Single Malt

by Layla Reyne

  Chapter Eleven

  Jamie unbuttoned his charcoal suit jacket and propped a foot on the wall behind him, staying out of his partner’s way. Pacing a ten-foot circuit up and down the hallway, Aidan couldn’t seem to stand still, and it wasn’t only his legs in motion. He fidgeted with this cuffs and tie, checked his holster repeatedly, and tilted his head side to side like a fighter prepping for the biggest match of his career.

  Given Aidan’s recent experiences with hospitals, Jamie supposed that was about right.

  “You’re going to wear a hole in the linoleum,” he said the next time Aidan passed.

  “I don’t like hospitals.”

  Technically, they were in the medical school, but the antiseptic smell and bland white walls were enough to fool anyone’s senses. “You were fine in GNL yesterday.”

  “GNL is more like a government lab, and I was distracted by the anthrax, the cougar, and the suit of doom.”

  “We’ll grab Kevin and take him outside for a chat.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  Pushing off the wall, Jamie intercepted Aidan’s circuit and laid a hand on his arm. “We’ll take him outside.”

  Autumn eyes shot to his. Last night’s heat flared to life again, breaking an endless moment later when the door behind them swung open and students flooded the hallway. Jolting apart, both of them flushed. Jamie ducked his head and pulled up Kevin Currie’s picture on his phone.

  Long, thin face, dark brown skin, shaved head, brown eyes.

  A lanky man matching Kevin’s picture exited the classroom between two other students.

  Aidan stepped forward. “Kevin Currie?”

  Kevin’s file indicated he’d run track. Taken together with his hacktivist activities, it was no surprise when the young man looked up, saw two suited G-men, dropped his bag, and sprinted the other direction. Aidan took off running, Jamie following once he’d grabbed Kevin’s bag off the floor and slung the strap across his body.

  “FBI, stop!” Aidan shouted.

  Crashing through a door at the end of the hallway, Kevin led them careening into a stairwell. Their suspect was halfway down the first flight of stairs, dodging students, when Aidan put both hands to the rail and vaulted over it, taking Kevin down on impact. The surprised crowd of students scattered, stalling Jamie’s descent and providing enough chaos for Kevin to slip away again. By the time Jamie reached where they’d been, Aidan was up and running again, following Kevin out of the stairwell into another hallway. Jamie recognized it as the breezeway to GNL. On the run, Kevin yanked a key card out of his back pocket. Red, the cards reserved for BSL-4 access.

  “If he gets through those doors,” Aidan said, “we’re locked out.”

  Dave was supposed to have key cards for them this morning, but they weren’t getting BSL-4 access without an escort.

  At least that was what Dave and the rest of GNL network security thought.

  The doors opened, Kevin darted through, and they slid shut behind him, leaving Aidan cursing.

  “Have a little faith, partner.” Pushing him out of the way, Jamie dug a key card out of his suit pocket and flashed it in front of the access panel. The door swooshed open, and he grinned over his shoulder.

  “I don’t want to know.” Aidan zipped past him. “Take left; I’ve got right.”

  Jamie sprinted left, catching a glimpse of Kevin as he dodged students and scientists in white lab coats. He was gaining on him. “Kevin, stop. We just want to talk.”

  The young man reached an intersecting hallway and looked back at him. With his attention diverted, he didn’t see the Irishman bearing down on him from the opposite direction. Aidan hit him, arms wrapping around his body, and they fell to the ground on their left sides.

  Skidding to a halt next to them, Jamie took over for Aidan. “Kevin, stop moving.” He rolled their suspect onto his stomach, pulled out a pair of cuffs, and snapped them around the other man’s wrists. “You’re not getting out of this.”

  “I didn’t do anything. You can’t arrest me.”

  “You’re not under arrest,” Aidan said, getting to his feet.

  “Then what’s with the handcuffs?”

  Jamie hauled Kevin up. “You like to run.” He glanced over at Aidan, who was cradling his left arm. “You okay?”

  “Fine.” Yanking Kevin out of his grasp, Aidan pushed him into an empty conference room and Jamie shut the door behind them.

  “Kevin Currie, that’s you, right?” Aidan shoved the student into a chair.

  “Yeah. Who wants to know?”

  Aidan pulled out his badge and tossed it open on the table. “Special Agent Aidan Talley. This is my partner, Special Agent Jameson Walker.”

  Jamie felt a flicker of relief when Kevin didn’t recognize his name or his face.

  “I’m not telling you anything.”

  Aidan pocketed his badge and claimed a chair across from Kevin. “KrnuL_PaniK_1013, that’s you too, correct?”

  “I have no idea who that is,” Kevin said with an insolent shrug.

  Jamie pulled out his phone and brought up the screenshot of the back trace he’d run last night. He set the phone on the table in front of their suspect, who gasped.

  “How’d you get this?”

  Crossing his arms, Aidan leaned back in his chair. “He’s a better hacker than you.”

  Jamie picked up his phone and resumed his position against the wall. Kevin slumped in his chair, pretending not to give a damn. “I don’t believe it.”

  “I don’t care what you believe,” Aidan said. “What I want to know is where you went after we interviewed you yesterday.”

  “I stayed in the lab until midnight.”

  “And what about Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning last week?”

  “I have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. I’m in lab Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.”

  Jamie caught the dodge. “Were you in class and lab during those times last week?”

  “I was in lab on Tuesday.”

  “And class on Monday?”

  The young man ran his hands over his shaved head and left them locked behind his neck. He didn’t look guilty so much as bone tired. “I skipped. I’d taken the red-eye home Sunday morning from my sister’s wedding in Seattle and I was jetlagged. I was home asleep.”

  “You got roommates?” Aidan asked.

  “Yeah, but they weren’t home.”

  Things were not looking good for Kevin. He had an alibi for two of the breaches, but there was nothing to say he couldn’t have had a laptop open in lab or in class, running the hack with no one around him the wiser. Then there were the two intrusions he didn’t have an alibi for—Monday afternoon and the day before, when he’d been on a plane. If that plane had Wi-Fi, then he could have pulled off the breach from thirty thousand feet.

  “Wait, does this have to do with the increased security around GNL?” Kevin leaned forward and braced his forearms on the table. “I didn’t hack anything, I swear.”

  “You’ve been to every Black Hat convention near where you lived the past eight years.”

  “I wouldn’t target GNL. That’s not why I’m in this.”

  “In this?” Jamie said, the earnest shift in Kevin’s voice catching his attention.

  “Working at GNL. And hacking, for that matter.”

  “What does your hacking have to do with then?”

  He clammed up again at once. “I’m not saying.”

  “We can get a warrant and find out,” Aidan said.

  Kevin wanted to say something, Jamie could tell, but he hesitated, wary eyes locked on Aidan. Jamie thought about his crypto classmates and the other hackers he knew. Few scientists and even fewer hackers engaged in illegal activities would respond to Aidan’s dominance and autho
rity. But hacker to hacker...

  Jamie shoved his hands in his pockets, making himself appear as nonthreatening as possible. “Aidan, you should probably check in with Gary.”

  His partner shot him an inquisitive look. Jamie kept his posture and manner calm. Aidan considered him a moment, nodded, then pushed back from the table and left the room without another word. Jamie closed the door behind him and slid into his chair.

  “I don’t believe you’re a hacker,” Kevin said.

  Jamie lowered his voice. “I’ll keep your secret, if you’ll keep mine.”

  “O-kay.”

  “You asked how I found you.” Jamie tapped at his phone, brought up the profile from which he’d conducted the back trace, and pushed the device across the table.

  Kevin stared at the phone as if he were afraid to touch it. “N-no way,” he stammered, shaking his head. “No way you’re him.”

  He waited for Kevin to come to terms with the impossible, then shifted back in his chair, one leg crossed over the other. “I’ve shown you mine, now you show me yours. Not that I can’t find it myself, but we’re in a bit of a hurry.”

  “You won’t arrest me?”

  “Not my concern.” He nodded to the phone sitting on the table between them. “Mutual Assured Destruction. I arrest you, you report me. I don’t want that either.”

  Kevin’s eyes flickered to the door where Aidan had exited. “Your partner know?”

  “He does.”

  Brown eyes swung back to his. “You must trust him.”

  “I do. Now, are you gonna trust me?”

  Eyes downcast, Kevin threaded his fingers together and twiddled his thumbs. “My father’s an investor and a crook. Problem is, they can’t nail him on anything, so I’ve been skimming his accounts and making anonymous donations of his money.”

  Jamie straightened in his chair at the unexpected response. “Donations where?”

  “Shelters,” Kevin mumbled, barely loud enough to hear. “For battered women and kids.”

  Jamie gave the downturned face a closer look. A crooked nose, broken more than once. A round scar on his biceps that could be mistaken as a vaccine or acne scar. Faint raised lines on the inside of one wrist below black rubber bracelets. Kevin Currie had not had an easy childhood, but he’d pulled himself out and up.

  Jamie grabbed Kevin’s bag and pushed it across the table. “Your laptop in there?”

  Kevin nodded.

  “Mind if I take a look?”

  “Mutual Assured Destruction, right?”

  “Agreed.”

  Kevin pulled out the laptop and brought it to life. While he waited for Kevin to log in, Jamie stuck his head out the door. Aidan was jogging down the hallway toward him.

  “Where’d you go?”

  “Just took a walk,” he replied. “He’s not our guy?”

  “Don’t think so, but I’m going to check.”

  “Ready,” Kevin called, and Jamie led Aidan back into the room. They took the seats across from Kevin, Jamie accepting the offered laptop as Aidan resumed asking questions.

  “Have you seen anything unusual around GNL the past week? Anyone new or the regulars off their normal shifts?”

  “No, but you should ask Dr. Griffin. She’s here around the clock. She’s even got a cot in her office.”

  “What about network security? We know they issued new access cards and codes this past weekend. Have they made any other protocol changes?”

  “None, though, you know...”

  Jamie glanced up. “What?”

  “The other day, when I was out there, covering my tracks—” Kevin nodded to the computer “—I noticed unusual activity on the firewall. I thought it was network security running pen-tests.”

  Jamie turned the computer back to him. “Go there. You can navigate your history faster.”

  Kevin nodded and handed the laptop back in less than a minute. “There’s your IP address. Want me to keep digging and see where it leads?”

  “I’ll do that.” Jamie took over once more, digging further and catching his breath when he pulled up a familiar profile. “Got you.”

  “You know the source?” Aidan asked.

  “Yep.” He snapped a screenshot before deleting all of Kevin’s history. When he was finished, he handed the laptop back to its owner.

  “No way! It took me weeks to build those algorithms and find the paths I needed and you just erased it all.” The young man looked angry and defeated.

  “We should get going,” Aidan said, rising to his feet. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

  Kevin cursed under his breath as he pounded keys, trying to restore what had been permanently deleted. Jamie waited for Aidan to leave, then pulled a card and pen out of his pocket, scribbling his cell number on the back. He handed the card to Kevin. “Call me next week. I’ll help you rebuild the relevant histories.”

  “Why?” Kevin asked, voice a little awestruck as he pocketed the card.

  Jamie thought about the account ledgers on the Aidan’s flash drive. About what else might be on it. His specialty was cracking defense and security frameworks. This kid’s specialty was hacking financial mainframes. “I think there’s something you might be able to help me with.”

  “It’s a deal.” Kevin gave him a surprisingly strong parting handshake.

  Leaving him to pack up, Jamie rejoined his partner in the hallway.

  “Where’s the trail lead back to?” Aidan said.

  “Right where you thought it would this morning. Emily Richards.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Aidan pulled to the curb in front of Emily Richards’s home and parked behind a red F-150 and a Bureau-pool sedan. The ramshackle cottage looked like it hadn’t been repaired since the last hurricane hit the area. The wire fence circling the property bent and bowed in a dozen places, rotting two-by-fours supported a nonexistent roof over the front porch, and on either side of the buckled front walkway, knee-high weeds swayed in the summer breeze.

  A light snore rumbled from the slumbering giant in the passenger seat. They’d just crested the causeway bridge, heading to Emily’s in Texas City, when Walker pocketed his phone and said he was going to “rest his eyes.” Before they reached the end of the bridge’s span, he’d been out like a light. Zero sleep and too much sugar and caffeine had finally caught up with him. Not even the change in momentum or the silenced engine had woken him. He looked so peaceful in sleep Aidan hated to disturb him.

  “Hey, Whiskey.” He lightly shook the other man’s shoulder. “Wakey, wakey.”

  Lashes fluttering, Walker cracked open his eyes, then immediately slammed them shut again. “Why’s the sun so bright in Texas?” he groaned, forehead wrinkling.

  “I suspect the sun’s bright anywhere after not sleeping for twenty-four hours.” Aidan pulled the aviators off his head. “Here, take these.”

  Walker blindly flailed his hand between them until Aidan caught it and curled his fingers around the sunglasses.

  “There you go.” Aidan withdrew, not lingering on the remembered comfort of Walker’s big warm hand wrapped around his the other night.

  Donning the glasses, Walker laid his head back on the headrest. “Don’t suppose you have a candy bar or something stashed in here?”

  Aidan reached into his inner coat pocket and withdrew a king-size Kit Kat.

  Walker’s head lolled to the side, a wide grin stretching across his face. “Where’d you get that?”

  “GNL vending machine when you were questioning Kevin. I knew the crash would hit eventually.”

  Unlike with the sunglasses, their hands did linger over the candy bar, Walker’s thumb trailing over his before pulling away. “Thanks,” he said, as quiet as Aidan had spoken earlier, creating a kind of intimacy b
etween them usually reserved for dark, cozy places rather than convertibles open to the bright midday sun. “You’re officially my favorite person on Earth.” He unwrapped one end of the candy bar and took a huge bite.

  “On all of Earth?”

  Walker waved the candy bar around and glanced at him over the top of the sunglasses. “Well, on this godforsaken sunny patch of it.”

  Aidan’s laugh died before it fully formed, the sight of a shiny-suited Torres approaching, hazel gaze trained on Walker, shattering their little convertible world. “Pretty sure Torres wants to be your favorite.”

  Scarfing down the rest of the Kit Kat, Walker ran his hands through his hair, adjusted his coat and tie, and pushed the sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. “Best not keep him waiting.”

  Jealousy seared through Aidan, sharp and fierce, and on its heels, a plan he should have discussed with Walker first, but his partner was already out the door. Walker had followed his lead yesterday with Dr. Griffin. Could Aidan count on him to do the same today?

  “Jamie,” Torres said. “Agent Talley,” he added as an afterthought.

  “Agent Torres,” Aidan said, then to Gary, who’d joined them with Barnes, “What’ve we got?”

  “Knocked,” Torres answered. “No one’s home.”

  “Did you look around yet?” Aidan asked the assembled group.

  “We were waiting on you.” Gary led their group through the wire gate hanging by a single rusted hinge and up the cracked and pitted walkway.

  “We’ll check out back,” Walker said, assuming he’d follow.

  “You’ll stay here,” Aidan countered. “Torres, you’re with me on the left,” he continued before Walker put words to the consternation on his face. “Gary, you and Barnes take right.”

  He didn’t give anyone time to argue, breaking left and expecting the others to fall in line. Sidestepping debris and rusted-out car parts in the knee-high weeds, he made his way to the front left window and cupped his hands around his eyes, peering inside.

  Living room, deserted. Matching leather couch and recliner, cracked and lined from regular use. Bare bookshelves, end tables devoid of lamps and coasters, a tube television at the far end of the room, all of it collecting dust.