Inevitable Fidelity (Book 3 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Seven

Ethan stared at the screen, after trying to log into the system for the fourth time.

He swallowed hard, frowning with his head down and whimpered to Wes that he couldn't break the code. Ethan lifted his head slightly, turning his eyes up to the blonde man sitting on the table across from him, with a foot on the edge of Ethan's table and his arms crossed.

Wes looked displeased at the redhead's whining and abruptly stood up.

"How can you not open it? You are the smartest fucking kid in this damn country! And a measly code is unbreakable... even for you?!" he shouted, strutting around the table to get in Ethan's face.

The red head flinched and started trembling once more.

He was deathly afraid of these men. They could kill him any moment and Ethan had tried--he really had--on looking into the US National security system to try and shut down the protective force on the financial account.

"I'm sorry! I've tried everything!" Ethan leaned back as the man's red face got closer to his. He swallowed shaking his head, "I've used everything I know! I don't understand this type of encoding!"

Wes stood up and whirled around, glaring at the group of engineers in the room. He pointed at Ethan when he looked at him, again, and demanded what it was that he needed to know.

"If you can't do it, then I know for damn sure that these fucking idiots behind me won't either!"

Ethan flinched again and sat up slowly. He sighed, running a hand back over his hair. He licked his lips, glancing at Chambers whose green eyes shot a warning at him. The redhead, however, crumpled under the pressure and shook his head, "I can't figure out the code! You need someone who knows about viruses."

Wes narrowed his eyes, scoffing that he didn't know what the hell that meant. He pulled back his arm and brought it back down to meet Ethan's jaw. Ethan fell sideways, banging his head against the table and groaned on the floor.

The blonde man shouted at Ethan that the purpose of finding him was so that he would be able to know whatever it is that could open the account. He grabbed Ethan's vacated chair and threw it across the room. The chair smashed against the wall and slid onto the floor, its wheels turning slowly.

Huffing, he turned to Elena and pointed at the group, "Pick a hostage!"

The woman grinned, her blue eyes turning on the group as Ethan's horrified face looked at Chambers and his niece. The small child started crying in his arms, hugging her toy, as Chambers winced and looked over at the redhead.

Wes looked down at Ethan and growled, "You best starting digging in that brilliant brain, Mr. Cunningham. Because for every five minutes that you don't open that damn coding, I will allow Elena to shoot someone of her choosing."

"I'm telling you that I don't know! I can't figure it out! There's a particular kind of string coding that I have to learn in order to open it up!"

Ethan, desperately, tried to beg the man to not hurt anyone, that he'd keep trying if he wouldn't hurt anyone else. Wes glared down at him and kneeled down, sneering at him.

"You aren't exactly in the position to be making demands, Ethan."

He rose and turned around to give a nod to Elena. She pursed her mouth into a grin and made a beeline for a short woman and yanked her up. She dragged the woman by her hair to the wall behind the group, and shoved the shivering woman against it.