“What’s blockchain?” Liam asked.
“It’s the foundation for cryptocurrencies,” Ruby answered without giving them an ounce of her attention.
“And NFT stands for…?” Ace wondered.
“Non-fungible token.” More clattering of keys. “It’s like digital art. Potentially very valuable if you get in early and sell to the right person.”
“Damn, Ruby. You’re so fucking smart you make me feel like I’ve got rocks for brains.” Liam seemed suitably impressed, and so was Ace. Ruby also made him feel like he had a rock for a cock, but that was a whole other discussion. She was clearly not interested in them enough to even turn around and look at them or she would have seen exactly how into her they were.
“I’m not. I’m a fucking idiot. Because while that was running, I was digging around on the creators to see what I could find out and decide if this was going to be a good investment, which is a little bit of a no-no.” Ruby rocked as she spoke, as if trying to calm herself down, but it didn’t seem to be working.
“I see.” Ace had done plenty of dumb things in his life, including rebellious ones. He liked that side of Ruby as much as her adorable nerd side and her loyal friend side and of course her hot geek girl side.
“You pissed someone off?” Liam grew more serious then, crouching on one side of her. “Are you in trouble?”
“So. Much. Trouble.” Ruby gnawed on her lower lip. “Look. You should go. Forget you saw me in here and that we had this conversation.”
“Like fucking hell we will.” Ace mirrored Liam, settling in for the long haul. But it was hard to figure out how to fight a computer or protect her from another keyboard warrior, who knew where in the world.
“I just wanted to be sure about what I was seeing.” Ruby’s voice quaked. “Before I brought this up to Jordan or JRad.” JRad was her mentor and a computer whiz who worked for the Men in Blue at the OSPD.
“What did you uncover?” Liam asked gently.
“This shouldn’t be possible.” Ruby’s eyes were huge as she stared at the monitors. “Someone is scamming the system. These aren’t real sequences. It’s like they’re printing fake money. Billions and billions of dollars’ worth of it. If this came out, it could undermine all cryptocurrencies and the entire market could collapse. It would be a global disaster.”
Just then, she went ramrod straight as if someone had electrocuted her through her keyboard. Instead of the endless string of symbols flying past, her screen turned into one single image displayed across all the monitors.
An animated mask popped onto the screen and spoke in an eerie, digitally altered voice. “You’re going to leave now. And consider yourself lucky that all we’ve taken for bothering us is your life savings. Next, we come for you. Don’t think those assholes you work with can protect you either. We see everything. We know everything. And we’ll be watching you.”
Ruby recoiled, drawing her bare feet up onto the seat of the chair and flinging her arms around her legs. When she laid her head on her knees and buried her face, she began to sob.
Liam looked across her to Ace as panic and terror constricted his pupils. He went into the same mode he did on an assignment, turning into a warrior who would no doubt annihilate anyone who dared to hurt Ruby, the same way he’d—without hesitation—put a bullet in the brain of the bastard who’d broken Ace’s arm and would have done a lot worse, too.
Both of them looked at each other, utterly helpless and with no idea of how to fix whatever shitstorm Ruby had stirred up. But they were going to have to figure it out.
* * *