Page 15 of Kane

Kane looked down toward the bag at his feet.

It was full of Cassie’s fire damaged equipment.

This would not be easy to fix. Kane wasn’t going to kid himself about that. First and foremost, he was a hacker. When it came to repair work, he was good but not remarkable.

But with Cassie as his motivation, he was going to work on it until there were no other options left.

Kane had some hacker friends who knew more about repair than him. Being hackers, they had never met in person. But Kane knew that they were there to offer online support.

It was a good community.

All of them had the same goal. Identical outlooks on what the purpose of their hacking was.

Kane enjoyed being around like-minded people.

It was good too to keep his mind off drinking and gambling.

Speaking of which…

‘Yo, we’re heading out to Jimmy’s Bar after the shift?’ McCall asked, now stripped down to his towel and ready to jump into the shower. ‘Nothing major. Just a few brewskis. Maybe a few more on top of that?’

Kane paused.

He wanted to work on Cassie’s equipment. Make a quick start on it. If it was going to be as tricky as he anticipated it would be, then he needed every spare moment to focus on it.

That being said, Kane was still feeling wired from the earlier fire. Despite having years of experience, each and every fire was as dangerous and exhilarating as the last.

That feeling would never change.

And if it did, it would be time to get out of the firefighter business.

‘Hey? Earth to Kane?’ McCall said, his voice impatient. ‘Come on, come with us. You can work on your nerd stuff afterward. Just one beer. Come on!’

‘I don’t know,’ Kane said, trying to mask the doubt in his mind. ‘I need to be up early. I mean, also I have things to be getting on with. You know. Important stuff.’

Kane knew he probably shouldn’t go for a drink.

But one beer wouldn’t be so bad.

Not really.

As an additional bonus, it would enable Kane to keep his mind off Cassie too.

Despite his protestations to his colleagues, and to himself, Kane knew that fixing Cassie’s equipment was more than simply him wanting to do his duty and help someone out.

Of course it was.

And now that he knew for sure that Cassie was a Little, it made matters a hundred times worse.

Kane decided that he would hack into the hard drives, finish the work, and move on from Cassie as quickly as he could.

No good could come of it.

And he’d start the whole process with an ice-cold beer at Jimmy’s with the guys.

That sounded like a plan.

A very solid, tasty, thirst-quenching plan at that.