Vigilante Investigator Series Box Set

by Eden Sharp

  Marks pushed a folder on the desk in my direction. ‘We were just telling Mr. Lau how he could have given us Montell Samporo or Samantha Green.’

  Token and Pippylong. Shit. I opened up the file to see two familiar faces.

  ‘And I told you they’re not members of i9,’ Charlie said. ‘They’re just regular kids posting in forums talking about us. The Infinite 9 is an idea. A moniker that anyone can use. They’re nothing to do with this. They’re innocent of any crimes.’

  ‘Don’t you think we know this Mr. Lau. I get it. Some kids in their bedrooms or parent’s basement. But what I’m looking for is results. I don’t give a shit who you hurt in the process. You can give us the names of the real players or let these kids be the sacrificial lambs. On your head be it.’

  This was a new low, plus they’d continued the interview without me. I started running through the names of lawyers in my head. It shouldn’t be too difficult to prove these people had nothing to do with any major ops.

  ‘Who is Ghosthex?’ Marks asked.

  ‘I really don’t know. Just an identity on the net,’ Charlie said avoiding my gaze.

  An intense sadness washed over me.

  Marks hit a button on the laptop and a projection of the contents of its screen lit up on the wall.

  ‘This is the reaction to Senator Deeley crashing out of political life. It serves as a handy indicator of just how seriously i9 takes itself and its power,’ Marks said.

  [Tuesday September 6th 18:13] AV1: and deeley is gone

  [Tuesday September 6th 18:15] C0d3130n3: oh wow you owned him

  [Tuesday September 6th 18:15] C0d3130n3: congrats

  [Tuesday September 6th 18:15] Cr1m373ch: bows to AV1

  ‘You take yourself pretty seriously too Mr. Lau. Thing is you’re just not as clever as you or the others think you are,’ Douglas said.

  The phone on the table rang. Douglas answered it. He listened to what the caller had to say and then replaced the receiver.

  ‘We’re done for today,’ he said.

  I knew how the conversation was going to go after we left. He’d just found out that Ghosthex had been online while I was sitting in front of them. They might argue I’d got someone else to log on to cover my tracks and I might argue that hackers often lie about age, sex, and location to throw Feds off the scent. They would have seen from some of the chat logs that Crimetech had sometimes claimed to be KBSamurai, who they already knew was dead. There’s an old joke that there are no girls on the internet. Female hackers are rare.

  Back at Charlie’s apartment we made straight for the roof.

  ‘We have a major problem,’ he said.

  I wondered if I was going to be forced to make a decision to come clean with Paul and sell out a friend.

  ‘Yes, the timing’s all messed up,’ I said.

  ‘Worse. I know enough about the programming of the weapons system to override it but I’m going to need to reference the avionics code from Sytectronic, Hudson’s soon-to-be parent firm. I’ve already pen tested their security and researched their physical restrictions to see if it’s as robust as ours.’

  More obstacles to remove and problems to solve.

  ‘And?’

  ‘More so. Remote access to their machines is a no-go. I couldn’t get in externally without setting off intrusion alerts unless I had a lot more time than we have. We’d need physical access,’ he said.

  ‘Which we’ll have on Friday night.’ I said.

  ‘Right. If I can get the relevant logins we’d need plus I’ll be able to handle the surveillance cameras. But there’s another hitch. I’ve written a script to access the code but what we’d need is some way of downloading it. Even if we could find a way to get near their secure facility, Sytectronic require any and all devices from cell phones to laptops to be handed in first. Access is via a scanner and then there’s a constant sweep for receive-transmit frequencies. What’s more there’s no viability of an air-gap breach because all the pen drives are sealed.’

  ‘Unlike Hudson.’

  ‘Human error. Always possible to social the inexperienced. But not at Sytec. The staff are social-savvy and reside inside a fortress with strict protocols making key areas almost impossible to access. No way to get near the places we’d need to.’

  ‘Sounds good.’

  ‘It’s better than that.’

  ‘But anything’s possible right? Give monkeys with machines enough time and they’ll write code.’

  Charlie nodded. ‘Like any hack there are a long list of solutions to be found to get round a stack of problems. I think I can solve some of them but I’d need your help for others.’

  I nodded. ‘You know I’m in,’ I said.

  It felt good plotting and hanging out. Again, I was reminded of old times. I’d had a lot of fun in Japan. Some seriously good times. Despite the break-up. But maybe I was looking back with too rosy a view. It felt good though. Natural. Relaxed.

  After a couple of hours we had put together a solid plan. But the satisfaction of problem-solving didn’t last. I had the strongest feeling it was all about to come crashing down. If it did, we’d still need to prove i9 weren’t the bad guys. But if we were going down, one thing was for sure. There was no way I was going to let Guzak get away with it.

  38

  Wednesday May 17th

  After a night of broken sleep where I kept dreaming of being in a small confined space with no way out for the rest of my life, I put on my wig and dress-up clothes and picked up a taxi a block away from the hotel. Once we were on our way, I took a pair of jeans out of my backpack and pulled them on under the hooker skirt and turned my back to the driver to change into my last remaining clean tee. Not only did I need to collect the passports from my building’s concierge, I desperately needed some fresh clothes. So get in and out real quick. Drop off my bag, pick up new things.

  I walked the last hundred yards down First Street from where I’d been dropped and kept my eyes out for anyone I didn’t like the look of then skipped the front entrance and went in via the valet station at the side. I had one of the guys I knew let me in through a back door to the reception area.

  George was manning the desk. I appeared from his left-hand side and noticed his surprise. He would have assumed I wasn’t in the building.

  ‘Hi. Any callers?’

  ‘None today but I’ll check the log.’ He looked through the pad to see if there were any notes entered prior to his shift. ‘No visitors, no calls. But you do have a package.’

  I hoped it was an album-shaped one.

  ‘Courier or mail?’

  ‘Came in the mail.’ He handed me the gift-wrapped album.

  I had my back to the cameras and opened it down below the desk and out of his eyeline. I stashed the envelope containing the passports into my right-hand pocket.

  ‘You like Pink Floyd, George?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes ma’am.’

  ‘Here take it,’ I said. ‘Bought it for a friend’s birthday but it’s too late now.’

  I walked around the corner to the elevator and pressed the code to my floor. The doors closed. It made me feel better that I hadn’t had any visitors. I waited for the lurch to whisk me upwards. The pause between the door closing and the car moving felt longer than usual.

  The door opened. For a moment, I couldn’t work out what was happening. Once my code was entered into the pad the elevator was private. No one else should be able to use it. A thirty-something guy with a shadow of a beard wearing a blue shirt and dark pants got in and the doors closed. A guy who’d had me drugged then kept in an interrogation suite in a non-descript, supposed to be an office building for two days.

  I recoiled and lunged at the keypad but then we were already moving. Ten seconds in, the elevator felt like it was slowing and it came to a halt.

  I realized it was being overridden and that there could be any number of trained agents backing him up and I was way out of my depth. I pressed myself as far away from him as it wa
s possible to be, along the side wall. The cool metal of the holding rail dug into the small of my back. My brain started running calculations. My options, while trapped in an enclosed space with a skilled black ops spook with back-up, looked minimal. I had my gun but wouldn’t kill him so it was useless as a deterrent. I also had the passports on me.

  I estimated kicking distance. Bringing him in range would mean a slight movement forward on my part while every fiber of my being was attempting to retreat.

  He would be trained in all sorts of killing techniques despite whatever back-up might be on hand. He could have a taser. There were too many variables. I was paralyzed with indecision.

  He moved in on me by one step.

  ‘Where are the files?’

  I pictured him taking me up to my floor and thought about the indignity of being killed in my own apartment. I briefly thought about which room he’d choose.

  ‘What files?’ I said.

  He took another step forward shaking his head and smiled briefly.

  He closed the final gap between us and stuffed a piece of paper into my pocket. My left-hand pocket. Safely away from the passports in my right.

  ‘You’ve got until Sunday to drop them here. If there’s a problem there’s a number you can call.’

  Sounded like he’d been briefed about the new ship date. It also meant he wasn’t going to kill me for at least another four days by which time I could be gone.

  ‘Upload them and make your friends glad you did. Jeff. John. Olivia and Lucy. Very cute couple.’

  He said their names in a sing-song fashion. I felt sick. So what if I skipped town? What about those left behind?

  He leaned in close, pressing himself into me, and slowly lowered the straps of my backpack off my shoulders one at a time like he was removing a camisole. My backpack containing dirty laundry and newest laptop. Forensically it was useless to him but it still contained some data. He pulled it out from behind me and moved his mouth close to my ear.

  ‘I’d like to lick you all over,’ he whispered.

  In one single movement he took a giant step backward with my bag clutched in his fist and hit the key pad. The door opened and he was gone.

  My heart traced an irregular rhythm before settling back into its usual pattern. Instinctively I punched in my code and the elevator sailed up to my floor.

  I stepped out onto my private landing, stopped and stared at my door. Once upon a time this place had been my sanctuary. Now everything, the building, the apartment, felt violated and alien. I didn’t need to go inside. I could buy new clothes. This no longer felt like home to me. Once I had ensured that there was no danger to anyone around me, I no longer had any reason to stay.

  39

  After only managing another night of around four hours sleep, consuming a couple of crab tacos for breakfast made me feel back to myself again. For now I had the clothes on my back, some cash and my SIG, but no laptop and cell phones I didn’t trust. I also had a long to do list but already some ideas about how to tackle each item. I’d make sure I removed any threat to my friends. That was my priority and I’d definitely see to it that Guzek got what was coming to him. The rest would follow.

  The number one rule for any hacker is utilize all available resources and put them to work for your own ends. First, I paid a visit to a friendly dominatrix.

  Liz was six-feet-one in fishnets minus the high heels she usually wore when working but her black back-combed hair styled into spikes added another eight inches. Her athletic frame and fake boobs were contained in a black PVC dress with chain detailing. Despite her heavy pale make-up and black smudged eyes she still managed to pull off a remarkable amount of warmth and elegance. Somehow she wasn’t the least bit intimidating though I wouldn’t have wanted to put that to the test in her work area.

  ‘She’s not here and I still haven’t seen her,’ she said.

  ‘Chrissie isn’t the reason I’m here,’ I said.

  She held back the door and stood aside to allow me to enter. I stepped into her combined kitchen and living area. The only other rooms in the small one bed studio consisted of a small bath and the room where the business happened.

  ‘So you’ve come to play with the freaks?’

  ‘You have any clients booked in?’

  ‘Sure every day’s busy. I’ve got a guy who’ll be here in five.’

  I sat down. It felt good to be stationary. ‘How long’s his appointment?’

  ‘A half hour. This one’s unusual.’

  ‘What’s on the menu?’

  ‘Just a plain old paddling at first. After that, mouth pain. I have a chair that has an inch sawn off one of the legs. He lies down underneath and uses his teeth to level it and I sit in it for twenty minutes. He pays extra for any damage to his teeth or gums.’

  I shook my head. It made paddling sound completely vanilla. ‘I need somewhere I can relax for a little while. Hang out and think.’

  She waved a hand towards the couch.

  ‘My den of ill repute is your den.’

  I closed my eyes and started to sift through ideas and scenarios of my next moves going forward.

  The buzzer went. When Liz answered I half expected to see Feds. The guy was thirty-something and wore cut-down cargo pants, a polo shirt and expensive looking footwear halfway between a shoe and a sneaker.

  He looked over at me or maybe less at me and more at the possibilities. ‘Hi,’ he said.

  His teeth looked perfect. I flipped off my shoes and swung my legs up on to the couch and lay back against a pillow ignoring him. If it wasn’t him, sooner or later the right kind of guy would turn up.

  Liz pushed open the door to her office. ‘Get the fuck in here. Now,’ she said. He transformed from a grown man into a man-child, quickly unclipping a cross-body backpack and dumping it on the floor. He followed her inside, head bowed down, like a guy filled with remorse.

  I waited for the sound of a paddle striking bare flesh. The guy’s cries indicated a use of force. I then checked out his backpack and realized it was the right size for a computing device of some kind. I figured I’d only need a good fifteen to twenty minutes.

  I unzipped the neoprene and struck gold. When his laptop powered up the start-up jingle played and I waited for a moment hoping he hadn’t heard it. With luck he would be trussed up or something and by the sounds coming out of the room I didn’t think he was aware of anything beyond his immediate predicament.

  He hadn’t set a password. I connected to the internet, typed in the URL of the dropsite Karim and I used and left a message. Need something pure and full of juice asap. I closed the browser, powered down and wiped everything before replacing it back in the bag. I worked on maintaining a zen-like tranquility by meditating and formulating my plans while three more guys came and went.

  Liz came out of her lair to show the final guy to the door. Her make-up remained as perfect as when I’d arrived. Easy, I guessed, when you didn’t actually have sex with your paying clients.

  ‘Drink?’ she asked.

  ‘Sure, thanks.’

  ‘There’s wine in the fridge, help yourself. I’m going to take a shower then I’ll make dinner.’ She sounded like any other worker at the end of a long day.

  ‘I’d also like to borrow some of your clothes. I’ll pay you of course,’ I said.

  ‘You’d better,’ she said. ‘Flammable fabric doesn’t come cheap. There’s a whole walk-in-closet’s worth of tasteless crap through there and I’ve been paid for worse.’

  Trying some of the stuff on might be fun but first, I poured myself a glass of sparkling white wine and surveyed the food items in the kitchen. There were eggs and vegetarian sausages and a bag of salad. It sounded wonderful. I was absolutely starving.

  Thursday May 18th

  On a working girl’s couch in a client waiting room I’d had a better night’s sleep than I’d had in a while and slept in till noon. I thanked Liz and went shopping for something a little more tasteful than she had provided
me with. Afterward I chose a middle-of-the-road restaurant for lunch, ordered a glass of red wine and took up residence in a corner facing the door. A large slug of Napa Valley’s finest house provided some kind of fortification and resolve while I made the first of two calls.

  ‘Angela,’ Paul Harding said.

  I couldn’t determine if his tone was that of an impatient principal or exasperated parent. Maybe he was just busy. I suddenly felt like a low status pawn and had to remind myself that I was the key to him getting what he wanted.

  ‘There’s a reception tomorrow night at Sytectronic’s headquarters where they’re going to announce their merger with Hudson Binomics to invited guests,’ I said.

  ‘I need the FBI in attendance. Douglas and his team. Subtle presence of course. Something is going down.’

  ‘What exactly?’

  ‘I’m not sure. But I’m telling you I’m pretty convinced I’m right. So you’re going to have to trust me on this because I’ve a feeling if you don’t, you might not get Lau.’ There was a pause and I took another swig while formulating my next argument if he didn’t agree. I wanted more information about the guys who claimed to be Department of Defense employees and figured guilt might work if he thought they truly posed a threat to me.

  ‘You find out who those other guys were yet General? I could use a situation report,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll see to it the FBI are at the reception,’ he said and ended any further dialog.

  ‘I’m sending you the details of an average-looking and therefore pretty much invisible office building. It might give you a clue,’ I managed before he hung up.

  He had trusted me enough to acquiesce to my request but not to give me everything. I found it hard to believe he didn’t have all the information or see the bigger picture. That he wouldn’t have been able to find out their identities was unbelievable. That he now knew their identities but chose not to tell me was disconcerting. I wasn’t sure if I should be really worried by that or not. For the next item on my to do list I called Douglas.