The Morning After [House Party cont]

[Sage]

Nox had taken to the house almost immediately. There was never any doubt. Sage would have to send in some workers to install projection cameras into the open living space. It wouldn't be as good as the one hooked up in the office, but this way Nox could do whatever he needed without hooking Sky up to the special server -- the one no one should get into. Air gaps were important he thought to himself and smirked as Liam sat next to him watching him. Sage put on a show for Liam but the work he was doing in his head was far differen that what was happening on the screen.

The new stranger who Sage quickly identified as Gideon Marquis, Liam's cousin asked about Jaxen and then commented on the cage that had held Ashton prisoner. Sage barely knew anything about those reasons, but he got the distinct feeling that Ashton had played a part in some nefarious part of Jaxen's life. Much like he had Nox's. And yet Nox forgave the strange creature that sang and kidnapped him right under his vigiliant watch. Sage didn't like.

"Jaxen's fine. He had a tangle with the Emissary. He made it home safe." Sage had followed him home and insured that nothing amiss happened. It wasn't his party but Sage felt a little responsible for what happened. Even if he didn't fully understand what shit just went down.

While he spoke Sage was carefully poking at the wallet the young would-be hacker had brought with him and stupidly autoconnected to Sage's network. Everyone was a sucker for free wifi and well Sage took advantage of every signal on it. Every one. It was easy enough to just poke his mental head in, drop some software and sneak out. It was risky hacking another hacker, but Liam, Catch or Thyme or whoever he wanted to go by at the moment, was so involved in meeting his so-called hero that he wouldn't pay any mind.

This kid might be dumb enough to walk into a hacker invited party with an unsecure wallet, and Sage was hoping he was dumb enough to walk into Paragon's air gapped system so he could piggy back into it and get in without a problem. He wanted to know what was behind those locked doors and what the fuck they were doing with Raffe. Nox may not care -- he did, but he never asked. He could and he knew he could, but he didn't. It was between Raffe and whatever gods he worshipped or whatever, Raffe would tell him if he wanted him to know. Sometimes Nox was such a pain in the ass. But Sage, that air gap, that was a challenge he intended to beat. And the curious little boy sitting next to him was the key.

Besides, he'd already hacked Paragon's nanobots they stupidly put in his body. He wondered what other fun cool tech they might have that would help him reach his goals. His plans and maybe he'd help the world in the process, but that was more a Nox and Cruz thing than a him thing. He just wanted to know it all.