by Tara Oakes
~*~
This is the only way, I keep telling myself.
Raven is right. A man like Aleksei will never stop going after what he thinks was stolen from him. Or, the person that did the stealing.
“Make the call. It’ll be okay. I promise. I’m right here.” I hand Raven her cell phone. She takes it nervously and very slowly presses the buttons on the screen. There’s hesitation when it comes time to press the last number. After what looks to be some careful thought, she does it.
I’m not even the one making the phone call, yet I’m just as nervous as she must be. I don’t let her see it, though. I need to be strong for her.
Moving to stand behind her, I wrap my arms around her middle, bringing her back to rest against me like the pillar of strength she needs me to be for her right now. My ear is close enough to the receiver where I can hear some of the faint sounds.
One ring. Two.
“Marina,” a deep, gruff, voice answers matter of factly. I’ve never even met this person, yet I already hate him with every fiber of my being. Strangely, though, not for the evil things he’s done, but for the way he says her name.
Smugly, all knowing, as if he thinks he knows her better than anyone else, as if he thinks he has a claim on her.
I feel my jaw twitch at the thought. She doesn’t belong to him anymore. She’s not his. She’s mine. But not in the same capacity. I want her to belong to me in the same way I want to belong to her- because we both want it. Not because I want to own her, or use her like he did, like everyone has used her in her life.
The conversation is terse, short, and in Russian.
I can’t understand the words said, but as I hold her body close for support, I can feel the effect it has on her. She’s uneasy, tense, nervous, angry. All of those things rolled up into one bundle of nerves.
After a few quick exchanges, the call is ended with one final word. “Da.”
Yes, in Russian.
“It’s done,” Raven confirms as she ends the call and slides the phone back into her pocket.
She leans back against me. “I don’t know if this will work,” she’s doubtful.
I don’t blame her. The plan has a lot of loose ends, ones that can cause it to unravel at any moment… but we have no other choice.
~*~
The screen full of financial data sitting before me is like an old girlfriend, one that broke your heart and left you in pieces. One you’ve had the strength to stay away from for years knowing that she’s toxic for you, but have never been able to get out of your mind. She tortures you. Eventually, you give in and come back to see her one last time, hoping that by some small miracle you won’t feel the things you once did, that somehow you’ll be cured.
But, you’re not.
Every single feeling you once felt for her comes back ten fold, flooding your senses and overloading your circuits. That’s what it’s like sitting here analyzing the stock information for four of the world’s largest indexes.
This was my crack when I was younger. This is how I would get my high.
It almost took my freedom from me and I swore to myself that I would put it behind me just like you would with that toxic girlfriend. Here I am, though, coming right back to her, feeding into the addiction once more.
I told myself it was for a good reason, that I had an obligation to do this for Raven, for her parents, for world safety, but I knew I was only kidding myself. This was just the first opportunity that I could get back to this place while having someone else to credit for it.
It’s not my decision by choice, I tell myself, even though I know I’m full of shit.
“You sure you’ve still got it? Don’t you think they’ve updated security after all these years?” Raven asks, sitting next to me in front of the encrypted laptop in our rented-by-the-hour hotel room.
She’s not asking anything I haven’t thought to myself these last few minutes while breaking through the first line of protection to access the data. It’s been years since I’ve done this.
While practicing self-restraint to avoid doing this for the last decade or so, I know time didn’t stand still. I have no idea what new tricks have been added to the bag that I’ll have to find a way around.
“We’ll find out,” I mumble as my fingers do their own talking, striking key after key to get me further along and deeper into the depths of the system. Some things look familiar right off the bat. The accounts, with their transactional codes and entry logs are like welcome reminders of my youth, when I would access them at a whim and take whatever I wanted.
This time is a little different, though, as I have come here for a specific purpose and not just to take whatever suits my fancy. In the past, I took small sums, just skimming off the top slowly over time. I don’t have the luxury of that time now, though.
I need to move an incredible amount of cash around as quickly as possible without triggering the system’s auto-crash safety features. Whenever trading reaches a certain peak, there are built-in safeguards to slow down trading, staving off potential loses that could result in a world wide financial panic and massive sell off the like we haven’t seen since the stock market crashed, triggering the great depression back in the nineteen-thirty’s.
“How much do you think we need?” I ask Raven, as she knows Aleksei best. She knows the magnitude of his greed.
“At least a billion,” she answers immediately.
The number is high. He’s a greedy motherfucker, isn’t he?
“Let’s make it two,” I think aloud. “Just to be safe.”
She gasps. “That’s so much. You don’t think it’s going to go unnoticed?”
I laugh. “Nah. I’m swapping it out during currency exchanges. Every time a transaction is made between markets in different countries, they have to pay an exchange fee to convert the funds. I’m just changing the rate a little bit mid transaction and then splitting the difference with them. Not too much on one place either. I’ve got Yen, Dollars, Rupees, Pounds, Francs and Euros. No one will even know this happened until maybe the end of the quarter when accounting numbers are slightly off. It won’t be too much in one place, though, so it’ll just get chalked up to an error and the losses will be written off.”
Raven nods, pretending to understand the lingo. I’m not speaking her language anymore. She’s used to hacking of a certain sort, dealing with data, not numbers.
“Uhm, okay.” She rests her head against my shoulder while watching the indecipherable math on the screen. “How long?”
I hit one final key. “All done.”
“You just got us two billion dollars’ worth of currency in twenty minutes?” She asks in disbelief.
My shoulders shrug, and I can’t help but feel a little smug at my accomplishment. “Yup.”
~*~
Everything is set, everything is in place.
Thanks to Simon, I was able to set up an anonymous bank account to house the embezzled funds, along with spyware tracking when accessed. It’s not like I can use a real bank for them. Besides, I’ve got another agenda for wanting the fake account. One that I haven’t told anyone. Not Simon. Not Raven. Not Chris.
It’s my own little secret, and just knowing it gives me an extra layer of confidence that nothing else can at this moment.
Raven had called Chris Gibson, my old partner at the Bureau and the one friend I knew I could trust at a time like this. She reached out for his help just as I had instructed her to after the explosion yesterday.
I know his assistance won’t come without strings, but he’s someone I wouldn’t mind being indebted to. He’s a good guy. I’ve helped him out a time or two, and he’s done the same, although what I’ve asked of him this time goes far above and beyond any of the small time favors we’ve done for one another in the past.
I trust him, though. I know he’ll deliver. If by some small twist of fate he’s not able to, then I won’t even have a chance to know it. I’ll be dead.
“This is it,” the ca
bbie calls over his shoulder to the back seat where Raven and I are seated. “Want me to keep the fare going and wait for you?”
“Yes, please. We’ll be sending two other people out. This is for your trouble.” I hand him more than double what the fare rate on the meter reads. He’s driven us far out of the city, to a small house in the country. The place that Aleksei chose.
I nod to the grateful man as I follow Raven to exit the small car. The man behind the wheel waves us off as we walk away, but leaves the car to idle.
This is it. I reach for Raven’s hand. I don’t say anything. Instead, I just lead us toward the quaint little home with its charming windows and door. There’s a plain black sedan in the driveway, but, other than that, there’s no sign that anyone’s home.
“Remember. Let me do the talking. Don’t let him egg you on. He’ll most definitely try.” I put myself in Aleksei’s shoes and imagine the things I’d like to say when coming face to face with the person who I would feel has betrayed me and left me for dead.
I don’t bother to knock. He knows we’re coming, and he most definitely already knows we’re here. This place doesn’t look like it gets much traffic. The cab must have been noticed pulling up.
Even though the outside looks well kept, once we cross the threshold, there is a different feel. This place hasn’t been used in a long time, with dust covering most surfaces and even floating in the air.
The groundskeepers must strictly maintain the outside.
The daylight is starting to dwindle, with lamps turned on to help fill the house with light.
Once the front door is shut behind us, I lead us cautiously back through the main room. Raven squeezes my hand.
The living area opens up to a large kitchen. I can see the corner of the wooden far table as we approach. I also see the tip of a shoe under it.
“Pappa!” Raven gasps as soon as we turn the corner to enter fully into the room.
I hold her back just as a tall, dark haired man with sharp features does the same for the sitting man responding to Raven’s call.
Surprisingly, there’s only the one man standing between his two prisoners, each bound to a separate wooden chair, flanking him on either side.
Raven’s pushing against me, but I manage to hold her back. “Wait,” I hiss.
“Well, well, Marina. Taking orders from someone else, now?” Aleksei’s voice is cold and sharp, perfectly matching the slick exterior of combed back hair and neatly pressed suit.
“I never took orders from you, Aleks!” Raven spits.
He laughs. “Didn’t you, though? I seem to remember plenty of orders that you took all too willingly. Especially when I would tell you to get on your knees in front of me and—”
“That’s enough!” I cut him off. The sick, sadistic pig.
Aleksei turns his attention from Raven to me for the first time and we size each other up, just as any two alpha males in nature would do.
He straightens his shoulders and presses out his chest trying to gain some size to compete. I don’t even bother. I’ve got this little weasel by at least thirty pounds of pure muscle, but I’ve also got him by something else. I’ve got enough pure hatred for him to fuel any kind of attack I choose to launch.
I have the advantage over him in that sense. He doesn’t even know me yet, but I know enough about him to want to see him hurt.
“I guess I’ll be negotiating with you, then, hmm? Tell me, I do hope she’s at least making this all worth your while, my friend. Getting mixed up with this woman usually ends up in someone dying.” He makes the very first reference to having been left for dead.
I knew he would do it at some point, just to see how it affects Raven. It’s working. I can feel her body stiffen next to me.
“Well, let’s all hope it ends differently this time, shall we? I believe we have a transaction to make,” I get us right back on track.
His bright, snake like eyes flicker at the sound of business. No matter how much he wants to hurt Raven, his true colors are beginning to show, because there’s one thing he wants more than to inflict pain on her- he wants his data.
“I have what you want,” I inform him, brazenly placing my laptop case down on the table and moving to take the empty seat across from Raven’s father. “I have the data. Encrypted, of course.”
“Of course,” Aleksei nods condescendingly. “I wouldn’t expect anything else. Now, how are we going to do this?”
I only have a certain amount of cards to play with here, and I need to make sure I lay them out very carefully. “We’ll do this in batches. I’ll send you the first batch, encrypted. You let Raven’s mother go. I have a cab waiting outside. Once she’s safely inside, I’ll send you the code to break the encryption. Then, we’ll do another exchange for Raven’s father. Once the cab leaves, I’ll send you that code. Deal?”
Aleksei thinks on it, using his hand to push back the side of his suit jacket, revealing the handgun holstered at his hip. “Fine. But Raven stays.”
I never imagined he’d give her up easily, anyway.
With the terms of the exchange clearly laid out, we begin.
I open my laptop as does Aleksei with his, each facing the other. I have no guarantee that he’ll honor his side of the agreement, but, then again, neither does he. That’s what makes negotiations like this one so delicate.
“Done,” I say once I send the first batch.
Aleksei types on his screen. I see his eyes widen as they must be setting on the newly sent file. “Martin!” he calls over his shoulder.
A similarly dressed man enters the room from outside the kitchen. “Please escort our guest to the waiting taxi cab outside. Make sure she doesn’t wander off anywhere else.”
Martin, who must be one of Aleksei’s henchmen, does as he’s told, lifting Raven’s mother from her seat but fails to untie the wrists behind her back. Another gun reveals itself, this time held by Martin and pointed at his prisoner’s back, urging her forward.
The woman is gagged and can’t speak, but stands stoically, nodding to me, thanking me. She’s been in this business a long time. I can tell she’s not going to show an ounce of emotion that could be used against him by Aleksei. I never doubted that Raven’s mother must be just as strong as her daughter.
Raven’s eyes follow her mother out of the room. We’re not in the clear yet, but we’re getting there.
Five minutes later, I send Raven to the window to verify that her mother is safely inside the cab. She returns, nodding and visibly relieved.
Ok, then. I send the encryption code to Aleksei’s laptop and we wait in silence until he retrieves it, opens it and applies it.
“Very good!” He exclaims, excited to have at least some of his precious secrets in his possession.
Not that there’s ever any trust between people in this situation, but there is something similar. Proof. I’ve proved to him that I’m capable of following through, and he’s proved to me that he is, too.
The next transaction is completed just as smoothly. With both of Raven’s parents in the cab, the second henchman gives the driver, who must be scared shitless by this point, the all clear to leave.
We can actually hear the tires screeching from inside the house. The cabbies couldn’t get away fast enough.
When the final encryption is sent we all stare at each other, knowing that the most delicate negotiation is about to take place.
“It seems that you have nothing else to offer me, yet still have things I want.” Aleksei sets his eyes on Raven, letting them wander down very conspicuously, intent on making both her and me uncomfortable.
“Actually, I do have something else to offer you.” It’s time to lay my last cards on the table and hope it’s enough.
That caught his attention. “Oh? And what would that be?”
Here goes.
“My name is Agent Beau Prewitt. I’m with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and I have been given authority to set up a deal,” I reveal my identity.
His curiosity is piqued. “What kind of a deal?”
“A sale. You have secrets to sell. Secrets that could lead to instability in certain regions. My government has a vested interest in making sure that doesn’t happen.” This is all true so far.
“Go on,” he wants more.
“I have arranged a sale. You have information to sell. I have someone interested in buying it. Consider me a middle man of sorts, expediting your transaction.” I hit the keys of my laptop to send the proof.
Aleksei does his best not to react, but I can still read him well enough to see how excited the newly sent file is making him.
“You’re more than welcome to check on the authenticity of those emails.” I offer, knowing full well that Chris was able to prepare them and send them from the home office in Virginia, where he’s been stationed. He was even able to get very legitimate signatures on them.
“One billion dollars? Today? Sent wirelessly?” He asks for verbal confirmation of what he’s reading.
I nod. “Yes. A secure account has already been set up that we can link into right now if you’d like. Once the funds have been wired, I can reset another encryption on the files so it will never be able to be opened again. Just in case you had any inclination to try and sell them again.”
My adversary tightens his already thin lips at the insinuation that he would try and do such a thing. He’s not saving any face. He and I both know he’d be out shopping those secrets around the very first chance he got.
“Think of it,” I give a sales pitch. “Easy. Done. No risk. Time is money.”
For a split second I regret not offering him more money, but I know I couldn’t. I need that second billion for something else.
“Deal. One billion in my choice of currency,” he lays out his terms of acceptance.
I nod. “Of course.”
This transaction is a little harder to conduct than the last. It requires both of us to enter banking information and verifications. But, it’s done easily enough.
“You’re a very wealthy man now. I hope you’ll choose a different career path now that you no longer have to worry about financial security,” I offer unsolicited advice. “Now that our business here is complete, we’ll be leaving.”
