The Netscher Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  “And that event that happened at university made it worse. For a few weeks she had that same smile. And then a few students were involved in an awful scandal. This was about nine years ago. Yes, yes. Nine years. These students’ social media accounts were hacked as well as their phones. All their private messages, all their posts and texts were published online and also sent to everyone in their contacts list.

  “The fallout was horrifying. Two boys were expelled from the university because of photos and boasting about how they had sex with girls after drugging them. That in itself was bad enough. But soon after they were expelled, the one boy killed himself. The next day a boy who wasn’t expelled did the same. His emails and online history revealed that he had homosexual interests. It was devastating to everyone.

  “The father of the first boy who killed himself is a very rich lawyer and he paid a private investigator to look into what happened. The police didn’t have the ability to look into this type of cybercrime then. Long story short, they discovered links to Lila, but nothing the prosecutor could use to charge her with. It was enough for the university though to expel her.”

  He sighed. “She moved into her own apartment and for a year didn’t come home at all. When she finally did, it was with the news that she’d started a business and she was doing well.”

  “The gaming company,” Colin said.

  “Yes. Arany. Do you know that the word ‘Arany’ means gold? She was going for gold when she registered her company name. But that was before she developed that bestselling game. The first few years she built her reputation and success with different games.” He laughed softly. “Once she tried to explain these things to me, but I just don’t get it. I’m not really interested in these game things, you know?”

  “Hmm.” Manny’s sardonic expression made King laugh again.

  “About four years ago, something else bad happened. Again I don’t know what. But for a year Lila again avoided us. When she came back, it was with that successful game and her smile. That smile that told me something was very wrong with her.”

  “Is there anyone who might know what happened to her?” This information would give me valuable insight into Lila’s motivation. “Anyone she trusted?”

  King thought about this. “The only one I ever saw her spend time with was Erika.” He got up and walked to the reception area.

  “Do you think she’s a psychopath?” Andor was looking at me.

  “I don’t have enough information to make that diagnosis.” I registered his expression and held up one hand. “Or any other diagnosis for that matter. People read a few articles in psychology magazines and think they can easily diagnose or spot a psychopath or sociopath. It is not that easy. Sometimes their behaviour makes it easy to recognise these traits, but often these people learn how to integrate very well into society. Their family and friends might just think that they’re very passive-aggressive or narcissistic. On the other hand, gifted individuals and even people on the autism spectrum can often be misdiagnosed as psychopathic or sociopathic.”

  Colin’s hand on my forearm stopped my diatribe. It didn’t happen often, but there were times that I would start on a topic and find it extremely difficult to stop, even when I registered the disinterest of my audience. I swallowed a few times while staring at the strong hand on my forearm.

  “Erika says she doesn’t know what happened to Lila.” King walked into the office, followed by his niece. Today she was wearing bright blue linen trousers and a colourful top. Her hair was in a ponytail which made her look young and feminine.

  “She never spoke about it.” Erika stood next to King’s chair and put her hand on the back of the chair when he sat down. Her fingers tightened around the upholstery until her knuckles were white.

  This got my attention. I studied her face. She was trying to appear relaxed, but the tightening of the orbicularis oculi muscles under her eyes and the orbicularis oris muscles around her mouth was revealing. I tilted my head. “You know something else. Something important. Something dangerous. Ah, dangerous indeed.”

  Her hand flew up to cover her suprasternal notch—the visible dip between the neck and the sternum. “I don’t know where she is.”

  “I didn’t ask you where she was.”

  Erika looked close to tears. King twisted in his seat, took her hand and pulled her to stand next to him. His hand on hers was gentle. As was his voice. “Erika, Lila’s been killing people. We need to stop her.”

  “I didn’t know she was killing...” A tearful hiccough stopped her denial. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her free hand. “I swear. I didn’t know.”

  “I believe you.” It wasn’t only her nonverbal cues that convinced me. That level of distress was almost impossible to fake.

  Her shoulders slumped. “Thank you.”

  “Tell me what you do know.” My tone might have been harsh, but I didn’t care. “What dangerous information you have.”

  She sat down on the armrest of King’s chair and crossed her arms in a full self-hug. “Lila is planning something. I don’t know what, but she wanted me to join her.”

  “Tell us exactly what she told you.” Colin’s tone was gentle.

  Erika responded to that and relaxed marginally. “Lila and I bonded when I was bullied at school. She phoned me almost every day to remind me that I was strong and smart and could do and be anything I wanted to. Those were the nice things she said. The rest of it was rants against everyone else. Against all men, all white people, all leadership, all institutions, all authorities. Basically, she hated everyone who wasn’t Romani and female.”

  “Because of her own experiences,” Colin said.

  “I think she was bullied much more than me. She once mentioned a dragon teacher who used to pinch her until she had bruises all over her back.”

  “I didn’t know about that.” King’s frown was deep. “Why didn’t she tell us?”

  Erika blinked a few times. “There’s a lot she didn’t tell anyone. She was terribly bullied at school. Especially by that teacher.”

  “Ms Taikon,” Manny said.

  “Yes!” Erika looked at Manny. “That was the teacher’s name. But when I asked her about it, she refused to say anything else. When that thing happened at uni, she refused to tell me what those students did to her.”

  “You have a suspicion.” I could see it clearly on her face.

  “All the students whose stuff were published online were male. They were all boys from the same group of friends.”

  “Holy hell.” Manny’s words were whispered, but sounded loud in the quiet room. “You think she was raped?”

  Erika’s mentalis muscles contracted in her chin, making it quiver. “I have no proof, but there were rumours.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” King looked devastated by these revelations.

  “What could you have done?” Erika wiped her cheeks again. “I know Lila. The more you try to get closer to her, the more she’ll push you away. If you or anyone had tried to get her to talk, she would’ve withdrawn completely and she needed us. She needed you.”

  “I’ve failed her.” King dropped his head forward, emotional pain plainly visible on his face. “I should’ve done something.”

  “When?” My question was sincere. “If she’d always shown a proclivity for creating hostile situations and taking revenge on people who wronged her, when would you have been able to do something?”

  “She’s right.” Manny pushed his hands in his trouser pockets. “These people seldom respond to interventions.”

  “You can help her now.” Colin addressed both King and his niece. “Help us find her so we can stop her from hurting anyone else.”

  “She’s going to hurt a lot of people,” Erika whispered.

  “How?” Manny asked.

  “I don’t know. A few months ago, she asked me if I wanted to get back at everyone who’d ever bullied me. I was so shocked by her unexpected question that I didn’t answer immediately. She took tha
t as a ‘yes’ and told me that she was planning something big. Something that everyone will remember forever. She was tired of always having to defend being Romani and being female. She was going to show everyone that they shouldn’t screw with her.”

  “Do you know what she’s planning?” King asked.

  “No.” Erika shook her head. “When I told her that I didn’t feel like I constantly needed to defend being female and Romani, she acted as if I’d slapped her. I felt awful. I told her that I was still her friend, but she shouted at me that I’d betrayed her. She’s refused to speak to me since.”

  We waited a moment while Erika wiped her cheeks and took a few shaky breaths to control her emotions. She looked at me. “But I know that she’s planning it for today.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “She told me that it would be on the day that everything changed.”

  “Oh, my.” King glanced at his watch. “Today is the twenty-seventh. It’s the same day her roommate at university phoned to say something bad had happened to Lila. I remember because today is my wife’s birthday. I went to her university, but couldn’t find Lila for two days. When we eventually found her three days later, she refused to tell us what happened. She said everything was okay and we should leave so she could focus on her studies.”

  “Today.” Manny looked at Erika. “Is there anything else you can think of that could help us stop her?”

  She thought about it. “No. I don’t know where she is and I really don’t know what she’s planning.”

  “She might be at her office.” King moved to stand up. “I’ll get you the address.”

  “We have it.” Manny turned, his feet pointing to the door. “And we’re going there right now.”

  “Please take care of her.” Erika’s voice sounded raw from her emotional anguish. “She was a good friend to me once.”

  Manny nodded, but I saw the deception. He wanted to stop Lila from killing or hurting anyone else. He didn’t plan to take care of her.

  We spent another three minutes in King’s mansion. Andor spoke to King in Hungarian for another minute. His body language told me he was reassuring the older man. He then joined Manny and Francine in the second SUV. Vinnie got into the SUV with us. No one said anything until we were on the main road leading into Budapest city centre.

  “What the fuck happened in there?” Vinnie leaned in between the two front seats. I moved closer to the door.

  “Lila’s had a rough life.” Colin gave Vinnie a brief version of what King had told us.

  “Yeah. I can see how she wants to take revenge.” Vinnie looked at the road in front of us. It was eleven minutes after ten, the morning traffic no longer influenced by workers commuting to their offices.

  An annoying ringtone came from my handbag. Colin had explained that it was the theme song to a female superhero animation movie. I sighed, took the phone from my bag and swiped the screen. “You’re on speaker.”

  “Hi, girlfriend.” Francine’s friendly tone was false. “How are you? I’m well, thank you, and you? I’m well.”

  “Why are you phoning?” I didn’t have the emotional energy for her jesting.

  She laughed. “Mister Joy-and-Peace told me you might be interested in what I found.”

  “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

  “Thanks, Doc.” Manny sounded vexed.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Okay, then. Manny wanted me to tell you what I discovered about Arany.”

  “Only the relevant parts.” Manny’s warning made Vinnie snort.

  “Quick bio of the company: Started nine years ago by Lila Farkas. She released her first online game two months later. It was an extremely simplified version of Drestia. She employed her first staff member six months later. Then she released another two online games over the next three years. She also employed more people. By the time she released Drestia she had nine people on staff and her company’s annual turnover was in the seven figures. In euros, of course.

  “Drestia changed everything. Within three months, she hired a full-time accountant and another two people who solely handled social media and customer relations. Arany’s turnover that year was in the low eight figures and has been growing like crazy since.”

  “I hear a ‘but’ coming on.” Vinnie smiled at me when I glanced at him.

  “Indeed, my muscled friend. The year after Drestia became big, Lila was invited to World-E.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “It’s only the third biggest gaming tournament in the world.” Francine sounded disappointed in me. “E-sports is huge. And World-E is one of the biggest international tournaments. But with its prize pool it cannot compete with the International. Last year, the International 6’s prize pool was twenty point four million dollars. World-E has an attendance of tens of thousands, but online viewers for the tournaments number in the tens of millions.”

  “What happened with Lila at the event?” I wasn’t interested in gaming statistics at the moment.

  “Oh, I remember.” Andor’s voice was slightly muted. He was most likely in the back seat, not close enough to the phone’s microphone. “It was a huge scandal in the gaming industry. Even though the majority of gamers came to the tournament to meet Lila and also to take part in her Drestia event, the organisers treated her so badly, it made headlines.”

  “What do you mean badly?” I asked.

  “There were three major attractions, Lila and Drestia were the biggest. The other two were men and their games. The guys got five-star treatment—hotels, limousines, gorgeous VIP rooms at the venue and so on. Lila was told that since the event is taking place in Budapest and she lives here, they weren’t approving accommodation or transport for her. She was also put in a tiny, windowless office where she was supposed to meet fans and industry VIPs.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “Lila hacked their emails and discovered that the organisers—who were all male—were pissed off that she’s female. One of them wrote a long rant about how women were infesting the gaming industry and weakening the business with their emotions and biology.” Andor coughed. “That also caused an outrage, but by that time everyone was on Lila’s side. The organisers paid out an undisclosed sum to Lila in an out-of-court settlement, but it exposed the strong discrimination against women in the gaming industry.”

  “Not much has changed since then,” Francine said. “Female gamers are still discriminated against and female game designers even more so. They are seldom nominated for awards or receive any kind of public acknowledgement.”

  “Again with the sexism,” Manny said. “Is Lila going to kill everyone who ever discriminated against anything?”

  Vinnie’s phone ringing loudly interrupted our conversation. He looked at the screen before swiping it. “Dude, you’re on speaker.”

  “Hi, all.” Pink’s voice sounded strained. “I’ve got Nikki with me.”

  “And we’ve got the others on speaker as well.” Vinnie looked at my phone and brought his closer so everyone could hear.

  “I’m sorry, Doc G! I swear I didn’t know.” The panic in Nikki’s voice brought immediate darkness into my peripheral vision.

  Vinnie’s hand tightened on his phone. “What’s happening, Nix?”

  “She got hacked,” Pink said.

  “Oh, honey.” Francine’s voice was muted, the sound of her working on her laptop barely audible in the background. “I so hoped I was wrong.”

  “Someone better tell me what the bloody hell is going on.”

  Pink cleared his throat. “Francine was worried that Lila could’ve hacked your devices and asked me to double-check.”

  “The protection I have on our devices is unhackable.” Francine sounded angry and scared. “But with Lila having such success accessing so many people’s devices and proving to be really good at hacking, I thought it best to ask Pink to check everything we have in Strasbourg.”

  “And you’re sure all our laptops, table
ts or phones are clean?” Manny asked.

  “Yes.” She sounded sure. “I’ve been checking every day and I checked again while the guys were playing earlier. Lila might be really good, but I’m better. She wouldn’t be able to hide code, a virus, anything from me.”

  “She wouldn’t hide,” I said. “If she did, it would be badly concealed, enough so for you to easily find it.”

  “That’s exactly what the virus looked like in Nikki’s phone,” Pink said.

  “Your new phone?” Francine asked. “Did you update the antivirus apps like I told you?”

  There was a long pause. “No.”

  “Ah, Nix.”

  “I’m sorry, Francine. I was just having so much fun with you guys and then coming back with Émile. I didn’t think anyone would want to hack me.”

  “I’ve removed the virus and updated all the programs and apps running on her phone.” Pink’s tone was worried. “But Lila cloned Nikki’s phone.”

  “Which means that she has access to everything Nix has online.”

  “No.” Nikki’s voice was thick with emotion and I heard a soft sob. “What if...”

  “I know, Nix.” Vinnie glared at the phone. “Pink?”

  “Daniel is already on his way over and Émile is sending two of his bodyguards. Nikki and Eric will be safer than the president.”

  “Um...” Andor sounded confused. “Why is this a problem?”

  “Because of my dad,” Nikki said. “He was a very successful criminal with many enemies. Some of them lost a lot when he died and wouldn’t think twice to claim it from me. I’ve been extremely careful with my social media and online life to keep my identity private. If some of those people find out about me, my life and Eric’s life... Oh, Doc G.”

  “You’re safe, Nix.” Vinnie’s statement sounded like an order. “No one will fucking touch you or Eric.”

  I couldn’t speak. I knew Nikki well enough to know that she was seeking reassurance from me. I couldn’t give it to her. I could barely keep the looming shutdown from taking me to that dark safe place.