The Cipher

by Maldonado, Isabella

  FBI: A MINNESOTA VIKINGS POSTER. ON THE WALL INSIDE THE SHED.

  CIPHER: VERY GOOD, WARRIOR GIRL. I WILL GRANT U A QUESTION.

  “Grant you?” Kent’s lip curled. “The Almighty has deigned to give us an audience. Textbook god complex.” He leaned closer to Nina. “Ask him an open-ended question. A ‘why’ question.”

  FBI: WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?

  CIPHER: U TELL ME.

  “He wants to see what we think of him,” Kent said. “He has to assume we’re analyzing everything he says. Flatter his intellect. Draw it out of him.”

  FBI: I CAN’T UNDERSTAND YOU. WILL YOU EXPLAIN IT TO ME?

  CIPHER: I’M DISAPPOINTED.

  Breck stood, calling out to them over her monitor. “Keep that fish on the hook.” Her head disappeared as she sat back down again.

  “Talk about his exploits,” Wade said. “He’s never had a chance to brag to anyone. Give him an opportunity.”

  Nina realized she would have to dig deeper. She had fooled herself into believing she could interact on a surface level, but that wouldn’t work. The Cipher demanded his pound of flesh for access to his thoughts. She changed tactics, going with her gut.

  FBI: YOU LIKE TO WATCH SUFFERING.

  CIPHER: WRONG. TRY AGAIN.

  “You haven’t lost him,” Kent said. “But another assessment he considers way off base could end the communication.”

  She turned to Wade. “Give me something.”

  Wade glanced over at the wall charts. “The victims he’s chosen have all been at-risk youth. Girls who—”

  “Girls who nobody wanted.” She finished the thought and bent over the keyboard.

  FBI: YOU TAKE WHAT OTHERS DON’T WANT.

  CIPHER: LIKE U.

  Direct hit. She tamped down any sign of reaction, keeping her eyes trained on the screen, and felt Kent’s warm hand on her forearm.

  “You’re doing great,” he said quietly. “Remember his mind is warped. He’s a sick sonofabitch.”

  She forced a smile. “I’ve got this, thanks.”

  FBI: HOW DO YOU KNOW?

  CIPHER: I SEE ALL.

  “Interesting turn of phrase,” Kent said. “He could be referring to his precrime planning.”

  “See if you can get him to talk about his process,” Wade said. “How he targets his victims.”

  FBI: SO YOU WATCH FIRST?

  CIPHER: I AM ALWAYS WATCHING.

  “Stalking behavior,” Wade muttered, scribbling furiously on his notepad. “Victim selection is important to him. Part of the game, in his mind.”

  “Go deeper,” Kent said. “More about his methodology.”

  FBI: HOW DO YOU CHOOSE?

  CIPHER: THEY MUST BE PUNISHED.

  Sensing this phrasing was important, she stopped. Sure enough, Kent and Wade began debating potential underlying meanings of the phrase.

  Kent studied the screen as if literally and figuratively reading between the lines. “His language distances himself a bit. He doesn’t say ‘I punish them,’ but ‘they must be punished.’ He is either uncomfortable with what he does or he feels separate and above it all.”

  “It’s the latter,” Wade said decisively. “Like a god condemning sinners, those who are unworthy.”

  A thought occurred to her. “A god also sees all.” She pointed at the previous messages. “And punishes.”

  “Go with that,” Wade said, “but make it personal to you.”

  FBI: WHAT ABOUT ME? WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE PUNISHMENT?

  CIPHER: U WERE A SPECIAL CASE.

  “We have to know how he singled you out,” Kent said. “That, more than anything else, can point us toward his identity.”

  FBI: HOW SO?

  CIPHER: MY TURN TO ASK A QUESTION.

  She waited through a brief pause, then a new message appeared.

  CIPHER: R U FUCKING ANYONE?

  “Redirection,” Wade said. “We got too close.”

  Kent’s cool tone ratcheted up a notch. “He’s switched to obscenities, trying to shock you. His next communication will be a highly personal attack.”

  She had no intention of playing his mind games.

  FBI: NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS.

  CIPHER: I’LL TAKE THAT AS A NO. IS IT BECAUSE OF ME?

  “He feels possessive of you,” Wade said. “He wants to be the only man you think about.”

  “I agree,” Kent said. “He’s jealous.”

  The thought made her ill. “I won’t talk to him about my sex life.” She stopped herself before adding or lack thereof.

  Wade and Kent were throwing out suggestions about how to get the conversation back on track when another message popped up on the screen.

  CIPHER: UR TAKING A LONG TIME 2 RESPOND, WARRIOR GIRL. HAVE I UPSET U, OR IS THAT WASHED UP MIND HUNTER UR WORKING W/ TRYING TO COME UP W/ A RESPONSE?

  Wade reddened. “He’s seen me on the news and must have googled my name.”

  It wouldn’t have taken much searching for Dr. Jeffrey Wade’s background to come up. He had been well known even before the extensive media coverage of the Chandra Brown case.

  “We can use this,” Kent said.

  Breck’s hand appeared above her screen making a twirling motion, encouraging them to continue. Nina typed in something to keep the exchange going.

  FBI: I SPEAK FOR MYSELF.

  CIPHER: HOW MANY OTHERS R IN THE ROOM W/ U RIGHT NOW, NINA? I WANT U ALONE.

  “Now he’s using your first name,” Kent said. “Getting intimate. Go with it.”

  She had an idea about what to say next. It would probably make everyone around her, especially Wade, furious. But it might save a girl’s life.

  FBI: THEN COME AND GET ME.

  Kent swore.

  Wade’s jaw tightened. “What the hell are you doing, Guerrera?”

  CIPHER: I WILL, WARRIOR GIRL, BUT AT A TIME & PLACE OF MY CHOOSING.

  She ignored the two men barking instructions into her ears and sent back a quick reply.

  FBI: NOW IS GOOD.

  CIPHER: FEELING BRAVE, LITTLE ONE? I’LL HAVE U BEGGING LIKE U DID BEFORE. DO UR FBI FRIENDS KNOW HOW MUCH U CRIED & PLEADED & SCREAMED? THEY WILL SEE THE REAL U SOON.

  Wade had gone silent. Nina had the feeling he wasn’t only analyzing the Cipher’s responses but hers as well. She deliberately turned away from him to address Kent. “What’s he talking about?”

  “His language is indicative of manipulation,” Kent said. “He wants you back in the state of fear where he put you before. In his mind, that connects you to him. It allows him to exert control over you without even touching you. He doesn’t have to be anywhere near you to make you think about him, which is essential to him because he thinks about you all the time.”

  Nina gave him a humorless smile before turning back to the screen.

  FBI: FINE, LEAVE THE OTHERS ALONE. THIS IS BETWEEN US.

  CIPHER: IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN. IT STARTS AND ENDS W/ U, NINA.

  FBI: THEN LET’S END IT NOW. JUST THE TWO OF US. NOBODY ELSE NEEDS TO GET HURT.

  Everyone stopped talking. She knew scores of monitors were following their exchange throughout the building. Buxton’s included.

  CIPHER: GOODBYE, WARRIOR GIRL . . . FOR NOW.

  He made no more responses to any of her comments.

  Buxton had come out of his office. He made a beeline for Breck’s workstation. “Did you locate him?”

  She shook her head, eyes lowered. “He’s bouncing through so many servers . . . I haven’t seen anything like it outside of terrorist cell communications, and even most of them don’t have that many redundancies. This guy has a tech background, or he’s done a ton of research.”

  “You’re still prepared to stop him?” Buxton asked.

  Breck’s head lifted, her delicate features set in determined lines. “It’ll take a few minutes, but yes. We’ve already gotten agreements from most social media platforms. They’ll shut his profiles down at our request since he’s using them to publicize his murders.
We’ve told them to hold off for investigative reasons, but I can ask them to pull the plug anytime you want.”

  “Let’s keep that option open for the time being,” Buxton said. “Right now, it’s our only way to communicate with him directly.” He rounded on Nina. “Speaking of which, what the hell was that?”

  His conversation with Breck had bought her time to come up with a way to mitigate the damage. She gave him the most honest answer she could. “My attempt to keep him from killing another girl in the next twenty-four hours.”

  The reminder of their timetable and what was at stake dulled the sharp edge of his tone. “You were supposed to follow the coaching, Agent Guerrera.”

  Kent cleared his throat. “The Cipher’s responses did provide new insight, sir.”

  She threw him a grateful look, but the reproach in Kent’s expression told her he wasn’t pleased with her tactics any more than their boss had been.

  Buxton glanced at Kent. “What did you come up with?”

  “I’ll review a copy of the exchange again and look for any matches in our database for some of his more distinctive speech patterns. For now, I can tell you he’s highly intelligent, educated, and idiosyncratic with his language. He may have some OCD tendencies in his professional or personal life. He’s highly structured and methodical.” He paused. “And he’s got one hell of a god complex.”

  “I’d like your full analysis as soon as possible.” Buxton switched his attention to Wade. “Your thoughts?”

  “If Guerrera was trying to get him to drop his other plans and come after her, it didn’t work,” Wade said. “She’s challenged his masculinity, which I believe is fragile to the extreme. He’ll feel the need to seek retribution.” He flicked a glance her way. “I predict he’ll move up his deadline from his last message. He’ll take out another victim and publicly taunt us. He may repeat his crime a few more times just to prove he can. Then he’ll target Guerrera as the finale in whatever plan he has in mind.”

  “What about the Vikings poster?” Buxton asked. “I’m looking for anything that can point us to this unsub’s identity.”

  “Could mean a lot of things,” Wade said. “Might be from Minnesota, could be a pro-football fan, or maybe he thinks he’s Erik the Red reincarnated.” He blew out a sigh. “Not enough data to be sure.”

  Thoughts of the poster brought the shed back to her mind. “He was fascinated by the scars on my back,” she said. “He added his own marks on top of them. Then he gave the other two girls matching burns. All in the shape of a triangle.” She glanced at Wade, desperate for an answer to the question she had carried with her in silence for eleven years. “Why?”

  Wade grimaced. “In a very literal sense, he was branding you, marking you as his property. He covered another man’s stamp of possession with his own.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “As for the other victims, he’s either made that his signature now or he wanted to make them surrogates for you.”

  “He bestowed his mark on you,” Kent corrected. “Like when he said he would grant you a question. These are characteristic word choices that may help us identify him when we develop a pool of suspects.”

  She considered Kent’s observations about how the Cipher phrased things. “What about his comment that it began and will end with me? Does that mean I was his first?”

  Wade answered without hesitation. “He may have had ideations for years before that, but I’m fairly certain you were the first one he acted out on. We need to figure out what it was about you that sparked him to take it from fantasy to reality.” He paused, stroking his jaw. “He’s now also removed all doubt that he knew you from somewhere before he abducted you. He admitted he’d been watching you.”

  “I agree,” Kent said. “All signs point to an ongoing obsession that has strengthened since he found you again.”

  She imagined the Cipher seeing her for the first time in years when he watched the viral video of the Warrior Girl taking down a would-be rapist in the park. Had he gotten angry? Excited? Jealous? Did he think she was “asking for it” by jogging alone in a wooded park?

  “Based on what we know about his victims, he preys on teenage girls with an unstable home life who are on their own,” she said, taking a stab at profiling. “Girls who should be punished.”

  “He’s making judgments.” Kent’s blond brows drew together. “Rendering verdicts and carrying out sentences.”

  “Like a judge,” Wade said. “Or a wrathful god.”

  Breck had strolled over from her workstation to join them. “Do you think he’s some sort of religious nut?”

  “Maybe,” Wade said, appearing to turn the idea over in his mind. “But not in any kind of traditional sense. He doesn’t indicate he’s doing his lord’s bidding. This guy doesn’t answer to a higher power. In his mind, he is the higher power.”

  “It goes back to his behavior,” Kent said. “Everything he does is freighted with meaning. He chose the girl in DC so we would be sure to make the connection with Guerrera. He wanted her pulled into the case, so he orchestrated the scene to make that happen.”

  “He gave up something of great value in order to execute his plan.” Wade gestured to Nina. “He left her necklace behind, a prize he has kept for more than a decade.”

  “A trophy,” she said.

  Wade gave her a curt nod. “He would never relinquish such a cherished item unless he still possesses something of greater significance, or he plans to replace it with something else of even higher value.”

  Her mouth went dry. The Cipher wanted her at his mercy again. He had made that abundantly clear. She had not considered that his willingness to give up his trophy demonstrated how confident he was that he would succeed.

  “Me.” Nina offered the only logical conclusion. “He plans to replace it with me.”

  Chapter 17

  Hermosa Vista Apartments

  Springfield, Virginia

  Nina trudged up the last flight of stairs to find Bianca sitting on the top step, chewing her nails. “What’s wrong, Bee?”

  “Saw that YouTube video,” Bianca said. “We’ve decided to take it on.”

  She sighed. “Who is ‘we’ and what are ‘we’ taking on?”

  “Me and my GWU team,” Bianca said. “We’re going to solve the Cipher’s clue.”

  She should have anticipated this. The Cipher wasn’t just tormenting her—he was doing the same to everyone he sucked into his deadly game. Now her young neighbor felt the need to take action.

  “Thanks,” Nina said, offering her a weary smile, “but we’ve got this.”

  Bianca looked less than impressed. “Whatever your feeb dweebs are doing, we can do better.”

  This was not the first time Nina had heard Bianca’s disdain of all things she perceived to be bureaucratic and governmental.

  “I’m asking you to stay out of this, Bee.” She twisted her key in the doorknob, then unlocked the double dead bolt. Stepping over the threshold, she deactivated the alarm before passing through the tiny foyer inside. She went straight for the refrigerator, pulled out two bottles of chilled water, and handed one to Bianca. “I don’t want you to take any time away from your studies.”

  “I can multitask, no problem. Besides, this is important.”

  “Which is why the FBI is dedicating a tremendous amount of resources to the problem. You may be awesome with computers, but our team of computer forensic and cyber specialists aren’t ‘feeb dweebs.’ Let them do their jobs.”

  Bianca showed every sign of launching into a debate, but the door chime cut her off before she could start.

  Nina padded to the foyer and peered through the peephole. She let out a groan before opening the door to Jaime, the building superintendent.

  “Hola, bonita,” Jaime said by way of greeting.

  She’d been fending off the super’s advances since she’d moved in, but Jaime hadn’t gotten the message. Probably never would.

  “What’s up?”

  “Need t
o check the seals on your windows. I got a bunch of complaints from tenants about their electric bills. I might need to recaulk the whole building, but I got to show the landlord that at least half the casings are leaking air.”

  She had to give him credit. His pretexts were getting more creative. At least she wasn’t alone this time. She stood aside. “Come in.”

  He sidled past her, shoulders slumping when he spotted Bianca, who gave him a finger wave.

  “Come to repair the O-ring on the stove?” Bianca said. “Or is it the flux capacitor this time?”

  Nina stifled a laugh while Jaime flushed a deep crimson. He looked like he wanted to argue, then thought better of it and ignored the barb, turning to Nina.

  “I been watching the news, bonita,” he said. “They’re saying this Cipher guy killed that one girl in Georgetown because she looked like you.”

  She had no desire to start a discussion about the case with him. “That’s the theory.”

  “I could stay here while you’re gone if you have to leave town again,” he said. “Keep an eye on the place.”

  Bianca snorted. “And sniff all her undies.”

  He rounded on her. “That is so wrong, mi’jita. You got a dirty mind for a young girl. I think you spend too much time on the internet.”

  Nina gave him a firm response. “Thanks for the offer, but no.”

  Jaime wasn’t ready to give up. He stepped closer to Nina. “I know you got a gun and stuff, but that guy could sneak in here while you’re away and hide. Then when you come back, he—”

  “I can take care of myself just fine.”

  Bianca put a hand on her hip. “If he comes in here, she’ll kick his ass.”

  “What if he surprises you?” Jaime suddenly darted behind Nina and wrapped his arms around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides. “Like this.”

  Instinctively, she snapped her neck back, headbutting him in the chin before spinning out of his grasp.

  “Damn.” Jaime rubbed his jaw.