Zero Day

all wrinkled in the morning.
Clink.
Kelvin stilled. What was that?
It couldn’t have been the dryer because it had just stopped running. Besides, what would sound like metal against metal?
Kelvin had always prided himself for having sharp hearing. God had made him that way. He could hear very well—better than everyone in his family, with the exception of the family dog.
That single clinking sound…
Kelvin threw the covers off, leapt out of the bed, and tiptoed to his door to make sure it was locked. Then he crawled back into the bed and prayed.
This was supposed to be his first peaceful night—
The commotion began outside his door. It sounded like people fighting. Pounding at one another.
He heard male and female voices.
Kelvin started to shake. First, it was his hands. Then his legs. Then his entire body shook.
I’d rather be back in my abandoned building, please!
Someone knocked on the door. Keys turned.
Kelvin couldn’t move. He was stuck under the blanket. He tried to lift his arms, but nothing moved.
He was frozen in place.
The door opened.
“Come on, Kelvin!” Dario shook his head. “Let’s go!”
Dario strong-armed Kelvin. He fell out of bed. He couldn’t get his legs to work.
“Let go of the blanket,” Dario ordered. “We’ll get you another one. Right now, they’re trying to kill us.”
The dim light from the hallway streamed into the room. Standing there at the door, Yona was in a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants. And carrying two weapons in her hands.
“Upstairs, you said?” Yona talked to Dario. She had all but ignored Kelvin.
Kelvin felt so small.
So useless.
So worthless.
He wanted to cry.
His life had hit rock bottom and there was no way out. Everywhere he went, the smell of death had followed him and lingered all around him.
“I’m sorry,” Kelvin said to Yona.
She didn’t reply.
“Where’s Leland?”
“Waiting for us on the roof.” Dario pushed Kelvin forward.
They climbed the last flight of stairs at the end of the hallway. The door opened to a flat rooftop, where a helicopter waited.
Standing on the helipad, Leland was motioning for them to hurry. Kelvin saw how Yona was still limping, and he slowed down for her.
When they reached the chopper, Kelvin and Yona packed in like sardines in the back seats. In the front seats, Dario took the controls, and Leland sat in the passenger seat.
Everyone put on their headsets and the chopper lifted off into the night.
Suddenly Leland tossed Yona a large cable tie. “Put them on him.”
“What?” Kelvin couldn’t believe what he was hearing on his headset.
“Make sure he doesn’t jump out!” Leland said.
Yona tied Kelvin’s wrists together.
“Enjoy the ride,” she said.
The night view of Prague below them made Kelvin feel like a tourist, but his heart wasn’t in the sightseeing. He prayed again to ask God to forgive him.
It was starting to get real to him.
He wished he had never taken the ten million dollars from Aspasia.
He could have enjoyed this tremendous view.
Instead, this could be the last flight of his life.

Chapter 8
The last place Yona expected to find a hacker hangout was near a golf resort some thirty minutes outside of Prague. However, their helicopter fitted in with the millionaire and billionaire crowd who flew there to enjoy life on the course, even if they might not be the best golfers.
If Yona had thought they were going to mingle with the young, rich, and famous, she was wrong. As soon as all four of them exited the helicopter, a black van appeared, and they hopped in.
Only four of them were heading south, with Yona and Kelvin sitting on the bench seat behind Dario and Leland.
Kelvin hadn’t protested when Dario tied up his wrists with a giant cable tie. He seemed resigned to the fact that he had been caught and would end up standing trial.
Yona figured that if Kelvin had a good lawyer, they might be able to shave years off his sentence. If he offered to help the US government or EU, he might even further reduce his years behind bars.
It was two o’clock in the morning, and Yona was wide awake. Who wouldn’t be? The ride was too bumpy.
She looked at Dario, driving the van. Whenever he turned to talk to Leland, Yona could see the bag under his eye. He looked like he didn’t have enough sleep. His hair was disheveled, and his chin looked rough, as though he would need a shave in a matter of hours. He didn’t speak a word.
In the front passenger seat again, Leland was texting furiously. “No, no. I told you. We’re not going to the embassy.”
Leland didn’t say which embassy, but Yona knew they basically had three choices. Israeli was out of the question because she was here without authorization. Russian wouldn’t be considered because the FSB had clearly infiltrated the ranks of Dmitri’s security force.
The only embassy left with any possibility was American—all the way back where they had come from, on the other side of the river in Malá Strana.
“Why not the US Embassy?” Yona asked after Leland put away her phone.
“I think we have a mole in the CIA or at the Embassy,” Leland replied bluntly. “Nobody else knew we had Kelvin in the safe house. They gave us twenty-four hours of window to do what we need Kelvin to do.”
“What did you want him to do?” Yona asked.
“Kelvin knows.” It was all Leland said.
Yona waited for someone to say something.
“They want me to help them get Ulysses,” Kelvin told her. “However, we don’t know if he’s in charge of MedusaNet now.”
“The situation is fluid,” Dario said.
“If we get too close to Ulysses, we will all die,” Kelvin warned them.
“Weren’t you waiting to die back in Prague?” Yona blurted before she regretted it. She didn’t mean that precisely. Yet the irony of her presence here was to end Kelvin’s life.
Now all she wanted was an explanation. Why did you cause Issachar to die, Kelvin? What has he done to you to deserve death?
“Let’s calm down and sort it out tomorrow.” Dario yawned. “How far away is this