The code a technothrille.., p.1
The Code: A Technothriller (The Firewall Series Book 2), page 1
THE CODE
FIREWALL SERIES
BROOKE SIVENDRA
Copyright © 2023 by Brooke Sivendra.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact [include publisher/author contact info].
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
Book Cover by Virtually Possible Designs
ISBN (eBook): 978-0-6458284-3-6
ISBN (Print): 978-0-6458284-4-3
1st edition 2023
PRAISE FOR THE CODE
‘What can I say…. You never ever disappoint. I had to put the book down to get some sleep. The suspense and intrigue abound.’ ★★★★★
‘Brooke! Wow oh wow oh wow! You have done it again! I absolutely love this book!’ ★★★★★
‘I finished reading “The Code” and wow! Again, a fast paced, “can’t-wait-to-turn-the-next-page” thriller with twists and turns that made it difficult to put down.’ ★★★★★
For Kim M
This book is dedicated to you.
I’m honored you trusted to share your pain and struggles with me.
I pray The Code provides an escape from your grief,
even if just for a few minutes.
Bx
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Plot-twist writer, voracious reader, and true-crime fanatic.
Brooke Sivendra is a best-selling author of more than twenty romantic suspense novels. She wrote her debut novel in 2015, after walking away from a career in Nuclear Medicine.
Instead of spending her days working in hospitals, Brooke spends them creating heart-racing stories of bad boys with good intentions. Readers say her books are like, 'Jason Bourne for women.'
Brooke Sivendra lives in Adelaide, Australia.
ALSO BY BROOKE SIVENDRA
THE JAMES THOMAS SERIES
Escanta
Saratani
Sarquis
Lucian
Sorin
The Favour
THE DEACON THOMAS DUET
The Ranger
The Redemption
THE THOMAS SECURITY SERIES
The Vault
The Traitor
The Conspirator
JAMES THOMAS NOVELLA
Black Widow
FIREWALL SERIES
The Hack
THE ROYALS
Blood, Love + Lies
Serpenti
Valiant Reign
The Last Strike
The Royals Box Set
*BOOKS BY BROOKE RAMSEY
THE COLD CASE MURDER MYSTERY SERIES
Sarah
Eden
Lana
Olivia
Khloe
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Thank you for reading!
Hungry for more?
CHAPTER 1
NINA
Nina Walker should’ve looked over her shoulder as she walked through the front door. If she had, she would’ve seen a pair of eyes watching her from the black SUV parked on the street.
Nina dropped her bag and keys on the dining table as she laid her eyes on her disabled grandmother in her reclining chair. Every cell in Nina’s body was tired, but she didn’t have the luxuries other twenty-five-year-olds had. Nina refrained from sighing. The days were long, but she wouldn’t change a thing. Her grandmother had raised her, and she would forever be grateful that the woman had fought for her—for a better life for Nina.
Nina’s parents were alive, but they were alcoholic hippies who lived in a van, spent their days drinking, and hadn’t believed in education or a stable home for a young girl. When Nina was five, her grandmother, Lena, had put her foot down and insisted that Nina stay with her. Nina wasn’t sure her parents had put up much of a fight, but if they’d had, they’d lost, and Lena had cared for and protected Nina since that day. That was true, at least until three years ago, when Lena had had a stroke and Nina became her primary caregiver. Between work, college, and caregiving, every minute of Nina’s day was taken up. But she wouldn’t change it, not for the world. She was going to be by Lena’s side until she took her last breath.
“Hello,” Nina said as she walked toward her grandmother, kissing the soft, thinning hair on the crown of her head.
“Hello, Ninny,” she said slowly, still calling her by the nickname she’d had as a child.
Lena slurred her words and it took her longer to communicate than it once had. She’d mostly lost the use of the right side of her body and needed help to do most daily activities, but she could move around a little with the help of a walker. Her mind, however, was as sharp as a tack.
“How was your afternoon?” Nina asked as she sat on the edge of the recliner, draping an arm around Lena’s shoulders.
“Good. Thank you for the new books, I read two of them today,” Lena said with a lopsided smile.
“Two!” Nina said with a chuckle. “The library is running out of books for you.”
Lena chuckled. “You’ll find more, I have faith in you. You’ve always been resourceful.”
Nina grinned, kissing the crown of Lena’s head once more. She looked to the living room windows, but the night had settled in and all she could see was her reflection in the glass. She got up and closed the drapes, turning on the electric fireplace. It was proving to be a cold fall in Denver, and Nina wasn’t looking forward to the winter. “I’m going to get dinner started.”
In the kitchen, she boiled water and added some pasta. Then grabbed a jar of sauce she’d bought at the grocery store. She was not a good cook, and she did not pretend to be one. Her only goal in the kitchen was to make something edible.
Her gaze darted to her backpack that held her laptop. She had a project she needed to finish and it was going to be a late night.
Nina shook her head, returning her attention to dinner. She drained the pasta, added the sauce, and fried some meat to stir in. She quickly cleaned the dishes, put a bowl of pasta on Lena’s little table on wheels and moved it into position so she could eat from the recliner chair. Once Lena was eating, Nina ate hers beside her on the couch as they watched the evening news.
Nina hated watching the news—the world seemed to be self-sabotaging more and more each day, human beings doing an increasingly good job of destroying the planet and killing each other, the latest war being no different—but when the finance section came on, Nina paid attention. Markets were down, recession was expected. She noted the stock market gains and losses, paying close attention to one particular sector.
When the news was over and her bowl was empty, Nina picked up Lena’s bowl, rinsed them, and put them in the dishwasher.
“I’m going to do some studying. Do you need anything?” Nina asked, slinging her backpack over her shoulder.
“No thank you, Ninny. I might close my eyes and have a little rest before bed,” she said and a smile spread across Nina’s lips. Her grandmother routinely fell asleep in the recliner before bed. Sometimes she slept right through the night in the chair.
“Okay. Just call out if you need anything,” Nina said, looking upon her yawning grandmother.
“Don’t worry about me,” Lena said, playfully shooing her away.
Nina smiled, but she knew she would worry about Lena until the day she died. She didn’t linger on those worries, because she had a project to finish—a project that was consuming her every thought. She’d moved the money out of the offshore account one month ago, and the fact that the share price hadn’t fallen was interesting. Either they thought they could get it back and avoid a media disaster, or they were going to avoid a media disaster by saying nothing to the public. But they would have to reveal the loss of millions of dollars to their shareholders, and Braith Insurance deserved every minute of pain that was coming to them.
Nina was no modern-day Robin Hood, well at least not on an ongoing basis. But she was tired of insurance companies taking money from vulnerable people like Lena and not paying when they needed care. Almost all of Lena’s claims had been denied, or severely underpaid, for various reasons. If not for Nina’s late-night escapades, she and Lena woul
Nina stopped at the bottom of the stairs, the icy-cold draft capturing her attention. She looked down the hallway, noting the backdoor was slightly ajar.
She shook her head. Lena needed to stop leaving that open.
Nina walked to the door and closed it, double-checking it was locked, and then took the stairs to her bedroom.
She flicked on the lights, dumped her backpack on her bed, and pulled out her laptop, putting it on her desk. She left her door ajar so she’d hear Lena if she called out, but then turned her attention to the laptop. She logged on and checked messages from her online friends. As she’d suspected, the group chat was rife with talk about the hack. So the online world knew, but the media didn’t. Everyone was speculating who had pulled off the hack, but only Lena and Ed knew the truth—because she hadn’t worked alone.
She looked for any messages from Ed, but the last one had been five hours ago. She raised an eyebrow, not sure if that was weird or not. He’d been actively involved in the chat and then had gone cold.
Nina shrugged, returning her attention to the messages in the group chat.
The stairs creaked and Nina paused. Her head snapped to her open door and she leaned back, listening again but she heard nothing.
She told herself to ignore it—it was an old house and sometimes it creaked. But as she turned her attention to the computer, the stairs creaked again and a shiver ran through her veins. Lena couldn’t get up the stairs anymore.
Nina got up and walked toward the door, peering out at an empty staircase. She heard the television downstairs, and the house seemed quiet. Normal.
Nina saw nothing to concern her but she flicked on the lights for the staircase and hallway—as if that would somehow get rid of the unease that seemed to linger behind her like a phantom—then returned to her computer.
She leaned forward, squinting, her focus entirely on the computer, and read a comment about the FBI getting a lead on the hackers. Nina was so engrossed in the messages that she didn’t hear the footsteps on the carpet behind her.
She didn’t hear his calm, steady breath as he approached.
But she felt his hand across her mouth and the cold press of metal on the back of her head.
“If you scream, I’ll kill your grandmother on the way out,” he said, his voice threatening yet eerily calm.
Nina couldn’t breathe.
“Do we have an understanding, Nina Martin?” he asked.
CHAPTER 2
NINA
Nina nodded stiffly, her heart in her throat, her eyes on the messages in front of her.
She had been so careful, or at least she thought she had been. But somewhere, somehow, she’d made a mistake.
“Pick up your laptop, put it in your backpack, and leave the bag on the bed. Do not speak a word,” he warned, his words slow and menacing.
Nina’s heart raced so fast she thought she was going to have a heart attack. She picked up the laptop and slowly turned until she faced the bed.
The gun pressed to the back of her head nudged her forward as he released his hand from her mouth.
Nina gulped in a shaky, silent breath. She didn’t dare utter a word, not a whisper.
“Put it in the backpack,” he said, his voice eerily calm—void of all emotion, but not robotic.
She nodded, tucking the laptop into her bag. Nina needed to get this man out of the house and away from her grandmother.
“Face the door,” he said and she swallowed the lump in her throat.
Nina turned, not daring to look at him.
She heard him grab the bag and sling it over his shoulder.
“Go down the stairs and out the back door,” he said, nudging her with his pistol once more.
Nina felt like her legs might buckle beneath her, but she moved forward, summoning every ounce of strength her soul had. She walked down the stairs quietly. Her eyes were on the hallway that led to the kitchen, but she wasn’t expecting to see her grandmother walking about. Hopefully she was asleep, provided the man behind her hadn’t already killed Lena. The thought made her stomach roll.
“I need to see her, to make sure she’s okay,” Nina said, her voice lacking the confidence she needed right now.
“No. Back door, now!” he hissed in her ear as he grabbed her arm like he thought she was going to run.
Nina squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Who was going to care for her grandmother? She couldn’t be left alone, not even for a day. The thought of that happening was more terrifying to Nina than the pistol pressed against the back of her head.
She should never have gotten involved in this, she thought, her mouth so dry it was hard to swallow. The little saliva in her mouth tasted like poison. She supposed that’s what fear tasted like.
Nina hadn’t expected this. She’d expected the FBI to come if she’d gotten caught, but she hadn’t expected the insurance agency to send men with pistols to sneak into her house and kidnap her. Of all the ways she’d imagined this could end, this wasn’t one.
“Open the door,” he commanded as she approached it. She turned it, cursing herself for dismissing the open door minutes ago.
How long had he been in her house?
How long had he been watching her?
Nina strained to listen for her grandmother’s voice, but the house was quiet save for the television in the living room. Nina hoped she would sleep peacefully through the night. She tried to convince herself she’d have heard him if he’d killed her grandmother already.
Nina stepped into the icy cold night. She shivered violently but didn’t think it had anything to do with the temperature.
The sound of a rumbling engine in the driveway stole her attention and she realized they weren’t alone. The door of the black SUV opened, and another man sat inside, his face stern, his eyes locked on Nina.
She tried to swallow but her throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls.
“Get in the car,” he commanded from behind her.
Nina looked to the street. It was dark and the car was at the end of the driveway. No one would see them, no one would raise an alarm. And she was not about to risk her grandmother’s life more than she already had, so Nina moved toward the car, every step filling her with dread.
She climbed into the back seat, her stomach churning as she sat beside the man already in the car. She looked to the rearview mirror, her eyes on the driver. He had white skin and the shadow on his jaw indicated he hadn’t shaved for a few days. His blue eyes locked on hers and she quickly looked away.
The man who had taken her from the house slid in beside her. “Go,” he said as he closed the door.
The car doors locked as the driver began to reverse out of the driveway. Nina peered into the living room, regretting that she’d drawn the curtains earlier. The light was still on, but she knew that didn’t mean anything.
