“So, you set a trap of this magnitude using the Wi-Fi of a public library?” Slash asked with a raise of an eyebrow.
“It was only the starting point. I’m not stupid. I hopped around plenty. I didn’t want it traced back to me and my house in case something went wrong.”
“You’re going to need a few more lessons on cyberevasion,” he said.
“Cool.” I wiggled my fingers. “I’m ready when you are.”
Lexi leaned back in her chair. “You know, I’m going to see if BioLimbs wants to hire us to beef up their security. If a fifteen-year-old can hack in…”
“Hello. Almost sixteen here,” I interjected. “And Vincent Kars told me BioLimbs was no longer working with X-Corp.”
“They are singing a different tune since you uncovered the malware.”
“Really?” I looked at Lexi in surprise. “You told them?”
“Of course I told them. Even better, I showed them. That was creative thinking about the update software for the app, Angel. Mr. Kars was embarrassed—not to mention ashamed—for not listening to you.”
“I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You deserve the accolades for logical, solid thinking. And for perseverance.”
Slash dipped his head in agreement. “She’s right. But I do have another question for you, Angel. Who set up the mirror site? Not the coding, but the graphics and design? It was spectacular work.”
“That was Frankie. She’s got an amazing eye—an artist’s eye. She can spot the tiniest detail and replicate it from just one look. She sees the smallest discrepancy in everything from architecture to clothing. It’s pretty amazing.”
“It is, indeed.” Slash shut the laptop. “You’ve got a bright future in front of you, Angel. You’re resourceful and smart, but even better, you’re innovative and you accepted help when you needed it. You’ll be a valuable resource in today’s cyberworld.”
“I will?” I perked up. “You think I’m innovative?”
He nodded. “I do.”
Lexi leaned across the table, looking at me with steady eyes. “I do, too. So, as a result, I’ll give you one more important piece of advice when considering your future in this industry. Always be a rebel. Stand up for yourself and your ideas. Change the environment, don’t conform to it.”
I nodded, a lump forming in my throat. She’d passed on the mantra to me. Coder to coder. It was a milestone for me—a significant moment.
Lexi truly was my heroine, my mentor, and now perhaps even my friend.
Slash gave Lexi an affectionate glance—one she totally missed—before he stood. I scrambled to my feet, too.
“Wait. What now?” I asked. “What happens to Omar Haider?”
“We’ll figure out what we need to do to take care of the situation,” Slash said. “You go back to school and focus on that excellent future of yours. Besides, there’s a certain vice principal who will be returning to school soon who will likely need your and your friends’ support.”
“Mr. Matthews,” I breathed. “Will the police drop the charges in light of what we found?”
“I think that’s a very likely scenario. Give us a few days to work through this, but I have a feeling things will be back to normal sooner than you think.”
“Oh, thank you!” I impulsively hugged him. He smelled good, like leather, soap, and the faint scent of aftershave. “You guys are amazing.”
He patted me on the back and then exchanged a smile with Lexi. “You and your White Knights turned out to be an impressive set of cyberdetectives. Let me know if I can help you in any way.”
Any way?
I froze as it suddenly occurred to me. Slash worked for the NSA. Maybe he could help me find out if my dad worked for the NSA, and if so, what had happened to him.
The request hovered on my tongue. I just had to ask him.
I clamped my mouth shut. I couldn’t ask him. Not yet. I liked Slash, but I wasn’t sure who to trust. I didn’t have enough information yet. Wally was right. I had to be careful.
But there was something else Slash could help me with. “Well, Slash, there’s this one little thing…”
He lifted an eyebrow and listened carefully while I told him. When I finished, he nodded. “Consider it done.”
“Really? Oh, you’re ace. More than ace.” I couldn’t stop the smile that stretched across my face. “I can’t wait to tell Wally and Frankie.”
Slash put an arm around Lexi’s shoulders, and she leaned into him comfortably. They fit well together, probably better than she realized.
“I’ll bet they’ll be happy to hear it,” she said. “Looks like you’ve made some pretty nice friends with the White Knights.”
I grinned. “Yeah, Wally and Frankie are pretty cool.” I paused and then shook my head. “Oh, who am I kidding? They’re amazing.”
She smiled. “You know, Angel, I was once a lot like you. I reveled in solitude. I loved it…or at least I thought I did.” She glanced up at Slash, who had an amused and affectionate expression on his face. “Anyway, I used to think I didn’t need other people in my life to make me happy. I was content being alone. But after a while, solitude can start to feel a bit like a cage. In my case, it was a friend—no, friends—who unlocked that cage for me. I’ll be honest, I didn’t come out easily, and there were a lot of painful bumps on the road. But things got better. In the end, it’s been worth the effort, a hundredfold.”
She and Slash exchanged a long glance that made me envious of what they had—what they’d built. Maybe I did want something, or someone, like that someday. I agreed the first step out of my cage had been shaky. But Lexi was right.
It had also been worth it.
Chapter Fifty-One
ANGEL SINCLAIR
It turned out I couldn’t tell Frankie and Wally what Lexi and Slash said. A driver, a different one than the one who had taken us to the NSA building, took me home. I didn’t see Wally and Frankie, and the driver didn’t know where they were when I asked.
My mom was waiting up for me. Although she’d sounded calm earlier on the phone with the agent, she was a lot more worried than I expected. She started crying the minute I walked in the door and fussed over me like I was four years old. Gwen was there, too, and that helped calm things down because she told Mom to stop freaking out.
Despite the measure of support from my sister, neither of them would let me rest until I told them what happened. Although I was exhausted, I gave them a shortened version.
“So, you aren’t in trouble?” my mother asked when I finished.
“No, Mom. I helped bring down a serious hacker. Plus, I have a written guarantee of immunity from Slash himself.” I fished the wrinkled note out of my jeans pocket and handed it to Gwen. “Slash and Lexi personally thanked me. He thinks the charges against Mr. Matthews will be dropped.”
“That’s great, Angel,” Gwen said. “It’s incredible what you’ve done.”
My mom looked at me through red-rimmed eyes. “So, all that time you were hacking when I thought you were making friends?”
“That’s the thing, Mom. I did make friends. Good friends. Friends I can trust.”
Gwen’s face softened. “See, I told you it wasn’t so hard.”
“Speak for yourself. For me, making friends involved trapping an attempted murderer, hacking into multiple sites, and a scary interrogation by the NSA. What’s not hard about that?”
“Smart aleck.” But she gave me a hug anyway.
Later, in my bedroom, I was too wound up to sleep. I needed to relax, so I went to my go-to activity—the search for my dad. I sat in front of my computer and thought about all the things I knew about my dad’s disappearance. Had he worked for the NSA? And if so, did it have something to do with his disappearance? On my desktop were the files I’d collected from King’s Security—still unread. I wanted to read it all, but not tonight. I needed a fresh head to do that. Tomorrow would come soon enough.
Swinging my
cursor away from the King’s Security files, I pulled up my latest find from MIT’s database—my dad’s thesis, “Asymmetrical Cryptography: Authentication and Encryption.”
I wasn’t sure how much of it I’d understand or if it, too, might have played into his disappearance. It would, at the very least, get me a step farther into his head. I had a feeling that’s where I needed to be if I ever had a chance of finding out what happened to him.
I leaned back in my chair, clicked on the document, and started reading.
Chapter Fifty-Two
CANDACE KIM
NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, Maryland
Candace spent a full forty minutes reading Slash’s report about the three high school kids who had brought down an Iraqi hacker. When she finished, she took off her reading glasses, picked up the phone, and punched in the numbers.
“IAD.”
“Slash? This is Candace Kim from NSOC.”
“Hello, Candace. What can I do for you?”
“I finished reading your report on the Haider incident. It’s unbelievable. Three high school kids brought him down?”
“Not just any kids. Three extremely talented kids.”
Candace considered her next sentence, chose her words carefully. “One of them…Angel Sinclair. Did you know her father was once one of ours?”
“I’m aware.”
“We think he’s the Hidden Avenger. His name is Ethan Sinclair. We’re presently in an active investigation regarding him that involves NSOC, Jim Avers in operations and Isaac Remington in the Research Directorate. You’ve heard of the Hidden Avenger, of course?”
“Of course. Why the sudden interest?”
“He recently made contact with us through CISB, who passed it up to Jim, who sent it up the chain to me.”
“Has the director been advised of the situation?”
“He has.”
Slash paused. “Why wasn’t IAD informed?”
Candace picked up a pencil and tapped it on her desk. “That’s on me. I’m trying to keep this tight to the chest, because something is off about this situation. I’m not sure who to trust.”
“So why call me?”
“I trust you.”
Slash was silent for a moment. “What’s off about the situation?”
“It’s hard to say. I’ve got a feeling there’s more to this situation than meets the eye.”
“Start at the beginning. Why did he come to us?”
“Apparently, he intercepted chatter from a terrorist group via the ShadowCrypt encryption key that indicates they may be planning something at the Super Bowl. He’s offering us information on it so we can shut it down.”
Slash’s voice hardened. “In exchange for what?”
“Immunity and protection for his family.”
“His family’s in danger?”
“I don’t know. Negotiations are excruciatingly slow. He doesn’t trust us.”
“Then why did he come to us?”
“Good question. We’re still trying to figure that out, as well as what he wants the immunity for. Also, Isaac worked with him years ago. He said the connection was minimal, but I think there’s something else there. He’s not saying.”
Slash didn’t speak for a long moment. “What else?”
“Well, since the girl has a personal connection to you and Ms. Carmichael, I thought perhaps one of you might be able to persuade her or her mother to help us find out if they know anything about her father’s disappearance.”
There was a long stretch of silence before he spoke. “You want me to question a schoolgirl about a father she’s never met and determine if she knows something the NSA, the FBI, and the CIA haven’t been able to discover?”
Candace sighed. “I know it sounds ridiculous. But if Ethan is scared or desperate, he may try to contact her or the mother. So far, the mother isn’t talking. We can’t protect his family if we don’t know what we’re protecting them from. I’m trying to see if we can learn anything new to move the investigation forward.”
Slash paused again and finally spoke. “I’ll look into it.”
Without saying goodbye, he hung up. Slash had never been the chatty type, but Candace didn’t mind. She wasn’t one for small talk, either. Slash was very good at what he did—the youngest IAD director in NSA history—with a fine mind and wicked skill behind the keyboard. She’d spoken the truth when she said she trusted him. She’d done what she needed and enlisted his help. That’s as far as she could take it.
Unfortunately, it didn’t bring her any closer to answers. She still had no idea what the Hidden Avenger wanted and why. She had a growing certainty that an important part of the unknown issue resided in the same building as she did.
Chapter Fifty-Three
ANGEL SINCLAIR
When I arrived at school bright and early on Monday morning, I wasn’t surprised to spot both Wally and Frankie waiting at my locker. Frankie’s dark hair was wound into two Princess Leia buns and streaked with green. She had a big smile on her face. I couldn’t believe how wonderful it was to see them. I gave them both fist bumps, but Frankie and Wally pulled me in for a group hug. I didn’t even mind.
Much.
“I’m so glad you didn’t get arrested, Angel,” Frankie said. “I would have visited you in prison if you did, though.”
“Gee, thanks.” I untangled myself from her embrace. “I’m glad to see you survived your interrogation, too.”
“They gave me Coke and snacks. It wasn’t that hard. Agent Simone asked me a few questions. I didn’t know what you guys were doing on the computer, so I’m sure I had the least to offer. However, it did sound kind of James Bond-like when I described the stakeout in the museum café. I mean, let’s take a moment to think about it. Wally was trapped in the elevator with a possible murderer, and we chased after them by basically jumping down the escalator to the rescue. Do you think if a movie was made Selena Gomez would play me?”
“You’re half Chinese, Frankie.”
“I know, but she’s pretty.”
“You’re prettier.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
“Speaking of pretty, I didn’t mind my questioning, either,” Wally piped up. “Rhonda Coswell, the agent who questioned me, was so hot I almost burned up. Seriously, if I were a couple years older, I would have gone for it. The whole questioning session ended way too soon, if you ask me. I could have withstood another six hours alone in a room with her.”
I imagined what poor Agent Coswell had gone through with her debrief of Wally and tried not to laugh. “Oh, please, Wally.” Still, I smiled as I spun the combination on my locker and pulled out my books.
“You heard that Mr. Matthews is going home from the hospital in a few days, right?” Frankie asked. “Ms. Eder was talking about it in the office this morning.”
“Really?” I pulled out my math book and notebook. “The police aren’t going to charge him?”
“Not yet, at least,” Wally said. “They need to review the new evidence. My guess is they won’t charge him at all based on what we know.”
“That is the most excellent thing I’ve heard in a long time. Is he well enough to go home?”
“Apparently so.” Wally grinned. “Given the influx of cash from our fund-raiser, he can afford a visiting nurse for a while to help him out.”
“Sweet.”
The bell rang, so the three of us separated. I was nodding off during a lecture about multivariable calculations when an announcement came over the loudspeaker.
“Angel Sinclair. Please report to the office.”
Everyone’s heads swiveled toward me as I stood. Ms. Horowitz handed me a slip, and I headed to the office wondering what was up. When I got there, Mrs. Eder and Headmistress Swanson were talking with a dark-haired woman in a pink top and black skirt.
“Angel,” Headmistress Swanson said. “This is Miranda Bai. She’s one of the marketing coordinators for Hello Kitty. She’d like to speak to
you.”
“Marketing coordinator?” I took a step back. “Hello Kitty? Look, if this is about the bra—”
“Yes, it’s about the bra.” She smiled and held out a hand for me to shake. “I saw the video.”
“Oh.” I reluctantly shook her hand then crossed my arms against my chest. Ms. Bai had a Hello Kitty purse slung over her wrist. “Ah, about that. It wasn’t planned and…”
“It’s okay. We at Hello Kitty love it. The footage is raw and real. You were caught in a true moment, for a good cause, and while wearing your Hello Kitty bra. We can’t make this stuff up.”
“But…my team lost and my bra got splattered with powdered sugar.”
“Winning doesn’t matter. It’s the story—high school students band together to support their vice principal, an honored US veteran who was injured in an automobile accident. I couldn’t have written a better script. It’s perfect. To cut to the chase, we’d like your permission to use your likeness and story in a marketing campaign for the company. In return, we’ll make a generous five-thousand-dollar contribution to the fund for your vice principal.”
“Five thousand dollars?” I stared at her, stunned. “For me getting splattered in a bra?”
“A Hello Kitty bra.”
“That’s it? I don’t have to do anything else? Just agree to let you use my likeness and our story in a marketing campaign.”
“That’s it. It’s only for a limited time, and if we wanted to continue with the marketing strategy, we’d renegotiate the deal with you. Anyway, here is the agreement. Take it home, review it with your parents, your lawyers, whoever, and let us know.”
I gave up trying to understand. After a few minutes, Ms. Bai left, and I was left holding a manila envelope with the information.
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