loose
in Hong Kong was one thing, but getting struck in the jaw by TurboHacker—after
being played for a fool by the man as he’d pretended to be new to the Spider
game—was about to send him over the edge. He watched TurboHacker’s avatar
maneuver clumsily across the screen.
    “Why is he going through the tutorials?” Lin asked.
    “Because the