Web of Shadows

by Susan Sleeman

What was she doing there? Did she know about the hack? About the computer? Was she there to bring him down again?

  Or was this a coincidence? Hamid seemed to be Tyler Stone’s friend, so maybe, by extension, he was a friend of hers, too.

  Friends don’t put your pricey laptop in a geocache.

  Maybe Hamid really was a terrorist. Or more likely, this Tyler kid went running to Brandt about Hamid pilfering his computer. Now the stinkin’ FBI agent was there to use her clout to make Hamid’s life hell.

  It was the exact same way she’d targeted Wiley. She’d had tons of criminals on her radar, but she’d set out to get him. Purposefully. Him and only him. Now she was back again. After him? He knew she would do this. Just not there. Not yet.

  He jerked out his gun, held it firmly. Considered pulling the trigger to cut his losses. A simple squeeze of his finger. She’d fall to the ground. There. Now. In front of him. But what about the years of his suffering? Would a quick bullet take away the ache?

  His head hurt with the pressure of making so many decisions lately. He squeezed his eyes closed. He needed the pain to go away. A bullet to her head wouldn’t do it. He’d have to put up with the pain. Just a bit longer.

  Chapter Six

  NINA ARRIVED IN time to see Hamid enter the contemporary home with angular roof lines. Quinn’s car was there, which meant he was already inside. He’d either broken into the house or Hamid’s parents had let him in, making this worse than she’d thought.

  She straightened her jacket and hurried across the street as fast as her heels allowed. She found the door standing open a few inches. With the door ajar, she could claim concern for the occupant’s safety and enter under exigent circumstances. She bumped it open further with her hip and rested her hand on her gun.

  “FBI, anyone home?” she called out. She heard movement upstairs and took a step inside. “Hello. Is anyone here?”

  “Up here,” Quinn replied but he didn’t sound happy about it.

  She charged up the stairs, following voices down the hallway to a room with dark walls and posters of heavy metal bands. Dressed in a dark-gray suit and white shirt, Quinn was perched on a window seat. The fabric strained over his biceps, and he tugged on the shirt collar as if it was strangling him.

  In the year they dated, she’d never seen him wear anything but his uniform or knit shirts and tactical pants. He clearly wasn’t comfortable in the suit. She made a mental note to ask about it later and focused on the teen sitting at a desk.

  Dark-skinned with glossy black hair, Hamid—she assumed—held a bag of chips and a Coke. He looked terrified. Not surprising, with Mr. Intensity glaring across the room, but Nina doubted Quinn had touched the kid.

  “Hamid?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  She moved her jacket aside to display her badge. “I’m Special Agent Nina Brandt with the FBI. I’m guessing you already know Quinn.”

  “We’re acquainted,” Quinn said, sarcasm liberally coating his words.

  “He’s Ty’s brother. A SEAL.” The admiration in Hamid’s tone mixed oddly with a shaky voice.

  “Are your parents home?” Nina asked.

  He shook his head.

  “Can you call one of them to come home?”

  “Nina, don’t.” Quinn came to his feet and started to walk toward her. “I need to talk to him first.”

  She fired a warning look for him to stay put and didn’t bother apologizing for changing her mind and ruining his plan. She was there and in charge now. Which meant they’d do things by the book. Quinn stopped his forward advance, but she knew it was a temporary victory. She’d have to continue to monitor and manage his movements.

  She faced Hamid again. “I really need to talk to one of your parents.”

  He chewed on his bottom lip. “My dad’s on a business trip in Japan. Mom’s at yoga, and she leaves her phone in a locker.” He glanced at his watch. “She usually gets home in about an hour. If she doesn’t have to make any stops on the way.”

  Nina handed Hamid her business card. “Send her a text anyway. Tell her I’m here, and I need her to join us as soon as she can.”

  He set down his snack and took the card. “She’ll freak out.”

  “I’m sorry to do that to her, but this is a matter of national security, and we don’t have time to wait for her to come home.”

  “National security?” He glanced at Quinn. “He said it was about Ty’s laptop. I didn’t do any . . . oh wait.” He slapped his forehead. “This isn’t just about the computer. It’s about Ty hacking the No-Fly List, isn’t it?”

  “I didn’t say that.” Though he was right, Nina wouldn’t confirm his suspicions so that Hamid could spread the information around their school.

  “You don’t have to say it. I know he did it.” He twisted his hands together. “This can’t be happening. I mean, Ty always leaves a record of his hacks on his computer. If someone logs in to it—could they access . . . ? Oh, they could . . . probably already did. That’s why you’re here.” His knee started bouncing as he took out his phone and sent the text. “This is bad, isn’t it? Really bad. Will I be blamed? Of course I will. I’m Muslim. They always blame us.”

  The poor kid had already seen his share of discrimination in his life, but Nina couldn’t focus on that right now. Not when he’d just implied that he’d stolen Ty’s computer. But he hadn’t admitted to logging in to the computer. He’d made it sound more like he’d given it to someone else, which was worse.

  She bent down to make eye contact and calm him down enough to talk rationally. “Sounds like you took Ty’s computer.”

  He nodded, but she needed a verbal confession.

  “Did you take Ty’s computer?”

  “Yeah I took it. Man, oh man. Now I’m in trouble. Big trouble. I just wanted to pay him back, you know?” He stared at Quinn. “You do know what he did, right? Putting me on the No-Fly List?” He shook his head. “My mom was with me. They treated us both like dirt.”

  “I’m sorry that you were treated unfairly.” Quinn crossed the room toward them. “If Ty did what you’re claiming, then rest assured, he will be punished.”

  Hamid backed away from Quinn, but he fired a testy look at him. “He did it all right. Who else would?”

  “Regardless of who did it or how it happened, we think it was simply a prank that went wrong,” Nina explained and moved to the side to block Hamid’s view of Quinn. “Just like we believe taking Ty’s computer was a prank, too. You didn’t have any malicious intent beyond that.” She offered a reassuring smile. “If you haven’t logged on to his computer and you hand it over right now, I’ll work on your behalf to keep anyone from filing charges.”

  “I didn’t look at it.” A sheepish expression claimed his face. “I mean . . . I tried . . . wouldn’t you? But I couldn’t hack the password.”

  “Okay, get it for me. Once I review the logs, I’ll start sorting out this mess.”

  Seeming like he might throw up, he rocked in his chair. “I don’t have it.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t have it?” Quinn clamped his hands on his waist and eased past Nina. “Where is it?”

  Hamid cowered even more. “I hid it.” He bit his lip and turned away. “In a geocache.”

  “You what?” Quinn’s voice exploded as he shoved his fingers into his hair. “What in the world is that?”

  Nina wished Quinn would take his big, burly body and his need to intimidate out of there. She’d earned the kid’s trust, gotten him to relax a bit, and Quinn undid it with one look. She gave him a pointed look that told him to calm down.

  He fired back with an “as-if” stare. “I asked what a geocache is.”

  “It’s a treasure hunt of sorts,” she said. “Someone hides a treasure, then posts GPS coordinates, as well as clues on a geocaching w
ebsite, and people search for it.”

  Quinn pushed past her. “And you put Ty’s computer in one of these searches?”

  Hamid wrapped his arms around his waist and drew back even more. “It was a last resort. I wanted Ty to pay for what he did to me. At first, I wanted to infect his computer with a virus, but like I said, I couldn’t hack his password. That meant I had to go to Plan B. I didn’t want to just destroy it. I mean . . . it’s a sweet machine and all. But he needed to pay. So I set up the geocache and posted it on Hacktivists. Once it was live for a little while, I planned to email Ty so he could see how long it had been out there, and he’d know others were searching for it, too.” The corner of his mouth curled up. “Ty would’ve totally freaked out.”

  “And you didn’t stop to think about what might happen if someone found it before Ty?” Quinn asked.

  “I don’t care if they did. It would serve Ty right if he never saw it again.”

  Quinn fisted his hands. It wasn’t hard to see he wanted to knock some sense into Hamid. Nina wanted to do the same thing, but she wouldn’t give in to the temptation.

  Hamid jutted out his chin. “He deserved it, man. Thanks to him putting me on that list, my whole family is under investigation. I had to hit him where it hurt most. His computer.” His eyes suddenly flashed with defiance. “Instead of being so peeved, you could be thankful that I only posted it to our Hacktivist group instead of a public site.”

  Nina moved closer to Hamid to draw his focus. “Tell me about this Hacktivist group.”

  He sighed out a breath. The defiance disappeared with it. “Membership is private. You need geocache experience to be part of the group. No novices allowed. Plus you have to either work in the IT field or be recommended by another member who can vouch for your IT skills.”

  Interesting. “Geocaching and information technology is kind of an odd mix.”

  “The group was started by some friends in the IT business who loved geocaching. Geeks kind of stick together, if you know what I mean, so they decided to limit the group. We have a forum and hold monthly Meetups where we talk about IT and caching. It’s really just for fun ’cause . . . well . . . you know. Geeks don’t tend to get out much.”

  Since Nina’s world revolved around computer nerds—and she was one of them herself—she understood him well.

  “How many members are we talking about?” Quinn asked.

  “A thousand. Maybe more now.”

  “So a thousand or more people could have seen your post?” Quinn took a step closer and planted his feet. “And they could all be out trying to find Ty’s computer?”

  Hamid nodded. “But I hid it well, and I checked on my way home from school. No one claims to have found it.”

  “We’ll need the coordinates for the search.” Nina made sure her tone brooked no argument.

  Hamid crossed his arms and scowled.

  “Don’t mess with me, Hamid,” she said, starting to get as testy as Quinn. “I’ve been nice so far, but if you refuse to give me the information, I’ll haul you in for impeding an investigation.”

  “Fine,” he grumbled and swiveled his chair.

  “Hold up.” She slipped between him and his laptop before he could touch it. Hackers often wrote scripts that ran in the background. With a quick flick of a few keys, the script deleted all files. She doubted Hamid was a malicious hacker who had a script waiting in the wings, but she couldn’t take a chance.

  She held out her cell. “You can use my phone to access the site.”

  “Why?”

  “Long story.” She handed her phone to him before she had to explain that, in addition to the possible script, she would be seizing his computer, and she didn’t want him touching it. He could log out of or close windows. Or even shut it down before she could stop him, erasing temporary files that could be essential to their investigation. The FBI forensic tech would unplug the machine, causing it to write all temp files to the hard drive, thus making Hamid’s most recent activities available for review as well as documenting them for any legal proceedings.

  He tapped the screen on her phone, then handed it back to her. “Here’s the cache.”

  After scanning the page, Nina took out her notepad to jot down the website address along with the geocache title in the event her phone malfunctioned. She was a poster child for the use of technology, but it sometimes failed, and she couldn’t risk losing the data.

  Next, she located the GPS coordinates for the cache and recited them to Hamid for confirmation.

  He nodded.

  She recorded them on her notepad, too. After leaving there, she’d use them to retrieve the computer. “Give me the approximate area where the cache is hidden.”

  “It’s in the gorge. At the top of Triple Falls.”

  Not the falls.

  Oh, man. That meant climbing up rugged terrain to where the water plummeted into rapids and moved quickly down the gorge. As much she willed her mind not to, it traveled back twenty-two years to the memory of Garrett tumbling into a rushing river. The sharp current grabbing his small body and ripping his hand out of hers. Tugging him downstream toward the rapids and waterfall. The same kind of setting as Triple Falls.

  The thought sent her pulse racing. She hadn’t been able to go near water since that day. How was she going to get the computer? She could let Quinn go, she supposed, but this wasn’t just about locating Ty’s computer. It was evidence gathering, and Quinn had no experience in that area. She had no choice. She couldn’t let her fears interfere. She had to go up there. Her country needed her. Ty needed her.

  Her hands trembling, she thumbed through the site’s membership rules. She had to blink a few times to concentrate, but once she did, she saw that users could only deactivate a cache, not delete it. Hopefully that was enough to hide the cache, so others couldn’t go looking for the computer.

  “I need you to deactivate your post.” She held the phone out to Hamid.

  He huffed out a breath, but took her phone and tapped the screen. When he’d finished, she checked the site. After confirming the cache was no longer visible to others, she logged him out.

  She squarely met Hamid’s gaze. “You are not, under any circumstances, to reactivate this cache. Or post another one like it. If I find out you did, I’ll arrest you. Understand?”

  “Yes,” he said sullenly.

  “I also want your login and password for the site.”

  He crossed his arms.

  “I’d give it up, if I were you,” Quinn said, his eyes awash with mock terror. “You don’t want to mess with her. She’s something fierce when she gets mad.”

  “Okay, geez.” Hamid rattled off the information.

  Nina jotted it down, then stowed her notebook. “Now, I’ll need you to come downstairs with me while we wait for your mother.”

  “I’ll stay here.”

  “I can’t let you use your computer, which I know you’ll do if I’m not standing over you.”

  “It’s my computer.”

  “I realize that, but you broke the law when you took Ty’s computer and that puts you in the middle of my investigation. Which means, I’ll be getting a warrant to search your house and take this computer into evidence.”

  “No,” he whined. “You can’t have it. It doesn’t have anything on it that has to do with Ty. I swear it doesn’t.”

  “I’m sorry, Hamid, but you posted the cache from here. That means it’s evidence, whether you like it or not.”

  He crossed his arms. “This wouldn’t be happening if my parents weren’t from Iran.”

  “It has nothing to do with your nationality, kid,” Quinn said. “It has to do with the fact that you stole a laptop that has sensitive information on it.”

  His eyes widened. “Did Ty do something else besides hack the No-Fly List?
”

  Nina slashed a hand across her throat to tell Quinn to button it up. “What Ty did isn’t your concern. Your concern is cooperating with me and assuring me that you won’t do anything to interfere with our investigation.”

  “When will I get my computer back?”

  “It’ll remain in evidence for as long as the case is pending. I’ll return it as soon as possible. If you cooperate and come with me now.”

  “Fine, I’ll go. But where and for how long?”

  “We’re just going downstairs to wait for your mom to come home.”

  A smug look claimed his face. “She’ll say you can’t take my computer.”

  “Ha, kid,” Quinn said. “When Nina’s done talking to your mom, she’ll not only gladly hand over your computer, she’ll probably ground you for the rest of your life.”

  Chapter Seven

  “HOW COULD YOU let Hamid have such free rein?” Quinn’s accusatory tone made Mrs. Ahmadi jerk back.

  Nina frowned at Quinn. His outbursts were getting them nowhere with Hamid’s mother. Much like Nina’s talk with Hamid, Quinn hadn’t spoken often, but when he did, the conversation came to a screeching halt. This conversation required a gentle touch. Not the bulldozing of a man who wanted to race ahead without a thought and fix the problem. He was not only delaying her trip to find the cache, he was making the entire situation worse. And she’d had enough of it.

  “Can I talk with you by the front door for a minute, Quinn?” She didn’t wait for his agreement but headed through the formal living room. When he stopped next to her at the front door, she fired a testy look at him. “This isn’t one of your search-and-destroy missions. You’re alienating the mother.”

  “So? I don’t need her to like me, I need her to give me answers.”

  “See that’s where you’re wrong.” Nina tugged him closer to the door so Mrs. Ahmadi didn’t overhear them. “She can make a big stink about both of us talking to a minor without her present. Plus bring charges for entering her home uninvited. And before you tell me Hamid let you in, I saw Hamid enter the house and you were already in here.”