Read Down to the Wire for Free Online

cocky sometimes. But it was a funny conceited, not a serious one. It was mostly for show.
    “Before a job I always say to myself, ‘Game’s on. Don’t get too confident. Never know what might happen.’” Wirenut shook his head. “Don’t know why I just told you that. I guess so you know I know that flaw about myself.”
    “Good. That’s good.” TL opened the file. “As long as you’re aware of your talents and your shortcomings.”
    “I am.”
    TL tapped his finger to the open file. “Do any of you know what quid pluolium is?”
    We all shook our heads.
    “Quid pluolium is a neurotoxin. One drop kills thousands of people.”
    I blinked. Thousands of people?
    “Quid pluolium,” TL continued, “is currently under development in a private lab in Rissala. Yesterday, someone broke into that lab and stole half a dozen vials of the toxin.”
    “Rissala? Where’s Rissala?” I asked. Geography had never been my strong point.
    “It’s a small country located near Greece,” David answered me. “It’s bordered by the Mediterranean Sea.”
    TL pulled a piece of paper from his folder and slid it across the table to us. “Whoever stole the toxin left this.”
    We all leaned in.
    “What language is that?” I asked. “What does it say?”
    “It’s written in Rissalan. Parrot translated it for us. It says that there are three data-encrypted messages hidden throughout the country of Rissala. These messages are some type of computer code. The first message leads to the next, and that one points to the final. The final message reveals where the stolen neurotoxin has been hidden.”
    Wirenut scoffed. “Sounds like someone’s playing a twisted game of cat and mouse.”
    “Yes, it does,” TL agreed.
    I raised my hand, my stomach clenching with nerves. “Um, computer code?” I didn’t feel good about this.
    “You’ll be working from home base on this one,” TL answered my unspoken question.
    I blew out a quiet breath. Home base. Sounded good. Sounded more than good.
    “Octavias Zorba,” TL continued, “is a very wealthy entrepreneur in Rissala. He funded the quid pluolium research and development. He has hired us to find these messages and recover the toxin.” TL tapped the paper written in Rissalan. “This says the first encrypted message is hidden in a small ceramic egg in the Museum of Modern Art. Chapling has done somepreliminary work and discovered this ceramic egg is protected by the Rayver Security System. As Wirenut knows, he is the only person to have ever broken through the Rayver System.”
    Wirenut straightened in his chair. “Does this mean I’m going to Rissala?”
    TL didn’t answer him and instead got really quiet. Seconds passed, and then TL took a breath. “That piece of paper also says that one of the encrypted messages is hidden in the hilt of a seventeenth-century, double-bladed, lion-engraved sword.”
    Wirenut went very still. I’d never seen him look so paralyzed with fear.
    I glanced at David, and he shook his head.
    What was going on?
    Wirenut shoved back from the table, and I jumped. “Forget it. This is insane. You have to be an idiot if you think I’ll do this.” He jabbed his finger across the table at David and me. “And this is none of their business. None of anyone’s business. Find someone else. I’m not going to Rissala.”

[3]
    The following afternoon, I pulled the ranch’s van into the high school’s lot and parked in the first available spot. I’d had my license for only a week and loved being able to drive. It made me feel…well, grown up, for lack of a better description. And free.
    David, Erin, Adam, myself, and the rest of Team One attended the University of San Belden. Generally, we left there around three and picked up my team from San Belden High. Today, though, David had left classes early because TL had paged him, Erin and Adam didn’t have afternoon classes, and the rest of Team One was away on missions. Which left me going to San Belden