by Jeff Adams
Chapter Three
“THEO, MAN, we kicked ass today,” said Mitch, our team captain and one of my best friends. “If we can keep that up in Friday’s game, we’re gonna beat Cullman and knock them off that number one perch.”
We bumped fists as we entered the locker room.
“Yeah!” Practice had me pumped. “Those patterns Coach has us doing are working now that we’re doing them right.”
I’ve been tight with Mitch since we met on a team when we were six. We’ve played together as linemates, whether on teams or in pickup games, ever since. It was a huge score when he moved into McKinley’s district as a freshman. Coach saw our chemistry immediately and our partnership continued uninterrupted.
My locker was a jumble because I’d just tossed everything in when I got changed. I hit some nasty traffic coming from MIT. I was on the sidewalk walking my bike for a few blocks. I hated being late for practice, even though Coach knew I cut it close on Mondays and Wednesdays. He was cool with it. I was not.
I needed my phone, which meant getting my sweaty hockey hands all over everything, because my clothes weren’t hanging up in an organized fashion.
Ick.
I’d had an idea during practice about how the chip hack might’ve happened and I wanted to give Lorenzo the info now, because I was still an hour or so away from being home. I opened up my TOS inbox and scanned the incident email thread to see if there was relevant new info.
Around me the guys went about their postgame routines. I sat on the bench, intent on my screen.
“Everything okay?” Mitch asked. “Not like you to not head straight for the shower.”
“Had some ideas about a problem I’m working on for a client. Wanted to send it off while it was fresh in my head.”
“I’m glad they pay you well. You work at some of the strangest times.”
I wrote: Is it possible for the security protocols to malfunction in a chip? Maybe change how it’s identified? Are there diagnostics or anything that run to ensure chips work correctly?
I sent it off.
I’d either see some response in the thread or from Lorenzo directly. I got out of my gear and left it on the floor outside my locker. With my clothes in a jumble, I couldn’t put things away, so I’d deal with it after I was clean.
Even though I ended up being last into the shower, we all had our spots, so I took my place in a stall between Mitch and Tommy.
“You and Eddie want to hit a movie with Iris and me this weekend?” Mitch asked. “Maybe do some laser tag after?”
“Iris wants to play laser tag? That’s random. Usually she just shoots up a video game like the rest of us.” I looked at Mitch over the three-quarter wall to see if he was joking. He looked serious, and I didn’t know what to make of it.
“Right?” He half looked at me as he shampooed his short brown hair. “Her debate team has been challenged by Lancaster’s to a paintball game. I’m not sure how debate turns into paintball, but she figures laser tag is good practice while being less messy.”
“Hard to fault that logic. I’m in. Let me ask Eddie. I’m not sure where he stands on the whole laser tag thing.”
“Fair enough,” Mitch said. “It’ll certainly be a different kind of date.”
“That’s for sure. Laser tag doesn’t even cross my mind.”
Despite getting in last, I was still one of the first out of the shower, following right behind Mitch. I wanted to get home and poke around some more on the tracker problem before Eddie came over. We had an eight o’clock date that involved watching the Bruins game while doing homework.
“I’ll text you later about this weekend,” I told Mitch while I straightened out my locker and got dressed.
“Cool,” he said. “I’m already thinking it’s me and Iris versus you and Eddie. It’ll be fun to take you guys down.”
“You think that’s how it’ll play out?” I asked, slightly annoyed he would discount hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of video-game play. “You know Eddie and I are a solid CoD team. As soon as we take one of you out, we’ll double-team the other. Game over.”
Mitch got quiet and I knew I had him. Finally he just rolled his eyes and stepped over so we could bump fists.
“Later, man.” He grinned as he spoke, another game of who can trash-talk better ended with a win for me.
“Later.”
I quickly stored my gear in its usual way so it had a chance of drying out before tomorrow’s practice.
Leaving the locker room, I had to make a hard stop so I wouldn’t run into a guy who stood just outside. It wasn’t a smart place to stand.
“Whoa. Sorry,” I said as I moved to get around him.
“You’re Theo Reese, right?”
I stopped and turned to face him. I recognized him from school, but I didn’t know him.
“Yeah,” I said hesitantly.
“I hear you’re good with computers. That true?” This kid, who was maybe a freshman, sounded terrified.
“Depends,” I said, hedging my bets. My skills were widely known among my friends and through much of the junior class. The fact this kid wasn’t sure gave me pause.
“My mom’s in trouble. Someone’s trying to take me away from her and put me with my dad. She’s got the signed papers. But everything in the court computer says I should be with Dad, and he’s got papers I know can’t be real. Mom’s lawyer can’t seem to do anything because the judge says the computer has to be right. They think my mom forged her papers since the judge that signed them is dead and none of his staff can clearly remember a case from two years ago.” He paused and it looked like he might cry. Thankfully he managed to keep himself together. “I can’t end up with my dad.”
Shit. My friends also knew better than to ask me something like this. I’d made it clear a long time ago that I wouldn’t do anything illegal. But how do I ignore the look this kid is giving me?
“I’m sorry. It’d be against the law for me to even try to find traces of someone changing the information in the court’s computer without permission.”
“But someone already got in and messed it up, you’d just be—”
“I’m sorry.” I cut him off because he was getting loud and a couple of my teammates stared at us as they left the locker room. Maybe the school could help. “Have you talked to the principal? It must be in your file who your legal guardian is. It isn’t likely the school’s computer is directly connected to the court. And if your father’s hurting you, they can certainly get you help.” My phone pulsed the TOS ring. “Look, I’m sorry, I have to answer this.”
I turned from the kid and moved a couple of paces away to answer. Since I’d just emailed Lorenzo a few minutes ago, the call was a surprise.
“What’s new?” I asked after Lorenzo ID’d himself.
“I got your email. Interesting idea. Are you going to investigate?”
“Yeah.” I considered my words carefully. “I wanted to share it since I’m not sure I can create a malfunction.”
“I’ll have someone here work on it too. There’s a theory we’re working on that the trackers might be breaking down in the body, which could play into the idea you had of a malfunction. The agents whose trackers went off the grid have had them more than six years.”
That was an interesting idea.
“What about the people with the changed IDs who haven’t checked in?” I asked.
“That’s why this is only a theory. One of the agents who hadn’t checked in has surfaced and we verified the reason behind the lack of check-in. We still haven’t heard from one. The IDs—I’m with you. That’s still fishy. Have you had any luck with the chip we sent?”
“Haven’t had much time with it yet, but working on it more tonight.”
“Understood. We’ll talk later.”
We disconnected. I turned back, and the kid was gone. I’d dodged that—at least for the moment.
In the parking lot, I took my pack off so I could put my U-lock away after I unl
ocked my bike. There was an envelope jammed into one of the smaller pockets.
“Damn,” I said softly, opening it.
Cullen Watson was his name. He left me copies of the information he’d said changed. I didn’t want this stuff. I also couldn’t shake the look he gave me when I said I couldn’t help. I was more about stopping hackers, not getting in and hacking myself. I didn’t even have proof he was telling the truth.
I’d try to find him tomorrow and talk some more. Maybe there was someone I could send him to who could help legally.
I stuffed the lock in my pack, slung it over my shoulders, and headed for home. The ride wasn’t very relaxing today, since my brain crunched on two issues at once. I looked forward to Eddie showing up. He’d make for a great distraction while I worked these things out.
Chapter Four
EDDIE HAD me pressed up against my locker while he laid kisses on me. I had more bulk than he did, but he knew how to use his tall, lean frame—not to mention his lips—to make me do exactly what he wanted. It wasn’t fair, because I needed to take off for my Friday MIT class, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Classmates hurrying to get out of school filled the halls. We weren’t the only ones taking a moment for ourselves at the end of the day, though. We were definitely the best-looking couple—at least as far as I was concerned.
“Do I need to separate you two?” It was Mitch.
I opened my eyes to find Eddie had extended a hand with the middle finger raised. He intensified the kiss, which forced me to close my eyes. I was weak in the knees when he pulled away.
“No need, man. I’m done with him now.” Eddie wiggled his eyebrows at me and we both laughed, which made Mitch give one of his signature eye rolls.
“I hear you’re in for the date tomorrow night,” Mitch said to Eddie as we all walked toward the parking lot.
“Oh yeah,” Eddie said. “Looking forward to taking you guys out.”
“I gotta go.” I checked my watch and saw I had just enough time to make the trip. I leaned in for one more kiss with Eddie. “I love you.” Turning to Mitch, I said, “See you for the game in a few hours.” We fist-bumped as I left.
Eddie’d kissed me a little too long, but I was pretty sure I’d be able to make up the time.
I waved when Eddie passed me in his Jeep as he pulled out of the parking lot and turned left. As I watched him go, I saw a gray van parked on the curb that bordered the school. The tinted windows were so dark I could barely see the outline of the driver through the windshield. If this were the elementary school, I’d wonder if they were planning to snatch a kid.
I snickered quietly. I clearly watched too much TV growing up. I sped out of the parking lot, going right, and settled into the bike lane. My legs pumped as I cranked up the speed. It was a chilly day, and the wind was bracing against my face, but I loved it. Traffic was good as far as I could see, so I pushed to get to my max speed because I’d wanted to get to campus with time enough to get coffee before class.
It was a perfect fall day. The sun was out, allowing the leaves to show off their bright colors. The next few days were likely to be perfect riding weather. Maybe I could snag Eddie for a picnic this weekend. The sun should make it warm enough to sit outside for a while.
At a stop sign a couple of blocks from the school, the gray van pulled alongside me. There was no doubt it was the same van because of the windows. Who tints that dark? It made the van creepy. After it pulled away from the stop sign, it spent a few moments matching my speed. I shot the driver an inquisitive look. With no cars in front, the driver shouldn’t want to go my speed. Either my gaze, or the cars behind, snapped the driver back to reality because it sped up.
Weird.
After going over the Chelsea River, I turned onto my favorite street—it was a mix of businesses, houses, and scattered trees. The traffic also wasn’t insane. Suddenly the van was back and parallel to me again. What the hell? Had I pissed the driver off with the look I’d given him? I didn’t spook easily, but this felt weird.
I could’ve called John, but he’d think I was being foolish. I triggered a call to Eddie on my watch as I kept pedaling down the street.
“Are you biking and calling?” Eddie asked as he answered.
“Yeah, but I’m on the watch, so it’s okay,” I said, louder than I wanted to, but I had to make sure he heard me.
“I should’ve figured that, since I hear the wind. What’s up?”
“Did you see that creepy-looking van when you left school?”
“The one with the major tint job? Yeah. Why?”
“I think it’s following me.”
“And why would it do that?”
“I dunno. But it’s here just in front of me, and it’s the second time it’s turned up.”
“Where are you?”
“Williams Street, almost to Dunkin Donuts.” The van sped up and made a left turn. Maybe I was paranoid.
“I’ll catch up to you. I’m just leaving school again, because I forgot to get the books I needed from the library.”
“Thanks. It’s probably nothing.”
“Yeah, you just want to see me again.”
“Only always.”
“See you in a few. I’m leaving the parking lot now.”
“You’re the best.”
“Yes, I am,” he said and disconnected.
I kept going, and the van was nowhere in sight. I’m gonna owe Eddie for taking him out of his way. I cruised down the street and almost stopped because the donuts smelled so good. They must’ve just made a fresh batch. If I wasn’t already late, I’d have a break for sure. As I passed and the sweet aroma faded, I was sad I couldn’t go back.
Suddenly the van passed me. It must have come back onto the street at the intersection.
The van pulled ahead, jerked into the bike lane, and stopped. I crushed the levers to engage the front and back brakes.
There wasn’t enough room and the front tire slammed into the van’s bumper. The rear wheel lifted up, and for a moment, I thought I was going to be thrown into the doors. Instead the wheel dropped back to the ground, and me and the bike fell over because I couldn’t get my feet planted.
Two guys jumped out of the back. I was sluggish from the impact as I worked to untangle from my bike, but I noticed they were wearing masks. It was cold but not that cold.
I struggled to get up, but the bike wasn’t cooperating. I heard traffic going by. Why wasn’t anyone stopping?
One dude gripped my shoulders and pulled me up. The other yanked the bike out from between my legs and tossed it toward the sidewalk.
“Hey? What the hell? I—”
The guy who threw the bike stuffed a cloth in my mouth, so I spoke muffled gibberish.
A horn sounded frantically. Someone was really laying into their horn, and it sounded like it was coming toward us.
Struggling against the guy holding me was futile. He was like the Hulk. The other guy grabbed my legs, and they threw me into the van. I landed with a thud and a grunt. I quickly stood despite the pain radiating through me. Hulk shoved me back down as the other guy closed the door, and the van took off.
This was bad.
I looked to the front of the van but couldn’t see the driver because of the blacked-out window. The horn was close, though, right behind us maybe. Eddie. It had to be. Maybe he saw what happened.
Fuck. I thought fast about my options. I couldn’t see where they were taking me. Between Eddie being outside, and it had to be him, and the TOS chip in my neck, they’d find me. I could also make like they were a defensive pair, try to fake them out, open the doors, and jump.
I scrambled to my feet. I’d get out and Eddie’d pick me up. We’d get the plate number and call the police.
Bad choice.
Hulk pulled a gun. I froze.
“Sit down.” He spoke softly, but he made up for the lack of volume with a menacing tone. I complied.
The honking stopped. What happened? Eddie had
to be out there. What if he’d stopped at a light, though? Would he let me get out of sight?
The van’s brakes screeched under us as it came to a hard stop. We hurtled toward the front of the van, slamming into the steel bulkhead. Hulk lost his gun as he tumbled.
It was time to go.
Pain be damned, I was up and smashing through the door. Luckily I’d been in enough vans because of travel hockey that I didn’t have to guess how the door release worked.
I jumped out and got rid of the cloth in my mouth. I heard sirens in the distance. Had Eddie called? Or maybe someone who saw me get knocked off my bike?
I limped around the side of the van and caught sight of the driver poking his head out of the window. He wore a cap and sunglasses. It was gonna be hard to give a description of him.
Then I saw what we hit.
No. No. No.
The van had hit Eddie’s Jeep.
I turned at the noise behind me. Hulk emerged from the van.
I can’t leave Eddie.
I can’t stay here.
Hulk was on me in my moment of indecision. Instincts kicked in and I dodged his grab, moving back and out of his reach, as if I were avoiding a defenseman. He came at me again and this time I landed a punch against his jaw and sent him backward. He fixed a steely glare on me as he charged forward.
“Leave him,” the driver called out. “We gotta go. The cops are coming.”
Hulk grabbed for my wrist and ended up with nothing but shirt. The fabric gave out as he pulled, and I lowered my center of gravity to resist. I fell against the van while he stumbled backward.
“Leave him, or I’m leaving you,” the driver said, already backing up the van.
Hulk bolted to the rear doors and got in. The other guy must’ve been hurt because he didn’t help Hulk recapture me. I was thankful for that. The van sounded rough, but it kept going, and I saw Hulk close the doors as it passed.
What the hell was happening?
A groan from Eddie focused me. His head moved to the side. The van’s impact had crushed the Jeep’s door.
