by Jade Powers
After dressing, Lauren met Lucas on the couch. Somehow they ended up cuddling. It had been a long time since Lauren had felt comfortable with anyone. Lucas told her his story, how he went too far on a hack on the D.O.D. and got a visit from some scary people.
Lucas laughed while he recounted the events, his hand resting on Lauren’s thigh. “You should have seen the pair. They were seriously just like the men in black. No sense of humor at all. I thought I was going to end up in prison.”
“They offered you a job instead,” Lauren guessed.
“Sure beat working retail,” Lucas replied. “And they basically hooked me up for my day-to-day job when they wanted me as a Miami asset.”
Lauren didn’t like the word asset. Not as it applied to people. What a cold word for an employee. They settled into a comfortable rhythm, exchanging memories of the past and dreams of the future. An hour passed easily. Lucas said, “I don’t really want to mess up our connection here, but we should probably check the scans.”
Lauren groaned as she carefully disentangled from Lucas. She said, “I was actually having a good time.”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Lucas joked. He helped Lauren stand.
They returned to the server room and settled back to work. The program had done its part, assaulting the password with possibilities until it unlocked. Lucas nodded, “I was hoping it had finished. You should have seen the server power I borrowed for it. Let’s get started.”
“What do we do first?”
“The company is not going to have a folder marked The Kidnapping. Anything they communicate or save will be in code if it’s there at all. Let’s start with a list of all of the buildings that SpaceTech owns. They should also have competitor information. Maybe we’ll find something there.”
Somehow Lauren thought hacking would be more glamorous. It took a lot of patience. They moved step-by-step, inch-by-inch. By seven o-clock the fun had long since faded. Lauren was ready to quit, but Lucas said, “Give me another hour. We’ve got a lot of good stuff here, but I want to get into this vid file.”
“I can grab dinner, if you want,” Lauren said. The offer was as much for her sanity as for hunger, even though it was dinnertime.
“There’s a burrito stand just around the corner,” Lucas dug a twenty out of his pocket. “Burrito, rice, beans, and a coke for me.”
Lauren handed his twenty back and said, “My problem. My treat. I’ll be right back.”
Lucas walked Lauren to the door, locking it behind her. Instead of returning to the server room, he paced the reception area, waiting for Lauren to return with the burritos. Lauren was sure that a corporation in her field was responsible for the kidnappings. McFarland had asked Lucas to hack Advanced Innovative Technologies (AIT), SpaceTech, and four other companies not associated with Lauren about six months ago. It wasn’t his first crawl through SpaceTech’s main frame. It was the first time he had something concrete to look for.
Lauren returned and they ate in the employee break room. It was a cozy place with two round tables, a refrigerator, and a couple of microwaves. While they ate, Lucas said, “I found an umbrella company with off-shore accounts. SpaceTech paid fifty thousand last week to Hiram and Sons. I found three southern Florida addresses associated with that name. We should look at each one, but there is chatter about the last one we’ll check that gives me the vibe that we might find what we want there. Want to go on a road trip?”
It was Saturday night. They had spent hours and hours hunting for any small clue that might exist. This was the best they had, and it wasn’t much. An empty apartment or more time with Lucas. In the end, Lauren decided to keep going. Stretching, she said, “Sure. We should probably get a flashlight.”
“I have a go-bag perfect for what we’re doing, and you don’t want your car associated with this particular adventure,” Lucas said. He copied a few files to his desktop and then pass-protected the folder with a password so long that Lauren could count to ten and Lucas would still be typing it in.
He shut down the computer and turned off the lights. Lucas felt a swell of excitement as he considered a rescue. Had he known how terribly wrong his night was about to go, Lucas might have opted to stay at home.
Chapter 4
WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN on Miami and the air chilled a few degrees, the night turned breezy, comfortable, and pleasant. Night was the best part of Miami, not necessarily the night life, although there was plenty of that and hard core partiers could always find a place to go. It was more the soothing release of the heat that had bound the city during the day that gave the air a soft and pleasant feeling. The palms glowed under the city lights and the elegant fronds exuded exotic magic.
Miami’s light flooded the skies wiping out all but the brightest of heavenly bodies, everything but the planets or the moon. Lauren missed the stars. She would have to get used to that part of living in a big city.
“How far do you live?” Lauren asked as they walked outside.
Lucas had the good grace to look embarrassed when he said, “The Saturn is actually my car. I took a cab to the restaurant in case the meeting was one of Kendall’s set-ups. Since we’re casing your boss’s sub-companies, we should probably take my car, in case they grab a license plate. It won’t surprise him to see me scoping him out.”
“Wow, you didn’t trust me enough to drive to the restaurant? Should I be concerned about all this? Do you still want to look for Tom?” Lauren asked. It was still hard for her to trust. She’d better figure it out, now that they’d made love. Had sex. Made love. She couldn’t decide.
Lauren felt like she was right there, on the edge of a huge cliff. Just one word and she could fly. But the idea that her wings might be broken, that Lucas might just send her crashing and burning into a cold canyon chilled her resolve. She wanted him so much to be a man that she could trust...and she wanted Lucas to trust her.
Lucas stopped. He faced her, taking her hands. In earnest he said, “I trust you. I swear to you. This attraction between us is real. I don’t know how or why we work so well together, or even if we can sustain it in the face of all this craziness. All I can say is that I want those twelve dates, and I sure hope by the end of them that we’re both happy.”
Lauren watched his eyes. It was an intimate thing, exchanging a gaze like that. She didn’t remember ever really looking at Drake the way she was now looking at Lucas. It felt safe. She could trust her soul with him.
It was just what she needed to hear. Lauren said, “Thank you. Let’s catch some kidnappers.”
“Just a second. First things first.” Lucas opened the trunk and unzipped a tiny pocket on his go-bag. He pulled out an intricate flower barrette and a watch. Handing her the barrette and a piece of paper, he said, “In case something happens, these are trackers. We’ll find a random gas station. Call your contact. Give him all that info before we get too far into this. If something happens, he can find us with these nifty devices.”
“Just like that,” If Lauren was twitchy around a tracking device, she had reason to be. Working in a company that specialized in military technology lent one a certain level of paranoia.
“I hope so. I’ve never had occasion to be rescued before. Then again, I’ve never dealt with kidnappers either. Let’s just say I’m good at sneaking around the non-criminal types.” Lucas tugged the band on his watch, easily latching it. His whole demeanor had an essence of strutting. Lauren hoped he was as good as he thought he was.
The call was quick and painless. The information Lauren gave Sven worked. Sven’s tracking program picked up Lauren and Lucas before she’d hung up the phone. They started with the address closest to town and worked their way out. Lucas had printed maps from the computer to make it an easy trip.
The first building was a rental office. The doors were locked, but the Hiram and Sons logo preceded the names of the two employees from Hiram who shared that office. Lauren crossed them off the list. She said, “Nothing here. We’re on a wild goose chase.�
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“Surveillance is like science. There is a lot of trial and error. If you’re patient enough to develop a mind control device, you’re patient enough to find these kidnappers.”
“Which technically is a police matter anyway. I’m lucky I’m not teaching Biology 101 at the local community college. For a while I thought that would be the only option left to me. The idea sounded horrible, but compared to the threats I’ve endured...now I’m not so sure.” Lauren turned from the building.
“What threats?” Lucas asked.
“I know you’re helping me, and I want to tell you, but I can’t. There are some things about my former job that I can’t discuss.” Lauren stiffened slightly in her seat. It was barely noticeable. Anyone but Lucas might have missed it.
He said, “I know they’re your friends and you have an obligation to them. I won’t pry at your secrets. Do I turn here?”
Lauren was grateful to change subjects. She read out the directions to the second location. There were no course corrections, but it was nice to talk about something other than the fact that she didn’t trust Lucas enough to share confidential secrets, even if she had already slept with him. On the first date, and not even a real one...but Lauren didn’t feel shame.
The second address was a pawn shop. Lauren checked the address twice. “Why would we have a pawn shop on the list? You must have written it down wrong.”
“Money laundering? Diversification? This is definitely one of the addresses.” Lucas drove around the block, turning down the alley. The shop was dark and there were bars on the alley windows as well as on the windows in the front. He said, “I’m fairly sure we can cross this one off the list. No one in their right mind would try to hold someone prisoner here. Too much traffic, plus there is that ‘closed’ sign in the front.”
Lauren slipped that printout to the back and looked at the next one. She said, “Ugh. An hour drive from here.”
The car clock read twelve o’clock. That was midnight, not noon. Lauren was ready for a fluffy bed and no complications. This whole thing with Lucas felt entirely unreal, like she was in a school play, and it had gone over the expected time, and now she just wanted to go home.
For Lucas, the anticipation of some adventure was enough. He had already hacked enough to know that this last address was important. The way SpaceTech buried it, Lucas wouldn’t be surprised to find something that SpaceTech wanted hidden, even if was just a tax write-off or something of that nature. He said, “You can nap if you want.”
Lauren had never been the type to fall asleep in the car. She leaned her head against the door and rested her eyes. Flipping through the radio, Lucas stopped on Jon Secada. With her eyes closed, thousands of strange and unwelcome thoughts edged their way through the darkness to lodge in Lauren’s mind. She was a passenger in the car of a veritable stranger. The veritable stranger was not just any stranger, but was known to work as a spy for the opposition.
Even while she was kicking herself for having carnal relationships with Lucas, he hummed, Just Another Day without You. Lauren opened her eyes to see where they were.
As if sensing her need for silence, Lucas kept his mouth shut, not even glancing her way. Lauren appreciated the solitude. It was strange, knowing and not knowing. When she saw him in reality, eyes open and fixed on him, there was absolutely no doubt that she could trust him. The slightest psychological distance from him roused all of her worries, questions, and issues, but when she gazed upon his face, all doubts melted.
She closed her eyes again and didn’t open them until he pulled off the road. A concrete fence, ten feet tall, surrounded the property. Lucas leaned over, his hand brushing against Lauren’s knee as he opened the glove box. For a second she worried that he was going to pull out a gun of some sort. Drake never left home without one, which made Lauren a bit uncomfortable. Some people saw danger at every corner. She wasn’t one of those people. Or rather, she hadn’t been.
Lauren was surprised when Lucas pulled out a cutting-edge camera, holding it by the lens and handed it to her. The Canon logo was written across the lens cap. “I’m going to drive by the gate slowly. Take as many pictures as you can.”
Turning on the camera, Lauren said, “Give me a minute to familiarize myself.”
Rolling down the window, Lauren took a few shots of the wall. Video mode worked better. She said, “We need to test this while driving.”
“If we don’t get what we need, I can do a circle. As long as we’re not obvious, we should be okay.”
Lauren bet she and Lucas were obvious to anyone inside that house looking out. They were amateurs, regardless of his history as a hacker. Lucas didn’t have that tough soldier vibe like the other guys in the industry.
“Let’s roll.” Lucas said. He made a good show of pretending, she’d give him that.
Lauren left the window rolled down and flipped the setting to video. The camera’s video would last the drive past the gates. Her stomach did a flip-flop as they drove, slowing down as they passed the front. It looked like a rich residential area. The high walls and seclusion would make a kidnapping private and definitely possible. As they passed the gate, Lauren didn’t see anything special. She didn’t understand the need for footage. When Lucas pulled over and she stopped recording, Lauren asked, “What was that all about? I mean, it’s not like the camera picked up anything of interest.”
“Let me see.” Lucas said, putting the car in park and turning it off. He watched the video over and over until Lauren was sick of those few minutes of footage.
“How is this supposed to help?” Lauren asked. She just didn’t see the point. What good did a five millisecond view of the front yard do anyone?
“I’m trying to get a feel for distance, interior, and the gate,” Lucas said. After watching the footage at least seven times, he turned off the camera and replaced the lens cap, handing the whole thing to Lauren.
Starting up the car again he turned down another road and then turned again, parking on a quiet side street in front of a stranger’s house. He turned off the car and handed Lauren the keys. “The next part I need to do alone.”
“What next part?” Lauren felt another shot of adrenaline. She wanted in on whatever Lucas was planning. She said, “I want to help.”
“Can you climb a concrete wall?” The question wasn’t sarcastic. Lauren might have been a gymnast or one of Drake’s militarized employees. She very well might have been trained in all of the same arts as Lucas.
She didn’t. Lauren said, “Not to my knowledge.”
“You hold the fort. I need to do some reconnaissance.”
“I’m coming with you...at least as far as the wall,” Lauren said.
It wasn’t ideal. Lucas opened his trunk and pulled out his go-bag. He unzipped the bag, pulling out a black t-shirt. They stood on the street like two friends parting. Lucas unbuttoned his shirt and handed it to Lauren. “This is the second time today you get to see me undressed.”
“Must be my lucky day.” Lauren made a show of looking Lucas up and down. In truth his upper body was more in line with an amateur weight lifter than a computer nerd. It was a shame when that lovely skin was covered. The shirt was a long-sleeved black shirt.
Lucas grabbed a jar that looked like face cream. He quickly unscrewed the cap and dipping his fingers, rubbed the black cream over his face. Why would anyone need a jar of that, short of football, military, or criminal behavior? Lauren couldn’t help but realize that she had overlooked some of the seedier aspects of Lucas. She was jeopardizing her livelihood on the word of a spy who worked for McFarland. He may even be setting her up.
The worst part was that Lauren had always assumed that she was a great judge of character. Back when AIT was infiltrated, Lauren knew something was up. She was the reason Drake had sent Sven to investigate. Which was why her current state of employment with SpaceTech pissed her off so much. How could Drake ‘lay’ her off so easily? As if her work on the sphere meant nothing. As if her loyalty hadn’t b
een reaffirmed over and over.
And now, she was putting herself at risk with a known McFarland player for an AIT employee who, yes, had been a friend, but in no way was her responsibility now. She kept all of these thoughts to herself as Lucas grabbed a pair of black tennis shoes and sat in the driver’s seat sideways while he pulled off his white tennies and replaced them with black. He looked like some thief or a character out of Mission Impossible.
“I’m going to run about thirty yards and then turn around. I need you to check whether the light reflects from any part of me.”
“Got it.”
Lucas did the run and turn. He’d gone for the space in between street lights. When he turned, Lauren caught flashes of his movement, but didn’t see him. Not until he moved directly into the light did she really see.
“Yeah. As long as you stay out of any light puddles, you’ll be fine.”
Lucas took ten minutes stretching and running in place. Lauren watched, curious. She understood the theory behind it, but couldn’t believe he was prepping out here in the street. Eventually someone would look out their window.
“Once you get tired of waiting by the fence or if you hear anything on the outside that makes you think the guards might have noticed you, return here. If I’m not out within two hours, call Drake and ask him to call McFarland and tell him that SpaceTech captured one of his spies.”
“Are you sure we should do this?” Lauren was definitely having doubts.
“Are you sure that your man was really kidnapped?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay then.”
It was a sight to behold. Lauren wouldn’t have believed it if an eyewitness had related how easily Lucas jumped the wall. Standing back, he ran at the wall, jumping and pushing up with his foot. He grabbed the top and then scurried up and over. A professional wall climber. A gymnast. There was no other description for the ease with which he scaled to the top.
Lauren only wished that she could see what was happening on the other side. Lucas waited at the top of the wall for what seemed a long while before shifting position. She heard a thud as he dropped down, and then all was silent.
