The Netscher Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  “But the others had to die.”

  “They were hurting people. I was watching them. I saw how they spoke to their wives, their cleaning ladies, their assistants. These were bad men.” She raised one shoulder in a half shrug. “They were also arrogant. Their houses were never that hard to get into, their medication easy to swap. With enough patience, I found everything I needed from watching them.”

  “Is that why you livestreamed their deaths? Why you recorded it?”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “You found my YouTube channel.”

  “We did.” Colin moved a fraction closer to her, his eyes locked on her face. “And I see you, Lila. We all see you.”

  Her blinking increased as did her breathing. She swallowed. “You might be the first.”

  “What do you plan to do with the information you got from Nikki’s devices?” Colin’s tone lost some of its gentleness. A cold feeling entered my body. I held my breath waiting for her answer.

  She straightened her shoulders. “That’s my insurance policy. If you try to stop me, I’ll destroy her. It didn’t take me long to see how much she loves you people. And all the things you’ve done for her.” She looked at me. “She worships you, you know?”

  I pressed my lips tightly together and nodded. I didn’t want to open my mouth in fear that I would blurt out my observations. The evidence of love Lila had discovered in Nikki’s devices had brought her great sadness. And an even stronger resolve. That was visible in the tense muscles in her jaw. This was the flawed reason so many people employed: If they couldn’t have something, no one could have it.

  “The minister?” Colin’s tone and micro-expression once again revealed kindness and patience. I was glad he’d moved the conversation away from Nikki. I didn’t know if I could bear listening to Lila threaten Eric’s life.

  “Tibor Bokros?” Her risorius muscles moved her mouth into a sneer. “That fucking bastard denied my business application three times. Three times. So I hacked his email and found out it was because I’m Romani. He got what came to him.”

  “Aha.” Colin nodded. “You applied to register your business when he was on the approval committee.”

  “Idiot.”

  “But what about Gabor Szabo, Ferenc Szell, István Koltai and Antal Udvaros? They were the grandsons of the men who took everything from your family. But it was their grandfathers, not them. What did they do to you?”

  “They lived the life I should’ve had.” She shifted on the swing. Had I not paid such close attention, I might not have seen the micro-expressions of guilt. Interesting. “Three of them didn’t even know what monsters their grandfathers were.”

  “István knew.” I spoke before I could stop myself. As Lila had spoken, I’d remembered Olivia’s conversation with István Koltai on the first day she’d arrived in Budapest.

  Lila glanced at me, but addressed Colin. “That slimy bastard. He knew. He knew his grandfather had stolen from my family. He knew about the paintings. He knew about everything.”

  “He knew about the house.” Colin must’ve also noticed the quick glance Lila had thrown at the house. “That’s how you found out.”

  “He told me about the house. He said that I could have everything inside the house. He didn’t want it.”

  “But doesn’t the house belong to the trust and therefore to all the grandsons?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how or why, but only the Koltais had this property. István told me they never changed anything. When his father found out what his grandfather had done, he’d locked the doors and had never come back. István came here a few times, he said to clean and make sure the paintings were still okay. He wanted me to take everything because he didn’t want this to be connected to his family and to his business. Hypocrite! Of all of them he deserved to die the most.”

  “But you do realise that you took a father from his children, right?”

  “I don’t care.” Her smile was the same false one she’d affected when we’d approached her.

  “That’s not true.” Colin glanced at me, but immediately put his full focus back on Lila. “I can see on your face that you care. A lot. You hide it behind your smile.”

  This time her smile was sad, but genuine. “You mean the smile everyone says makes me look psychotic?”

  Colin nodded, then leaned even closer to Lila. “What are you planning for tonight, Lila?”

  “I want everyone to feel what it feels like to be looked at as if you’re a freak.”

  “How are you going to do that?”

  Her top lip curled. “By showing the world who these people really are.”

  I had many questions for her, but held my breath. I could see Colin’s mind working as he thought about Lila’s words. He straightened. “The people at the tournament. You’re going to make their emails and social media public. Like you did with the boys who raped you.”

  Lila’s hands tightened on the swing ropes. “You know about that?”

  Colin nodded.

  “You believe me?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “My professor didn’t. The police didn’t. The officer wouldn’t even take my statement. He told me that dirty Romani girls don’t get raped. They get what they asked for.” Her eyes glistened from unshed tears, the corners of her mouth pulled down. “That police officer died before I could get to him. But I would’ve made him suffer more than the others.”

  “How do you feel right now?” Colin’s question was unexpected.

  Lila frowned. “Why?”

  “I want you to make an effort and think about how you’re feeling at this moment. You’ve killed everyone who ever made your life hell. You’ve even killed the grandchildren of the men who wronged your family.” Colin paused for a second. “Do you feel more accepted now? Do you feel happy? Did killing them make you feel recognised as the smart, beautiful young woman you are?”

  Lila’s eyes filled with tears. This young woman was not a psychopath. She was a severely traumatised individual without the emotional tools and social support to deal with her internal agony. Her compulsion to kill had come from a desire to feel normal, the irrational reasoning being that removing those who’d made her feel unaccepted and unacceptable would make her feel included, would make her feel like she belonged.

  “What do you know, pretty boy? You with your expensive clothes. You’ve never experienced a single day of discrimination against you.” She pulled her shoulders back and pressed her lips together. “You don’t understand.”

  “I do.” Colin touched his shirt button where Vinnie had attached the tiny microphone. He inhaled deeply and dropped his hand. “I took revenge and lost a lot because of that.”

  It felt like something heavy fell onto my chest when I witnessed the painful memory on Colin’s face.

  “I don’t believe you.” Lila was lying. She was leaning forward, eager to hear more.

  Colin inhaled, but I stepped closer and sat down next to him. “There has to be another way. You don’t have to tell her.”

  “If it helps to stop her hurting more people, it’s worth it, love.”

  “What did you do?” Now Lila’s curiosity was undisguised.

  “I was nine.” Colin swallowed, touched the button again and let go. I understood his reluctance. Francine, Vinnie, Pink and probably Manny, Daniel and Nikki were listening. “My mom had just bought me the coolest handheld computer game and I loved it. All my friends loved it too. I was one of the coolest boys and everyone in my class envied me for having such a great game.

  “One Sunday, we had a huge family lunch and my cousin wanted to play with my game, but I wouldn’t let him. I was being a little shit. My cousin was also a little shit. He grabbed my game, ran out the house and threw it in the pool. I was so angry. He had just taken away a status symbol from me. So I retaliated. I threw him into the pool”—Colin’s voice wavered—“and walked away.”

  “So?”

  Colin looked away and blinked a few times
, stress forming fine lines around his mouth. “He’d told me he couldn’t swim. I didn’t believe him.”

  I reached out and put my hand on Colin’s arm. He grabbed my hand and held it tightly between both his.

  “He drowned?” Lila’s question was quiet.

  Colin nodded. He swallowed a few times. “It destroyed my family. My uncle and aunt didn’t want to accept the prosecutor’s decision that I wasn’t going to be charged or prosecuted. They cut off all contact with my parents. My mother was devastated. My aunt was my mother’s twin sister. They were extremely close.” Colin took a few deep breaths. “My parents decided to send me away. They wanted to send me to a military school, but my grandmother intervened. She wasn’t really up for it, but she took me in. And saved my life.”

  “Why wasn’t she up for it?”

  “She was disabled.” Colin’s smile was soft. “But would have your hide if you ever thought she was weak. You see, my grandmother’s surname was Landau. She was born in Poland in 1935.”

  “And was there during the Nazi horror.” Lila shuddered.

  “Yes. Her whole family was taken to a concentration camp. All of them died, except for her. She was beaten so badly once that it caused permanent damage to her spine. When she was in her thirties, she became a complete paraplegic, but before that she managed with crutches.”

  “Did she leave Poland?”

  “Yes. When the war ended, another family lied and said she was their daughter. They’d had family in America and left Poland the moment the war ended. My granny told me of many people who selflessly helped others, never asking for any recognition, doing it because it was the right thing to do, because they wanted to help. She spent the rest of her childhood in a loving family and was lucky enough to be in a community where there was no discrimination.”

  “That doesn’t mean you understand what it means to be discriminated against.” Her argument didn’t hold as much power as before.

  “No, I don’t. Not in the same sense as you and my gran experienced discrimination. She told me many stories of the race hate they were exposed to even before the war. Then of course the concentration camp. She taught me that it was never acceptable to think yourself superior to anyone for one second. And she helped me see that revenge would never heal the original wound.” He swallowed again. “She also helped me forgive myself for causing my cousin’s death. And she helped me find my purpose in life.”

  “Fighting crime?”

  Colin laughed softly. “In a way, I suppose. Although my first action was more criminal than anything else. My gran told me about a painting that used to hang above the piano in their living room. She remembered asking her dad about it a lot and every time he would tell another story. It was the Place De La Trinité Paris by Renoir. Her dad loved talking about the times he visited Paris and the people he’d met there. And she loved telling me about it. Then one day, I was at the dentist and was looking through an interior designer magazine when I saw the painting. It was hanging in some celebrity’s house in the hallway.”

  “You stole it.”

  “I did.” Colin’s smile was unrepentant. “It took me weeks to build up the courage and plan it. But I planned it really carefully. When I eventually broke into the actor’s house, I took the painting, but left something else in its place. It was a copy of a list of Nazi-looted art that I had found at the university. I had highlighted the listing of that Renoir painting. They’d bought an artwork that had been stolen. They never reported my theft to the police.”

  A tear rolled unchecked down her cheek. “What did your granny say?”

  “After she cried a lot and hugged the painting to her chest, she told me she was proud of me. And if I chose to do something like this, I had better make sure I never got caught.” He closed his eyes for a second, grief drawing the inner corners of his eyebrows in and up. “She died the day after my eighteenth birthday. That day I vowed that I would never cause anyone pain again. Not if I could help it. And I would always try to protect the innocent.”

  Colin got up and went down onto his haunches in front of Lila. He took her hands from the swing ropes and looked up at her. “Help me keep that vow, Lila. Tell me how we can stop your plan.”

  “You can’t stop it.” Her voice was hoarse from emotion. “I just wanted everyone to see me. Me. But they wouldn’t. Not even when I started hurting them.”

  This young woman had never been given the guidance and emotional means to communicate her need for acceptance, belonging and love. It was the case with so many young people all over the world. And so often it ended in tragedy when they made symbolic attempts to gain that love from others by force.

  She swallowed and wiped her cheek on her shoulder. “I can’t even stop it. Not now. The programming is such that I would need at least three hours to get through the layers of security and traps I planted to get to the final trap.”

  “Who will be affected?”

  “Everyone who’s connected to the tournament at the moment.”

  “Online viewers as well?”

  She nodded. “It will be millions of people.”

  “What about cancelling the tournament? Cancelling this Drestia game?”

  “You think I didn’t plan for that?” Her laugh held no humour, only malice. “Of course I did. At last count, I’ve been able to infect over thirty-seven million computers with my virus. It’s been dormant in their computers, but if no one plays the game at the tournament tonight, that virus will activate and publish all the private and intimate details of thirty-seven million people. All over the planet. So which will it be? The tournament with only a few million people or all thirty-seven million?”

  “What’s the final trap?”

  “The scroll.” She smiled at Colin. “I was impressed when you got the scroll. It was really good playing. But this time there are more traps and the moment the winner lifts the scroll, a virus will be released which will access and publish everyone’s social media and emails.”

  “How can we prevent that from happening?”

  “By playing the tournament game, winning it and not lifting the scroll, but destroying it.”

  Chapter TWENTY-ONE

  “I can’t.” The sight and sound was so overwhelming that darkness shot into my peripheral vision at an alarming rate. I closed my eyes. “No. No. No.”

  “Bloody hell.” Manny stood in front of me to cut off my view of the inside of the arena. “Frey, do something.”

  We were in the László Papp Sports Arena, the largest in Budapest. It could hold up to twelve and a half thousand people. It felt like ten times that to my overwrought mind. We had walked past the crowds outside lining up to enter the arena area. Other long lines were leading to the arena itself. There was a festive atmosphere as everyone went through the numerous security checks. At one check point, the security officers had collected an array of costume weapons, locking them up for safekeeping. Most people didn’t complain.

  Special tents had been set up between the street entrance and the main entrance to the arena. A glimpse inside the tents had made me cringe. Lights were flashing and people crowded around gaming stations where players competed against each other. Nobody seemed to care about the many police officers whose eyes were roaming the crowds, looking for the slightest hint of a disturbance.

  I managed to stop shaking my head and opened my eyes. A man dressed in an eerily familiar costume rushed past us, waving at a friend. He was dressed in the exact same uniform as some of the mediaeval guards from the Drestia castle. There were many people wearing bizarre costumes. Vinnie had pointed out each game they’d used as inspiration for their attire as we’d walked past them.

  “Jenny, love.” Colin pushed Manny away and put his hands on my shoulders. It was strange to look into the face of the man I loved when he didn’t look like that man. Colin was dressed as his avatar from the game. Captain Palya’s wife had taken great pleasure in sourcing a Robin Hood costume. Colin had made a few adjustments, then had used mak
e-up to obscure his features. The authentic-looking beard hid his age and his posture made him appear ten years younger. He lowered his head until our noses almost touched. “Vin can walk in front of you, scaring the people away. I’ll be next to you and Millard will be on your other side. No one will touch you.”

  “It’s the only way to the security room, Jen-girl.” Vinnie had undergone an even larger transformation than Colin. It wasn’t as much the loose-fitting pants and cardigan as it was what Colin had done to his face. With the help of the captain’s wife, Colin had transformed Vinnie into an old man. His face was lined with wrinkles, his nose larger and the bags under his eyes looked real. Vinnie rounded off the metamorphosis by walking with a limp, his torso hunched over. All this had been done to obscure their identities. Vinnie winked at me and moved to the front of our small group. “Don’t worry. No one will get close.”

  “We’ve got your back, girlfriend.” Francine and Captain Palya were behind me.

  “Come on, Doc. We have to get moving.” Manny moved to my side like Colin had said and waited. He glanced at Colin yet again. He’d done that numerous times after the conversation with Lila. We’d left Lila on the swing to be guarded by the TEK team. The moment we’d entered the kitchen, Colin had looked at Manny and Vinnie and said only one word: “Later.” Both had nodded, but there had been a newfound respect in their expressions.

  I inhaled deeply, pushed Mozart’s Minuet in E-flat major into my mind and nodded. Colin kissed my nose and grabbed my hand. I wished for sound-cancelling headphones as we made our way through the arena. I’d not been prepared for the onslaught of sound. I’d only focused on the plan we’d hastily put together. It was a solid plan.

  Everyone had agreed that Colin and Vinnie should be the ones taking part in the tournament. Even though Pink was greatly skilled at the game, we needed his IT skills more. As soon as we reached the security facilities of the arena, Francine was going to set up her computers and link Pink into the whole system. The tournament organisers had agreed to give us everything and anything we needed as soon as Captain Palya had explained the severity of Lila’s actions.