God Mode - A Novella

Part 1

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And now… God Mode: A Novella — Part 1

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“Wait, what is this…?”

Brate had spent days working at this particular block of data. The security was outrageous—walls in all directions. Walls within walls, as far as Brate’s virtual eye could see. Whatever was on the other side of this was going to be good.

The crack in all those walls had come out of the blue.

“You found something?” Levelate, in Brate’s earbuds. Not his real name, of course. But then, “Brate” wasn’t a real name either. This was a business where real names were kept closer than state secrets. It was safer for everyone that way. Levelate was somewhere in Colorado, and that was all Brate or anyone knew about him. Brate suspected that data was fake, too.

Levelate wasn’t Brate’s friend. He was more like a client. But he came to Brate more than he went to anyone else in their little cadre of hackers in the Stack. And Brate knew why.

Brate was the best. No hacker, in all of history, had managed to break through the walls of security surrounding Stack at the level Brate was doing it. No one in all these years had ever been as good at finding the cracks and worming their way into them, digging and finding the best nuggets of data, the details that mattered. No one except him.

Brate had a reputation. Brate was a legend. And Levelate only wanted to work with legends.

“I’m not sure yet,” Brate said. He moved his hands, pinched his fingers. He concentrated.