Chapter 4

Meghan's POV:

I handed Karen's phone to her and went back to the ward, back to my duties. An hour later she could not be reached. I had gone down to the car park to see if I could find her there but neither she nor her car was in sight.

A patient had been rushed in and her attention was needed. I tried calling but she must have put off her phone. Could it be that her fiancé asked her to come?

Karen and I were not close but she would never end her shift without bidding goodnight less than leave in the middle of a shift.

I had called a detective to allay my fears and he had said not to worry. In the early hours of the morning, I could no longer keep my peace and decided to go to the station myself.

He asked a few questions and I told him about the call from her fiancé. He then proceeded to call him and told me they had a little disagreement and Karen must have been just pissed off.

"Detective, I know you don't believe that either. Think about it. Is that a logical reason for her to leave like that?"

"Ma'am, I think you worry too much. Go home and she'll show up at work this evening." Perhaps he was right.

I worried too much. He said he could only file for a missing person if she could not be seen in the next 24 hours.

"Doctor Luke, good evening," I greeted hopeful.

"Nurse Meghan, welcome. You're early today," he noted.

"Yes. How was your shift?"

"It was calm."

"Has Doctor Karen arrived yet?" I ask.

"Not yet, she might be running late today. I mean, we all know how much of a latecomer she is," he said smiling. I wished I could believe that.

"I'll just go in and change," I replied heading to the Nurse's station.

No need to panic. Karen is fine, I assured myself. She might just want some space. I could go to the detective tomorrow morning if I still do not feel right about it, I thought to myself.

Karen's POV:

Opening my eyes, I thought I had dozed off in my office. The first thing I saw was the computers and I was brought back to reality. The reality was that I had been abducted and had just shot and killed a man.

"The doctor is awake," one of the guys had said. Only then did I realize what had happened. I must have fainted. It must be because I was so new to all of this, I thought.

"Any last words before I send you to your final resting place?"

"Please, let me live. My mom would die of a heart attack if she could not see her daughter. I have a fiancé. We are to be wedded in about 3 weeks from now," I begged. And I could see that my words did not affect him whatsoever.

"I can stay here. I can do whatever you want. I can cook, clean, do the dishes, and treat you and your boys should you need medical help. And look, your bullet wound is still infected. You need me to help you with that so it does not spread," I continued. Yet, nothing. He was silent.

"Is that all?" He asked. All I had said he feigned deaf to, so cold-hearted.

How could one be so dead to conscience? He certainly has reached the stage of no return.

Closing my eyes with clenched fists, I said, "The program they have been trying to decipher. I can do it. They have been using the wrong function."

Opening my eyes with my fists still tightened, I could see a change in his facial expression. He looked surprised or impressed. I could not tell.

"Give it to her," he said, motioning to one of the guys to pass me his PC.

Within a couple of seconds, I had deciphered and handed them back to him. This time, I could not read him because he had a blank expression on his face. I muttered silent prayers hoping this was enough to save my life.

Programming and Ethical hacking were some of the things I had taken up while in college to help foot some of my bills. It was my alternative to sorting out the miscellaneous bills.

"I see you are good and fast at this too. Let's test how very effective you can be and this will determine if you live or..." He ended his sentence with a snap of his fingers.

"Get me my PC," he said to one of the guys.

"Here, hack into this," he said, handing me a laptop.

"But this is the CIA's. You know they have the very best programmers build this for them so it will be very difficult to hack into," I said. This was not going exactly as I had hoped.

"Can you do it or not?" He asked, cocking his gun.

"I can just say that I will need time."

"You have 30 seconds."

"30 seconds would not be enough for me to..."

"28 seconds," he continued, cutting me short and having his gun pointed at my head.

How could I concentrate with a gun pointed to my head and surrounded by his guys? Everyone was anxiously watching me work with my shaking fingers. They were waiting to see the miracle I could perform.

I began to sweat profusely. This was the second time I had tried hacking in and it showed the same result: ACCESS DENIED boldly written in red. I had to try another method soon.

"20 seconds left," he said, showing no emotions.

My heart rate increased. Two more times and I was still being denied access. This was a trap from the devil himself, believe me. He knew I could not hack in yet led me straight into it. The CIA would not carelessly leave bugs for a miniature hacker like me to find.

I could see something... I found a loophole, there was a bug.

"10, 9, 8, 6, 5, 4..." He started. He was counting it down to when my time would be up. He seemed to love it, watching me sweat and shake with fear.

"Wait!" I shouted. I must admit, it was rather too loud.