by T. K. Harris
Jason took a moment before answering and Alex’s curiosity ratcheted back up. Jason wasn’t the best at hiding his thoughts and emotions. It was one of the things that had gotten him nailed so quickly when the FBI had taken him. And Alex had seen the same thing when he had first interviewed Jason. His emotions ran across his face like an open book and age had done little to help hide them.
Again, Alex got the feeling that Jason was hiding something. But he said nothing as he waited for Jason to speak.
Staring at his food Jason started with, "There are rumors about a splinter group of Unnamed. Two, actually."
Alex shook his head at Jason’s mention of the notorious group who felt all information, no matter how dangerous, should be free. Not that this belief had stopped some of them from selling certain information to the highest bidder anyway. As a result, Unnamed had been blamed for indirectly causing more than a few deaths.
Jason continued, "They apparently had a difference of opinion on what information should and should not be released, and decided to start their own group in order to stop what they deemed dangerous information from being released."
"There were rumors that this started a hacker civil war, but then the group suddenly disappeared." He looked up at Alex. "That was about five years ago. Other rumors surfaced for a bit. But none of this was ever confirmed. Most of us thought the rumors were started for lulz because we never saw any evidence of 42 or even the supposed war. In fact, I’m not sure if the original rumors even referred to the group as 42 or µβ."
It was the most Alex had ever heard Jason say in such a short period of time. And he couldn’t recall ever hearing of a hacker civil war either. But someone was claiming to be what Jason had just called a ‘rumor’.
"Maybe we should start doing some checking then."
"Okay. Just keep in mind they are rumors. And there are lots of rumors about secret hacker groups floating around."
"Understood. You mentioned two groups?"
Jason nodded, trying to swallow his last bite. "Ya. The second group was alternately called NIL or NULL. Supposedly an extreme version of Unnamed that cropped up during the hacker civil war but were said to have existed long before it ever began. One rumor had them listed as the original organized hacker group, existing long before Unnamed, Anonymous, any of them."
Alex quirked an eyebrow. "Older than all the hacker groups and more extreme than Unnamed? How is that even possible?"
"I know, right? That was the rumor, but information on them is even more obscure. If 42 is considered an unverifiable rumor, NIL is considered a mythical legend."
Alex nodded as his phone began to ring. Pulling out his phone he answered with, "Hello?"
"Alex, where are you? I’ve been texting you!"
"At Phil’s birthday party. Why?"
Alex had to strain to hear the response, as Bill’s voice dropped to a whisper.
"Listen I don’t know what’s going on but something went down for certain a few weeks ago and without us. I don’t know what, or who, is running it. The only thing I know is that someone high up is pulling the strings and they don’t like us poking around asking questions about it. I got a call to that affect this morning."
Alex looked at Jason.
"Alex? Are you still there?"
"Yes. I’m just thinking. Jason had something very similar to say. Only his call was in person late last night."
"Are you shitting me? What the hell is going on, Alex?"
Alex’s mind was spinning. "That’s what I’d like to know."
He hung up and told Jason what Bill had said. Jason’s responded with, "You’d better watch your back and sweep your apartment tonight."
Recalling the sense he’d had last night that something was not right in his apartment, Alex nodded in agreement.
That among other things, he thought.
Chapter Nineteen
Yuri answered the next call from Barrett. Before he could say anything Barrett blurted out, "We need to start over."
"Start over?"
"This group. We haven’t really found anything on them, except for the kid. Using them won’t accomplish your initial goal."
"Shouldn’t the kid and the connections be enough?"
"No. We need more. This group has minor offenses at best. Hardly enough to warrant what we’re doing here."
"I thought you wanted to bring down all hackers?"
"Of course I do! But this isn’t fucking going to do it for the first go round! There is no way Gillespie will want to run with this as proof of a first success." There was the clinking sound of glass and then pouring liquid. Then Yuri heard, "And you guys aren’t helping!"
"We pay you good money to do the job you assured us you could do."
"Well I can’t pull cherries out of my ass. We need a new group."
"Let me repeat this slowly, Mr. Barrett. We are paying you very well to find the evidence we need to prosecute this group."
He heard Barrett swear under his breath and then the sound of him drinking something before he said, "Haven't you been reading my reports? There is no real evidence!"
Yuri remained silent, waiting. He heard a sharp intake of breath from the other end of the line and then, "Wait. Are you saying that you want me to make up the evidence?"
Yuri replied, "If that's what you have to do."
"But that defeats the purpose!"
"Does it?"
"Of course it does."
"Sometimes you sacrifice a pawn to get what you really want. Maybe a few pawns."
"What the fuck does that mean? You think I'm some damn pawn? Or do you mean the people we're holding?"
Yuri struggled to maintain his patience, but the American was tiring. "Almost everyone is a pawn. There are only a few major players."
"What is this cryptic bullshit? I am a fucking major player and if you don't give me some answers you're going to see just how major."
Yuri barely suppressed the oath that almost escaped him. Forcing himself to sound calm, he responded with, "Of course you are not a pawn. But we cannot help it if sometimes innocents are caught up in our nets. We are in the middle of a war of sorts, after all."
"Holding and prosecuting basically innocent civilians is not the way to do it."
"You want to be able to prosecute hackers to the full extent of the law, even create newer and stricter laws, correct? Well you can't do that if you don’t have people and causes to convict. Now here's your chance to show not only a collaboration of four individuals, but paint a picture of some truly dangerous scenarios this group is capable of. It doesn’t matter if the evidence is there. You either find it or make it up. Just do whatever it takes."
"I won't do it."
Yuri's jaw tightened. Through clenched teeth he responded, "Then your funding – existing and future – will no longer be available. You may not be a pawn but you are small in comparison to the fish we are trying to fry, as you Americans say. The people I represent won’t hesitate to crush you if you stand in their way."
There was a long silence. "You can't do this without me."
Yuri’s lip curled at the whine that had crept into Barrett’s voice. Pathetic, he thought. "We can and we will. It is up to you now. Continue your work and achieve your fame and fortune, or go back to the dark hole we pulled you out of."
Silence greeted him once more. Yuri thought he heard the sloshing sound of liquid being poured out of a bottle again. He heard Barrett take what sounded like a loud gulp and then say, "This is ridiculous. I thought your group actually wanted to make a difference."
"We do. And it’s your job to make sure it happens." He could almost feel Barrett’s anger boiling over the phone line. Like a spoiled child, he thought. Suddenly, he was bored with the whole conversation. "Let me know when you’ve decided."
He heard glass shattering on the other end of the line and waited a moment before he heard Barrett’s slurred response.
"Fine. You’ll get what you want."
Yuri s
miled. Of course he would.
"Good. Here is a bonus for you – check into the kid’s uncle." With that, he hung up, thinking about the email he had sent to Thomas Moore several weeks ago. Now it was time to haul in the real catch. Alex Moore, and his group, had been responsible for ruining more than a few of the families’ plans over the last several years. Taking down Alex was just icing on the cake in the plan to forward the families’ agenda and win back his own family’s honor.
That the rest of the group they had taken had such interesting backgrounds was the cherry on top. Yuri smiled at the analogy. Even in all of his careful planning, he could not have hoped to have pulled in such a group. It really didn’t matter if they were innocent. It was going to be easy to use what they had to complete his plans. Far easier than he could have wished for.
Chapter Twenty
Doctor Jane Lyndsay stared at her digital diary trying to think of what she could write that would help her work through the questions and issues she couldn't resolve. She had no problem about what she said, as her diary was encrypted she had no fear of breaking any rules. It was what to say that she struggled with.
Her thoughts drifted to the detainees. Since she’d first seen the shape they were in physically, she had made a point to visit each of them outside of her regular questioning. She had been impressed with the fact that, outside of Tommy, the others were handling their ordeal remarkably well. Better than she had expected. It normally took much less than people realized to break someone.
Frank Borne, she understood. He’d had SERE training. Even Wayne Bevels made some sense, as she didn’t think anyone who was that much of an ass would be easy to break. But Uday Najim had really surprised her. According to his background he had spent a quiet life of study and had never been involved with, or experienced, anything like this.
When she had asked him how he was handling it so well, he quietly replied, "Allah is good and will set me free."
"And what if he doesn’t."
Uday had smiled then. "Then Allah has greater plans for me and I look forward to serving."
Jane had met and questioned many soldiers who spoke of their gods, but Uday’s calm assurance resonated with her in a way she had never experienced before.
Reaching for her glass of Merlot, Jane took a distracted sip. For background noise she had logged into one of her favorite chatrooms that constantly ran a sound track of people milling about and talking as wine glasses clinked, the crackle of a fire added the feeling of comfort. The sound helped to alleviate the all too quiet of the small hotel room the agency had rented for her. It also helped with the pervasive loneliness that had been part of her life since she’d chosen her current career path. While she had accomplished much in the last several years, her career wasn’t exactly one she could talk about, and it took her to places in countries that didn’t really allow her to meet anyone she could hope to have a relationship with. Instead, the last few years, while full of satisfaction, had been one long stream of apartments, barracks, huts and tents, and all of them – outside of the occasional rocket explosions and gun fire – quiet. And, all of them, lonely.
As she set her glass down, a ding alerted her that someone had invited her to chat. Checking the display she saw that her chatroom friend of two years, FoxTrot, had come online.
Jane smiled. She wasn't sure if FoxTrot was a he or a she but FoxTrot was always talking about sex.
Jane sighed, a small smile tugging her lips.
Jane cringed. She had let a little more than she intended to slip one night after having more glasses of wine than she should have. She had reconciled it with the fact that she was in a private chat, had known FoxTrot for over a year and, though months had passed; nothing had come from the slip.
Jane signed off with a smile wondering, not for the first time, who FoxTrot really was and why it feel so good to talk to him/her?
You need a husband.
Jane ignored the voice of her mother. The last thing she needed was that. But maybe FoxTrot wasn't too wrong. She really could use a good 'bangin'. She giggled a little at the thought and then headed to bed. It had been one of those days and she was ready for it to be over.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ken stood staring out the window of his office, watching as the small town prepared for the 4th of July celebrations in six days. July 4th. That meant it had been nearly a month since Tommy’s disappearance. And nothing. No word on if he was alive. Or, if he really was with the FBI. Or-
Ken let the last thought go and tried to push aside the empty hollowness he felt, knowing that Tommy might not be around to celebrate one of his favorite holidays.
Looking down at the sidewalk, Ken noticed his brother walking toward Ken's building. As usual Alex had his hands tucked in his pockets and head down as if he were lost deep in thought. Ken wondered, not for the first time, how Alex managed to walk without bumping into things, people, or stepping out in front of a moving car. He shook his head at the last thought. Actually, Alex stepped out in front of moving cars quite a few times, usually to be pulled back by a friend, stranger or older brother.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth briefly. He really didn't know how Alex managed to cross a street without getting hurt. The thought led him to a question that frequently popped up in his mind. How had Alex managed to survive his trips to Afghanistan and other war torn countries when he never seemed to be paying attention to his surroundings? This question wiped the brief smile from Ken’s face.
What had his brother been doing in those countries in the first place? Alex would never give him a straight answer.
The knock at the door still startled him.
"Come in." He could hear the exhaustion in his voice as he turned to face the door. He had hoped that coming to work would give him the break he needed from the stress and worry of the last several weeks. But, so far, all he'd managed to do was stare out his office window.
Alex popped his head in. "Hey, big brother. Got a few?"
Ken watched Alex glance behind him into the lobby and then back again, his usual lopsided grin looking a bit forced.
Eyebrow raised, Ken motioned for his brother to c
ome in and take a seat. Alex closed the door and then locked it before turning back to Ken. "How about I check that intercom system of yours while I'm here. I remember you said you were having problems."
"I don't-"
Alex interrupted, looking at his brother, while raising a finger to his lips in a shushing motion. "It's no problem really," he said. "Let me just unplug it and I'll look at it while you tell me about what is going on with Karen."
Deciding he wasn't going to get an answer to his brother's strange behavior, he shrugged and then watched as Alex unplugged his phone and intercom system, before taking out a small cell phone sized device from his pocket. He then began slowly walking the office, waving the device over every surface.
Ken began to say something when Alex interjected with, "You said you had an update about Karen?"
Squelching his frustration, Ken quickly filled in Alex on Karen’s health. By the time he finished, Alex had completed his circuit – having waved the device over everything from the walls and windows to every piece of furniture in the office. He then took out a small black box and set it on Ken’s desk and then looked at his brother.
His patience at an end, Ken waved his arm around the office and then pointed at the black box on his desk. "Tell me what that was all about."
Alex gave him a half smile. "Maybe just me being a little paranoid. But not without a reason. I did the same at my apartment and office. Before I tell you though, I don't want you to get excited or hopeful in any way. It's not even confirmed yet but after what happened the last two days ago, I thought you needed to hear this."
