He pulled up a diagnostic suite within Nexus OS, ran it to scan the system. Half the diagnostics failed, instantly. Error messages came back. ACCESS DENIED. ACCESS DENIED. ADMINISTRATOR PRIVILEGES REQUIRED. ACCESS DENIED. INSUFFICIENT PERMISSIONS. ACCESS DENIED.

Oh no. Oh God no.

Lane had taken away Holtzmann’s root access to his own Nexus OS. He’d taken away control of the software running on Holtzmann’s own brain.

He forced himself to think, forced himself to concentrate. There must be some way around this.

He reached out to his home network again. Success. He could still access the net. From there he linked to an anonymization service, and from there out to a Nexus code repository. There, a new version of Nexus OS, more recent than his own. He clicked the link to install it, to override his current Nexus OS.

ACCESS DENIED.

Damn it!

He could uninstall Nexus, remove it from his brain. Then find another dose, somehow, reinstall his apps… He launched the command to evict the Nexus nodes from inside his skull

[Nexus purge]

The system threw up a prompt:

[This command will erase Nexus OS and purge all Nexus nodes from your brain. All stored data and applications will be lost. Are you sure you want to continue? Y/N]

[Yes], he thought at it eagerly.

[ACCESS DENIED.]

Holtzmann nearly screamed in frustration. He tried a dozen more things, installing patches, changing permissions on files, editing raw bits that controlled access to resources, writing his own crude code to control his neurotransmitter levels.

[ACCESS DENIED.] [ACCESS DENIED.] [ACCESS DENIED.]

He was sweating now. He could see Rangan Shankari’s face. He could see the boy in captivity. His stomach was clenching. It was intolerable. He had to get the boy out of ERD custody. But he had another problem. A problem that would get in the way.

How long had it been? How long since his last opiate dose? Twelve hours? Something like that?

He was due. He was due to take more. He felt the need for it. Even if this added stress wasn’t here, he’d need another dose soon. And without another dose…

Martin Holtzmann was going to go into withdrawal.

Chapter 49: Caged

49

CAGED

Sunday October 28th

“I hope the room is to your liking,” Shiva said.

Kade pushed himself to his feet.

“Where’s Feng?” he asked.

“We have feelers out,” Shiva replied. “Informants. We hope to know soon.”

“Let me go,” Kade said.

Shiva smiled slightly. “I want us to be friends, Kade. To work together.”

“You try to kill me,” Kade shouted, “get my friend killed or captured, and you want me to work with you?” Spittle flew from his lips.

Shiva’s face became stern. “I’ve never tried to kill you. I saved your life, and your friend’s.”

“Oh please.” Kade waved away Shiva’s claims.

“What did you think awaited you outside that club?” Shiva asked.