Dark Justice(43)

Emily pushed him out of the way and looked. That close up, she could make out the words on three lines.





Phase 1: 2/25/13 WECC 7 PM RFC 10 PM

Phase 2: 2/26/13 Eastern

Phase 3: 2/27/13 Texas





Her eyes widened. She waved her fingers at Dave. “Get me a pen.”

He put one into her hand. She wrote the message on the piece of paper she’d brought with her. Then straightened, her heart hammering.

What did this mean? Something about the electrical grid?

“Let me see.” Dave reached for the paper. She tried to pull away, but too late. He snatched it from her hand and read.

His expression flattened. “February 25. That’s today.”

Emily’s throat lumped over. “What’s WECC? And RFC?”

“Let’s Google it.” Dave typed in the search. “Look. WECC. Western Electricity Coordinating Council.”

Oh, no.

He typed in RFC and got a bunch of hits that didn’t have anything to do with power.

“Try RFC electrical grid,” Emily said.

Dave keyed it in. After looking at a few sites they had their answer. RFC—Reliability First Corporation. Part of the eastern electrical grid. There were only three main electrical grids in the U.S.: western, eastern, and Texas.

Emily looked at the paper. Phase 2 Eastern. Phase 3 Texas.

This couldn’t be real.

The western grid, WECC, covered states as far east as Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. It even went up into Canada. That was a lot of territory. The eastern grid was bigger yet. It was broken up into eight regions. “Why put the RFC with western?” Emily wondered. The RFC included Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and some areas right above Virginia.

As soon as the words left her mouth, Emily knew the answer. She and Dave said it at the same time. “Washington, D.C.’s there.”

They wanted to shut down electricity to the government?

This had to be a joke, right?

But . . . this video. Fake FBI agents showing up at her mom’s door. A break-in at night just to take her mom’s computer. And two men dead—Leringer and some guy who worked in his security company. When Emily looked at all that, how could she not believe this message was for real?

Leringer had told her mom to “be careful.”

Dave looked like a deer in headlights. “Does somebody think the electrical grid’s going to be hit here today? And in Washington? Then in the other areas?”

Think it was going to happen? More like they were going to make it happen. Starting today. In less than twelve hours. Emily felt her face go white. She had to tell the police. Or the FBI. Now. What if the sheriff’s department hadn’t figured this out?

Dave frowned at the series of numbers and letters she’d written on the paper. “Is this the sequence you saw at the end?”

Emily tried to take the paper from him. He held onto it. “Is it?”

“I—Yes.”

Dave studied the numbers and letters some more.

“There’s no way you can decode that, is there?” Emily knew the answer.

He shook his head. “Not my line of work. Who gave this video to your mom? And why?”

The western states and D.C. today. Tomorrow, the east. Then Texas. In two and a half days, the whole country would be dark.

“Emily. Talk to me.”

What if Harcroft and Wade were working with the terrorists, like her mom said? And they found out that now she—Emily—knew all this? They’d send people after her too. All three of them would be dead.

“Dave.” Emily looked down at him, her knees weak. “I have to go home.”

He gazed at her. “Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” She had to get out of there. Had to do . . . something. “I need my flash drive.”

Dave pulled it out and gave it to her. He didn’t look too happy about it.

“And erase the copy in your program,” she said. “Please.”

He spread his hands—why?

“Just do it.”

Dave’s mouth firmed. “I don’t think so.”

Emily hung there, willing him to listen. Knowing he wouldn’t. “At least don’t tell anyone you’ve seen this.” Tears pricked her eyes. “I mean it. Nobody.”

Dave shook his head. “What is going on, Emily? Is this for real?”

She reached for the piece of paper again. He let it go.

Clutching the flash drive and paper, she turned toward his office door. “I’ll tell you when it’s all over.”

If she lived that long.





Chapter 21


The police car lights whirled.

My world seemed to narrow. So many horrible pictures flashed through my head—me in jail, Emily crying, Mom alone. The last was the worst. I couldn’t let something happen to me, because Mom needed me. I’d fight to the death for her.