Awakening Book One of the Trust Series(54)

Declan placed his hands on the table. “That might be more difficult than you anticipate. They have denied the past three requests for renegotiation.”

His father’s mouth set in a hard line. “Do what you need to. I do not want those spies in the hands of their Inquisitors. Especially DeMartino.”

Declan sighed. By the time the negotiations happen and if they agree to free them, the Inquisitors will have long since had their way with them, and most likely extracted the information needed from them. But he understood his father knew this. His father, while recognizing that Inquisitors were extremely useful, hated the way that the Cine Tofa used them. “Alright. I’ll see what I can do. But I suggest you look into alternative means of extraction if you wish them to avoid the Inquisitors.”

“Thank you, Declan.”

They sat a few more minutes, discussing what would be needed for Caleb to complete his work and what tactics Declan could employ to get a negotiation.

Once that was completed, his father stood up from the table, as Declan quickly finished what remained of his meal. “I need to go. The Council and the Descendants have called emergency sessions tonight. I fear that neither of us will get much sleep.”

His father left the house, ready to catch a plane. He knew his father was in for a grueling night. But he also knew that he was in for one as well. He decided to start with the immediate task at hand, which would be convincing Caleb.

Declan did not have to think long about where he could find Caleb. He and Caleb had known each other since infancy. He loved Caleb’s family almost as much as his own. As children, they were best friends, and though they had gone their own separate paths over the years, Declan still felt a keen friendship with the programmer. He was the closest thing he would ever have to a brother.

So it did not surprise Declan to find Caleb in his apartment, on his computer, trying to hack into some website or another. Caleb was simply brilliant when it came to computers. His programming skills were unparalleled by anyone in Trust Corporation, and many outside companies had tried to lure him away with lucrative salaries and benefits.

As a young professional, the offers were tempting, but Caleb ultimately refused. The fact was that Caleb was tied to the Trust almost as much as Declan was. His family was all Trust and for Caleb, family came before all. Still, the Trust compensated him well for staying with them.

Caleb had jumped nearly out of his skin when he realized that Declan was peering over his shoulder looking at what he was doing on the computer.

“For God’s sake, Declan! Can’t you knock outside like normal people? I don’t care if you can do that popping in and out thing. What if I had been with a girl?”

Declan leaned against the computer desk, crossing his arms. “Yeah, right. You would never bring a girl back here. It might imply commitment.”

“Okay, you got me there. You let them into your house, and then they think they own the place. But seriously, would knocking kill ya?”

He shrugged. “I couldn’t. Someone might have seen me.”

Caleb rolled his eyes. “Who is going to see you at my apartment? Do you really think there is Cine Tofa just waiting in the hallway on the off chance you will show up? You are paranoid. You know that, right?”

He couldn’t help his lips upturning at his childhood friend. “Perhaps. But my father sent me over here to talk to you about a classified request, so I figured it might be best to be more discreet than normal.”

“More discreet than normal? You are the most discreet person I know.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Caleb swirled his computer chair around to give his sole attention to Declan. “So what is so urgent that your dad has you coming to visit me in the middle of the night?”

Declan rolled his eyes slightly. It was only ten-thirty. That was hardly middle of the night. “There was a security breach today. A big one. The council is trying to keep it quiet, but I cannot imagine this will stay that way for long. Passwords, Names, and Missions were all compromised as a result. My father was obviously not happy about it.”

Caleb whistled. “I can imagine he isn’t.”

Caleb was quiet for a moment as he thought about this. “How did the person manage to hack into our database? I helped designed the firewalls. It should have been virtually impossible to access that.”

“We think it was an inside job.”

“Shit.”

“This isn’t the first time either, but it by far is the largest. The Council and Descendants already have several people working on the breach.”