Read Reach For the Spy for Free Online

conveniently omitted from the sim,”
I hastened to reassure him as he glanced anxiously around.
    “I’m pretty much a city
boy,” Spider admitted. “Wilderness makes me nervous.”
    We stood in silence for
a few moments, and then I stretched and sighed. “Well, I guess I’d
better get to work.” I let the simulation fade to the network’s
white void. A few minutes later, I was absorbed in files.
    Spider and I worked
steadily, decrypting and recording the data. The files we’d
selected at random didn’t seem important to me, but Spider insisted
we had to go through the documents completely to make sure we
weren’t missing anything.
    The back of my neck was
beginning to ache when there was a sudden blip in the network, and
a small stab of pain knifed behind my eyes.
    I sprang up. “Time to
get out.”
    Spider frowned up at me
in confusion. “Okay. Do you need a break?”
    “No, Kane just
signalled me. Didn’t you... Oh, no, I guess you wouldn’t have
noticed it. That’s just me and the network key.”
    “You’d better go, then.
I’ll come, too.”
    We made our way rapidly
back to the virtual portal. “You go first,” I told him. “I’m going
to step through nice and slow.”
    “Good,” he agreed. “I
don’t want to see you thrash around in agony ever again.”
    He vanished through the
portal, and I stepped unhurriedly through it behind him.
    The usual pain crashed
through my head, and I grunted and jerked into a ball, wrapping my
arms over my throbbing skull. I breathed slowly and deeply until I
could open my eyes without wincing.
    I straightened up. “You
rang?” I inquired.
    “Quitting time,” Kane
said cheerfully.
    “Really?” I peered at
my watch. “Holy crap, it’s nearly six o’clock. Time flies when
you’re having fun.” I turned to Spider. “See, I told you it
wouldn’t bother me to be underground as long as I was in the
network.”
    “We’ll need to come up
with a more efficient solution than this, though,” Kane said. “It’s
not a productive use of time for me to sit here doing nothing but
holding the signalling device.”
    “Right. I didn’t think
of that.” Spider frowned for a second, and then his face cleared.
“No problem. Aydan can go into the network, and I’ll work
externally. We can still communicate through the network interface,
but I’ll be here with her physical body so I can signal her if
necessary.”
    “That’ll work,” Kane
agreed. “Aydan, what are your plans for tomorrow?”
    “I have to be at the
Silverside Hotel at nine, at Blue Eddy’s at eleven, and then I’m
due at Up & Coming at one. I could be here by two-thirty.”
    “Does that work for
you?” Kane addressed Spider.
    “I can work with
that.”
    “Okay, then, I’m out of
here. See you tomorrow.” I made a beeline for the door, feeling the
oppressive weight of tons of concrete hovering over my head again.
This time I made it into the lobby without hyperventilating. I
turned in my security fob at the desk and went outside, blinking in
the sudden glare of sunshine and heat.
    I slid into the
oven-like interior of my car and pressed my back into the dark
upholstery, closing my eyes while the heat seeped into my bones. A
long breath leaked out of me, tension easing from my shoulders.
    “Are you all
right?”
    My body spasmed with
shock at the sound of Kane’s voice and my eyes flew open to meet
his concerned gaze as he leaned in the open driver’s door.
    “I was, before you gave
me a heart attack,” I stammered.
    “Sorry.” He met my eyes
seriously. “I just wanted to tell you that you did a great job
today. I know what it took for you to do that.”
    I felt a flush on my
face that wasn’t related to the heat of the car. “Thanks.”
    “You’re welcome. See
you tomorrow.”
    He strode away, and I
listlessly reached for the ignition. With the strain of the day
lifted, my muscles felt like wet dishrags. I drove home on
autopilot and stumbled into my overheated house with my