Page 35 of Angel's Whisper

“What do you mean?” Giuseppe asked, preoccupied with getting his own laptop set up.

“If I do what Mr. Ricci instructed, the people who had me plant the initial RAT are going to kill me,” Ricardo confided.

“Well, that’s sad,” Giuseppe answered.

“Sad?” Ricardo responded, confused by Giuseppe’s reply.

“Yes, sad,” Giuseppe answered again. “It’s sad to think that no matter what you do, whether you do as my brother instructed or not, you’re going to be dead.”

Giuseppe answered him with such an absence of feeling Ricardo wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“They’re going to kill me. Don’t you understand what I’m saying?”

Giuseppe gave his full attention to Ricardo and offered a polite smile.

“Yes, I understand. But here’s the thing. You deceived us, and we’re your employer. Your current physical condition was just a threat. Now, if you don’t help us to remediate the situation, we will kill you,” he explained. “Now, true, there’s a risk that if you do subvert their system, they may come after you, but I can promise you, Mr. Adele, that if you don’t rectify this situation, I’ll kill you myself.”

Giuseppe smiled again, a wide smile, but his eyes were cold and callous. “Shall we get started?” He strongly suggested even though his tone was decisively pleasant.

Ricardo understood he had little choice. His life was at risk either way.

“I need your protection,” he reasoned as he clicked a few keys with his good hand.

“My protection?” Giuseppe inquired as he mirrored everything Ricardo did from an overview point of view. Giuseppe had the ability to override anything Ricardo did, just in case.

“Yes, yes,” Ricardo responded. “As I said, the other people who put me up to this will surely have my head when they find out their secret system no longer works. I need a guarantee from you, your brother, that you will protect me, please.”

“Tell you what,” Giuseppe began. “You undo the dirt you have done and ensure they have only repetitive access to our data, and then, I will speak to my brother about sparing your life.”

“Thank you for that.” Ricardo felt a little hopeful, just a little, but he still wasn’t sure he’d won over Giuseppe. He would have to show him, demonstrate that he was worth saving, and then maybe they would.

Ricardo got busy retracing every line of code he’d entered into Ricci’s system. He erected cyber walls to shield his actions from those who wanted to have the deleterious system put in place to begin with. After about an hour of ongoing work, there was a knock at his door.

“I need to check your vitals, sir, and administer your next round of antibiotics,” the nurse said as she entered the room. Ricardo waved her in. Giuseppe moved out of the way but kept vigilant with his watch on what Ricardo was doing. The nurse went about her business, checking Ricardo’s temperature as well as his other vital signs.

“All seems to be much better,” she noted in the record at the foot of his bed. “Now, I’m going to give you antibiotics via the line we already have in your arm. It’s also time for your pain meds.”

“Not now,” Ricardo countered.

“It’s important that we keep you on a regimented schedule.”

“I understand, but not right now. I have some things to attend to first.” Ricardo dropped his eyes back to the computer screen.

The nurse countered his statement once more.

“Please go. I will take my meds after I’m done,” Ricardo insisted.

“Very well,” she replied. “I will be back in an hour.”

The nurse exited the room without much fanfare or attention. Ricardo was too busy trying to thwart the system he’d put in place.

“Oh no,” he uttered, his brows wrinkling and his eyes focusing even more intently.

“Oh no, what?” Giuseppe asked, not quite seeing what the problem was.

Ricardo didn’t immediately respond. He had to figure out what system he’d run into so he could figure out how to work around it. The system he saw didn’t seem like something he’d instituted when he first put the RAT in place. His fingers raced against the keys, trying to outwit the system.

Fuck,” Ricardo breathed as he tapped the keys even faster, trying to stop what it was doing. The system was keeping him from making a dull duplicate that only showed a copy of the information that wasn’t of any use. His fingers moved feverishly against the keys as his eyes rapidly scanned the screen.

---