THE SYSTEM Chapter 2
Second Serialized Chapter of The System, Out June 6th
Chapter 1 here. Chapter 2 here. Chapter 3 here. Chapter 5 here.
Preorder in digital today; digital, trade paperback, and audiobook (narrated by yours truly) out June 6th!
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Chapter 2
Only revealed injustice can be answered; for man to do anything intelligent he has to know what’s actually going on.
—Julian Assange
Tara was peeking through the venetian blinds again and Thaddeus was getting pissed. “Do you have any idea what that looks like from outside?” he said.
She glanced at him and tilted her head as though he was being ridiculous. “No one’s out there, Lance.”
“Then why are you looking?”
“Because this room is boring.”
It was always like this right before a big upload. She’d pretend to be tired of the whole thing, dance right up to the edge of his security precautions and sometimes even past them, and then they’d finish the upload and be so turned on by the risks they’d just taken and the rush of completion and the friction of all the half-fake, half-real animosity that had been building up between them that they’d fuck like wild animals. And it was hard to say which was more of a turn-on, what they’d just done or the possibility that the FBI might kick down the door in the midst of the proceedings.
“It’ll be a lot less boring if we’re getting arrested in it,” he said.
“At this point, I think I’d take it. Can you even remember where we are?”
“Kentucky. Lexington.”
“What motel?”
That one took him a second longer. The muted sounds of nearby Interstate 75 helped—he remembered seeing the sign from the highway the night before.
“Comfort Inn,” he said. “And before that, the Holiday Inn Express in Indianapolis. And before that, the SpringHill Suites in Schaumburg. I told you, it has to be this way for a while.”
The heat kicked on with a clang and they both jumped. She shook her head. “It’s always going to be this way.”
“Only until this batch of burners and laptops is spent. Then we can go anywhere you like. Someplace warm. San Diego. Honolulu. Okay?”
She turned back to the window.
He let a second go by, then a few more, trying to stay calm. Finally, he said, “Surveillance could see a venetian blind being parted from anywhere in that parking lot. You’re making it easier for them to see us than it is for us to see them.”
“I told you, no one’s out there. And if I’m wrong, I’ll spot them, too.”
“How does a fucking tie work for us?”
She flicked the blinds hard. The plastic rattled. “You’re an asshole.”
He shut the laptop. “Are you trying to distract me?”
She turned toward him, crossing her arms and deepening the cleavage already showing in the V-neck of her tee shirt. “Yeah, everything is about you.”
He knew she was baiting him, which on the one hand was irritating, but on the other hand God he loved it. She was only twenty-two, but so fucking smart. And passionate. And stubborn. Everything between them was a battle. Covering up her tats when they were out, because they were too noticeable and memorable. Ditto losing the electric-pink dyed hair and the clothes that revealed too much of her insanely voluptuous body. It wasn’t just him she liked to provoke, either; it was everybody, though the good news he supposed was that when she couldn’t provoke anyone else, she directed all that energy to him, and the only thing she seemed to enjoy more than bucking his authority was giving in to him once he’d made it plain that he knew better. Maybe one day she’d feel confident enough to dump him and go off on her own, find another revolution to join, another guy closer to her age. He was almost thirty, and though the gap would matter less with the passage of time, he gave himself only a four percent chance of making it to forty. Neither of his parents had made it that far, but he doubted it would be genetics that did him in. The opposition he’d stirred up was far more dangerous than biology.
“You want to do something by that window?” he said. “Help me set up the satellite router. Then come over here and let’s upload the latest batch. And then watch the reactions.”
Her arms were still crossed. She was doing it on purpose—she knew her rack was spectacular. “Oh, you know what I want, do you?”
He felt himself getting hard. “If it’s the same thing I want.”
She made him wait so long he almost thought she was going to say no. But then she gave him a sexy smirk and started pulling the equipment out of her backpack.
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Chapter 1 here. Chapter 2 here. Chapter 3 here. Chapter 5 here.
Endnotes to each chapter are here.
Preorder in digital today; digital, trade paperback, and audiobook (narrated by yours truly) out June 6th!
And if you’re in the Bay Area, I’ll be launching the book at Kepler’s Friday, June 6th, at 6:00 pm. Hope to see you there!
Was taught a long time ago by a very security-conscious martial arts instructor to always turn the Venetian blinds so that it’s easier to look outside by looking down the slit of the blinds(so ‘concave’ side to the inside) rather than having to part them. That way you don’t need to move them much-if at all-to see outside. This works somewhat well if you’re on ground level and even better if you’re at a higher level than what you’re watching.