“The appointment is truly mine?”

“Yes, my dear Cynthia, the job is all yours,” Raven Technologies’ CEO answered. He muttered under his breath, “I certainly don’t want it, nor did any of my other senior VPs.”

“What was that Mr Raven?” Cynthia asked. “I didn’t catch that last part.”

“Oh. I apologize my dear. I just wished you good luck for your new five-year assignment,” Korbin Raven III replied as he stood up. He lifted a wine glass. “A toast to our own Cynthia Rockford, the new managing director of the Corporate States of America. May your term in office be a huge success for you and us.”

“Thank you, Mr Raven,” Cynthia gushed as she raised her own glass. “I’ll make you and Raven Technologies proud!”

The other executives raised their glasses to toast and congratulate the new leader of the CSA.

*

“Fay?”

“Yes Mrs. Rockford?” her assistant replied as their air transport took off for Cynthia’s home.

“Now that I have the authority, use Alpha Force’s and AmeriNet’s resources to expand that little search of yours,” Cynthia ordered. Fay’s eyes widened briefly. She nodded.

“Yes ma’am. I’ll get right on that,” the assistant replied.

“See that you do,” Rockford said as she turned her gaze out the window. “This little issue needs to be resolved before we leave New York for Washington.”

*

“Ready?” Zoe asked Sonya. The nurse nodded.

“I’ll see you on the other side,” Sonya replied as she slipped into cyberspace.

“Here goes noth… well I guess everything,” Zoe said to herself as she took a calming breath before slipping into cyberspace.

“Took you long enough,” Sonya said when Zoe appeared beside her.

“I stopped to look at this purse that caught my eyes,” Zoe replied.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sonya replied, dismissing Zoe’s banter. “Nervous?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t be. This is just another slice,” Sonya replied.

“I’ve never tried to slice a system with all that ICE or a Dragon,” Zoe said as she pointed out the church’s defenses.

“Just focus on your part of the plan. We’ll handle the rest,” Sonya assured her.

“Sonya is correct. Just do your part Zoe,” Claire said as she joined their call. “Don’t worry about anything else. We have you covered.”

“Who’s this we? Just you guys?” Zoe asked.

“No. I’ve called in the big guns for support,” Claire answered.

“Which guns?” Sonya asked suspiciously. She snapped her fingers. “AF or ANT?”

“AF. Getting ANT would mean calling in favors I’m not ready to cash in,” Doc Brown replied.

“This should be fun,” Sonya replied rubbing her hands together. “When do the big guns get here?”

“Who is AF and ANT?” Zoe asked. Then it hit her. “You don’t mean AmeriNet Tech and Alpha Force, do you?”

“Bingo,” Sonya replied as a huge grin split her face.

“They should be starting their assault right about now,” Doc Brown said as several Tomahawks struck the Citadel walls. The daemons looked like the cruise missile they were named for. “I’ll be monitoring. Good luck.”

“I didn’t think Alpha Force had slicers,” Zoe remarked as they watched the church’s Nian start searching for the attackers. The Dragon lifted its head to watch but didn’t move.

“Just because the military went corporate doesn’t mean it got rid of its secrets or intelligence networks,” Sonya replied.

“I guess,” Zoe shrugged. “Shall we start?”

“We shall,” Sonya said as she triggered her first attack. “Let’s see what this Flood does.”

The two slicers watched as the Flood slammed into the Citadel’s walls. It really was like watching a raging river flood its banks wrecking everything in its path, except this Flood didn’t destroy any other servers and systems as it was aimed at one specific target.

“Too bad Flood can’t go over the walls,” Zoe mused. “Guess we’ll have to wait for the Citadel’s walls to be battered down.”

“You want to go over the walls, you say?” Sonya asked.

Zoe nodded and said, “it would be nice.”

Sonya launched another attack and Zoe’s eyes widened as a wide wave of data rumbled toward the Citadel. Data moved away from the Citadel and then started rushing back towards it as a data wave picked up speed and height.

“What is that?” Zoe wondered.

“Tsunami Snake, Tsunami,” Sonya replied. “Whoa! Bitching!”

“What are you talking about?” Zoe asked in confusion.

“Just trying to lighten the mood. That’s an old movie quote,” the nurse said before turning serious. “That is a Tsunami daemon.”

“I’ve never seen or heard of something like that,” Zoe said.

“It’s a military toy,” Sonya proudly said.

“I want one,” Zoe replied.

“I’ll think about sharing it if we pull this off,” Sonya replied.

“Fair enough,” Zoe said as the Citadel’s walls crashed where the Tsunami had struck.

“Doc, the Citadel is breached,” Sonya reported.

“Good. Our help will continue their assault for another three minutes,” Doc Brown said. “The Nian is down, but if the Dragon is still active when AF pulls out, we’re on our own.”

“Copy that,” Sonya replied. She turned to Zoe. “Let’s move closer so you can start slicing into their Castle.”

“Alright,” Zoe agreed.