Deep Down Under

Chapter 41

Restaurant Alexander, Vienna, 3:34 pm

The hydrochloric acid began to dissolve the food that was gulped down by Sadowsky. He had skipped breakfast; as a result, the hunger was irritating him but he ignored it.

If they're plan had worked, then The Nine should not know that they were at the restaurant. A relief for a few hours was enough for Sadowsky.

"You designed the program...why can't you program a virus to crash it?" Lucia asked, finishing a bite of diced chicken.

"I left my equipment in the SUV. Which is with the Vienna police now," Giggs explained, gloomy.

Lucia pulled up her laptop, "Would this do?"

"Does it have windows 10?"

She nodded her head, "Yes."

After Giggs took the laptop in his hands, he clicked it open. He logged into the guest account and skimmed through all the programs that were there.

Useless. Useless.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a mini pen drive. He stuck it into the laptop and waited for it to get detected. As soon as it notified him of the detection, his drowsy eyes opened up, as if a shot of adrenalin hit him.

The pen drive reminded Sadowsky of the pen drive they had been protecting. "Let's check it out,"

"Check out what?" Giggs asked, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"The secret, of course."

He shook his head, "Our first priority is to get them off our tail, and then we'll check out the secret."

Lucia was the one who was impatient. Being a scientist the data would make more sense to her than anyone else. And if it was worth killing, it meant that the discovery was big. Like as in Nobel Prize big. Of course, she had to dedicate it to her father. Without him, it would have been impossible to accomplish what she was looking forward to. Andreas had built the platform on which she would climb to the top.

Giggs sat typing on the laptop for a few minutes. "This may take a while. I've just finished coding the virus."

"Take your time," said Sadowsky reassuringly.

"The virus won't crash my laptop, would it?" asked Lucia anxiously.

He shook his head, but his gaze fixed on the screen. The dongle was not very fast. So, accessing the server was going to take a while.

* * *

Justizanstalt Josefstadt Prison, Vienna, 3:40 pm

The temporary base that Maslov's men had set up in the prison had their server's crashing. The alarms were blaring.

Subramanian came storming in, "What the hell is going on?!"

"I don't know! Our server's have crashed! We can't monitor the public CCTV footage!" cried the controller.

It was no mystery how the server's had crashed. Subramanian muttered curses, "Giggs. Wait till I get my hands on that swine."

He adjusted his matte black tie, "Fix it."

"I-I can't! I don't know how to stop the crash! I don't know-know if it's a virus or what! But without it we've virtually lost them!"

Subramanian drew a short breath. Without the technology, they were looking for a needle in a haystack. And the haystack was in a city.

* * *

Vienna International Airport, Vienna, 4:01 pm

The tires screeched against the runway and then slowly died down. Sophia's heart beated faster, this was it. Deception had been one of mankind's greatest gifts, along with creativity and curiosity.

The throttle was down and so were the flaps. It wasn't the most pleasant of landings, but it was good enough.

The pilot unbuckled himself and got out of the cockpit. He approached the door, stopped and then looked at Sophia, "We're up. Don't make any awkward expressions and just let me do all the talking. Okay?"

She nodded, "Okay."

The pilot disappeared down entrance of the jet that had just popped open. Sophia and her grandfather followed.

"Out of fuel?" asked one of the airport officials, who was surrounded by many other airport workers.

The pilot nodded. The man then motioned the workers to go through the jet and search for any suspicious objects, weapons or anything hazardous.

One of the workers yelled out from the jet, "They're definitely out of fuel! A few more kilometres and they would have been diving straight into the Danube River!"

The man asked them to follow him to the terminal, "You'll undergo a security check there. If you're all clean, you'll be free to go. Understand?"

"Alright," acknowledged the pilot.

When they reached the terminal, Sophia immediately noticed the flashing news. A third terror attack had struck the city; the place was taking a huge toll.

The pilot was done with his security check, "Okay, we're done here. I hope you find what you're looking for."

Sophia thanked the pilot and left with her grandfather.

She shrunk within herself. The consequences were frightening her already. She had seen too much movies to know the aftermath.

But that was the reason she had come here in the first place. To prevent that from happening. And as her grandfather had said, remove the problem from its roots.

* * *