“They can hack anything connected to the internet,” said Kian. “This is old Soviet tech, from the eighties, when the prison was built. No one’s ever been able to get one of these off. Some MIT guys tried for a challenge but they got nowhere. The circuitry’s insanely complex.” He shook his head. “We’re fucked.”

I picked up the ankle bracelet and turned it over in my hands, thinking. “Maybe not.”

14. Erin

14

ERIN

I’d been going out of my mind, pacing JD’s apartment. I’d wanted to go to the base again but I hadn’t wanted to be in the way. So when the door buzzer sounded, I leapt across the room, desperate for news. Danny was standing there, eyes downcast. He stared at his shoes for a second before taking a deep breath and looking me in the eye.

Instantly, all the feelings were back. The attraction, deep and raw, heating the air between us. The tug towards him, the need to just press myself to that strong chest and feel safe again. And he was looking at me the exact same way, both of us leaning forward a half inch.

He looked away for a moment and took a deep breath. When he looked at me again, his green eyes were burning but he was under control: just. “We need your help,” he told me. He showed me the ankle bracelet and told me what it did. “Can you make something that’ll open it?”

I took the thing and turned it over in my hands. Finally, a way I could help! And this was what I did: within a few weeks, I was sure that—

“We need it today,” he added. “We need a day to prep and a day to get there, and we only have three days.”

I looked up at him. “What happens in three days?”

He told me and my stomach lurched. If I didn’t figure this thing out quickly, JD was dead. “Get in here.” I told him.

It took me half an hour just to figure out how to get the casing open. “Cheese and crackers!” I muttered when I saw the contents.

I felt Danny looking at me and glanced up. He was giving me this look of shock that softened into a you’re adorable look. I blushed. It’s just the way JD and my folks raised me.

I showed him what was inside the bracelet: a mass of tiny circuit boards joined by a jungle of tiny wires as thin as angel hair. It was the most complicated thing I’d ever seen.