Free RETALI8ION: The Cobalt Code by Amber Neko Meador

Who.”
    “Thanks,” Regina replied.
    “No problemo, girly,” Amina said.
    Regina pulled the file up and opened it up on a screen, sitting it just above the server list.  She tapped her left thumb and forefinger together and dragged her hand across all the numbers, highlighting them.  She then tapped her middle finger and thumb together and tapped on the cell phone program she had opened a moment earlier.  All the numbers appeared in the program.  She quickly shifted her right heel to the left to initiate the program.  “Galatea, any luck with that folder on server twenty-five?”
    “Not yet,” Galatea answered.
    “That's fine.  I need you to let me know when program66 finishes running,” Regina said.
    “Okay,” Galatea said affirmatively.
    Regina slid the server twenty-six files out of her way, and left them next to the ones from twenty-five.  She reached over to the server list again, and initiated the connected to the next server on the list.
    “Hey, Regina,” came Artemis's voice in Regina's headset.
    “Yo,” Regina responded as she started sifting through the new server's files.
    “Well Mr. Daniels wasn't at Nobu's sushi place, but he did go to Edo restaurant last week.  Nice call.  And it turns out that he wasn't with a Russian hooker last night, he was at a fundraiser with a quarter of the region's millionaires,” Artemis said excitedly.
    “Connections of connections of connections,” Regina said.
    “Looks like it,” Artemis replied.
    “That's good though, because it looks like at least one of these servers might be a dummy server set up to slow someone like me down.  Whoever is running the security for this guy’s operations isn't half bad,” said Regina, frustratingly.
    “It's Gold Z Corp,” Yosha responded.
    “Nice,” Regina said.
    “Yeah.  You had any luck on those phones?  I've got a slew of posts queued for his primary campaign's social network feeds, but I'd love a head start on his personal accounts,” Yosha asked.
    “One sec,” Regina said as she re-opened the phone program.  “About two minutes left.  Galatea, send Yosha a copy as soon as that's done.”
    “Roger,” said Galatea.
    Regina went back to the latest server she was working on.  But the more she worked her way through the files, the more it looked like a fake.  Almost like someone had just copied an old hard drive to it.  It was a mix of file types that didn't even run on the same operating system together.
    “Program66 done,” announced Galatea.
    Regina quickly pushed the files from server twenty-seven out of her way, and pulled sever twenty-six back in front of her.  “We have access to nine phones.  I'll start at the top.”
    “I'll come from the bottom,” said Yosha.
    The first phone Regina opened appeared to be Mr. Daniels’ secretary based on the Giggle e-mail and file storage account it was linked to.  She checked through a few more programs and apps that the phone was logged into.  “First one is the secretary's.”
    “Ninth one is his personal assistant's,” Yosha announced.
    Regina paused for a moment and turned to her left to look towards Yosha, even though she couldn't actually see Yosha with the headset on.  “The asshat who made the drop?”
    “The one and only,” Yosha replied.
    “Pass code found,” Galatea said excitedly.
    Regina looked towards the server twenty-five files, and could see her program blinking a success message for her.  “Yosha, I have some video to look through.  Let me know if any of these phones has any kind of open connection to any of the servers we haven't gotten into yet.  I'm especially interested in number twenty-six.”
    “Will do,” Yosha replied.
    Regina pulled the server twenty-five files towards her, and after a few finger taps on her dive suit's gloves, a new screen opened and started playing the video.  It started with Mr. Daniels looking into the lens as though he was trying to position the camera's angle onto something.  As