The Two Towers by Jamie A. Waters Page A

trader.”
    “Kayla!” Veridian stared at her in shock.
    “What?” she asked, feigning ignorance. “He’s got these amazing eyes. And his body…Oh man, I want to bite his ass.” She let out a dreamy sigh.
    Veridian threw a shirt at her in disgust and she laughed. Unable to resist teasing him, she added, “Don’t get me started about the way he kisses.”
    “I left you for one night!”
    “Yeah, but nothing happened last night. I fell asleep.” Unfortunately.
    “Then when did you…Oh…” Veridian said as a thought crossed his mind. “That’s why you didn’t kick his ass that day he paid off Leo to keep you above ground.”
    “Yeah, he distracted me.” Kayla bit her lip, thinking of that day. The man wreaked havoc on her senses. “I really like him, V. There's something about him. It feels like he actually sees me. I haven't felt that way in a long time.”
    Veridian's brow furrowed and he sat down next to her. His voice turned serious. “Kayla, tread carefully. There’s no future with him. At some point, he’s going to go back and live in those towers. This is temporary for him. Not only that, but he’s technically our boss now. If things go bad with him or you piss him off, we’re stuck.”
    Kayla looked away, knowing he was right. Yet, she wasn't willing to dismiss her feelings based on some future possibility. It might not be the practical thing to do, but she knew better than anyone how short life could be. She might as well live her life to the fullest. There might not be a tomorrow.
    With a weak smile, she asked, “When have you ever known me to do anything sensible?”
    He shook his head and sighed. They both knew there was no good answer to that question.

 

Chapter Six
     
    Kayla stared at the monitor in amazement. The security system in Carl’s base was more sophisticated than she first guessed. There were numerous seemingly independent layers actually overlapping each other to create a complex web.
    Her fingers flew across the screen. Fascinated by the intricacies of the design, she shifted through yet another layer and admired the way it aligned with its predecessor. She pulled up another monitor to line up the two layers side by side. There were definitely some security holes, but she could fix them.
    She marked off the vulnerable areas and shifted the screen to pull up the next layer. Once she had them mapped out, she would work on reinforcing those areas. But she wanted to see what she was up against first.
    Cruncher leaned over and asked, “What was wrong with that last one?”
    She pulled the previous layer back up and pointed to the areas she had isolated. “You’ve got some holes in your system, pal. It’s leaking like a sieve.”
    “Shit, you’re right.”
    “It’s not that bad. This is actually a sweet system. Who designed it?”
    “OmniLab. But I made a few tweaks. Unfortunately, Ramiro’s security is similar. He’ll be familiar with the ins and outs.”
    Kayla’s eyes glinted mischievously. “Oh, really?”
    Cruncher nodded. “Yeah. The system was designed more to protect against ruin rats and other troublemakers. Traders don’t usually go up against traders.”
    Kayla pulled out her comlink and scrolled through her files. “When I scouted Ramiro’s base a year ago, I had to analyze his system. I didn’t bother with his security system because it would have taken way too long, but I did get down and dirty with the base maintenance and monitoring systems. They weren’t well protected.”
    “What are you saying?”
    “You can circumvent the security by going through the maintenance and monitoring systems. Your security system isn’t linked to everything. We need to fix that.”
    Kayla located the file she was looking for and uploaded it. She displayed the code on the screen. “I can make a few changes to this to link them together. I’ll essentially add another layer, rather than modifying the existing ones. I still need to plug those other holes, but