Project Zero Trust

Chapter 8Cloudy with a Chance of Trust

Rose's cheek was pressed into the mat. Her opponent, Mark, was sitting on her back, elbow pressing against her head and holding her down. Everything in her screamed to tap out. Instead, she rolled to her side while she pulled her legs up to her chest into a fetal position, breaking the hold. At the same time, she slammed her elbow into Mark's ribs. She followed this by grabbing his wrist and twisted until she wrapped her legs around his arm. He groaned as she followed with several rabbit punches into the same rib that she'd found with her elbow until she realized he was slapping the mat with his free hand. Reluctantly, she let go of him.

She stood up and retied the belt of her gi that had come undone as she had been pinned. She bumped fists with Mark. There weren't many women at the gym and usually the men didn't want to fight for fear of hurting her, or worse, getting beaten by her. Maybe she'd have to let him win next time to keep from running out of sparring partners. She wondered about that as she walked back to grab her water and check her phone. She saw she had missed several calls and texts, but didn't recognize the numbers. She had to brush her hair out of her face before she could get the facial recognition to work.

She dropped the phone when she read the last message. “This is 3nc0r3. I know who you are and I will pay $5 million for information about Zero Trust at MarchFit.”

Back at the office, Dylan checked the meeting invite ...