Chapter 55

"Caught him trying to hack into the elevator."

"I didn't have to try." Calum pricks him with a cursory glance. "The cyber security on your building's mainframe is laughable. Insulting, even."

Silent rage furies in Torin's eyes. The gun whips up, aimed at his forehead.

I dart into his line of fire with my palms exposed beside my head.

"Move."

"Never."

He cocks the barrel on its side, his lips press together, pulling into a tight line in wordless frustration.

"I let one too many variables live. And that bit me in the ass. I don't tend to make the same mistake twice."

"Is that what I am?" I test. "A mistake?"

The gun wavers. He drags out a heavy breath. "As self-sacrificing as ever... bound to your nature. Give me one reason not to pull this trigger. If you can't. This bullet will hit him through you."

I slowly drop my hands, calling his bluff. "You wouldn't."

His lips peel back into a venomous smirk. "I have what I want from you. What would stop me?"

I shirk off my shock. "Because it's encrypted. And your potential cryptographer may be able to decode it. But Calum definitely can."

"I can?"

I throw a reproachful look over my shoulder.

"He can?" Torin mocks.

"Did she stutter?" Boundless confidence gushing into his tone. "I assume you're talking about Gaza's mystery book? I didn't have time to assess it fully, but I bet I can crack it."

Torin muses his assertive claim, tucking the gun into his waistband. "Yeah, how?"

"With quantum computing technology. With a mere glance at the complex data and symbology, you'll need a supercomputer to decrypt all of that."

"Of course," Torin mutters.

"And you have one. Me. I can create an asymmetric cryptographic algorithm that will be able to run a quantitative analysis on every page of that book to decode the data."

"How long will that take? Months?"

Calum chaffs at the affront to his intellectual prowess. "Try days."

Surprise flits across Torin's face. He frowns to conceal it. "You speak, very arrogantly."

"I have the skills to back up my talk... something you seem to lack."

Torin lurches forward. I post myself in front of him like a barrier—he nearly bulldozes me. My hands cemented to his chest, taut with growing tension.

"Let it go," I plead. "You know you need him."

He yanks himself back, then whirls around to march to the kitchen, grabbing the interface off the counter and walking back to shove the device in Calum's hands.

"You have a week."

He sneaks another glance at me, dismisses the guards that brought him in. And storms off.

Calum shakes his head deliriously. "What. Is. Happening?"

"How did you find me?" I blurt.

He shakes his head again, this time like he's trying to clear the cloud in his mind. "Uh...I followed you?"

My face warps instantly. "Impossible."

"A word only found in the dictionary of fools. You taught me that." His eyes glide down to my bare chest. "When you were in the hospital after Sidorov... your mom never left your side, waiting days for you to wake up. One time when she was passed out, I took off your necklace, deconstructed it and installed an embedded geo tracker."

My jaw loosens. "... What?"

"The reason it took so long is that of signal inference, which inhibited me from locking down a precise destination. It kept rerouting me, pinpointing to different locations: the Pacific Ocean, Osaka Japan and Saruga bay. Then it went dead. Harlow refused to help me, so I followed it blindly until I got an exact pinpoint on Berlin, Germany. So, I came."

My eyes scan his entire length, my mind failing miserably to comprehend the magnitude.

"You did that... all for me?"

"I've been searching for you for months." He comes to me again and gently grasps my face, placing one hand on my jaw, tipping my head up, compelling me to look into his eyes. A haven of empyrean blue. "Are you joking, kid? You're my entire world. There's no me without you."

I look down. He leans his forehead against mine.

"And who was that jackass?"

I burst into a short laugh. "Torin, Orian's brother."

He lifts his head, brows crumpling. "That's him..." he nods sharply, "no, he looks exactly how he sounds."

I draw away from him, ambling toward the lounge. "I'm guessing you have luggage somewhere?"

"I was going to say it's at a snazzy, upscale hotel, but looking at this mega penthouse...I'll just say it's holed up in some dirt-cheap motel."

I smile to myself, bending over to retrieve the journal on the long couch. "I'm sure I can talk Torin into letting you fetch them or have one of his men fetch it for you."

"Talk Torin into doing something for you," he rephrases cynically. "You sound like my mom anytime I needed her to get my dad to buy me any random shit."

I slap the journal on his chest.

He takes it with a dramatic oomph. "What's this?" holding both the journal and the device.

"Gaza's book...I... got rid of it, remember?" My eyes survey the vast, vacant expanse. "Only reason I'm not dead is because Orian wanted that book, too. Apparently, it's not just Gaza's ledger where he documented every illicit transaction or black-market dealing. It's also part of four other books."

His confounded expression implores for further explanation. So I tell him all I know about Magnus Quinque, catching him up with everything significant, that's happened relating to the revelation of its discovery.

He gives me a dumbfounded look, nodding awkwardly. "That sounds like science fiction—shadow fiction—a new genre of absurdity. Why would someone record that? And who or what entity authored something with earth-shattering secrets as that and entrusted to... five other bearers? One is a powerful drug lord. Who knows who the other four are?"

"It's Pandora's box. The who, the way and what is unknown to all of us. Which is why Torin needed me, but now he needs you to decode it. I don't know what else you'll find. That's if you can really crack it."

He holds up both items implicitly. "Even if I do... what would stop Mr COO from tying loose ends?"

There's still much I have to tell him. "Look, don't worry about that. Just see if you can decrypt that book. I know it's not your forte, but there's nothing too difficult for you."

"The last time you said something like that to me, you forced me to help you to steal from Gaza."

I raise a limp shoulder. "At least he isn't a problem anymore..."

"How is a world-renown cartel boss not a problem?"

"He's dead," I snap.