‘Whoa! Doug. Let’s stay focused, huh? I can’t think of anything but Johnny right now.’ Despite her words, Kate took his hand. ‘Enough already. You concentrate on getting us there in one piece.’
She sat back, closed her eyes, the cooling breeze of the van’s aircon and the steady beat of the engine helping calm her. Doug wasn’t the problem. He would help her find Johnny and then she would think about what the future might hold.
***
‘I’m sorry. I’m trying everything. I told you it could take days. I’ve got my home computer, this machine and my top-notch tablet all rigged up to it, but this,’ Johnny brushed his fingers over the T12, ‘is something else, man. Believe me, I want to crack it.’ He meant it too. It was still a fantastic puzzle though the circumstances were far from ideal.
‘Well Johnny, I’m afraid that’s just not good enough. How am I to know that you really are trying your hardest?’ The malevolent face twisted a grin at him. ‘In cases like this I find the judicious use of pain helps concentrate the mind.’
Johnny reared back from the screen as if he had been struck already. He begged, ‘No. No, please. You don’t need to hurt me. I want to help! I cracked the CIA and got those files for you. I’m doing my best. Please don’t hurt me again.’ Tears started, flooding his ruined eye with pain. He whimpered and then was ashamed for his weakness. He wished Kate was here with him...
The thought stopped the rush of self-pity in its tracks. The last thing he wanted was Kate to be with these psychos. Pink drips fell from his chin as he stared at the skull face on the screen. ‘I just need more time. Please.’
‘Perhaps you’re right. Manny, bring his sister.’ Sir Benjamin’s vicious leer cut Johnny’s heart like a blade, his guts convulsed and he tried to resist, but lurched forward, head to his knees. ‘No. No, don’t hurt my sister.’
‘She ain’t here. Sam’s not brought her back yet. Traffic probably.’ Manny did not sound too bothered to Johnny’s ears.
It was good news, she might have got away.
‘In that case, Manny, I’ll leave it to Jock to use his expertise to help our friend to concentrate. One hour and I want that box of tricks opened.’ He cut the connection and the screen went blank.
Johnny crouched in his chair, misery and fear swirling inside him. He had never felt this bad before.
Why could they not understand? He wanted to do this.
He struggled to sit upright, his stomach clenching and griping. He tried to hit some keys, but his bowels and diaphragm were in a game of tug of war. He felt like his insides were going to shred, his brain and ruptured eye ached with an intensity he could barely stand. He did not think it possible to feel worse, but he was wrong.
Manny called out to Jock, then said, ‘Time to play, Johnny.’ The vile toad persona reappeared, no longer Johnny’s fellow hacker, co-conspirator and computer colleague. ‘Maximum pain, minimum blood loss. Jock’s an expert. A genius at what he does, just like us, mate!’
He swivelled the chair round, wrenching Johnny’s hand against the tightening chain. Jock was advancing with something that looked like a giant torch with stubby spikes on the end instead of a bulb.
Johnny cowered in terror, the unknown, the helplessness jetting urine into his pants. ‘Honest, Jock, I’m doing my best. Please let me try again, right now, man.’ The device flicked at his head and Johnny threw up his free hand to fend off the feint as Jock plunged the device into his testicles.
The noise Johnny made was not a scream, not a howl.
It was a welling up of agony projected from his throat, a noise unrecognisable as anything vaguely human. His whole body, from his neck to his feet, was in the grip of a furnace so scorching that every nerve ending seared the pain receptors in his brain. The suffering gripped his soul for an eternity before blissful darkness engulfed him.
***
‘You fuckin killed him, you soppy cunt!’ Manny was overwhelmed, the noise Johnny made petrified him, and the smell of burnt flesh and steaming urine almost dragged his Chinese meal to his lips again.
‘Nah.’
‘You fried his fuckin bollocks, man. Is that a cattle prod?’
‘Nah, Spesha!’
‘Special?’
‘Aye.’
‘Don’t ever come near me with that fuckin thing, you stupid Jock bastard.’ Manny backed away as the Scotsman playfully poked it at him.
Jock said something Manny could not make out, but sounded like ‘wanker,’ and then broke a glass vial under Johnny’s nose to immediate effect. Johnny’s head wrenched back and his eyes fluttered open, the whites rolling. He then slumped forward as a stream of greeny red fluid erupted from his mouth.
‘What the fuck is that? Looks like snot and blood, Jock. Is his nose bleedin?’ Manny stepped forward, tugged Johnny’s head back.
His eyes were still rolling, tears flooding his cheeks.
‘Nose looks okay. You hear me Johnny? Time to go to work. No slackin now – we got an hour, okay?’
Johnny’s eyes gradually focused on Manny and widened, like a horse about to bolt. ‘Nargh...’ Another reddish dribble cascaded from Johnny’s slack lower lip.
‘Come on sunshine. Just get on with it. Or Jock’ll zap you again.’
Jock waved the device at Johnny before Manny spun the seat round to face the keyboard and said, ‘Now, where were we?’
***
‘Sir! We’ve had a stroke of luck. The location in Asia, the address has just come through. It’s in Thailand. And we’ve notified the Brits for the other site. That one is in central London. They’re getting on to it, but do we want to involve the Thai police? We’ve got the location showing as a light industrial unit about thirty miles from Rutherford’s current location.’ Cody had started speaking as he came through the door to the office and now stood at Teague’s desk.
His boss looked up from the report he had been reading. ‘Thirty miles from the hotel where Simm was killed?’
‘Yessir. And where Agent Johnson’s team were staying. I’ve just phoned Johnson, sir. He remembers talking about the Skunkworks at the hotel. Our boy genius could’ve overheard him there!’
‘So you think this factory place is where he is now?’ Teague reached for his phone as he spoke.
‘Yes sir!’ Cody was lighting up the room with a dazzling smile. ‘I reckon so, it’s too much of a coincidence, Simm, Johnson and now this. The London contact is either a blind or some other recipient of the Trojans. But I’d bet my salary on it being our boy in Thailand.’
Cody’s excitement was contagious and his boss was grinning as he spoke into the phone, reading Johnny’s location off the piece of paper Cody handed him, instructing their man in Thailand.
‘Rutherford. You get your team there now. There’s a carrier group, the Nimitz, on manoeuvres in the Gulf of Thailand.’ Recent tensions in the nearby South China Sea had justified an increased US military presence in the area. ‘If you can’t charter a local chopper right away, you get our boys to fly you there.’
Teague listened, a scowl rippling across his face. ‘I don’t care. This is number one priority, I want this boy found soonest. And I want him back here, unharmed, d’you hear me?’ He cut the connection and looked up at Cody, the smiling hyena with its prey in its teeth. ‘I guess we’ll know who your genius is within an hour or so, Cody.’
‘Can’t wait to meet him, sir. There’s no problem with Rutherford’s team is there? If the Nimitz is close by wouldn’t the marines be better?’
‘No. I don’t want the military crawling all over Thailand for this extraction. Rutherford’s developed a good relationship with the locals. He was just concerned about our renegade killer. The Police Chief wants him out of there by midnight local time and this mission will delay picking him up. They’ve only got nine hours or so. It’s cutting it fine.’ Teague was troubled, he clicked his thumbnail on his front teeth, then went on, ‘Problem is they’ve got no idea where the guy is, and no leads. Looks like he abandoned his ho
tel room after the Thai police searched it. He could’ve flown the coop already.’
Cody’s smile dissolved into a frown. ‘Any chance it’s the same guy? The renegade agent and our computer genius?’ He could not conceive of it but the coincidence seemed to suggest it.
‘Not a chance. Our agent was an assassin. He could barely work a computer, but give him a knife or some other weapon... Yeah, he was a genius in his own way. His name is Hunter.’
‘Black ops?’
‘Yeah. This good guy was so professional he never missed a target. He could creep up on you and slash open your throat before you even realised you were in danger. It was graceful, like ballet. He was a natural.’ The words came out deadpan, not a trace of pride in his voice. ‘Didn’t occur to me he’d still be alive, could be responsible, even when I read that police report on the manner of Simm’s death.’
Cody wondered about something he had heard about certain field agents. Men like this one. He was on a high, his success goading him on. ‘Was he a psychopath, boss? Y’know, we hear stuff. Like the shrinks identify some agents as people who don’t feel remorse, natural killers who don’t have the same emotions as the rest of us. People who can’t feel love. They say we nurture them, train them for wetwork. People that might otherwise end up as murderers in society.’
Teague glowered at him. ‘You know you are well out of order asking me this shit, Cody.’ He stood, pushed his hair back and rubbed his scalp. ‘Christ. I need some sleep.’
He decided it was best to go, nodded, went to the door.
‘Cody – you’ve done a good job. Well done. Tell the team for me.’ His boss smiled. ‘In fact, I’ll come down and tell them myself.’ As he joined Cody in the corridor he added, ‘And what you’ve just asked...’
Cody wondered if he was due a rollicking. ‘Sir?’
‘My team trained them, including Hunter. They were all killers, Cody. Even before they joined us.’ There was regret in his voice. ‘You didn’t hear this from me son, and you don’t ever repeat it.’ Teague put his hand on Cody’s shoulder as they walked to the Skunkworks. ‘Trouble was it turned out they were pretty much uncontrollable. Every one of them went bad in the end. That initiative was one of the Agency’s biggest mistakes.’
***
It was his birthday and Johnny knew he was dying. He could feel his insides leaking below his diaphragm, could feel something had ruptured in his tormented belly. Blood jetted into his mouth from the seizures twisting his guts. He spat a gobbet at Manny’s foot.
He had had enough of these morons.
‘You wanker you’ve ruined me suede boots. I’ll get Jock to stick that rod up your arse next time.’
Johnny’s head felt weird. He could hear Manny, but it was from a distance even though the toad’s mouth was only inches way. Then Kate floated in front of his eyes, her beatific smile like an angel, before he saw the toad’s mouth again, lips blabbering at him.
‘Come on you cunt, get on with it. The boss is calling in about forty-five minutes and you’ve done nuthin. You’d better wake up before then.’
Johnny drooled and Manny gave up. He wandered off to find Jock.
His absence sparked something in Johnny’s mind and he forced himself to concentrate. At first he tried to ignore the pain but it threatened to overwhelm him.
He tried to meditate the hurt away. Then he let his mind embrace it, harnessing it. Suddenly his brain shook itself free, supercharged. Was the residual effect of the electric current from Jock’s device somehow catapulting him to a new level of consciousness?
Johnny felt enlightened as his eyes swept across the computer screens in front of him. He watched the code rolling, scrolling into his brain as if he was finally part of the machines. Exhilaration surged and his fingers translated this through the keys.
Within minutes the T12 flashed its secrets to him. He had done it! Both its screens lit up, and a three-dimensional display appeared floating before him. He fingered the hologram in wonder, the logo of SimmpleTravel. He caressed the screen, the touch sensitive panel changing the image and locating files.
He really had done it, file after file unlocked, the security walls collapsing before him like dominoes. His elation elevated him. He had achieved the impossible on his eighteenth birthday.
For Johnny there was no longer a feeling recognisable as pain, just serenity and peace. Even the vile nature of the content of some of the files did not affect him, the grotesque images of tortured children were unreal.
Then he found thirty-two files with the FBI logo on them. Johnny knew what he had to do.
***
‘It’s about three hundred yards over that ridge. You can wait here with the van if you want. Things might get very unpleasant.’
‘I’ve come this far. I need to make sure Johnny’s all right.’ Emotions raged inside her but she resisted the urge to cry. I must be strong. For Johnny. ‘Let’s go.’ Kate pulled the door catch as Doug’s hand gripped her other arm.
‘Kate. Don’t do anything unless I say, otherwise it could make things more dangerous for you, for me and for Johnny. There will be other men here, men as evil, or even worse than the one who did this to you.’ His hand brushed the scab on the side of her nose.
‘Shit. I know... I’m so scared, Doug, but I must go to him. It’s my fault.’
‘Enough, Kate! It’s their fault. Just remember, don’t panic no matter what. If in doubt, stay still. Otherwise you could endanger all three of us.’
‘I wish there was a gun in here.’ Kate had searched the whole vehicle while Doug drove. She had found nothing inside the hired van, no weapons tucked under the seats, not even a wheel brace or other tool she could use for a weapon. All they had was the commando knife Doug had taken from her attacker. ‘I’d feel better even with a tyre iron,’ she said.
‘We don’t need a gun. Trust me.’
His confidence fortified her and she tried not to let her worry escalate as she followed him to the ridge overlooking the building.
The place was typical of this part of the countryside in Bangkok’s wider hinterland, some farmland turned over to a factory, a sweatshop, small warehouse and office combined.
‘There’s no sign of anybody.’ Kate did not know what to expect, but her mind had conjured up a small army of thugs waiting for her, with Johnny tied up in their midst. She realised how stupid that was. ‘What do we do? Charge down there and confront them?’ She watched Doug, his mind calculating it seemed. ‘We don’t even know he’s here for sure. Oh Doug, are we wasting time? Let’s call the police.’
‘Shhh! I’m listening.’
‘What? How can you hear from here?’
‘Shhh!’ Doug carried on concentrating.
Kate could not hear anything. Well, maybe she could. She focused and listened to some birds, a rustling of the wind in the bushes, the squelch of her own heartbeat in her ears.
‘We need to get closer. Stay behind me.’ With that, Doug was gone.
She felt ungainly, like a rogue elephant, as she scrambled after him. He was gliding.
How does he do that?
She caught up with him at the wall of the warehouse, panting and dishevelled in the afternoon swelter. ‘Can you hear anything?’
Doug put a finger to her lips. ‘Shush,’ then he pressed his ear to the concrete slab of the wall.
Kate began to think he was delirious, insane. No one could hear through that wall! She tried. Only the banging of her heart, now rapid from exertion and fear, echoed in her ear.
He whispered to her, ‘I need you to wait here, sweetheart. I can hear at least one voice in there. I want to skirt round the building, check it out. See if there’s anyone else around.’
‘You can hear through this?’ She couldn’t believe it. Was he kidding her?
‘Yeah. I’ve got super-acute hearing. It’s not always a blessing though. It gets me into trouble sometimes, but right now there’s someone in there and I don’t want them to see us. You stay here.’
She grabbed his arm. ‘I want to come.’ She was terrified and didn’t want to be here alone.
‘This is what I do, Kate. You stay here. I’ll be real quick.’ He kissed her mouth fleetingly and disappeared round the end of the building.
Kate stayed crouched, and listened, her ear jammed against the wall.
She couldn’t hear a bloody thing.
***
Rutherford picked his four best agents, all combat veterans, not that he was expecting any trouble. It sounded like a simple extraction. The head of GUSSET had described the target as ‘probably a young lad, in his teens.’
What they did know was their target was a computer genius and would likely be within reach of the machine they had located. The address they were heading for was where the computer was sited. He just hoped the target would still be there.
Teague had told him the lad was unlikely to have any protection or security. Rutherford hoped he was right – if they were to bring the nerd back unharmed.
If they could not kidnap him then he was to be terminated. It needed to be a simple job, Rutherford was going to have a busy day. He had only eight hours to locate Brown and get him out too.
The US Marine Corps helicopter hovered and landed on the roof of the Consulate. Seconds later the members of the team were strapping in as the aircraft vibrated skywards, then swooped over the city below.
‘ETA fifteen minutes. How d’you wanna do this?’ The pilot’s voice was distorted by the microphone strapped to his throat, his words rasping metallic in Rutherford’s earphones.
‘This is a straight in and out extraction. They’re not expecting us. We don’t anticipate any hostile fire. Dean stays aboard. Get Wilkes and me as close as possible to the entrance and then drop the other two at the rear. I want you airborne immediately after, observing the site. Anyone escapes, you and Dean track them. We’ll be in constant radio contact.’ Rutherford felt the adrenalin flow. It was good to be in action again, even if it was a cakewalk.
‘Roger that.’
The Hack Page 32
