Bitcoin Bandits

by Chris Kale

  “How’d you get out of the cuffs?” Ron asked. Thomas pointed with his head to Freyja.

  “I’m a coder/hacker/specialist/cyber-security expert,” she said. “I’m paranoid, I always carry around a set of lockpicks.”

  “How in the hell do you find these people?” Ron asked Thomas. “Is this just an SEC Secret Agent thing? Well, however you did it, you’re either one lucky son of a gun, or really good at what you do. Shit man, you’re like James Bond over here! Hey, anyways you’ve had a hell of a day, almost dying twice by some, honestly awful situations. And you’ve caused me a shit ton of paperwork. . . How in the hell am I gonna put Soo-Jin’s name in this? He really did this to you?”

  “He said it was for one of his higher-ups,” Thomas said. “And I’m supposed to be on a plane tomorrow morning back to the states.”

  “Well, we’re going to talk about that, I’m going to call Wyatt in a few minutes. You probably should too.”

  “I don’t know his number,” Thomas said with his hands out, “and Soo-Jin stole our cell phones. They were in his car, but he probably destroyed them when he realized that BitX didn’t explode, and neither did we.”

  The police got full affidavits from each of them, knowing full-well that Li or Thomas would neither risk their careers by lying, and obviously someone professional had to place a bomb like that in there—and it wasn’t Niklas who was still in a coma. Freyja revealed herself, but only as being hired by Thomas, and together they cracked the code—but not in time. Thomas obviously lied about that.

  And then they were told they were free to go.

  Once they were down outside of the BitX headquarters surrounded by a flurry of flashing lights from firetrucks, ambulances, cop cars, and the flashing lights of the media filming, Thomas asked Freyja, “You going to be all right?” His voice was calm and sweet.

  “Yeah, I think so,” she said, her hair was rustling in the cool, summer night breeze. “How ’bout you?”

  He nodded, with his hands in his pockets. “I think so, that certainly was a day I’ll never forget.”

  “Thank you, Thomas,” she said as she put her hand on his shoulder, as he grew instantly tense. Her head rose up to his, and moving to his side, she gave him a gentle, soft kiss on the cheek. It was a feeling he’d not had in a long, long time. It felt good—like that going back to the house you grew up in as an adult feeling. It had him brimming with happiness. It was like going back to that place that you vaguely remembered but remembered the good times of being young with your parents and siblings. She reminded him so much of his times with his daughter when they were both younger—and he wasn’t so full of regret. He blushed and smiled. “I’ll never forget you. Thank you for all you did and thank you for trusting me. Not many do. We’ll be in touch for sure.”

  “OK, for sure, you’d better! Take care of yourself, Freyja,” he said as the tall, intelligent Scandinavian vigilante walked off toward the square. He watched her walk off like some sort of mystical heroine at the end of a femme fatale film—someone who destroyed with a sort of beauty and power that became legendary. The flashing lights of the sirens and the wafting mist of the moist street flowing up like smoke.

  Then he thought to himself, I wonder if that makes me kind of like a Harrison Ford now. . . He laughed out loud, a deep and hearty laugh. “No, no, that’s just stupid,” he said aloud, but continued his laugh.

  He then looked around, crossing his arms over his chest, thinking that they’d gotten the money. . . they’d gotten the Bitcoin, they did it, they’d promised they were going to get it back to the rightful owners; no weird deals, no fiat equivalent at the time, no sketchiness, just peer-to-peer transaction. He smiled.

  Ron then walked out of the main lobby, with a cell phone at his side. Thomas was puzzled but walked up to meet him. Ron held out the phone. “I called Wyatt earlier,” he said.

  “Oh, it’s Wyatt, I should probably talk to him.” Thomas put his hand out to grab the phone.

  “No, I told him what happened, about you almost dying, and now this happening,” Ron said, “this is someone else on the phone.”

  Thomas was confused but grabbed the phone anyway.

  “This is Thomas,” he said, waiting for an answer, and he heard soft breathing on the other end.

  “Hi dad,” a familiar voice said.

  Tears immediately rushed into his eyes, but he dug deep to find the strength to find the words beyond his years of pain. It’s her, it's finally her. Wyatt called her for me. . . More tears fell, as his lips quivered, and he felt an overwhelming love he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. . . He took a deep breath. . .

  “Hi, baby girl,” he said with a wide smile. “It’s been a long time. . .”

  “I love you, Dad,” she cried on the other end. “I heard what happened. I’m glad you’re OK.”

  Thomas nearly collapsed, with wobbly knees, and he wept.

  “I’m so glad you called; I’ve missed you so much. I’ve got so much to tell you. But I want to hear more about you, and about Adon. How is he?”

  “He’s good, he’s in the other room, I’ll get him.” Thomas waited a minute, trying to breathe through the tears. “OK here he is. . . Adon, here’s your grandpa, he’s had a long day. You want to say hi?”

  Thomas’ heart was about to explode through his chest, he felt like this was all a magnificent dream, or some representation of reality he’d longed for years now, come to life. And then he gasped and covered his mouth when he heard the voice on the other end. It was a faint voice, and something he’d never forget for the rest of his years, the child’s voice on the other end said, “Hi grandpa.”

  Thomas fell to his knees weeping, clutching the phone to his face. He couldn’t even speak.

  He heard Sarah’s muffled voice in the background. “Go ahead, tell him you love him, it's OK.”

  Adon, in his soft voice, said, “I love you.”

  Thomas was broken at that moment, after the longest day of his life, and possibly the greatest achievement of his career. Now he had this. He wasn’t broken, no, he was being put back together—stronger than ever. He looked up to the night, summer clouds as they blew by, and took one long, deep inhale, and then a long drawn out exhale.

  “I love you too, Adon. I love you so much and I can’t wait to meet you.”

  Chapter Forty

  In the morning, Thomas was getting ready for his flight with a fresh shave and a steaming cup of coffee on the stand by the sink, listening to the song ‘Rock the Casbah’ by the Clash, a sort of surf-punk song that had him swaying from side to side as he sang along with the song.

  The music was playing by a new cell phone that had been delivered to him from Wyatt. Just as the song was ending, it buzzed, and he knew it was Wyatt or Ron. He looked at the phone, however, and the phone didn’t say their names, or a number. It just said ‘anonymous.’ He answered the phone and waited for the person on the other end to speak first.

  “Thomas,” Freyja said, her voice excited and hurried.

  “How’d you get this. . .” he asked but stopped because why would he really ask her that question.

  “There’s a reward sent out by guess who to find the ones who ‘stole’ the Bitcoin.

  “The unnamed South Korean government official?” Thomas said, looking out the window to the warm city under the summer sun.

  “That’s my guess,” she said.

  “How much?” he asked, asking about the bounty for him and her.

  “Five hundred million dollars,” she said, holding in her excitement.

  “What are you talking about? Are you fucking with me? I’ve only had one good night of sleep, and I’m about to get on a long flight home. Why would anyone offer a reward that large?”

  “Thomas, you remember that one website you looked at to look at Bitcoin’s price before?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do me a favor and go check it,” she said.

  “Freyja, I’m shaving it can wait.”

  �
��Right now!”

  He sighed but walked over to his computer in the main room of the hotel, light filtering in through the windows, illuminated the light dust that had accumulated on it. He flipped it open and entered his password. He went to the webpage and was shocked to see a landscape of green.

  “Freyja?” he said, leaning into his computer with his eyes narrowed to examine what was going on.

  “Me posting on my Twitter that we had the funds and it was safe sent a surge of confidence in the crypto community.”

  “Freyja, this says Bitcoin is up 12,368 percent overnight. That’s impossible.”

  “Oh, in crypto, anything is possible,” she said.

  He did the mental math. “That means the Bitcoin we’re holding is almost twenty-five billion dollars? How is that even possible?”

  Freyja said in a serious tone then to Thomas. “In crypto, anything is possible. It’s the future Thomas. And now they are coming after us. Not just the ones I stole the scam ICO money back from. Now a government is coming after us. Are you ready?”

  He thought hard. “Ready for what?”

  “We are sitting on one of the biggest piles of Bitcoin in the world; one of the biggest collections of wealth in the world. This is only going up in value after this. We are in a race to get this back to the original owners, and they’re going to be looking for us. Perhaps only the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, holds more than we do now, save for some big exchanges.”

  “They’re coming for us? Freyja you’re not safe. You’ve got to hide.”

  “If they’re coming for me,” she said in a gruff voice, “they’re coming for you too, Thomas.”

  The End

  Author’s Notes

  So, this was a complete passion project for me. Full disclosure, I’m a huge crypto investor/fan. I just really wish I knew how to sell at the top better. . . I’ve also wanted to write in the mystery/thriller genre for years. I love to read and hear these stories, but I never read one about Bitcoin. You do know Bitcoin is going to be 40 million dollars each in two years, right!?

  Thomas and Freyja were characters I really wanted to create to bring some form of completion to one another. One, not a broken man—a very successful one, but devoid of that one thing. The other—an outcast in the shadows who hides from the light but is secretly clawing her way toward it.

  This is my first novel in this genre, like I said, and it was a change of pace from the normal swords and dragons type stuff I love. But, really, it was fun to write in the real world.

  I worked with a couple of friends to figure out some of the logistics to how the mystery worked, and the basics of the story; so, shout outs to Aaron Webber, crypto expert, and George Rosenschein, idea man. One of the ideas I had was to keep the actual numbers of the values of cryptos out of the book. You can easily do the math if you want, but with Bitcoin’s volatility, people could be reading this book one day when Bitcoin is $4 or $40 million, (I don’t know where I came up with that number. . . but I like it!)

  I liked the idea of a mercenary who’s also a serial killer, devoid of emotion, and out for killing for the sport. It seemed to complicate everything pretty good that he tortured Joon, and killed him, and then ending up with Freyja in his mitts.

  If you’d wish to hear more of this story, the best way you can let me know is by leaving a review of the book.

  And if you hated how much cursing there is in this book, sorry. I’m really fucking sorry. ;) It’s just how these characters talk. After all, their lives are on the line. I know I’d be a little stressed.

  Peace and love fellow humans,

  Chris.

  Sign Up

  Click Here to Sign up to the Reader’s Group to be first to know about upcoming work, get free stuff, and get informed about sequels!

  My Other Books

  I also write Fantasy novels under C.K. Rieke

  The Dragon Sands Book I:

  Assassin Born

  The Dragon Sands Book II:

  Revenge Song

  The Dragon Sands Book III:

  Serpentine Risen

  The Dragon Sands Book IV:

  War Dragons

  The Dragon Sands Book V:

  War’s End

  The Path of Zaan Book I:

  The Road to Light

  The Path of Zaan Book II:

  The Crooked Knight

  The Path of Zaan Book III:

  The Devil King

  By Sword and Sea: A Novella

  About the Author

  From author Chris Kale comes his first thriller with a crypto twist. He writes about Bitcoin with a darker side, and with a lot of curse words.

  Growing up in Kansas of all places, Chris has been publishing novels from the comforts of his ranch next to a winding tallow brick road and a pair of sparkling, ruby red slippers. No… he’s from Lawrence, KS, a university town, and has never seen a tornado even touch down- sorry to disappoint you…

  When he’s not writing, Chris is a chef, artist, musician and dog walker. He loves black coffee, red wine, guitar playing, going to the gym, and napping to loud thunderstorms.

  Chris writes fantasy novels under the name C.K. Rieke.