Toby marched into headquarters, pulling out his badge and showing it to Sarah, who worked at the front desk, as he passed.

He made his way to Howard's office and opened the door without knocking.

Howard was sitting in his roomy leather chair and gave a start when Toby entered. "What is the meaning of this, Fairfax?"

"New developments," Toby said, tossing a file onto the director's mahogany table. "You have to retract your orders on the acid attacks."

Howard gave a hefty sigh before sliding the file towards himself. "You are nothing but a headache, agent." He flipped through the papers before looking up. "What is this?"

"Pictures from every shipment order Dimyan Egor has made since 2002."

"How did you get this?"

Toby gave a lofty chuckle. "I have people."

"Don't play games with me, Fairfax." Howard snapped.

"Do the names Maddie and James Winlow ring a bell?"

Howard closed the file and let out a string of curses. "I can't believe this!" He spat. "Is this you, Toby? Are you the one turning all of my former agents against the CIA? I am the director of this establishment, I say what happens around here."

"Really?" Toby wagered, staring out the giant window at a clear view of DC. "Because last I recall," his gaze fell back on Howard, "you were planning to acid bomb civilians, killing thousands without even looking for an alternative. You'd better appreciate the risks people like Nolan, Grace, and the Winlows are taking, because they've just stopped you from making the biggest mistake in American history." He gave his employer a measured stare before continuing, "From my experience working with you, sir, I have learned one thing. You don't want to maintain freedom...you want to avoid confrontation."

Howard shot to his feet angrily. "How dare you!"

"No, Mr. Director, how dare you. I'm not the one who decided the fate of thousands without further research," he clasped his hands behind his back, "Now with all due respect, you will sit back down and read that file. After I have discussed the details with you, you will do everything in your power to make sure these EMPs are shut down without harming any civilians through American force, hence avoiding confrontation. Just how you like it."

Howard's jaw worked furiously and his milky blue eyes were sharp as glass when he glared mercilessly at Toby.

Finally, he took a seat and cleared his throat. He shuffled through the files.

Maddie and James had researched every piece of equipment Egor had received from underground employers, including a governor in Nevada.

He'd been smart enough to use different accounts and had bought many parts in person. Once Maddie and James had enough information, they figured out how Egor had potentially put a single EMP device together. They put their information into a computer program and diagramed the parts into a theoretical device. From there they could study the way it could be wired and operated.

Then they chose the most probable way Egor had coded the EMPs to work together. As Toby stood there, watching Howard scan over the information, Maddie and James were trying to use their diagrams to find out which EMP would go off next and hack into it before it detonated.

After a while, Howard closed the file again, steepling his fingers with a slow exhale. "This is convincing," he said, "I will not call off the attacks yet, but I will arrange a call with the UN to see what we need to do with this."

Toby grinned. "That's all I ask, sir."

"But I will warn you," Howards said, standing up, "When this is all over, you, Maddie, James, Nolan, and Grace will be arrested for treason against the United States government."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

James peered at his computer screen as Maddie brought in another pot of coffee and set it on the table next to his souvenir Arizona mug.

"Thanks, honey," he murmured distractedly.

"How's it going?" Maddie asked as she took a seat at her own desk. Her wispy brown hair was pulled into a ponytail and her face was tired.

"Just finished safeguarding my computer," he replied, pouring himself a cup of the strong brew and taking a sip. "DAINA's been serving her purpose," he added, referring to the EMP diagram they'd recreated. It stood for Decoding Adapter Intelligence for Networking Alias, but in reality Maddie and James had grown tired of simply calling it "the alternate device".

They'd taken a two-hour nap after spending a full twenty-one hours on the diagrams directly following Nolan's call.

Unfortunately, that was only a small victory.

Now they were beginning the big task; hacking into the London EMP device. They'd discovered that it was the central device. It contained the program that signaled every other device to go off when it was fully charged.

It didn't matter where it was, as long as Maddie and James could pick up on it's signal, locate the software, and access the data.

On the bottom corner of James's screen, he could see all of Maddie's computer activity as well. Rolling his shoulders, he set to work.

Their hopes in recreating a diagram of the EMP was to make a mirroring system to the real EMP. Hopefully, if they had done it correctly, DAINA was the exact same as the EMP. If they connected to the same network, whatever they did to DAINA would do the same to the EMP.

"Egor would probably use a network that best works for the device..." James muttered to himself, slashing his arrow-shaped cursor over to the scanning program and opening it up. He highlighted the entire London area and pasted DAINA's code into the matching system.

The program scanned every wifi or access network that would best match DAINA's structure. It took a few minutes before it found a match.

"You got it?" Maddie asked.

"Maybe..." the screen said that there was one other program connected as well. Hopefully that was the EMP.

Lines of binary 0's and 1's flashed on the screen and immediately sorted into a readable format.

ACCESS DENIED

"What the..." James put his coffee cup aside and sat up with both hands on the keyboard.

"It should've connected instantly," Maddie said from across the room, getting up from her seat to stand next to James.

Suddenly, code was being deleted from DAINA's file.

James's eyes widened as he scrambled to replace the data. "There's someone on the other side!"

James couldn't keep up with the opposing user, so he erased the data and pasted it again. He found the network and instead of clicking on it this time, he typed in some code to the software's bare technology to try and change it to allow him access.

The hacker on the other side was too fast.

Every code James tried was blocked.

He didn't know what to do.

"Who is this?" Maddie whispered to herself.

An icon appeared over James's e-mail app.

He clicked on it.

A video appeared, frozen and blurry at first, but it eventually cleared up to depict a man in a black mask. He was sitting by a highway it seemed, although it was hard to tell since only part of the road and some grass were the only things in view.

The man leaned back on a metal chair and folded his hands across his stomach. "Here I've slaved away for fifteen years and am finally completing my life's work...and you're trying to shut it down?" He shook his head. "So very rude."

"Egor?" James whispered incredulously.

"Hello Mr. Winlow, Mrs. Winlow." He felt the mask around his face and said, "Oh my, I almost forgot about this...how thoughtless."

He took it off to reveal a face that was covered in burns and gashes. In some places, the skin was healing, but most of it was covered in black marks and bright red splotches. Most of the areas were peeling and crusts of blood filled several cracks.

Maddie placed a hand over her mouth in surprise.

"Oh, you don't like my new makeover?" He asked, feigning offense. Then, he leaned closer to the camera and his eyes glinted with hatred. "Then perhaps you shouldn't have tried to blow me up in Kavala."

"I apologize for not killing you, as was intended," James replied.

Egor assumed his relaxed countenance once again and gave a leisurely chuckle. "Oh, you are quite funny. How is your agent doing, my old friend Mr. Clay?"

"What do you want?" James asked abruptly.

"For you to stop messing with my stuff." Egor sat up with an almost childlike expression. "Oh! I almost forgot to show you two something!"

He got to his feet and picked up the camera he was using. The screen slowly panned across a busy highway that was congested with cars.

People all around were crying and looking up at something.

"This is London!" Egor said from behind the camera. "It is about to suffer from a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse here shortly."

"And they," Egor moved the camera towards the power lines, "Are a little demonstration to those who are against my project."

People were hanging from their hands on every wooden pole, at least fifteen in total. They dangled in the wind, some already dead. Others were groaning for mercy with what little breath they had left. There was nothing but a single nail, driven crudely through both hands, that held their bodies on the pole. James noticed a few of the people's hands had ripped underneath their weight and their bodies were crumbled on the ground below. Lifeless.

James clenched his jaw as bile rose in his stomach and Maddie turned away.

After he was sure they'd gotten a good look, Egor turned the camera to face him again. "This is a warning, Winlow. Do not touch my operation again or more people will die. At least my EMPs won't kill them...you will."

The camera shut off and silence filled the basement once again. James couldn't shake his feeling of utter shock and horror. "We have to keep going," he said, mostly to himself.

Maddie sniffed away a few tears and went back to sit at her desk. "I'll cover you from Egor's counterattacks, but you need to get through right now. I am so ready to blow him out of the water already."

James licked his dry lips and gave a nod.

Maddie pasted DAINA's data back into the program and repeatedly replaced it every time code was deleted.

James forged ahead and was able to connect to the EMP's network. His fingers were a blur as he used every program language and every binary code he knew to use to reverse the EMP's technology.

Egor was working quickly as well.

It seemed that every time James took two steps forward, Egor brought him one step back. It was an impossible game of wits and speed that James was growing tired of quickly.

He needed a new approach.

"He's so fast..." Maddie groaned as the incessant clacking of keys filled the space between them.

"Stop," James said, a different idea suddenly coming to him, "What if we added code?"

"Added?"

"We're just not going to be able to shut it down completely...not like this. What if we added a delay to the system instead of trying to shut the whole thing down?"

Maddie nodded quickly. "He won't be expecting that. We'll have to move fast before he catches on, but it just might work..."

"You're going to have to block him from getting into my code," James said, pulling up a new program where he could create code from scratch. It was separate from DAINA's window, so Egor shouldn't be able to see what he was doing...

After ten minutes, James had made a counteractive program that would put the EMP process on hold. He was only able to add four months' worth of code, but at least it was something. Four months without another EMP blast would give the government a giant head start.

James went back to DAINA again and inserted the code to her data. Just as he was about to sync the file with the EMP, Egor inserted code of his own.

A message popped up on James's screen.

Malware detected. Erasing...

James swore and scrambled to protect his file. He had to initiate a defense...

A loading tab signaled his demise.

Deleting malware files...

His brow beaded with sweat as he launched the defensive program. It would take time for it to load, but it would have to beat out Egor's program before it was too late. Every second the defense took to set up was one second Egor had to delete James's countermeasures.

Deleting malware files...25%

Initiating security software...10%

It was a race of time and speed and James could do nothing but watch the two loading bars inch along beside each other. He's already lost one month from his four-month delay.

Deleting malware files...50%

Initiating security software...55%

"The loading capacity of the security software has less terabytes than Egor's...ours should go faster..." Maddie said tensely.

James didn't tell her that it wasn't that big of a difference. It was just a matter of luck and whose would run out the quickest.

Deleting malware files...75%

Initiating security software...60%

James could see all of his grueling hours of work falling before him. If this didn't work, the next EMP would hit London, one of the biggest government centers in the world. Something that catastrophic would make Kavala and Poland looking like grains of sand.

Deleting malware files...80%

Initiating security software...70%

James groaned. That left a one month delay.

Deleting malware files...82%

Initiating security software...80%...

James sat up.

Deleting malware files...95%

Initiating security software...93%

His heart was beating so rapidly he could hear the blood pumping in his ears. It was so close...

Deleting malware files...99%

Initiating security software...99%...100%

Both James and Maddie leapt up from their seat, shouting in relief. Egor was officially locked out of his own system...for the time being, anyway.

They'd achieved a little less than two weeks free of EMPs...hopefully it would be enough to figure out the rest of the code to shut it all down completely.

James swooped Maddie into his arms and planted a kiss on her cheek. "We did it!" He breathed.

Maddie laughed and hugged him tightly. "Oh, I bet Egor's having a fit right now."

"We'll have to keep it secure...but as long as we don't let any holes slip by, we have two weeks to fix this mess."

Maddie stepped back and peered at James's screen with a sense of satisfaction. Then she turned to him with a sigh. "Now how are we going to break this to Nolan and Grace?"

"They might be the ones having a fit next."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First of all, I would like to apologize to any and all computer programmers out there XD I made up 99.9% of all of this stuff and am very sorry if it wasn't at all possible. I'm always up for critiques , though! I hope it made sense, overall.

~Howard's a shrewd little devil, isn't he? Do you think he'll help Nolan and Grace?

~Also, Toby has built up quite the ego =P

~What do you think of James and Maddie's huge breakthrough?

~Did it all make sense?

Thank you SO much for reading, I truly appreciate it! {Don't forget to comment, vote, and share!}