In a flash it was over. Turner squeezed the trigger and hammered a burst of rounds into the Bratva man. He collapsed to the ground like a stretched-out accordion that had played its final tune. Melody Millar’s face went from horror to relief as Turner took a deep breath and exhaled his stress away. The teenager locked eyes with him, and just as they had begun to soften, three sudden shots were fired.
Millar’s expression turned to shock as blood pumped from the side of her neck. Her legs started to give as Trent Turner sprinted forward to break her fall. He swung his gun in the direction the gunshots had come from when the long passageway came into view. He recognized the form of Pavel Kozlov and he squeezed the trigger, but he didn’t break stride. His focus was on Etzy Millar’s sister. Trent made a final lunge to catch her before she hit the ground.
He wasn’t sure if he’d hit Kozlov at first, but that wasn’t his main concern. He trusted the FBI agent could handle the Russian. Turner looked down at the young girl in his arms and knew her wounds would be fatal. She didn’t deserve any of this. He knew he couldn’t live with himself if he let her die scared and alone. The fear was something he couldn’t do much about, but at least he could be there for her.
He looked into her eyes and said, “Stay with me, Melody. Your brother is on his way. Hang on. You’re going to be okay.”
She coughed up blood when she tried to speak, tears welling up in her eyes. Turner looked down and realized she had also been shot in the chest, and her lung had probably been damaged. He felt fucking useless and full of rage. As he looked back into her eyes, he heard the expected report of several gunshots. They came from two guns. He looked into the fading eyes of Melody Millar, willing away the pain from the lead that had just ripped through his chest. He needed to stay with her. Until the end.
“Just hang in there, Melody. Etzy loves you. He’ll be here soon,” he said. His voice wasn’t as steady this time; bitter sadness was now mixed with pain.
He knew all too well what it was like to look into the eyes of someone who was dying, but this time it was different. She didn’t sign up for a life of violence — she was an innocent. He watched helplessly as the person behind the frightened eyes faded away to nothing. She didn’t die alone, but that didn’t change the fact that she was dead. He had failed to save her.
He surrendered to the pain.
“I got him,” he heard Moynihan say as the world swam around him and slowly faded to black.
Chapter 162
The ratcheting sound of a roller coaster being towed uphill was overpowering, and then he had the sensation that he was falling. Suddenly the brakes came on, and Trent Turner’s eyes abruptly opened as he gasped for air.
“Goddamn it, wake up. Wake up, kiddo,” he heard echoing over and over. He could see the blurry outline of Jack Turner kneeling over him, but his voice was still muffled and distant, like a radio station that he couldn’t quite tune in. Trent closed his eyes again, and his thoughts turned to Melody Millar, and he felt an overwhelming sense of regret.
“Open your fuckin’ eyes, Trent.” His voice boomed like a drill sergeant’s. “We fuckin’ need you, so don’t go dying on me, you little shit!”
Jack Turner’s words worked like a primal call to wake a beast from hibernation. Trent’s survival instincts overrode his pain, and he tried to sit up. He opened his eyes. Maria Soller and Etzy Millar were in tears, looking down on him. The last few minutes played back in his head all at once. His eyes fell to the floor next to him. Someone had covered Melody Millar up the best they could, but he felt his spirits deflate the moment he saw the pool of blood surrounding her body.
“That’s what I’m talking about, kiddo,” Jack said. “We need you, buddy. There might be a chance to stop this thing from going down after all.”
“What?” Trent said, still confused. “It’s too late, Uncle Jack. They’ve already sent the commands.”
“I know, buddy, but we’ve gotta try. Etzy’s a mess. We’ve gotta get you to the laptop in the other room. The shit on the screen’s some kinda Russian-commie-Chinese or some shit, and nobody can read what the fuck it says but you.”
Russian was one of the languages the operative was fluent in. He tried to stand, but he immediately dropped back down to the ground. He felt weak, like he was going to lose consciousness again.
“Easy, kiddo, easy. You’re a tough bastard, but you’re not Superman. Etzy did good. He remembered something about the piece of paper the Russian handed Brendan that saved your lives. It told you a bomb was about to go off.”
Trent remained silent and still didn’t understand why that mattered.
“Etzy remembered that there was something else written on the paper. The Shop pulled the video feed from Brendan’s helmet cam, and he was right. There was a sixteen-digit code they think might be the missing encryption key. They want to see if there’s some way to send a command that will stop this, but nobody can read the screen on the computers.”
He felt himself fading again, and then he saw Victoria Eden. Their eyes met for a brief moment. The concern in her eyes helped to melt away some of his pain. She was what his mom would call a keeper. He thought about the impossibility of a relationship, and with that thought he closed his eyes and sunk back to the ground.
“Your brother would be proud of you, Trent,” Jack said. His eyes opened, and his uncle’s tone had changed. There was a combination of tenderness and regret. “He wanted to let you know that he’d figured out who you were. That you were Finger.”
Trent perked up, not quite comprehending what his uncle was saying. “What?” he said.
“You two had become best friends again and didn’t even know it.” Jack Turner smiled warmly. “Ryan was Tak, your handler.”
The words swirled around in his head like a merry-go-round. It was like the animals had come to life and were sprinting around the platform.
“Tak?” he said, still trying to process what was said.
“Yeah, Tak,” Jack said, his eyes now betraying his smile.
Trent sat up on his own at the revelation. Conversations the two had had over the years started to flash through his mind. He connected the dots, and now it was all painfully obvious. He smiled at the thought of his brother as Tak and the times they had shared.
“When did he find out?”
“Recently. Addy didn’t even know yet. Only me.”
Chapter 163
The world was still spinning around him. Trent Turner looked up at Etzy Millar and shared a silent moment of sadness.
“I’m sorry, Etzy,” he said.
The hacker gave him a solemn nod.
Trent looked to his uncle. “Help me up,” he said. “Let’s get this shit done quick. I need a fucking doctor.”
“The ambulance is on its way,” Jack said as he and Brendan picked Trent up. “Cyn, are you online?”
They had been working to patch her through their comms.
“Yes, Jack, I’m here. Can you hear me?”
“Roger that,” he confirmed. “Finger won’t say much, but he’s listening.”
“Okay,” she said. “Finger, we think we have the encryption code. There were some files sent earlier, we know that, but we don’t think we can monitor the entire botnet yet, so we’re not in a position to know whether they’re sending the attack in waves or not. It could be that they haven’t sent files and commands to all of the banks.”
Trent could hear the hopeful desperation in her voice.
“We need to see if there’s any way to send a command to abort the process,” she continued. “They have a C&C server there, and we think they’ve dug out a small bunker near the property line by the highway and somehow tapped into one of the fiber lines leading to the area data centers. Jack said it’s too risky to try to get in there. It might be rigged to blow like the other place.”