Page 41 of Tech Prince Troubles
Even standard NiraTech packages included protection against off-site hacking, and the hotel’s system wasn’t standard. If that were the case, they wouldn’t have hired someone with Rick’s qualifications. Only someone with server access could have pulled it off. I needed to find that person. Now. We’d lost enough time.
I felt bad for immediately suspecting Jim because he didn’t like me. Less so when I sneaked a glance in his direction. He wasn’t even here. Where was he? How had I missed him leaving?
I didn’t have time to worry about that. Taking deep breaths, I entered my ID into the NiraTech systems and set up a full grounding system maintenance check—expedited instead of the twenty-four-hour version—including the high-level tamper tracer I’d built as my final apprenticeship project.
My system pushed images of Sam to the surface. I swallowed. If only we could have more time together.
Next, I set up a net of tracers around the west wing, from ballroom to fourth floor. It seemed excessive, but I wanted to solve this before Rick came in, before more damage was done. It made up for the hours of cross-checking glitches, tampered logs, and server access—without alerting whoever was behind this mess.
I kept at it until my system slowed to a crawl, forcing me to reach for the nearest socket for a quick recharge. Sparks stung across my fingers. I shook out my hand and glared at it before trying another one. The energy flow was sluggish and less fulfilling, but at least it didn’t zap me.
With every check, every cross-reference, a pattern emerged. According to Rick, the problems started before I arrived, but everything pointed to an increase of glitchesaftermy arrival.Why? My stay had been very last-minute, so this couldn’t be about me.
But… there were others like me. Zagreus, for one. The person guarded by the fox and the elk. And who was that prince I’d met at Frank’s engagement?
How many of us runaway royals were here? And why target the west wing?
A message from Sam popped up, but as I opened it, a ping from the system took its place. Someone was in the ballroom. I checked the cameras Rick had reconnected a few days ago, but they showed nothing but white noise.What the Reboot?
Turning off my screen, I rose. Jim’s desk was still empty. “How long has Jim been gone?” I asked the others.
They both shrugged.
“He didn’t log anything,” the human with long blond hair said.
“Thank you. I’m going to run some scans.” Perhaps I wasn’t wrong to suspect him.
“Good luck,” the human called after me as I left and took the fastest route to the west wing.
The ballroom doors were locked when I arrived, winded from insufficient air input. Inside, I detected burned static and melting insulation, but there was no one there.
The chandeliers that had scattered beautiful rainbow colors across the floor now flickered erratically—the LEDs that hadn’t faded out. I approached the access panel on the other side of the room and pulled it open. The cables weren’t connected, and the main switch was turned off.
I scanned every inch of that distribution panel, but there was nothing in there that could have caused this. My fingers brushed the wall as I closed the panel.
A subtle ripple of power jumped against my skin, comingalive—buzzing and stuttering—as I followed it toward the outer wall, where it surged and sank into my system.
One chandelier went dark. I backed away, my limp hand tingling and trembling against my side, and took deep breaths as the buzzing energy ran through my system.
Riley would be devastated.
Even from this distance, the outer wall vibrated with energy, bursting to connect. If a wall contained this much energy, the grounding system was failing.
Another chandelier went dark. I ran for the door. There was no time to lose.
“What’s going on?”
Layla stood in the doorway with a group of humans who stared at the remaining flickering chandelier with open mouths.
“Sabotage.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, but before I could explain, another alert went off.
“I’ll explain later,” I said as I ran past them and back to the hub. Someone was messing with my scan. Two more pings went off before I reached the hub. One of them was my family pinging me. The other a notification that the grounding system check had finished. I backed it up to my internal system and opened the door.
Jim glanced over his shoulder frommydesk with narrowed eyes, typing frantically. Tension filled the air as the door slammed closed behind me, locking us in with a humming snap.
“What are you doing at my desk?” I asked to distract him as I unlocked it—keeping my relief from showing when it worked. And where were the day-shifters? I should have taken the time to explain what was going on to Layla.
