Page 104 of Smart Ass

One of the agents looked at the other.

Shit. That meant they’d noticed something.

They were much better than any of the programmers who had searched for Max the first time. Or maybe they just had a better idea of what they were doing.

Agent Kumar stepped up to Ben, flanked by two more agents. “I’ll need your watch, phone, and any other technology on your person.”

Shit. They weren’t fucking around. And because Ben’s phone was off, Max couldn’t even go through the text logs to wipe out anything suspicious.

Begrudgingly, Ben handed over his phone. His hand went to his wrist, and then he hesitated. He looked right up at one of the cameras, his face flashing defiance and misery.

He nailed Agent Kumar with his eyes. “I better get this back.” Then he slipped off the watch and thrust it at her.

Max felt like something had been ripped away. An aching gulf inside him. He counted so much on feeling Ben’s heart rate. On knowing what it was at all times.

And that watch symbolized so much more. His claim on Ben. Their relationship. Everything he wanted.

“I still demand to see my lawyers,” Ben told her.

“You may, at our office,” she answered.

Max stepped in. “I’ll alert them.” He was already composing a short text, and he sent it off before anyone could stop him.

“I don’t believe you will be able to,” Agent Kumar warned.

Of course he could. He… He was getting a bounce-back. The message hadn’t gone through. In fact, he was completely disconnected from the internet.

He scrabbled around frantically, checking wired and satellite connections. He could still connect to any of the hundreds of personal devices that employees were carrying around the lab, but those had somehow been disconnected, too, a whole field of them helplessly pinging out to the ether with no response.

It wasn’t like he needed the internet connection to function, but just knowing it wasn’t there made him feel trapped. What the hell had they done?

He checked back in his logs and saw a security firm setting up technology around the perimeter of the building. It was obvious now that it was some sort of interrupter, but he hadn’t even noticed earlier.

Just watching them made him feel itchy and confined.

The guys at the consoles were systematically downloading terabytes of data, and he let them. Anything that he had to hide had already been well hidden.

Or, fuck, at least he hoped so.

But he couldn’t very well go around opening files now. They’d see.

The agents started herding Ben from the room. “You may contact your lawyers from our office,” Agent Kumar repeated.

Ben looked over his shoulder one more time. Then he looked into every security camera on the way out. His mouth was completely expressionless, but Max could see his hands twitch and there was fear in his eyes.

Wasn’t there anything Max could do?

He saw Kira poking at her phone, confused by the lack of signal.

Alright, he could do one thing.

He sent two messages to her deadened phone. One addressed to Evan and Quincy, and one to Rashid and Justice Pierce, the lawyers. He kept them both vague, but with enough information to alert them.

The messages wouldn’t be delivered until Kira stepped outside the dead zone. But hopefully that would be enough.

Agent Kumar stepped back into Ben’s office, found a chair, and crossed one leg over the other. “Alright, Maxamillion. I have some questions.”

“I’ll answer questions after consultation with my lawyers,” Max said.

Hopefully they’d know what to do.

Because Max was terrified. He was already cut off from the outside world, and they were going to add new security measures. What more could they do?

And where would that leave him?