Page 163 of Fall Before Her Throne

“If we proceed with this, there are no other contingency plans,” he said. “Once the move is made, there is no going back. There are no other last-minute options. We either win or we lose. She either lives…or she dies. Can you make that choice, Max?”

My heart twisted in my chest.

“Could you put her at such risk?” he pressed.

The truth slipped from my lips. “No.”

But we might not have any other choice.

51

CIEL

“Okay, baby girl, I think we’re ready.”

I’d been programming and testing this virus in my sandbox system for days. Everything had to work perfectly, so I took my time refining while the rest of the family dealt with the Camorra and the feds as best they could. It had been almost two weeks since the Bronx, and the gala was in two days. We needed all of this set and ready.

My virus was essentially ransomware. Once it penetrated an exposed network, it would lock it all down until I entered the correct sequence of passwords. Unless Lucia had a specialized code-breaker, it would be almost impossible for her to unlock it—effectively allowing us to demand a ransom from her until she complied.

Leona sat beside me at my computer, with her secondary system set up and running. She’d spent the morning locking down all our networks, just in case something went wrong. She let out a sigh. “All right. Let’s do this.”

I pressed the Enter key.

Lines of code started cascading in front of our eyes. “Whew. There it goes.”

It should only take a few minutes to follow the breadcrumbs Lucia left behind and sink its fangs into her systems like a venomous snake. Once it breached her security, it would brick everything. She wouldn’t be able to type a single keystroke. A message would pop up on her screen, similar to the one from a popular movie from the 90s that joked Ah, ah, ah! You didn’t say the magic words! That was Leona’s idea.

Lucia would know it was us.

Wynn and Obi opened the door to our room and walked inside. Obi ducked his head to kiss Leona while Wynn did the same to me.

“Did you send it yet?” Wynn asked.

“Just did.” I gestured to the code flying across the screen in my multiple terminal windows. No errors returned so far. “The virus has found her vulnerabilities. It’s currently trying to breach them.”

This was my favorite part of the whole thing. I got the idea from analyzing Lucia’s attack a few weeks ago. My virus was relentless. It transformed and adapted, exposing hole after hole in her security protocols. I watched it change course while she tried to fight off the attack, but I’d made it lightning fast. It would spread like a multiplying pathogen, and she would be unable to keep up.

I glanced at Leona’s phone on our desk.

“Any second now.” I massaged my palm. My eyes were dry and my limbs felt heavy with exhaustion, but it would all be worth it when that phone rang.

The screen lit up with an unknown number.

“Bingo,” Leona said, grinning. She tapped the accept call button and put it on speakerphone. “Pronto?”

A string of Italian curses exploded from the device.

I put my hand over my mouth so she wouldn’t hear me laughing. It fucking worked.

“What the fuck have you done to my systems?” Lucia demanded.

The code in my terminal window slowed until it displayed a single message.

Access granted.

I smiled. “They’re mine now.”

“Cazzo! Vaffanculo!” Angry click-clacks echoed in the background while she furiously tried to type, but she wouldn’t get anywhere. That virus was probably the strongest fucking malware on the planet. She would not access it unless I gave her permission.