Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii)

by Carolyn McCray

  Months of planning had gone into this hack. Everything down to the last detail mapped out. And now it was all to be undone by pipes? It was so…dumb.

  “Well?” she asked, scooting up a few more inches to see if there was a way around the jumble of pipes. There wasn’t.

  “Tasking.”

  Quirk and his love of all things Star Trek. Normally, Ronnie found it cute. Stuck in a tight, humid crawl space listening to jolly Christmas jingles that mocked her life choices? Not so cute.

  “We are going to have to go to Plan B,” Quirk finally informed her.

  “Plan B sucks, though,” Ronnie answered, trying to keep her frustration in check. She had probably failed, but at this point she didn’t care.

  “What can I say, darlin’?” Quirk shot back. “Unless you can get emergency liposuction in that access space, you’ve got to cut a hole in the wall and get on top of that elevator before the guards go on their hourly rounds.”

  Just because Ronnie knew what she had to do didn’t mean she liked it.

  Pulling out what looked like an ordinary laser pointer, Ronnie hooked it up to a small battery-powered supply in her backpack. The pen was no longer a laser pointer but an actual laser.

  “Don’t forget your glasses,” Quirk reminded her.

  “Please,” she responded, then dug through her pack to find the glasses.

  Ronnie would never admit it to Quirk, but she was a tad flustered. She had to get her head back into the hack. Crap happened out in the field. That’s actually why she liked going out into the field. Why she didn’t mind having to break into the actual main server. She liked the challenges of working outside of the cold room. Until, of course, the challenges surfaced. Then the challenges just annoyed her.

  Securing the glasses that would protect her eyes from the ultraviolet portion of the laser spectrum, Ronnie turned on the “pen” and began cutting through the metal. The gray wall heated up, turned red, and then metal dripped down, creating a seam.

  “They’re going to be at the elevator in ten,” Quirk prompted.

  “I’m on it,” Ronnie reassured him, even though she had a lot of metal to cut through and not all that much time.

  “And just remember how much junk you’ve got in your trunk, girlfriend. Make the hole large enough this time.”

  Ronnie would really have liked to argue that point, but when Quirk was right, he was right. Which meant even more wall to cut.

  Note to self… Do not eat a macho breakfast burrito on the morning of a hack.

  * * *

  Zach opened the holding cell door. The guy hung his head and walked in. Zach felt the tiniest twinge of empathy for the guy, but rules were rules.

  “Cases like this aren’t going to get you back to DC,” Ellard said softly beside him.

  Locking the cell door, Zach replied. “Who said I wanted to get back to DC?”

  “Perhaps it is your no-holds-barred pursuit of the Robin Hood Hacker?” Ellard’s face softened, though. “Your mom’s been in remission for how long, Zach?”

  “That’s got nothing to do with it,” Zach answered, brushing past his partner and grabbing the forms they would need to book the suspect.

  “You only left your skyrocketing career in DC to take care of her.” Ellard stepped in front of Zach. “Now that she’s better, maybe go someplace that values your…enthusiasm.”

  Zach ignored his partner. He’d made his decision and he was sticking by it.

  “I bet Julia would love to head back east again,” Ellard pressed.

  Well, the older agent had hit that one on the head. It was a never-ending topic with his fiancée. If they moved to DC, they could take the train into NYC for the theater, opera, ballet, and the orchestra. She didn’t seem to quite get that her argument wasn’t exactly helping her case. Even if she’d tried to make her argument with sports, he wasn’t all that fond of the Redskins.

  “Look,” Zach said, trying to find a pen. “If you want a new partner for the next few months before your retirement, just ask Danner.”

  Ellard sighed. “I just hate seeing you spin your wheels.”

  This conversation was so done. Zach turned to ask one of the other agents for a pen, when he realized the bullpen was empty.

  “Where is everybody?” Zach asked.

  “Christmas, remember?”

  “But there should be two agents on call.”

  Ellard tilted his head toward the back of the field office. “Probably playing cards in the break room.”

  The older agent was probably right. Whoever pulled Christmas on-call duty was usually a junior, junior, junior officer. Straight out of the academy. Young and unattached. But not exactly observant. Zach walked through the maze of desks to the fax machine and pulled off a sheet as it printed.

  Another warning that the Robin Hood Hacker was more than likely going to hit today. Of course, the bulletin from Washington didn’t have any more information than that. They seldom had much information until after the most-wanted cyber-crime suspect hit, and even then, there was little forensic evidence to go on.

  He turned to relate this to his partner to find him gathering a few wrapped gifts from his desk.

  “What are you doing?” Zach asked.

  “Going home,” Ellard answered.

  “We agreed to continue the stakeout until tomorrow morning.”

  His partner shook his head. “No, you agreed that you were going to continue it. I’ve already missed caroling with my grandkids last night. I am not going to miss Christmas dinner, too.” Ellard patted Zach on the shoulder. “Go home, Zach. Make your mom and Julia happy. If you really are going to stick it out here and get married, you’ve got to start balancing things better.”

  Zach took a step back. He’d heard it all before from Ellard. Just because the guy had been happily married for over thirty years didn’t mean he had the corner on relationship advice. But he did mean well, so Zach offered his hand to his partner.

  “Thanks, but I’ve got to see this through.”

  Ellard shook his hand back, but Zach couldn’t help but notice that there was little enthusiasm in the gesture. He watched the old man walk across the office to the exit. With each step, Ellard moved more and more quickly with more and more spring in his step. By the time Ellard hit the door, he was at a near-run. The guy was like a high school student with senioritis.

  Once his partner was out of the office, Zach shrugged off his partner’s lack of dedication and sat down at his desk. There was paperwork to be done, and the sooner he filed it, the sooner he could get back out on the street again.

  Yet, as he began filling out the intake form and the canned Christmas music filled his ears, Zach was no longer quite as gung ho. His eyes scanned the room. It was so odd to have the place so empty and still. Even Supervising Special Agent Danner’s office looked lonely.

  Zach had tried to convince himself that today was just another day at the office, but it wasn’t. He could imagine his mom cooking all morning, filling her apartment with the sweet smell of her special candied yams and the rich aroma of roasted turkey.

  While he felt certain the Robin Hood Hacker would attack today, what were the chances it would be in El Paso? There were at least twelve more likely targets. Like Hong Kong. What would be served by him staying on alert when the hacker was probably an entire continent away?

  Maybe he could do both. Run to his Mom’s, have an early dinner, and then, if the hacker hadn’t hit yet, go back out again. Zach wasn’t quite sure if that was the balancing act Ellard had in mind, but it was the best Zach could do.

  Now to put his Rescue Christmas mission into action.

  Grabbing his keys, Zach put his jacket on, then noticed a lone light on down the side hallway. Tech support. With a sigh, he headed down the hall. Sure enough, he found Warp, unkempt hair, baggy pants, and all, sitting in front of three video monitors.

  “It’s Christmas, Warp.”

  The tech nodded but didn’t answer.

  “
Even you’ve got to have plans for today,” Zach said.

  “Sure,” Warp said, never taking his eyes off the monitors. “There’s a whole group of us pagan RPGers meeting at the vegan restaurant on Montrose, but this is way cooler.”

  “What is?” Zach asked, even though he usually couldn’t understand half of what Warp was saying.

  The tech turned. “Oh wow, Agent Hunt, when did you get here?”

  Zach took in a deep breath. Warp suffered from some kind of split persona—personality disorder, or absorbed a twin in utero syndrome or something. Zach was kind of vague on the details. All he knew was that it made Warp twice as difficult to deal with. Hence why Zach seldom came down this hallway.

  Already regretting coming into Warp’s lair, Zach tried to back out. “Just saying goodbye.”

  “No, sorry,” Warp said, shaking his head, which kind of undercut his apology. “With everything going on, and then the Special Agent Zachary Hunt coming in, we got a little spooked.”

  Not knowing quite what to say, Zach smiled pleasantly and took a step back. “Well then, I will leave you to it.”

  “It will be amazing to see the Robin Hood Hacker in action,” Warp said.

  Zach should know better by now, but the mention of the hacker intrigued him. “What do you mean ‘in action’?”

  “Oh, the hacker is going to hit today, and with any luck we’ll be able to monitor some of the action.”

  “You mean you’re watching a feed from Washington?” Zach asked. Though the El Paso office might be shuttered for the holiday, the techs in DC were on high alert. When Warp didn’t answer, Zach pressed on. “They are monitoring Hong Kong, right?”

  Warp snorted. “Hong Kong? Like he’s going to hit Hong Kong.”

  “Why don’t you think he’ll target there?”

  “Why would the hacker attack on Christmas in a country that doesn’t celebrate the holiday?” Warp asked, what seemed to be a rhetorical question. Fingers racing across the keyboard, Warp brought up a map of the world. Across it were tiny points of light. “If he is going to attack today, he is going to make the most of it and hit an area with an extremely large Christian population.

  As Warp spoke, some of the lights extinguished—those in Asia, Africa and India. “Which leaves us with some South American locations, two in Eastern Europe and seven in the good ol’ USA.”

  If Warp was right, the tech had just cut the pool in half. That couldn’t be, could it? Still, there were a number of possible target cities. “So you’re monitoring these?”

  The tech’s head whipped around, his eyes dilated as if he were startled. “Do you have clearance?”

  Zach didn’t bother to explain the fact that Warp had known him and his clearance level for two years. He just answered, “Yes.”

  “Okay, then.”

  Warp went back to typing, and typing, and typing.

  Zach tried to be patient, but there were candied yams to be considered. “So there are twelve possible targets?”

  “Twelve?” Warp repeated, as if it were the most stupid thing he’d ever heard. Then he looked to the screen. “Oh, that was before I applied my pattern-discerning algorithm.”

  On the monitor, the tiny lights extinguished, leaving only one. El Paso.

  “You mean to tell me that you are sure the Robin Hood Hacker is going to hit here? In our town?”

  Warp shrugged. “With a ninety seven point two percent probability, yes.”

  “Did you tell Danner about this?”

  The tech’s fingers stopped typing as he frowned. “Yeah, he pretty much said I could spend my Christmas sitting around here if I wanted to…off the clock.”

  Yeah, Zach had pretty much gotten the same speech from their boss. Before, his theory that the Robin Hood Hacker would hit here had just been something in his bones. El Paso had just been one city on a long list of cities the hacker might hit. But now that he had actual scientific proof? Or, at least, Warp’s algorithm?

  “This is great work, Warp.”

  The tech patted the chair next to him. “Wanna stay and watch?”

  A smile, his first in a long time, spread across Zach’s face.

  “Watch?” He asked. “How about we go catch the son of a bitch?”

  CHAPTER 2

  Ronnie used the back of her sleeve to wipe the sweat from her brow. This was not going nearly as fast as she had hoped. Either the steel wall was thicker than anticipated, or the laser was weaker than Quirk had promised. Either way, she was barely going to make it through in time.

  “God I could use some music other than Taylor Swift’s version of Silent Night,” she grumbled.

  “Ask and ye shall receive,” Quirk said. “Say hello to your Christmas present.”

  “I’m stuck in an access shaft,” Ronnie snapped, then realized it wasn’t Quirk’s fault. She tried to lighten her tone. “Besides, you already got me the Panic at the Disco CD.” Ronnie said, blowing a stray hair out of the way.

  “Oh, Scrooge, just turn on your MP3 player.”

  “My hands are a bit full, Quirk.”

  Her assistant’s sigh was loud enough that Ronnie could imagine him right next to her. “You really do know how to ruin a surprise gift, don’t you? Just say, ‘music, please.’”

  Mainly just to shut up her assistant while she worked on cutting the last of the square out of the metal wall, Ronnie said, “music, please.”

  The MP3 player in her pocket vibrated, turning on. Impressive. “Quirk, thanks. You made it voice activated.”

  “Voice activated? Please, like that wouldn’t be a Christmas-level gift. Just give it a few seconds. It is documenting your heart rate, ambient temperature and blood pressure to decide which music is best suited for you.”

  Ronnie waited, but she wasn’t holding her breath. As good as Quirk was, he was also known to slightly exaggerate his toys, especially the prototypes. Just take the laser pen in her hand. In this case, she should not have doubted him, as The Gossip’s song, “Catfight,” cued up, and its all-girl punk rock thrummed in her ear.

  Just what a girl trying to laser through a metal wall needed.

  “Brilliant. Truly brilliant, Quirk.” Ronnie gushed. The CD had been nice, but to be honest, she’d been surprised he had given her such a lightweight gift, as he was the self-proclaimed present-whisperer. Now she felt a little bad about the gift she’d given him. “You shouldn’t have, though. It’s too much. So much more than yours.”

  “No, no, no,” Quirk said, as the Gossip still wailed in her ear. “I love the classic phaser you got me. It will go great with my Ka-Bar knife and Bat’leth blade.”

  How was it that gay men were able to profusely lay on praise while making it quite clear they were disappointed? It truly was a marvel to see, unless, of course, you were on the receiving end.

  “Hey, that was a prop used on set, and I made sure it had been touched by William Shatner,” Ronnie defended. It hadn’t been the most outlandish gift—however, she was a girl on a budget. She had that country to buy.

  “Of course it was,” Quirk said in that pseudo-honey voice of his. “Those of us with birthdays on December 25th are used to one combo gift. It’s all good.”

  Okay, now Ronnie really did feel bad. And, even worse, she knew that while Quirk was getting bounced around from foster home to foster home, he probably spent a lot of Christmases not getting any gift, let alone a separate one for his birthday. Maybe she should tell him…

  “Uh oh,” Quirk announced, the fake honey gone from his tone.

  “What?” Ronnie asked, tensing. If Quirk wasn’t being sarcastic, the news was usually bad—really, really bad.

  “Yeah, it looks like the guards are giving themselves a little Christmas present and knocking off early.”

  “What do you mean early?” Ronnie heard herself ask. It couldn’t be possible, they had logged and checked and confirmed the guards’ every route. They took no less than fifteen minutes per floor. They were like clockwork.

  “I m
ean, you’ve got maybe three minutes, at most.”

  Ronnie didn’t answer. There was no way she could cut through the rest of the metal and climb through in three minutes.

  “I’m going to have to wait until the next guard sweep,” she said.

  “And what about if they don’t go next hour?” Quirk asked the question that had already popped into her mind. “What if they take the rest of the day off?”

  From a break-in thief’s standpoint, that would usually be a good thing. Now, however, when she needed the guards to activate the elevator? Not such a good thing.

  “We can abort,” Quirk said, sounding more than a little hopeful that she would agree. He was not that fond of her working out in the field.

  “So, what happens if I let the laser get hot to the touch?” she asked.

  “You mean like how it could blow up in your hand and take not only take you but the entire wall?”

  Ronnie gulped. “Yes, like that.”

  But she had to risk it. Those billions weren’t going to transfer themselves into Greenpeace’s account by themselves.

  As the pen warmed in her palm, she could only hope Quirk was exaggerating. Still, she kept her eyes squinted, just in case.

  * * *

  “No way,” Warp said for the fifth time as he fidgeted in his ergonomic chair.

  Zach grabbed the tech by the shoulders and held him still. “Warp. You can do this. We can do this.”

  “But, but, but,” Warp said pointing to the dot on monitor. “I am certain the Robin Hood Hacker will strike El Paso, but I don’t know where in the city.”

  As the map zoomed in, that tiny point of light over El Paso broke off into half a dozen smaller lights.

  “So those are the companies that the hacker has pinged during his ramping-up period?” Zach asked.

  Robin Hood was good. Weeks before the actual job, he would hack into a wide range of companies’ financials. The hacker would test dozens of firewalls, never tipping his hand to which company was the target. So it was great they knew Robin Hood was in El Paso, but with so many targets, how could Zach hope to hone in on the one that was being hit today?