Crash Alive (The Haylie Black Series Book 1)

by Christopher Kerns

  The room was enormous, almost like a self-contained, hyper-modern office building, all built inside a wing of Titanhurst. The layout, furnishings, and people scurrying about the room resembled a mid-stage startup company. About forty or fifty computer workstations, all manned by programmers, were arranged in three rows of plain desks lining one side of the complex. Large flat-screens littered the walls every few feet, but it was the structure on the south wall—an enormous stadium-seating pit—that drew Caesar’s eye.

  Fifteen engineers assembled in the pit facing a large array of screens, each displaying data from different parts of the globe. Grainy camera feeds of military bases, traffic patterns in Paris, and data from stock markets projecting the next morning’s opening bell.

  “What is all this?” Caesar whispered under his breath.

  “Martin. What’s up, man?” A young man with an American accent approached, reaching out to shake Martin’s hand. He had a thin, scraggly beard, a t-shirt that read ‘Startup Olympics, Bay Area, 2015,’ and faded but stylish Adidas sneakers. He had the knowing eyes of a man that knew what he was doing.

  “Sean. Good to see you. I just got into London earlier this morning. Oh, meet Caesar Black,” Martin said with a smile. “Sean was the number two guy at LolliBook, but left a few years after the IPO. Designed their entire architecture from scratch and then scaled it as they grew, obviously. He designed and built the–”

  “The NexBot open framework for rapid web deployment. I use that package on all my side projects. It’s amazing,” Caesar said, staring at Sean with awe.

  “Yes, he sure did. Sean’s been with us for a few months now,” Martin continued.

  The two men shook hands, and Sean quickly apologized for having to “bolt” before heading off towards his workstation.

  “And Alexis….” Martin bellowed down into the pit. “Alexis, could you come up here, please? I’d love for you to meet someone.” An older woman with graying hair and glasses looked up in his direction, skipping up the stairs with a smile.

  “Caesar, do you remember the last mission to Mars?” Martin asked. “The one where NASA sent a rover wrapped in a collection of balloons that inflated on impact to cushion the blow? They said it would never work with the limited budget that they had … Alexis was the lead engineer on that one. She’s just joined us a few weeks ago but she’s already been solving problems that left us scratching our heads for months.”

  Caesar shook her hand as they exchanged pleasantries and she returned back to her work. He surveyed the room.

  This feeling—I know this feeling.

  It’s well-known in the startup world that to succeed, half the battle is finding a team with the right energy. Take a small space—a loft apartment, a warehouse, even the corner of a coffee shop—and get the right team of smart, independent, accomplished people together, and it will feel different; there will be a buzz, an electricity. Caesar knew that feeling well, and this operation had somehow tucked it into an English mansion.

  “How … how did you get all these people here? This is incredible,” Caesar stuttered as the group continued to work all around them.

  “This is my job, and I’m very good at it,” Martin said. “I found them each in different ways. Nothing as elaborate as the Raven puzzle, I can assure you, but I discovered each one at the right time and the right place. And as for the NASA people, well, that wasn’t that hard. They pay terribly over there.”

  “Do they all know what’s going on here?” Caesar whispered to Martin. “About your plans?”

  “Of course they do. You want to try keeping secrets from people that invented the email system used by half the world? Good luck with that. We’ve been up front and honest with everyone, and I’d be happy to tell you all the details as well, if you’ll join us,” Martin said. “Like I said back in the apartment, we’re doing the right thing here; everyone understands the logic. And more importantly, they understand the opportunity. But while the people in this room are technical marvels, they aren’t leaders—there’s a difference, as you know. They need a man like you to lead them.”

  Caesar tried to wrap his brain around what he was seeing. Engineers white-boarding coding problems, schedules and timelines on paper taped to the walls, beer kegs and t-shirts. I don’t believe this.

  “Caesar, this is your team,” Martin said. “No, sorry, they were going to be your team. Network operations, data science, artificial intelligence … designing systems to run the world over the next few hundred years. That’s the goal, anyway.”

  Caesar exhaled, thinking about the possibilities.

  “Listen, about that favor,” Martin said. “I’ve got one last ask of you and then we’ll get you on the next flight to New York; first class, of course. Come with me.”

  Martin led Caesar back over to the pit where he tapped an engineer and whispered in her ear. She dropped what she was doing and with a few keystrokes, commandeered two screens at the center of the main display. Live feeds appeared of the Main Lodge of the Bohemian Grove and Terminal A at JFK Airport.

  “We’ve received another signal from the Raven puzzle,” Martin said, gesturing towards the wall of screens. “Someone used the QR code from the Grove earlier this morning, London time. We believe that there’s someone in your shadow, and to get this far, they must be pretty good.”

  Squinting to make out details on the screens, Caesar walked down into the pit for a closer vantage point. He focused on the view of the Bohemian Grove, showing a dozen or so security officers of all ranks mulling around the Main Lodge. A cut view showed the carcass of a charred boat being dragged to shore by an officer clumsily paddling a canoe, with a co-captain holding a small, black device in his hand.

  “Wow,” Caesar said. “They really did it.”

  “Indeed. Used a drone for surveillance, came in on foot. Very smart, must have taken weeks of planning. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize there would be a mid-spring meeting for Bohemian Club members at the time, but still, they made it to the next clue while avoiding capture,” Martin said. “As you know, if they are continuing on with the Raven steps, we have to assume they are now headed to New York.”

  Caesar nodded, side-stepping over to the video feed of JFK airport. He turned back to Martin and the rest of the team, who had now assembled around the pit. “So what do you want me to do?”

  “Well, with your departure, we’re still without a leader for our technology group,” Martin said with a quick glance around the room. “Our timeline is of the essence; we’d like to intercept the hacker that is headed into the Morgan Library and bring them to London; offer them the lead position. Anyone under this kind of pressure, of course, is going to be a bit … on edge, so we may need to get creative here.”

  Caesar stared back at Martin with a curious eye.

  “We’d like you to catch your replacement, if you would be so kind.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The Kitano Hotel - NYC

  March 10th, 8:15AM

  “Is the audio coming across? Are you getting this?”

  The jittered, pixelated voice cut in and out at high volume, piercing through the spacious hotel suite. Scents of coffee and eggs lingered as the sunlight poured through the east-facing windows and onto the caramel wood floors.

  Haylie jacked in her headphones and toggled down the volume a few notches. She switched over to update the system settings, giving her Voice-Over-IP app the highest network priority.

  “Hold on. I’m tweaking something over here,” Haylie said. “I hear you, just wait a minute.”

  An hour earlier, Haylie had sent Vector a text asking him for an IRL voice conversation, which would be a first for them. He had shot back a link to his favorite VoIP client: open source, easy to set up, and most importantly, secure.

  “Ok, try again,” Haylie said. “Say something.”

  “No chance, Crash,” a British voice sounded back. “You’ll never get me to talk.”

  Haylie cracked a grin, the first she
could remember in a long time. Vector’s voice seemed kind, even refreshing, and that British accent, well that was a whole thing in itself. She exhaled with relief, as if a lifeline had been thrown her way after days adrift at sea.

  “So what’s going on over there?” Vector continued. “Why are you in New York?”

  “I need your help,” she sighed.

  Haylie spent the next few minutes explaining everything—Caesar’s disappearance, the Sterling brothers, and Raven 2309. As she described her journey, she felt a weight lifting off her sore shoulders with each story.

  “Why not just go to the police?” Vector said. “That’s an option, right?”

  “The Sterlings know about my hacking history,” Haylie said. “Not all of it, but a few of the big ones. No way I’m going to risk them turning me in. I think we can do this without the police.”

  “Where are the brothers right now?” Vector asked.

  “I haven’t seen them since we landed yesterday, but they should be at their cozy little corporate headquarters down in the Meatpacking District,” Haylie said, wincing as she pictured the twins scheming behind her back. “They’ll be busy for a few hours.”

  “The piece I don’t get,” Vector said, “is why do the Sterling brothers care so much about Raven in the first place?”

  “It must be The Project—whatever that is—from the Grove document,” Haylie said. “That has to be the connection, right? They were asking for a meeting with the leadership but no dice. Now, for some reason, they think that solving Raven is their only other chance to track down the group.”

  “What are they like?” Vector asked. “You know, in real life? I’ve read so many articles on them and their ‘next big thing’ approach.”

  “I’d say they’re two guys that were born on third base and act like they just hit a triple,” Haylie said in an annoyed tone.

  “What….” Vector said. “What does that mean?”

  “It’s a baseball thing,” she said. “An American thing. Sorry, I forgot. Never mind.”

  “Well, that’s quite a week you’ve had,” Vector said. “I wish you would have told me you were working on Raven; I could have helped.”

  “I couldn’t … I wish I could have,” she said, “but there was no time to stop and chat.”

  “Sure, I get it, but really,” Vector said, with starts and fits interrupting his speech. “I … this is going to sound strange, especially with the week you’ve just had, but I know a thing or two about the Raven puzzles.”

  Haylie’s brow furrowed as she stared at the blinking status indicator on the chat app. She nervously tapped her fingernails across the aluminum deck of her computer. What does he mean, he knows a thing or two? She waited for him to elaborate.

  “Right, so a year back—no, must have been two—I got a gig from the MechChat forum boards. You know, those anonymous postings that you’ll see on there each week? Small little coding projects for cash? Saving people’s hard drives that have crashed, that sort of thing. Well, this one was from a bloke here in London that needed some custom work.” Vector said. “It turned out to be a series of puzzles. If you did a good job building one, they’d send you another. Cryptography and image files, riddles, hiding objects around town. Any of this sound familiar?”

  Haylie winced. It sure does.

  “It was easy money,” Vector continued. “Anyway, a few months later, I see a random post about Raven starting up again and I go to check it out. And bam, what do I find? One of the puzzles I had worked on was the starting point for Raven. Then it all made sense.”

  “Who are they?” Haylie said, as her heart beat faster. “Who were you working for?”

  “No idea. It was dead drops for files and money from random bank accounts sending wire transfers in return. I never met anyone from their side, just a few other hackers that took the jobs like I did. I worked with one or two others on puzzles that included multiple forms of tech, stuff I wasn’t good at. I can’t even remember who they were.”

  “They have my brother,” Haylie said, stopping herself as she felt her voice beginning to crack. Keep your focus. Caesar will be fine. Everything will be fine. She opened her Morgan research and checked the plan she had typed out on the jet.

  “Here’s the thing: the puzzle is getting harder with each step,” Haylie said. “I’m going to need your help–”

  “Taking down the Sterling brothers?” Vector asked.

  “No, getting into the Morgan,” Haylie said. “The brothers … I’ll take care of them myself.”

  “Brilliant, let’s get on with it. I’ve already called in sick for my shift tonight, just in case. Just let me know what I can do.”

  Haylie cut and pasted a block of text and sent it Vector’s way via a burner email address. “I’m sending you what I need from you today, complete with timetable.”

  Vector clicked at his keyboard and Haylie heard a slight, nervous chuckle. “My goodness. This is really going to happen, isn’t it?”

  “You’re damn right it is. I’m going to get in, grab this thing, and get the hell out of there before Walter and Benjamin even know what hit them. Afterwards, I need you to find those other programmers you worked with on the Raven puzzles. Dig them up; if they know something, I need to know it, too.”

  “What if the Sterlings figure out what’s going on?”

  “Then I’ll make them wish they hadn’t started this in the first place. I’ll ruin them.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line, followed by the rapid clicking of keys.

  “Right. Let’s get on with it, then,” Vector said.

  She breathed in heavy and rose from the couch, looking out the window at the beams of morning sunlight. They’ll never see me coming.

  > > > > >

  Brux Software HQ - NYC

  March 10th, 8:31AM

  Walter and Benjamin walked in step across the second floor lounge. The bright green walls of the bar and sitting area reflected like watercolors across the wood, contrasting with the white plastic chairs arranged here and there. Grown men sat in beanbag chairs as other employees wrote algorithm designs in fading blue and green marker on expanses of whiteboards and floor-to-ceiling glass partitions.

  “So we’re meeting up with Haylie at ten thirty, is that the plan?” Benjamin asked as he sipped his Americano. “Where did you decide on?”

  “Right,” Walter confirmed, checking his watch. “We’ll be waiting in front of the Morgan Library in the SUV, and she’ll meet us there when she’s done. Nice and easy today.”

  “Was she able to get an appointment in the Reading Room at the Morgan?” Benjamin asked.

  “Not exactly,” Walter said. “Sounds like those things take months, sometimes years to schedule. But she texted me last night, said she was able to hack in and add her name to the system in someone else’s place. Like I said: nice and easy. They’ll never even know we were there.”

  A passing Brux employee gave the brothers a shy wave as she inched her messenger bag tighter and walked by. The brothers smiled back to her and waited for her to pass to resume their conversation.

  “The people we talked to said that Raven should only be fifteen steps long,” Walter said, keeping his voice low. “This one, the Morgan Library step, would be number twelve. We’re getting close, but I’m still worried about the schedule. We only have a few days.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Walter said, as he stood. Benjamin followed and the brothers made their way down the hall. “You know, in a few days none of this will matter. The only thing left will be the people connected to The Project. When we make our case, they’ll understand what we have to offer. We just need the chance to explain.”

  The brothers turned the corner and ran full-force into Nancy, Benjamin’s tiny executive assistant. Nervously laughing and holding her hands out as if to catch them if they fell, she stood back, pushing her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose.

  “You guys … you’re way too fast today,” she said, cat
ching her breath. “I’ve been looking all over for you. The board meeting has been moved up to the fourth floor executive conference room.” She glanced down at the LCD screen on her watch. “You’d better get up there to do the meet-and-greet.”

  The brothers nodded in sync, checking their phones one last time.

  “Oh, and the board meeting goes until ten,” Nancy continued, “but then I see you both have your calendars blocked for the next few hours. Is there something in there that I can help with? I know you guys just got back from a trip.”

  Benjamin stepped forward, placing his phone back into his pocket. “Just shopping for Mom’s birthday. We thought we’d do it ourselves this year. You know, get her something fun.”

  Nancy’s head slid to an angle as she bent one knee, smiling and bobbing. “Aw, you guys. You’re just too sweet.” She patted Benjamin on the shoulder as they made their way to the elevator. “Such nice boys.”

  > > > > >

  The Kitano Hotel - NYC

  March 10th, 8:37AM

  Haylie read her checklist one last time, sipping coffee as she memorized the run-through. The museum was a public place and would require a very different set of skills than the previous Raven steps. She would have to work her way past layers of security, gain access, grab what she needed, and leave everyone in the museum completely unaware. It was going to take careful planning, research, and coordination. Unfortunately, Haylie didn’t have time for any of those things.

  She had bought some wiggle room by laying out a plan to meet the brothers at ten thirty, which was the time she swore the Morgan Library’s Reading Room began its first appointment. In reality, the Reading Room opened thirty minutes earlier.

  It’s amazing how some people are too lazy to Google stuff.

  That wasn’t the only lie she had told Walter yesterday. She hadn’t actually hacked into the library’s appointment calendar; getting into that system, it turned out, was impossible. After studying a collection of tourist photos scattered across the web, Haylie learned that the appointment list lived on a simple wooden clipboard hanging on a nail in the Reading Room. Their system was just pencil and paper. Old school.