Zero Days

by Ruth Ware

Coming out onto the fifth floor I dropped another USB and then touched my headset. “You are in a small lobby,” I said to Gabe in a robotic voice. “Corridors lead to the north, east, and west. To the south of you is a lift. In the distance is a tall, gleaming white tower. No, wait, that last part’s from Colossal Cave Adventure.” “Drop USB device,” Gabe said, and I laughed. “A, that’s three words. And B, I’ve already done that. As you’d know if you’d managed to hack the CCTV system. So—which corridor?”

You got this. I don’t, I thought desperately. I do not, in any possible sense, have this. And if I do have it, I don’t want it—I don’t want all of this on my shoulders, being left up to me.