‘It’s true. I convinced a Minuteman base commander in Pennsylvania he was the target of a Russian missile heading for the States, and that the US was on a war footing with strikes underway. Took me a year to set up and ten minutes to create total panic. They were shittin their pants man! Thought they were all gonna die!’
Despite himself, the toad was curious. ‘What happened?’
‘Well I sent the signal to release the launch code, just wanted to see how far I could take it but the base commander called the Pentagon. That’s not standard procedure but he didn’t have the balls to turn the key for launch. He thought it must be an exercise gone wrong, and checked. Fucked my game up though.’
As they talked Johnny’s hands were trampling the keyboard and the CIA website appeared on the screen demanding a password.
‘You’d have let him launch it?’ Manny’s voice was full of awe.
‘No way, man. I like living and the hack was my thirteenth birthday present to myself! I had overridden it.’
‘Could you do it now? Show me?’
‘The Department of Defense have tightened up a lot since then. Doubt if anyone could do that again.’
‘Did they catch you?’ Manny obviously did not want to be impressed, but the way he said it tickled Johnny’s ego.
‘Oh yeah, they caught me, and made me work for the CIA’s newly formed anti-hacking team. But I got out after a few weeks. Me and my sister disappeared. Wiped their files, all record of us. Created new identities. The works.’ Johnny could see Manny was amazed. He wanted the toad to like him, to trust him and be relaxed as he worked the keyboard. ‘I left a little wormhole and used it to get in again. They soon plugged that one, but not until after I’d been back and infected the Kernel, the machine code underpinning their software. They’ll never find it! They think they’ve got it all covered but they haven’t, Manny. Watch.’
The CIA logo vanished from the monitor without any visible password having been entered.
‘Fuck me sideways!’ Manny was totally amazed when navigation bars for the CIA network appeared, including links to the FBI and other government departments. Johnny had been working for less than five minutes while they were chatting and they were already inside the secure network.
Johnny tried to wink his good eye at Manny, yelped with pain as the movement tormented his ruined one instead. His fingers danced the keyboard as files flashed on screen. Eventually anything mentioning the name Simm was downloaded and ready to read. ‘I can send copies of this lot to your boss, but there’s nothing much in them. I told you. I checked yesterday. They’ve got nuthin on Simm.’
‘Do it. Send it to my boss. He’s calling in,’ the toad’s lips moved as he silently counted, ‘about twenty minutes’ time. You sure we got it all?’
‘Yup.’ Johnny held up his free hand and Manny high fived him. ‘Any chance of a Coke, Manny? My throat tastes like someone shit in it.’
‘Course. JOCK!’ The toad yelled and then his lips parted in a sly grin. ‘I’m not fuckin stupid, Johnny boy. You think I’m gonna walk off and leave you and your magic fingers linked to the world?’ Manny turned as Jock appeared. ‘Get our mate here a Coke.’ He treated the Scotsman like a waiter, as if his own job was much more important. ‘I can’t leave him.’
Jock returned a few minutes later with a cold can and Johnny sipped it, drinking it slowly, savouring the sweetness, trying hard not to throw up again.
The Scotsman made a speech.
‘What the fuck did you say? Jesus Jock, you’re such a tosser! Write it down for me. I can just about get it when you say yes or no.’ Manny read aloud as Jock wrote, ‘Sam’s not back. He should be by now,’ then added, ‘Don’t be such a twat and stop worrying. She could’ve been out shopping or summat when Sam got to the hotel. Did he say he’d call?’
‘Nah.’
‘Well then. He’s a big boy. Let’s not get worked up about it just yet, eh?’
Johnny couldn’t help wondering if the toad was this unpleasant to everyone. He could see Jock’s frown as Manny insulted him.
At least the words gave him hope that this man Sam could not find Kate. Johnny prayed he never would as he nursed his dead eye, remembering. His stomach muscles knotted at the prospect of the brute who had kicked him harming his sister. He took deep breaths, trying to remain calm.
God, he hurt.
‘You ready to crack on, Johnny?’ As Manny spoke the devil head arrived back on their monitor.
‘Excellent work, gentlemen. I’ve looked at these files. Are they really from the US security agencies Manny?’
‘Certainly look like it to me. Johnny boy actually seems to know his stuff.’ The grudging tone hinted at his jealousy. ‘Convinced me. They’ve got nothing else on George, boss. Barely mention the Russian operation.’
‘That’s the best news I’ve had all day. Now Johnny, we just need to get to the contents of George’s laptop. I’ll call in another hour. Results please, gentlemen.’
‘But –’ The face disappeared, cutting Johnny off. He appealed to the toad to help him make his malevolent master understand. ‘Manny, it could take forever. This is a nightmare, man. I can’t guarantee we’ll ever get into it. You know that!’ Johnny rubbed his forehead and winced, the pain encouraging Coke and bile to swamp his tonsils. He swallowed it back, his throat burning.
‘Just get on with it. You’ve got everything you need. Prove you really are a fuckin genius.’ Manny snorted as he said it.
Johnny tried to think. ‘I dunno. Maybe, if I link all four computers together... the T12, my tablet, this desktop and my one in England.’ He did not hold out much hope. He was in no fit state to crack the biggest puzzle of his life. This was no fun at all. He sighed. ‘Let’s give it a go.’
He had one ace up his sleeve. As he knuckled down, all the while he wondered, how long before Cody’s team traced him... and the devil head?
***
Chapter Seven
‘Yo! Man. He’s screwed up big time. We’ve got him Cody. He’s peeked at every Trojan we put in the system. All the new files mentioning Simm. And we thought he was a motherfuckin genius!’ The hirsute Skunkworks team member dislodged a shower of dandruff to his shoulders as he shook his head in disbelief.
Cody was not so sure. ‘It’s like he wants us to see him, to track him.’ They stared at the screen, the results of the Trojans flashing alerts, but Cody’s mind was elsewhere, remembering his conversation with the Director. ‘Could be he’s in trouble, like he needs us to find him. Could be like an emergency signal, y’know?’
His colleague’s excitement waned. ‘S’possible. Yeah. He ain’t this stupid. Could even be a blind. He’s probably fuckin with us again, man. We can track him through this IP address, it’s in Asia. Probably find it’s a whorehouse or some politician’s mistress’s home. Betcha he’s not there.’ The realisation collapsed any initial high the man experienced on seeing their carefully crafted decoys gobbled up by the genius intruder.
‘Whoa, what the hell?’ The monitor beeped furiously as a second location erupted on to the screen. This time the IP was in Europe. ‘Looks like he’s moved all the files...’ Cody scratched his head. ‘I think you’re right. He’s dicking with us. Probably find it’s Nato headquarters or the Prime Minister of England’s home computer.’ But what to do about it? Cody watched to see if there was more, thinking. ‘Mmm. I reckon we’ll have a string of sites, he’s giving us a goose chase.’
‘I’ll find the actual addresses for these sites anyway.’ The internet service providers would be able to supply them, given time.
‘Yeah. And any others that pop up. We can’t afford not to. I’ll go see the boss.’
Mike Teague looked a mess. Cody felt the same. He had lost count of the hours he had worked straight through, and the pills he had been taking were making his head float. He glanced at his watch but was not even sure whether it was four in the afternoon or four in the morning until he entered his boss’s office, the darkness outsid
e the window clarifying things for him.
‘Boss, we’ve hooked the guy, but he may be screwing us around. He’s grabbed every Trojan and we’ve got two internet addresses to follow up. One in Asia and one in Europe.’
‘Yeah?’ Teague sounded distant. ‘How long before you can get actual locations for us?’
‘If he were in the US, less than fifteen minutes. In Asia, could be up to eight times that. Europe, probably an hour or so. We’re on it, sir. Let’s hope we’re dealing with landlines or satellite links to fixed computers and not via mobile phone networks. That would make it much more difficult to track them down.’ Cody hesitated, concerned for his boss. The older man looked pasty grey. ‘You okay, sir? I guess we could all do with some sleep.’
‘You’re right there, son. My mind’s elsewhere. There’s a chance we’ve identified the man who killed Simm. Got some prints through from the Thai police.’
‘Surely that’s good news, sir.’ Teague sounded depressed and Cody could not understand why. ‘If it is the killer – he can at least answer the question everyone’s asking about Simm.’
‘Cody, between you and me, it looks like he’s one of ours. The killer was trained by us.’ The man seemed to shrink a little as he said it. He turned to his window, contemplating.
‘An active agent? Why would – ’
‘A renegade. We thought he was dead. He should be dead. We haven’t heard anything of him for years and then, bang, he offs a prominent American citizen in Thailand and the shit hits the fan here.’ Teague turned to face his protégé, his strained features full of regret. ‘They say what goes around comes around.’
‘Have they got him? The Thai police?’
‘Not yet, Cody. Not yet.’
***
Doug knew he should run, flee the country with a new identity. The Police Chief had surprised him. Lee was smart, much smarter than the average cop, and as Doug left the police headquarters he was in no doubt about that.
He was convinced Lee knew he was guilty and would soon have his identity from Rutherford.
Christ, the agent had recognised him!
Doug had heard him, when Lee and the agent thought they were out of earshot. And they had his knife, with human blood on it, not fish blood, though it would take them time to analyse it and he was certain things would be glacially slow with Thai forensics.
Despite that reassurance, he knew he was in deep shit.
Doug desperately wanted to see Kate. He needed to be with her again. Only yesterday he had felt reborn, alive and truly happy for the first time in as long as he could remember. He had no intention of killing again. The Chief’s warning was redundant. Doug wanted to move on with his life, the Hunter was dead.
He just wanted to be normal, to live an ordinary life. With a woman. Christ, he would even contemplate having kids!
He was a changed man.
He had come to Thailand to find himself and at last had a sense of being.
Of being a real person, not an undercover agent always borrowing personalities, leading fictitious lives. And he had not just found himself, he had found Kate. He was determined not to lose her.
Yet what should he do? His hearing was exceptional, his hunter’s instincts honing his senses like a wild animal, enabling him to overhear Simm’s conversation with Fan, triggering his feral rage. And he had heard Lee whispering to Rutherford, knew his fingerprints would be on their way to Langley. He would soon be out of time. The china coffee cup was a transparent ploy. Doug suspected most visitors to the police HQ would get a drink in a paper cup if they were lucky, but fine china gave a much better set of prints.
He could have refused coffee, but the Chief would probably have asked him to undergo fingerprinting for ‘elimination purposes’ and Doug would have found it difficult to refuse. The Chief might have chosen to arrest him if he had baulked, the knife and chalk were surely enough to hold him on suspicion here, in Thailand.
Yet Doug had the impression the Chief was reluctant to charge him, almost wanted him to get away. Was he giving Doug time to escape, warning him?
He watched the hostel entrance, checking for signs of police.
Nothing.
He entered and went to his old room, where his hippy persona seemed a lifetime ago. His spare passports and other documents were still in the room safe. The police had not found his bolthole and now he had money and a clean identity he could flee. Doug flipped open a passport. He would have to dye his hair again but he could be out of the country by evening.
Kate.
He tucked his documents in his pocket and headed to the hotel. He would explain, tell her he had been called back to the US for work. Arrange to see her, to fly to the UK as soon as she returned.
His mind whirred and he convinced himself she would want to see him there, possibly even felt they had a future together, who knows? He had never allowed himself to think like that before, in his old life it was impossible. But now?
The tension generated by his interview with Lee evaporated as he thought back to last night, of Kate’s sparkling personality, her intelligence and her body. She was something else.
He reached the hotel and decided to check the poolside first, hoping she would be there with Johnny, relaxed. He rode the lift to the roof and scanned the sun beds. No sign of either of them. It was after midday, she must be changing for lunch he decided, and trotted down the stairs to her room.
‘Kate?’ He knocked. Waited. Knocked again, harder. ‘Kate?’ She must be out. Or maybe in the shower and could not hear him.
Doug went to go, disappointed, wondering if Johnny was in his room, still working on the T12. Then he remembered the key. Kate’s key, the one he found this morning after he had slipped his hand up her thigh. God, he was horny just thinking about her. He hoped she really was in the shower as he let himself in.
He was about to call out when he heard the murmur of a deep voice from Kate’s bedroom. A man’s voice, and definitely not Johnny’s. Doug felt the blood drain from his face, the shock nailing his feet to the spot.
He could not believe it, after last night. Kate has another lover? Doug turned to go, a husk blown away by the wind of deceit.
Then Kate screamed, an animal howl of pain and fear that spun Doug round, his feet, as if with winged achilles, flying him into the bedroom. A snapshot of the scenario froze before him as time slowed in his head.
Kate, naked, her nose and breasts bloody, turning, trying to roll away from the man. The fiendish face, a beast rutting for its prey, with the knife angled expertly toward Kate. His words roared into Doug’s consciousness as the tableau moved forward gathering pace in his mind.
‘I’ll kill you, you fuckin bitch!’
Doug bellowed his rage as he leapt the last few feet, throwing himself between Kate and the knife.
The other man, whose full attention was on Kate, failed to hear or see Doug until that moment. He moved too late.
The knife sliced into Doug’s forearm, but he felt nothing, his other hand was moving, a blur, the heel of the palm connecting with the man’s nose. The full force of Doug’s weight, combined with his phenomenal strength, drove the nasal bone into the brute’s frontal lobe, piercing his brain, simultaneously snapping his neck as his head rocketed back.
Doug’s arm fountained blood as the man collapsed back, eyes staring shocked at the suddenness of his own death.
Kate was cowering on the other side of the bed, covering her breasts and crotch with her hands. Doug grabbed the blanket from the bed and wrapped her in it, then ripped off his shirt, and tied it around his own arm, staunching the flow of blood.
‘Kate. It’s okay. It’s Doug. You’re all right sweetheart. Look at me!’ Doug held her cheeks in his hands. ‘Kate!’ Her head joggled, the panic still in her eyes, shock jerking her limbs.
Doug held her close, stroked her head and cooed into her ear. ‘It’s over Kate, I’m here. I’ll protect you.’
‘J-J-Johnny...’
Doug’s he
art froze. He had thought this was just a case of opportunist hotel rape, but Kate was still terrified, and not just for herself.
‘What? Tell me?’ Doug pulled away slightly, tried to make eye contact.
Kate’s pupils were dilated as she tried to focus on the body. ‘Is he... dead? Please Doug. I’m scared. Is he dead?’
Doug did not need to check. He put his own face between hers and the body, holding her cheeks again, forcing her to look at him. ‘Yes Kate. He won’t harm you again.’
‘You killed him?’ She pulled back and her confused and frightened eyes shifted from Doug back to the corpse. He could read her face and knew she was still a stranger to death despite the vile desecration she had seen at Pop’s house yesterday.
‘He was going to kill you. If I hadn’t got here...’ Doug did not want to think about it. He had registered the teeth marks on her breast, the man’s visceral bloodlust on his face. He wiped the cut on her nose with a tissue, tender and gentle, not wishing to hurt her. ‘Has he harmed Johnny?’
Kate’s eyes came back into focus. ‘They’ve kidnapped him!’
Doug led her into the lounge, opened the mini bar and poured her a scotch. Kate sat and gulped it in one, then coughed and spluttered. ‘He said they’ve taken Johnny.’ Tears started and the shakes took hold again.
He poured her another drink and this time she sipped it as he went to check Johnny’s room. She was crying when he returned, and as he crouched in front of her, he said, ‘Johnny’s gone. Don’t worry Kate, if anyone’s got him, I’m sure we’ll find him. It’ll be okay.’
Doug had no idea why anyone would want to take Johnny. Unless they wanted the T12? He dismissed the thought. Who could possibly have known he had Simm’s laptop?
Kate’s sobbing gradually subsided as Doug stroked her hair. She said, ‘We have to call the police. I’ve got the Chief’s number.’ Kate moved, about to get up, to find her phone.
Doug’s arm held her tight. ‘Kate, tell me exactly what the man said first – please.’
‘Doug! Let go. I must call Chief Lee now. They may be harming Johnny.’ Kate’s tears flowed again.
The Hack Page 30
