Avery chewed on the end of her pencil, staring at the computer screen in deep concentration. This particular firewall was proving to be trickier than she had previously thought. She typed another code and entered it, but nothing changed. She sighed and leaned back in her chair, balancing it on two legs. It figured. This wasn’t the first time Daggers had struck against this particular company. It only made sense that they would strengthen the barrier to keep her out. She smirked. Her name had spread far and wide as the most wanted hacker in the country and, as far as she knew, the world. Still, the efforts made to halt her progress were done in vain. It only took her fifteen more minutes to break through the firewall.

Avery copied down the information her client wanted onto a flash drive, and then entered a few more codes to erase her digital footprint. She ejected the drive and shut down her computer. The company would never know she was ever there. That is, until her client published the content of the flash drive in his news article.

While she wasn’t always confident in the “good intentions” of the people who hired her, Avery felt good about this particular client. He had explained that he wanted her to help him expose the company for fraud and misrepresentation. Often times, statements like these were just lies people told to try and convince the infamous hacker to help them meet their own greedy ends, but she could hear the sincerity in this man’s voice when they discussed the assignment over the phone. Someone dear to him had been a victim of the avaricious company, and this was his way of getting revenge. Avery believed him.

She wiped her fingerprints off the flash drive with an old cloth and slipped it into a Ziploc bag. She did believe the man had good intentions to stop the company, but there was no telling if he would turn around and try to get her arrested once he was finished with her. Better safe than sorry. Using gloved hands, Avery put the bag into the pocket of her leather jacket and stood up to go deliver it. She had made prior arrangements to meet with her client at 6:00PM. Looking at her watch, it was 5:28PM now. The designated meeting place was about half an hour from her apartment, so she would make it on time if she left right away.

Her phone suddenly went off and she jumped slightly. How odd. She wasn’t expecting anyone to call her that day. Perhaps it was the client trying to reschedule their meeting time or check her progress in retrieving the wanted information. She checked the caller ID, but it was an unknown number. She raised her brow in amusement. A new client, perhaps? She lifted the phone to her ear.

“He—” Avery started to speak, but was interrupted immediately by the person on the other end of the line.

[b]“Walk to your window and open it. Fail to do this within the next ten seconds and you will die.”[/b]

The anonymous caller hung up. A death threat? Now this was getting interesting. Avery stepped over to her window and slid the pane of glass open. She leaned out to peer down at the ground below. However, she didn’t need to look that far. A young man stood horizontally just below her window, looking as though he had just repelled down the side of the building. Avery opened her mouth to ask just what he was trying to do, when his arm shot out and snagged her by the front of her shirt. She let out an undignified yelp as he jerked her off her feet. She felt herself suspended in the air for a moment before the stranger threw her over his shoulder, then she felt it again as he cut the rope that held him up and they dropped to the ground like stones. Fortunately, there was a second rope in place to stop them from crashing into the pavement below. Up above, she heard angry voices shouting down from her room. [i]What in all Hell is going on?[/i]

Once he had solid ground beneath his feet, the strange man took off with Avery still slung over his shoulder like a ragdoll – albeit a loud ragdoll. She shouted at him the whole time, telling him to put her down and calling him some very unflattering names. But in the end all she could do was shriek and kick and flail while the man carried her away from the apartment buildings.

Avery could see people gawking at them in the streets, no doubt wondering if she was being kidnapped. And they would be right, she realized. She had no idea who this man was, and yet here he was forcefully taking her away. If that wasn’t kidnapping, she didn’t know what was. To make matters worse, a van pulled up and the man headed straight towards it.

“Where are you taking me?” Avery shouted aggressively, pounding on the man’s shoulder with her fists. “Look pervert, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I won’t go down without a fight.” It was a stupidly feeble threat, and she knew it. But she had no other options at this point. “You can bet you’re gonna be in a lot of pain if you try to knock me up!” The stranger paid her no heed and dove into the waiting vehicle which took off almost as soon as the door closed behind them.

Avery blinked against the sudden darkness when the light from outside was cut off. From what she could tell, there were three people with her: the kidnapper, another man, and a woman. All of them looked rugged and dangerous; a sort of people she was not unfamiliar with, and yet not a sort of people she wanted to be locked in a confined space with. She crouched like a trapped animal in the far corner of the van and glared at them. She wished she wasn’t so small; wished that she looked more imposing.

“Who are you?” Avery hissed. “And what do you want with me?”