Page 101 of In Prey We Trust

“So… you think they had a rogue programmer not affiliated with the tech industry to code their base shit to make it hard to get into? But why? What the hell could they be hiding?” I shake my head, not comprehending why the university with the least amount of sensitive information would have this kind of shit when Cappie’s system is beyond hackable, according to my brother.

“They sure as fuck did. I mean, I haven’t seen this signature on the Pred-net or the dark web before. Whoever it was didn’t want other chipheads to I.D. them. I don’t know if it’s a pred or prey; hell, I don’t even know if it’s a goddamn robot. What I know is that they’ve made this a multi-day, energy drink fueled manic hack, and that’s if people leave me alone for a few days. We aren’t getting into their stuff today, man.”

Fitz rakes his hand through his hair and growls in frustration. I clap my hand on his shoulder, thinking for a moment while he seethes. We only have six hours until the matches start. Dolly goes closer to the end since the first night, and I have no reason to think that will change. Perhaps… I look at my twin with a slow grin, tilting my head. “What if we get the others to distract Princess and we go suss this out in person? Would you be able to get around this if you were physically at the servers?”

“That could work. I can…” he stops talking and I can almost see the things whizzing around in his head as he stares into space.

I close the computer, breaking his focus so he looks at me. “Gather what you need and I’ll go talk to Chess. He can relay the plan to the others. Hopefully, Dolly won’t be too upset when she figures it out, but she needs to stay here to get ready. Plus, without her there, you won’t be distracted.”

He looks like he’s going to argue, but my twin finally shakes his head. “You’re right. I won’t be worried about her and I can wrangle the shit firing off in my head like fireworks. Do it.”

The drive to Shifter U was fairly quiet. I could tell my twin was completely caught in his head as he worked through the possibilities for cracking the insane security at our destination. When he was younger, he used to get like this when he was planning to break into some big game or illegally sneak into websites he should never be in. He’d wandered around, silent as a tomb until he figured it out, then he’d get so excited he’d damn near cripple poor Chess. After that, he’d do whatever it was and walk around smugly for days. I suppose I should have noticed his patterns and how he was struggling to hogtie the threads in his head, but what the hell did I know about how to work with ADHD? It’s not like our father kept shrinks at Bloodstone. The one we saw as children after a few of the rougher incidents was promptly fed to the prisoners.

But I think I’m getting it now, thanks to the Princess. She has a knack for understanding and accepting us exactly how we are without question.

“Do you want to bounce anything off me?” I ask cautiously. “I won’t be able to understand a lot, but I’ll try to help you corral the ideas.”

Fitz looks at me in surprise, but nods eagerly. “That’d be fucking excellent, bro. I have a lot of… unformed thoughts, and maybe you can nudge me in the right direction or something.”

“Okay, so what’s the first step?” I don’t look at him as I pull off the exit we need for the college. Dolly said eye contact can send his brain spiraling into another path, so I’m using her advice to give this shit a chance. “What do we do when we get there?”

His fingers tap in a rhythm on his leg as he stares out the window at the houses as we head towards campus. “I’ll need to re-configure their door signals or pick the lock to get us in. Once we’re in, the schematics for the Science building showed the servers are in the basement. We head there and figure out which room we need.”

Nodding as I pull into the lot and choose a space concealed among other cars, I let that sink in. It sounds simple enough for the beginning. “Okay, then what?”

“Depends. I’ll get into the server and try to run some of my programs to find a back door or loophole in the code that I couldn’t find remotely. It could take five minutes or hours. I won’t know until I’m in it. While I do that, you’ll need to watch the other laptop I have hacked into their cameras. That I managed because it’s not in the more secure partitions of their network.”

I pause while we gather up his backpacks full of equipment. He packed things, so we’d look like fairly normal figures as we walked on campus, but it made them heavy as hell. “Let’s head for the Science building and get started then. I’ll try to help when I can and if I need to handle someone, I’ll leave you to it while I take care of them.”

Fitz gives me a grateful look and then holds his fist out for a bump. “Thanks, man. I was spinning out, and I needed someone to let me walk through it slowly. Too many variables and my brain wanted me to compute all of them, you know?”

“I don’t know, but Princess has been teaching us what to do when you’re having trouble, so I followed her instructions.” I shrug, not ashamed to admit that I don’t know everything, particularly in this case. “She’s a miracle worker, it seems, because I didn’t even have the urge to shout at you.”

“That is a goddamn miracle.” He laughs as we set across the green towards the big shiny building that houses their science and tech programs. “We’ll have to give her a nice reward.”

“Indeed.”

“How much longer, Fitz?”

His fingers stop flying over the keys, and he gives me an irritated look. “I’m supposed to be the impatient one, Felix.”

My eyes dart back to the camera feeds, making sure the rotating guards aren’t coming any closer to our little corner of the building. It’s hard for me to stay this still without actually doing anything for this long. I prefer action and it amazes me that my hyperactive twin is happily clicking away without so much as a twitch. Computers really help him focus and I didn’t know how much until this moment. “This is a lot of waiting and watching the world’s most boring reality show. I had no idea what kind of shit you did when you’re working on this stuff for us.”

“The challenge of interacting with the algorithms and reacting to its defenses then parrying again is satisfying. It’s like a Pred Games match, but more brain work. I have to continually counter and block and attack while I’m working. It’s fast-paced on my end and the constant input makes my spinning hamster wheel brain release happy chemicals.” I blink when he looks at me with a tiny grin. “I could tell you were wondering how I stay still this long.”

“Huh. I guess I didn’t think of it that way.”

“If you’re not a tech person, you wouldn’t. This is Whack-a-Mole on meth and I’m chasing the elusive golden mole while I smack down all the obstacles. Luckily, your idea about being on site was on point. I’m in one partition, though there’s nothing here about our girl or the magic freaks.” A ding makes us both jump, and he frowns at the screen. “Ah, here we go. I’ve got it now.”

“You’ve got what?” I squint at the gibberish running through all the tiny windows in confusion. “I don’t see shit.”

Windows pop up one by one as if reacting to my disdain and as we look over them, the reason for this type of set-up becomes apparent. Shifter U’s team is filled with shadow students and ringers, including quite a few players who have been banned from other schools or amateur leagues for juicing or violating rules of engagement. They’re being rostered under fake names with fake I.D.s and the whole thing is being bankrolled by none other than the current heir apparent, Kehinde Leonidas.

Why the fuck is Z’s twin running a match fixing scheme?

“I don’t get it, bro. Kehinde doesn’t need the small potatoes money this shit would bring in. Even in the pros, this is pennies compared to the dough the league, the branding, and the franchises earn. Doing it endangers their family’s hold on the sport. Why?” Fitz rakes his hand through his hair, his brow furrowing as he tries to puzzle it out.

“Because he knows he’s only the heir to that empire if their father doesn’t change his mind and give it all to Z. If he reconsiders, a deathbed regret, or Kehinde pisses him off, the league and all the power will be hers. That idiot knows she deserves it and he’s hedging his bets.”

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