“When you apprehend a target of valuable leverage, that means you want them in one piece. What possible use did you have for a knife?” the angry man demanded.
“I… sir… please… I’m sorry,” the more timid man pleaded.
“Get out of my sight. Now!” the angry man shouted. There was a series of fast moving footsteps retreating from the room while another grew closer.
“You didn’t need to shout at them, did you? I was worried they were going to piss their pants in my control center,” came an amused woman’s voice followed by the sounds of someone slurping from a drink.
“If greater harm had befallen him, the repercussions would have been most unsavory for us,” the angry man responded.
“Calm down. You asked the guys to do something they weren’t used to,” the woman said in a slightly scolding tone. “You need to take a breather. Go and clear your head… I can watch him.”
“Are you sure, my dear?” the angry man questioned skeptically.
“You have him tied to a chair. I am entirely not afraid of him breaking out and beating me to death,” the female said, with a tone Xander was sure included an eyeroll or three during the sentence.
“Very well. Watch him closely, if you please. I shall return shortly,” the angry man said before Xander heard a set of retreating footsteps.
With the conversation over, Xander could now make out different sounds. Haybale Rock came from a radio somewhere, fingers drummed against something hard, and there was a gentle whirring of a cooling fan or ten. Moments later, the drumming stopped, and the sound of wheels on a wooden floor came towards him. He flinched a little and expected something to hit him.
“I know you’re awake, just don’t shout, alright? If the guys hear you, they may knock you out again,” said the woman's voice. There was a sudden feeling of someone’s hands running around his head, and then the blindfold was being loosened. As it was removed from his eyes, he had to blink to stop the sudden artificial light from blinding him.
As his eyes finally adjusted to the light level, he was able to see the room he was in. It wasn’t a cell as he assumed it would be. It was a room filled with a few different computer setups. An AR screen covered three of the four walls. All in all, there were no defining features whatsoever. A Patty’s Place cup with a straw protruding from it entered his vision .
“Have something to drink, you must be thirsty,” the woman said. She was a pretty girl. Dark black hair cut just below her ears framed a long face with a pointed chin, her dark eyes contrasting her pale skin. She gave off a sense of fragility, but there was something about her that made him feel that it was not true.
Xander eyed the drink skeptically and looked at her. She rolled her eyes and took a drink from the straw to show there wasn’t anything untoward about it before offering it back. Feeling a little safer, Xander took the straw and drank deep; the sweet and bubbly soda was surprisingly refreshing.
“You won’t get this sort of treatment from the guys, so take advantage of the fact I’m currently alone in the office and I’m willing to share my lunch,” the female said with a smile as she grabbed a paper bag emblazoned with Patty’s cartoon face.
“Why are you being nice?” Xander asked, narrowing his eyes slightly at her. There was something about this situation he didn’t quite trust.
“Because it’s not your fault you’re here and, well, you need to eat and drink,” she said as she held a fry out in his direction. Feeling the rumble in his stomach, he took a bite as she kept talking. “They call me Eris by the way. No point searching my mind, that’s not my given name or even one I use on the Nexus”.
“Alright… Eris. Wanna tell me why I’m here?” Xander asked. Hopefully, she would be willing to give him some answer.
“I probably shouldn’t, but… fuck it… you are being used as an incentive to get back something we need,” she explained as she put her feet up on the nearest table and fed him another fry.
“From who? Who the hell can I be used as incentive against?” Xander asked, thoroughly confused at their choice of hostage. Surely the Network had bigger fish to be used for ransom.
“She calls herself the CausticBitch on the Nexus, but her real name’s… ,” she started.
“...Riley,” he finished her sentence with a sigh as he rolled his head back. What the hell had Venom done to get into this trouble?
“This isn’t the way we usually operate. but what she took was rather important to us,” she said as she fed him another fry. There was a bleeping from somewhere. “Oops, give me a second.”
She pushed herself away on the wheeled chair, her hands dancing in the air as she obviously manipulated AR screens only visible to her through her AR glasses. Taking this moment while she was occupied, he tried desperately to wiggle his hands free of the ropes that bound him. He grit his teeth through the pain of the coarse strands against his skin. It was a waste of time; he was tied too well. He glanced around the room, searching for any sign of who had taken him or where he was. Nothing, nothing at all. Before he had a chance to try anything else, she was on her way back.
“So who are ‘we’? You keep mentioning a we?” Xander asked. Hopefully, her seemingly nice nature may lend to naivety.
“That’s something that I can’t tell you, I’m afraid,” Eris said with a smile before reclining a little in her chair. Xander swore internally. Maybe he could attempt a different approach.
“Look, I doubt having me here is going to put any kind of pressure on her to get done what you need. Please let me go. I have a family. My wife is going to kill me if I’m not there to help with my baby girl,” Xander said almost pleadingly. At least if something happened to him, he knew the Network would look after Caitlyn and Keira. It was a small comfort.
Instead of replying to his comment, Eris went quiet, her eyes glazed as she stared unseeingly at the wall before her. There were tears gathering on her fine lashes. His comment had obviously hit her in a way he hadn’t expected, and there was a slight pang of guilt. She had been nothing but pleasant to him, kidnapping aside. Suddenly, she turned to look at him as if snapping out of her daze.
“Having a family is always a risk in the line of work we’re in,” she said sadly as she turned back to the computer setup. The look he’d glimpsed in her eyes was one he’d seen before, a look of loss.
“Who did you lose?” Xander asked.
“My little brother. He was only eighteen. Somehow he got in the middle of a gangers’ fire-fight, took six rounds to the chest,” she said monotonously, her eyes flicking back and forth as she worked her AR.
Even though he desperately wanted to know where he was and the true reason why, he knew not to push anymore. Sorrow was an easy way to shut someone up. He sighed, rolling his head back in his chair. How the hell had Venom managed this? What had she done to get into this much trouble? He should have been mad at Venom, but he wasn’t. Instead, he was worried about her. Things had been going awry for a while now, but he hadn’t thought it was this severe. Maybe he should have pushed her more to talk to him, spent more time with her. When he got out of here, he was going to kick that hacker’s ass to sort things out but not before he hugged the shit out of her.
Chapter Thirteen
“Ok, so here’s a question. Xander is a Network operative, so why don’t we inform the jobs team and see if we can get him rescued. You know...use our connections,” Fenric suggested, taking a swig from his coffee cup.
“That’s the problem. I may have used the Network’s information on the SUN to get what I took in the first place. Dependent on whose desk it falls on, I could get fired,” Venom said sheepishly as she dragged her hands through her hair. She knew the extent of what she had done, and the risk had not been worth the reward this time. Her ego had gotten the better of her.
“Ok, so that’s definitely not an option. You may be a pain in the ass, but if you left I’d miss you,” Fenric said with a genuine smile as he started flicking through something on his AR interfa
ce. His unexpected comment threw her. Knowing he was willing to ignore her misdemeanor in favor of helping her made her want to run up and hug him. She had seriously underestimated their relationship.
“So you’ve tried researching OwnPlace itself and had no luck,” Vara said to herself as the small woman paced the room, her hand tapping her lip as she thought. “We have no idea who the announcer or the organizer is or where to find them.”
“I can try hitting up some of my contacts from the club, but you know what hackers are like. We hide ourselves well ‘cause we know what we can do,” Fenric said as he leaned back in his chair, interlocking his hands behind his head.
“Have you tried tracing yourself?” Vara said thoughtfully, her eyes lighting up a little.
“No. It seems like the obvious answer, I know, but with the amount of Nexus activity I have, it's fucking hard to even know where to start,” Venom said with a sigh. Tracing your own data trails was hard. When you already knew where you had been, you skipped steps, avoided areas of danger. It was tough, time consuming, and often inaccurate.
“Well the question is how much activity have you had on the SUN’s system?” Vara asked as she stopped and took her coffee from the table.
“Other than the theft, none. I only knew the Network has access keys squirrelled away, as I commonly sweep the storage we hold in case I ever need something. Y’know... for another hack,” Venom explained. Vara’s plan might actually work! As she had only accessed that system once, there would only be one trail to follow.
Every time you accessed a system, you left a data footprint. No matter how much you tried, you couldn’t avoid it. Any hackers worth their salt would know how to cover those, but there was always something left behind if you knew where to look. But looking for your own tracks was always more difficult.
“Well, that's easy. If I hack into the SUN systems, then I can find any trace that you may have left from the specific hack. Then if we can track it back to OwnPlace, we can find the data transfer, which means we can find the announcer,” Vara said, growing more and more expressive as she laid out the plan to the other two, her wildly gesturing hands doing nothing to her AR board.
“While she’s doing that, I can prepare programs to further the hack against the announcer and hit up some of my contacts to see if they actually know the dude,” Fenric said, looking between the other two. “What do you think, V?”
Venom was at a loss for words. She didn’t expect them to go to this much effort. Vara was putting herself at a lot of risk hacking in the SUN systems. A risk that she didn’t need to take. In this moment, Venom wished she'd asked for help sooner. Maybe then they wouldn’t have taken Xander, and she wouldn’t be suffering the horrendous detox she currently was.
“Are you guys sure about this? You don’t have to help. I mainly wanted some advice,” Venom said as she looked between the two of them.
“Of course. You’re my friend, and I like to help my friends,” Vara said with a smile.
“And I’m kinda the reason you’re all in this mess. You did a favor for me, so I’ll return the favor,” Fenric said with a grin as he got to his feet.
“Thank you, guys,” Venom said, wrapping her arms around herself as a cold shiver ran down her spine.
“You’re welcome. I finish in an hour, and then I’ll get to work on the hack. I’ll call you later when I’m done,” Vara replied as she started towards the door. Venom gave her a nod of thanks before she left.
As soon as the door closed, Fenric reached out and took her hand. His thumb gently rubbed over her soft skin. He was quiet for a moment, his eyes flickering back and forth as if he was struggling to form a sentence. There was a huge sigh, and he dragged his hand through his hair.
“I’m so sorry, V. This is all my damn fault,” he said. Sadly looking at the floor, he avoided making eye contact with her.
“It’s alright. Seriously. You gave me the means to start this, but I had quite a large part in fucking it up,” she said with a sad smile as she pulled him in for a hug. Yes, he had put her in the position to make the fuck ups, but in the end, she had gone through with it.
“I’m still sorry. Man, I wish I hadn’t put you in the position I did… wish I hadn’t sold you all those pills,” he said, smiling weakly.
“What’s done is done. I should have talked to you guys, asked for help or something,” she said feebly. There were a lot of things she should have done differently, and one of them was doing something before they captured Xander.
“Thanks for not telling Vara about the hack bar and the bet and stuff,” Fenric said, nervously scratching his head.
“Fen, dude, seriously. I’m not blaming you anymore,” Venom said, grinning slightly. “Now let’s not cry over spilt milk and fix this mess. I apparently have an addiction to kick before more people notice.”
“Yeah, you have a point. Now get your ass out of here and get some sleep. The detox is going to get an awful lot worse, and if you’re going to hack with us later, we need you primed,” Fenric said as his usual cocky grin appeared back on his face.
Venom got to her feet with Fenric’s assistance, and they made their way to the door. With a quick hug, she said her goodbyes and headed back to the elevator. With business concluded, she wouldn’t linger. If Micah saw her in her current state, there was a chance he would put her through rehab. Drugs were accepted, but there were limits, and her addiction was far surpassing that limit. The last thing she wanted was a mark on her file.
Chapter Fourteen
Venom awoke a little after ten in the evening. She was hoping that she would feel refreshed and the worst of the detox effects would be over, but alas, it was not the case. Her body was drenched in a thick layer of cold sweat, the tremor was undeniably worse, and she still felt exhausted. Just rolling onto her back took more effort than she thought was possible. She contemplated getting a few more hours of sleep, but when she glanced at her comms and saw the host of messages, that wasn’t an option.
“Maybe I should take just one last pill. Y’know just to help us get Xander back,” she thought seriously. How could she be any help to Vara and Fenric in her current state? No! It was a trick of her mind to get her to take the chemical it so desperately craved. With that, a colossal pain streaked through her stomach. Venom cried out, curling into the fetal position on her bed. Was she dying? It felt like she was dying. Tears welled in her eyes as she prayed for the pain to stop. At least Jacques wasn’t here to see the mess she had become.
After what felt like hours, the pain finally subsided. She released a deep breath, and rolled onto her back, she checked the time. Eight minutes had passed. This was only the beginning of the detox, and she was already praying for death.
Forcing her mind to focus, she started scrolling through the host of messages on her comms. One from Caitlyn was enough to cause a surge of guilt in her. Words of panic at Xander's disappearance and what fate might have befallen him. Venom wanted to tell her where her husband was and why, but she just couldn't. She couldn’t deal with one of her best friends hating her because of a stupid mistake. Getting him back was the only goal now, and then Venom would throw herself on Caitlyn’s mercy and hope her friend would forgive this transgression.
Opening the three-way chat between her, Vara, and Fenric, she desperately tried to catch up on their afternoon’s progress. It didn’t take long for her vision to start to blur and her head to pound. FUCK. How the hell was she going to manage this when she couldn’t focus? With a surge of energy, she threw herself out of bed and started scrabbling around her nightstand and the floor, searching for a discarded NeuroPep tablet or even a general pep pill. Anything to stop the pain and help her focus. When her search came up empty, the tears started, and she pulled painfully at her hair.
No! She was stronger than this!
Summoning what little energy she could muster, she forced herself to her feet and resigned herself to the side effects of her own idiocy. She went to the kitchen and turned on the cof
fee maker and listened to it hiss as it started to heat the water. With a dejected sigh, she dragged her hand through her matted hair and looked around the bare apartment. She felt so alone right now. Jacques had been a pain in the ass, but she missed him terribly. All she wanted was him to wrap his arms around her and tell her it would all be alright in the end. Her lonely thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an incoming call. Venom winced as the sound irritated her already off kilter senses. When she saw the group call invite with Vara and Fenric, she quickly accepted but turned the volume down a little.
“Venom,” Fenric greeted a little cheerier than she would have liked. She winced again.
“A little quieter and less energetic, please,” Venom said with a groan as she took the fresh coffee and dropped herself into her armchair.
“The DT kicking in?” Fenric questioned in a much more appeasing tone.
“Yeah… Oh yeah… Could one of you guys just come over here and kill me? I have never felt this bad,” Venom said, hugging her coffee cup close to her chest. Now that they knew about her issue, she didn’t have any problems talking with them about it.
“I have something that may cheer you up,” Vara said quietly.
“What you got?” Venom asked. She wanted to show some excitement, but any emotion other than self-pity and shame seemed entirely out of the question.
“Well, I accessed our friend’s house and found the point where the item was taken. It was actually really simple to track, and I think we’ve found the man that her book was sold to,” Vara said, cleverly speaking in code. With the latest news pieces about CommTech’s call surveillance, the last thing they needed was to be picked up on hacking violations. She already had two strikes; a third would be a court case and likely jail time.
“Well, do we need to go and knock on the man’s door?” Venom asked. Internally, she wanted to scream with joy, but outwardly, she could barely twitch a toe.
Caustic (The Seraphim Network - Everyday Series Book 1) Page 12
