The Cyber Twins novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Forged Lines

I didn't tell Nico about the drive.

I told myself I would do it at breakfast, then at lunch, then when he wasn't running on three hours of sleep.

By noon the next day, I had lost my nerve and found my reason.

My phone buzzed in the studio, where I was gluing a new spine onto the 1911 ledger.

It was Gia.

*Come to the house. Now. Don't talk to Jillian.*

I left the glue brush in the pot and ran.

Gia's office was dark except for the pink desk lamp.

She sat behind the desk with her laptop open and her face the color of paper.

"Look at this," she said.

I looked.

It was the dock server's access log, the same one I had read the day before.

But now there were new lines, dated the week before, and every line carried Gia's login.

*G. Sabatini. Elizabeth ledger server. Export, 11:13 p.m.*

*G. Sabatini. Manifest file copy to external drive, 11:16 p.m.*

*G. Sabatini. Access key issued, 11:19 p.m.*

"I never touched that server in my life," Gia said. "I don't even know my password. The front desk resets it."

"I believe you."

"My father is going to see this by lunch. Jillian just forwarded it to him. She sent me the same link, with a heart on it."

"A heart."

"A little red heart. *Thought you should know before he does.*"

I pulled the laptop toward me and started reading.

I read fast, because I had to.

The lines looked perfect.

That was the first thing wrong with them.

Real logs are messy. They have gaps and retries and a stray timeout where a person got a coffee.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Cyber Twins from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.