No Strings Attached

by Julie Moffett

  “That’s nice, how it’s all been wrapped up and tied with a bow.” Slash’s voice was mild, but his jaw tightened slightly. “Pretty convenient timing.”

  “There was nothing convenient about it. It was hard work tracking those accounts down. There were a lot of people at the NSA working on it.”

  Slash was silent.

  Sam sighed. “Dude, I’m asking you to turn the chip back on. You know it’s the right thing to do. We’ll have it cracked in twenty-four hours anyway.”

  “Goodbye, Sam.” Slash clicked the button off and set the phone on the bed.

  The phone rang a few seconds later, but Slash didn’t answer or look at it. I picked it up and turned it off. We needed to work and concentration would be key now.

  We each retreated to our respective laptops and got down to business. Other than a few breaks for coffee and food, we worked steadily. When I went to the kitchen to get coffee for us, Agent Clark stopped me.

  She was tall and thin with short brown hair and intense brown eyes. She’d taken off her jacket and wore a shoulder holster with her weapon in plain sight. Guess they weren’t fooling around with this assassination thing.

  “Hi, Ms. Carmichael. Sorry to bother you.”

  “You’re not bothering me. Call me Lexi.”

  “Sure, thanks.” She leaned a hand on the counter. “So, Lexi, I just wanted to let you know that we caught someone running surveillance on Slash’s apartment.”

  “Really?” I paused in midpour. “You caught them?”

  “Well, not exactly caught. We caught them spying electronically. We put a stop to it, but it means that someone has found his apartment. It’s definitely not safe to return for the foreseeable future, okay? We are also pretty sure your place has been under surveillance by hostiles, too.”

  Hostiles. It sounded so ominous, which it was, given the fact that we were currently hiding in an FBI safe house.

  “Okay.” I supposed it was a good thing Slash was moving. I wondered if I would have to consider moving, as well. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll tell Slash.”

  I finished pouring coffee into our mugs. I added a lot of cream and sugar to mine and stirred.

  “Appreciate it. There is something else. Kip Montgomery has been trying to reach you.”

  “Kip as in forensic artist Kip?” I took a sip of coffee. It was hot, but too strong. I added some more cream.

  “Yeah, that’s the one. You can call him back on my phone if you’d like.”

  “Do you know what he wanted to talk to me about?”

  “I don’t.”

  I glanced at the clock. “It’s seven thirty. Do you think that’s too late to call him?”

  “We’re the FBI. It’s not too late.” She grinned as she pulled up Kip’s number, handing me the phone. “I’ll be in the living room when you’re done.”

  She disappeared and I pushed the call button. A couple of rings later, Kip answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Kip, this is Lexi Carmichael. I heard you’re trying to reach me.”

  “I am. You are a hard woman to reach.”

  “These days that is not an understatement. What’s up?”

  “I wanted to let you know we got a hit on the young kid who passed you the envelope in the bar. You know, the one with the Hack the Planet T-shirt.”

  “Really?” My mood lifted. We really needed a break and maybe we’d just got one. “That’s great, Kip. Who is he?”

  “His name is Lin Yee, but he goes by the name Luke. He’s a computer science student at San Jose University.”

  “That’s near Silicon Valley.”

  “It is. Does that mean something to you?”

  “It might.”

  “Well, we’ve also pieced together his whereabouts from his credit card statement and guess what?”

  “He was in DC the day I met him.”

  “Bingo.”

  “That’s great Kip. Good news is always welcome.”

  “I’ve got more for you. We got a copy of his student ID with a photo and a voice imprint. I’d like to shoot them your way and get your opinion. Want me to channel it through IAD?”

  I thought about it for a minute. “No, it’s a long story why, but can you send it directly to Agent Clark instead? To her phone is fine. I’ll be able to get it from her.”

  “Sure, whatever you want.”

  “Thanks, Kip. Good work. Your department is stellar.”

  “We aim to please.”

  I returned the phone to Agent Clark and let her know that she would be receiving an important email for me. She promised to let me know when it arrived. I carried the mugs back to the room. Slash was pacing the room, a frown on his face.

  I paused in the doorway. “Did I take too long with the coffee?”

  He stopped, rolled his eyes at me. “No, I’m thinking.” He walked over and took the mug from me. He took a sip and scrunched up his face in disgust. “My taste buds say this is five-hour-old coffee.”

  It didn’t seem so awful to me, but then again I had completely diluted it, so how would I know?

  I shrugged. “Unfortunately a quick run to Starbucks is out.”

  He set the coffee down on the dresser and pushed his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry, cara. I didn’t mean to be short. It’s just I’ve hit a wall with the code. I need to figure a way through or around it.”

  I’d been in the same position many times. Writing code could be brutal. Think, rethink, write and rewrite. It was a never-ending battle between the magic and frustration.

  “I’m a good sounding board.” I perched on the corner of the armchair, sipping coffee and observing him. “What’s the problem?”

  “I’m not sure yet. That’s the problem.”

  I wrapped my hands around the mug. The heat felt good on my fingers. “Well, before you get too lost in your thoughts, I have some news from the FBI and Kip Montgomery.”

  I gave Slash a quick update on everything Kip had told me.

  Slash listened without interrupting. When I was finished, he strode over to the bed and picked up his laptop. “Silicon Valley? Let’s see if Sinam Tech has an employee named Yee.”

  “With a son named Lin,” I added. “Shouldn’t take us long if we work together.”

  We sat down with our respective laptops. Twenty minutes later we had what we needed.

  “Yee Bao.” I read aloud. “He has two children. Lin, aged twenty-one and Hua, aged twelve. Bao is a network engineer at Sinam. That’s another solid link to the Red Guest.”

  “It’s where all roads lead right now.” Slash looked up from his monitor. “No surprise there.”

  “So, that’s what we know about the Red Guest, but what’s happening in terms of the hunt for the mole?” I asked.

  He stiffened. “Unfortunately the investigation is going nowhere fast.” A tug of emotion caught in his voice and he cleared it. “I’ve got the short list from OSI, but I don’t see anyone on it as our mole.” He hit some keys and shifted his laptop so I could see the list.

  I scrolled down through the names. Not surprisingly, Charlie was at the top of the list. Slash remained on the list, as did Trevor, Sam and six other names I didn’t recognize. Based on the clearances and job descriptions of those unfamiliar six names, all were high-ranking systems or network experts within IAD, with top-level clearance to have access to the required information and systems needed for the hack.

  “Well, they’ve narrowed it down, at least,” I said. “Even while keeping Charlie at the top. That’s good, I guess.”

  “It’s not good,” Slash insisted. “I don’t think the mole is on this list. I’ve personally worked with Grant, Trevor, Sam and Charlie for four years. They are patriotic, principled and dedicated. In regards
to the rest of the staff listed, I’m intimately aware of their capabilities. They may be good at what they do in IAD, but none of them have the mature skills needed for a hack of this caliber. It’s got to be someone else. Someone we’re not thinking of.”

  “Maybe someone on this list is hiding mad skills you’ve never noticed before,” I suggested. “You are awfully busy.”

  “Trust me. I know. The mole may be in the NSA, but is not on this list.”

  I opened my mouth to protest the sheer illogicality of that statement, but I shut it before I said anything. My heart hurt for him because no matter what I said, he wouldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe it. Logic dictated that the people on that list were the only ones who would have both current knowledge, capability and access to the required systems in order to write the hack. He or she had to be on that list—there was no other explanation. Yet his passionate defense of his staff touched me deeply. For a man who showed so little outward emotion, he was fiercely protective of those he led.

  “Sometimes, circumstances change,” I said gently. “Things happen that make people change and cause them to make foolish or desperate decisions.”

  “Not on my watch,” he said firmly.

  Subject closed, he reached over and picked up the cell phone Agent Knott had given us. He swiped the screen and looked over at me. “Looks like we’re in high demand. We have eleven messages.”

  He pressed a button and listened. The longer he listened the tighter his posture became. A dark frown crossed his face. After thirty more seconds he looked so angry, I set aside my laptop and went to stand beside him. I put a hand on his forearm, the muscles tensing under my fingers. I could almost feel the anger vibrating off him. Finally he pushed a button and turned toward me.

  “What is it, Slash?” I asked. “What’s happened now?”

  His jaw was clenched so tightly I wondered if he’d be able to open it to speak. He finally did.

  “Charlie Hsu is in the hospital.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Oh, no. Charlie?” I took a step back in surprise. “What happened?”

  “I’m not sure. The message says he collapsed at the NSA during questioning.”

  “Is he going to be okay? Is it serious?”

  “It’s unclear. I’ve got to call in. But I don’t like this. I’m not buying that this is an accident.”

  Slash pushed the call button and put it on speaker. After five rings someone answered.

  “Sam Nelson.”

  “Sam, it’s Slash. What happened to Charlie?”

  “I guess you finally got my message. You took your sweet time to answer.”

  “Careful, Sam. The phone was off.” Slash spoke in short clipped sentences. Everyone’s nerves were on the edge. “We’re working. What happened?”

  “I’m sorry, man. We’re all in disbelief here. I don’t know what happened. He just collapsed. Stress, guilt, trauma, who the hell knows? By the time the ambulance came, Shawn was giving him CPR.”

  “Will he make it?”

  “The last update I heard he was in critical condition.”

  Slash closed his eyes. “Listen to me. I want everyone in IAD to stay alert and focused on this case. We have to find out who is responsible for these murders. As acting director of IAD, I’ve already ordered every member of our division to have an FBI security team protecting them. The security details have already been cleared by Director Norton. They might skip me and move down the list of our personnel. You’re next on that list, Sam. You are to take extra precautions. I advise strictly limiting your activities to work and home for the time being. Tell everyone else to remain on high alert and hyper vigilant at all times.”

  “Got it.”

  “Also I want you and the rest of the team to keep focus on plugging any holes in our system. The team priority at the moment, led by you, needs to be on defense. Am I clear?”

  “Crystal. So, what do you think, Slash? Was Charlie the mole?”

  “I don’t know. At the moment, I’m leaving that determination in the capable hands of OSI and Marek. You focus on holding the line. I want every contingency considered and covered. I’m counting on you. I trust you to do this right.”

  “I will.” I could hear the emotion in his voice. “When are you coming back?”

  “When my work is done. It shouldn’t be too much longer.”

  “What are you working on?”

  “The offense. Don’t worry about me. I’m covered. Just do your part and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Slash hung up and tossed the phone on the bed.

  After a moment, he stood and hit a fist hard against the wall. “Damn it, I thought Charlie would be safe in custody. I had a hunch, so I played it. This is on me.”

  “Wait.” I struggled a moment to catch up to his thinking. “What’s on you?”

  “I put him back in the lion’s den. Charlie is a young guy. There’s no way he just collapsed.”

  “Stress does strange things to people. It could have been too much for him.”

  “I don’t believe so.”

  “What are you saying, Slash? That he was targeted while he was inside the NSA? That’s nuts.” Mole or not, it was hard for me to swallow that Charlie could have been hurt while in NSA custody.

  “I think it’s entirely possible and I made him stay.” His face flushed with fury and I guessed the anger was directed mostly at himself. “He could have thrown his career away by avoiding coming in.”

  I exhaled a breath. “It was a tough call, Slash. You did what you thought was right. You tried to save his career.”

  “At what cost? If he dies, it’s on me.”

  I didn’t argue anymore because he had shouldered this responsibility for Charlie alone. Words from me, no matter how heartfelt or persuasive, weren’t going to change his mind.

  I shivered and rubbed my hands up and down my arms. It didn’t help. The coldness had seeped into my blood. The noose was tightening around us.

  Slash began to pace. His jaw had frozen in a tight clench. He’d disappeared into that zone—the one where he became unreachable. I didn’t know what to do for him.

  Honestly, at this point I couldn’t even calm myself.

  But I had to try. I stretched, tried to act casual. “I’m going to take a break. Want to game with me?”

  “No.”

  “Watch television?”

  “No.”

  He didn’t even glance my way. At this point, I decided the best course of action was to leave him alone to work it out for himself.

  I didn’t feel like gaming alone and it was too risky to game with others while I was in hiding. There was no television in our bedroom and I didn’t want to go out in the other room with the agents to watch. I could stream something to watch on my laptop, but I didn’t feel like doing that either.

  I wandered over to the bedroom bookshelf and pulled a well-worn paperback off the shelf. There was a picture of an impossibly good-looking guy without a shirt on the cover with rock-solid abs, a five o’clock shadow and dark, menacing eyes. A full moon blazed in the back of the dark night. The title was The Vampire Who Loved Me.

  I flipped it over and read the back cover copy. A centuries-old vampire falls for a high school student. It sounded totally plausible.

  NOT.

  I was about to put it back on the shelf and then paused. It wasn’t like I had anything better to do at the moment. Sighing, I sank into an armchair, opened the book and started to read.

  Despite my initial resistance to reading the story, I was well into Chapter five before I realized Slash had stopped pacing and was now sitting on the bed watching me.

  “So, how is it?” he asked.

  “The book?” I held it up so he could see the cover.

>   He nodded as his eyes flicked from the cover to me.

  I rested the book against my thigh, my finger holding my spot in the book.

  “Well, for some reason a very old vampire that exists in the body of a hot male teenager is going to high school for—by my calculations—his four hundredth and sixty-sixth year. It’s not clear to me why he’s still in high school, but perhaps that’s a plot twist that will be explained later in the story. I can tell you that by Chapter three the vampire hero—at least I think he is going to be the hero—has a perfect cleft in his chin, super strength and speed, and the body temperature of a Popsicle. The hero utters every word with a perfectly arched eyebrow and a smoldering look, which isn’t that surprising since apparently he’s had centuries of practice on unsuspecting and naive teenage girls. He doesn’t need to hold down a job to survive and pretends not to be attracted to the heroine, for what purpose is yet to be revealed.”

  Slash said nothing, but lifted an eyebrow.

  “Exactly.” I enthusiastically pointed at his eyebrow. “The vampire does exactly that but with more of a sensual, brooding flutter of his long and sexy eyelashes.”

  “What the hell is a brooding flutter?”

  I opened and closed my eyes trying, but clearly not succeeding, in demonstrating the flutter. “Well, according to the teen heroine, it’s sexy when the guy flutters his eyelashes darkly while staring at her with a menacing, yet sensual, glare.”

  He rolled his eyes instead.

  “Anyway,” I continued, “Our heroine considers herself to be a perfectly ordinary girl, although secretly guilt-ridden because she inflicts deep longing on every male character in the book by being obliviously gorgeous.”

  “Is obliviously a word?”

  “It is. Anyway, she’s had a difficult home life, which apparently causes her to chew her lower lip every other sentence and forgive the hot vampire when he goes all postal and peeps into her bedroom window when she’s sleeping. For some reason, she even lets him in her bedroom so he can snuggle with her, despite the fact he’s as warm as a Fudgsicle. Did I mention he had great abs?”

  I saw his lips twitch, but it wasn’t a full-on smile yet.