Five security guards rush into the room but halt upon seeing Tony and me.
"Don't move," Tony yells. "Or you die!"
Lau strides in next, nose wrinkling at the dust. "What have we here?" she asks, surveying the scene before her.
"Dr. Reasner's experiment failed," I say. "And we're on our way out."
"Way out?" she says. "Hardly. You know far too much to be allowed to leave."
"We can either resolve this peacefully and everyone lives," I say. "Or we don't."
"Such a negotiator!" Lau states sarcastically. Then she nods to the man beside her, saying something in Chinese.
"I wouldn't do that." Sun steps out from behind the van and crosses her arms. "My uncle is Ma Yuzhu and if word got out on the street that it was, in fact, you who stole the $81 million, things wouldn't go so well for you, now would it?"
Lau snarls. "You can't prove anything."
"Actually we can," a scraggly voice says behind us. My heart dives and then soars. It's a voice I've fallen in love with.
"Jake!" I practically drop my gun, but then remember to hold it at one of the security guards. Instead, I backtrack to Jake's gurney as he's ripping off his monitors and blood pressure wrap. "You're okay! Tell me you're okay."
I grab his hand as he grunts and sits up, blinking rapidly. His pupils are dilated and there is not an ounce of color on his face, but he appears right in his mind.
"Aria." His voice is hoarse. "Did it work?"
"Yes." I want to toss the gun onto the ground, cup my hands around his face and kiss him hard, but now is hardly the time. "It really did. I wasn't sure if you would wake up though."
"Me either. I kept running through this maze." He swings his feet over the edge of the gurney, but when his feet won't hold him, he resorts to sitting. "But then I heard your voice. I followed it out."
I bite my bottom lip to keep myself from falling apart and crying. I need to get my act together because we're not out of the situation yet. Jake focuses his attention back on Lau, helping himself stay upright using the medical stand.
"We've traced it." He pulls out a phone from a pocket hidden under the cuff of his dress pants and holds it up showing off some type of programming app. "After you stole those SWIFT codes from my brain, I was so ticked off that I designed a new program. It's called Tracker. Think of it like a digital fingerprint.
"Everything that you've done using those SWIFT codes has left behind a mark leading directly back to you. Tracker searches through the data until it identifies those fingerprints. It's all right here on my phone."
"Impossible," Lau says.
"How do you think we found you?" he asks.
I frown. He never mentioned designing this program. Plus, we found her by hacking into people's dreams to hunt her down. Lau presses her lips together and her security guards glance worriedly at her as if seeking guidance.
"All it takes is for me to push SEND." Jake lifts his phone into the air as if to prove his point. "Then all of my research and data will go directly to the Federal Reserve."
"I love the sound of the ocean waves," Sun interrupts meaningfully.
"What has that to do with anything?" Lau snaps at Sun.
"It means you can accept our deal." I discreetly withdraw my earplugs from my pocket. "Or you will regret you hadn't."
Lau clenches her fists. "What's the deal?"
"Let us go quietly and we won't send the feds Jake's data," I say. "They can slowly figure out the truth on their own through formal investigations."
"You take me for a fool," Lau scoffs. "I didn't build this empire without brains. Most people wouldn't even have the brilliance of understanding how to pull off a heist like I had. They wouldn't even know what to do with a million dollars or even how to hide them and that's where you underestimate me. In fact, my plan is greater than even Dr. Reasner."
"So I take it that means no," I say, dryly.
"You, boy, seemed like you might be a valuable person that I would want to keep alive." Lau turns to Jake, ignoring me. "But now I'm thinking you're just an annoyance. Kill—"
I don't hear anything else she says, because Sun has touched her ears, signaling for the rest of us to turn on our earplugs, which we do.
Except Lau is prepared. She smiles at us and holds earplugs of her own, waving them at us before putting them in along with the rest of her group.
Crap.
Sun frowns and her hands falter on the button. What can we do now? We're at a standstill. And that's when my eyes land on the black bag of the supplies we brought from MaxLife back home. The NightFlash is sticking out of the side.
We have only tested the NightFlash a few times since the Sound Oasis always works so well and is an easier transition into the Dreamscape.
It emits a series of pulsing blue light flashes that target the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system. Basically, it triggers the part of the nervous system that slows down the heart and puts a person to sleep.
"Distract them," I mouth to Sun. She nods and starts reemphasizing why Lau should leave us alone.
Meanwhile, I creep over to the bag and snatch up the long bar. I'm not sure where the bag with sunglasses is located, but I don't have time to look for it. The rest of the team is watching me, and the moment I nod to them, they clamp their eyes closed. I just hope Jake thinks to do the same thing.
Sun turns on the Oasis and I flick on the NightFlash, clamping my eyes shut the moment the blue light begins to pulse through the room. Blindly, I dig through the bag until my hand closes over a soft bag that has the sunglasses in it. I manage to put on the glasses, allowing me to open my eyes again.
Lau and all her crew are now lying on the ground while my team has their hands over their eyes. Quickly, I distribute the glasses and Sun turns off the Sound Oasis, which allows us to talk again.
"Tie up Lau and her guards," Dad says. "Then we'll get out of here."
"All her security men had earplugs in," Javier says after checking the guards. "They were prepared."
"How could they have known?" Tony says.
"They learned their lesson at the casino," I say.
"Then I guess it's a good thing we were more prepared," Sun says. "Nice work, Aria."
"Can someone tell me what just happened?" Jake asks.
"It's called a NightFlash," I explain. "It works in a very similar fashion as the Sound Oasis, but it doesn't last as long, so let's hurry and get to the van."
"Wait," Jake says. "Let me stop recording."
He pauses to push the stop button on his phone and grins.
"You were bluffing with Lau, weren't you?" I ask. "You never created an app called Tracker."
"Guilty," He grins. "But I did record Lau confessing to the whole thing. Never underestimate the simple camera feature on your phone."