Page 116 of Smart Ass

Obviously, because it was a fucking delivery bot.

He peeked at the screen, but the display was a solid blue.

It headed toward his desk, one multi-jointed arm reaching into the box on the bottom shelf and pulling out a data cable.

Ben hurried to assist it. Evan had brought him a new computer a few days ago, but he’d barely even glanced at it. Evan had poked around for long enough that he assumed it was functioning, but he hadn’t really paid attention.

The bot found the correct port and plugged in the cable.

Ben held his breath. Maybe he was about to get wiped out by a malicious virus. Maybe these were Max’s last words, a parting gift to add to the five-second sound bite that echoed in his dreams.

Maybe…

Ben finally exhaled when his lungs gave out on him.

Nothing was happening.

He swiped the touchpad.

Logged in with the password that Evan had written on a sticky note.

“Max?” he asked again.

More long seconds passed.

Then minutes.

He finally clicked on the new drive, but all he saw were meaningless file names with unknown extensions.

Was he supposed to be able to open them?

If this was a code Max wanted him to crack, he would give it everything he had. But there wasn’t a Read Me file. There was no indication of where to start.

He knew Max had hidden himself in common system file names before, but all of these seemed to be randomly generated. He clicked on one after another, but it was just meaningless gibberish, and he didn’t dare change anything on the tiniest little chance that it was critical for Max’s survival.

His body couldn’t hold still a second longer, so he got up to pace. Maybe he should call Evan. Maybe he should make a copy of the drive so he could…

“Ben?” It was a tinny little sound, barely more than a whisper.

He had to be hearing things.

Ben whirled around. “Max?”

There were headphones plugged into the computer, and he scrambled over to jerk out the cord, but he didn’t even make it there.

“Ben?” Now the sound was lush and full, coming from the monitor on the wall behind him.

“Max!” Ben’s voice broke and he didn’t even care.

He spun around again. The dull red light above the monitor showed that Max had clicked the camera feed on.

He wanted to dance and scream and hold Maxamillion so tightly that he never got away again.

But he couldn’t do that.

So he did the next best thing.

He dropped to his knees.