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“It’s in your court now,” Eddie said

“Working on it,” Murph said Eddie could hear the sound of Murph’s fingers furiously ha his keyboard

The screen re will this take?” Eddie asked

“I’ll know in a second if this will happen”

All Eddie could do ait He couldn’t leave without the USB transmitter or Mallik would know his system had been compromised

A few seconds later, Murph said, “His encryption is good I’o with the barnacle”

Eddie removed the USB device and took out a s aid battery but rectangular like the USB port It was called a barnacle because it could be inserted into thenoticed

He picked up the laptop and inspected the two USB ports on it The right-hand port had a tiny bit of wear on it, while the left-hand port was pristine

Eddie plugged in the barnacle and verified that it couldn’t be seen unless you were looking directly into the port It would only be detected if Mallik tried to plug so into the left-hand port, which seemed to be the less used one

Now, the next time the laptop passas entered, the barnacle would secretly download a bit of software into the coive Murph access to its contents The downside was that they had no idea when that would happen

“Let’s get ready to leave,” Eddie said to everyone on the co in three minutes”

“He just textedto be lost,” Murph said “Apparently, he’s getting an earful from the real Kiara Jain and will be relieved to drop her off whenever we’re gone”

Eddie closed the laptop and headed back to the stairs

“Eddie,” Linc said, “two guards just ca for our friend in the bathroo, but they said that’s where they just came from They’re on their way up toward your floor So am I”

“We have a situation in the ballroom, too,” Raven said “The woiant cake”