Haley nodded. “A pleasure.”
“Why did you find me, Haley?” Miguel asked. “You should know that I value my privacy.”
“I need your help,” she said.
“So you told Eric,” Miguel said. “I heard you’re a hacker?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll have to forgive me, but I’m not really sure how that helps me.”
“I can help you get into the twenty-first century,” Haley said. “Right now, you’re bound by the limits of where your people can physically be. But with my help, you can expand your operations. Operate on turf that for years has been off-limits because of other gangs. Now you could be anywhere.”
“I’m quite content with my current sphere of influence,” he said. “It keeps us humble, and more importantly, out of the police’s crosshairs.”
“But they don’t even need to know that you’re expanding,” Haley said. “I can show you how to hide your identities, locations—even protect your customers.”
“And how would you accomplish all of that?”
“There are a lot of technical terms that, no offense, would probably go over your head, but trust me that it works.”
Miguel’s eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward. Haley leaned back unconsciously.
“I have extended every courtesy to you so far, Ms. Haley,” he said in a low voice. “Saying no offense does not make your insult less offensive.”
“I just meant that . . .”
Miguel raised his arm and placed it on the table so Haley could get a good look at his tattoo.
It was a falcon with an M16 in its talons, eating a snake on a red shield with a gold anchor. A banner above the shield said, “Semper Fi.”
“I may not get all the details,” he said. “But I served enough tours to know that the only technology I really trust is the kind with a trigger.”
Haley pulled her eyes away from the tattoo and back up to the man’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to be patronizing.”
He grabbed the bottle and poured another round of tequila. His warm demeanor was now cold and stiff.
“How does it work.”
“There are several sites where you can distribute your products,” Haley said. “They use encryption, obfuscation, and many similar techniques to make sure that your identity is protected. Your traffic would be proxied through a country that doesn’t have an extradition agreement with the US, so even if you get caught, they can’t find you.”
Miguel looked at Eric.
“She was right, most of that did go over my head.”
Eric laughed.
“You should be nicer to the pretty lady next time,” he said.
“I gave her the good stuff,” Miguel said defensively. Then he turned back to Haley, his look now thoughtful.
“And what do you want in exchange for this help?” he asked. “A cut of the profits?”
“I want you to destroy the Volkags.”
Miguel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Eric nearly choked as he took another sip of tequila.
“That’s . . . ambitious.”
“I know, but I don’t have anyone else to help me.”
“What makes you think we can even do that?”
“I know where their safe houses are, when their shipments will be delivered, and how to take all their systems offline,” she said. “And I’ll give it all to you.”
“Why?”
“I want them dead.”
“I got that,” Miguel said. “Why?”
Haley bit her lip.
“The why is more important than the what,” Miguel said quietly. “One of the most important lessons my first sergeant taught us.”
“They kidnapped my son a few months back,” Haley said. “I got him back, but now they’re coming after us. I can’t get away unless they’re dead.”
Miguel crossed his arms and leaned back. His eyes grew unfocused, and he rocked back and forth gently.
“Family is a powerful motivator . . .” Miguel said.
They sat in silence for nearly a minute, the announcer’s voice from the TV the only sound filling the house.
“I’m sorry,” Miguel finally said. He looked back at Haley. “We can’t help.”
Haley felt her whole body sag.
“Why not?”
“The Volkags are too strong,” Miguel said.
“They’re not,” Haley protested. “They’ve lost their most senior leaders; we crippled their online systems. They’ve never been weaker.”
“Didn’t one of those leaders just escape from prison?” Eric said.
“Well, yes,” Haley admitted.
“So they still have enough resources to pull off a jailbreak.”
“The cops will get him back quickly enough,” Haley said.
“Go to the cops then,” Miguel said.
“I . . .” Haley started. “I can’t. Please . . .”
He shook his head.
“We can’t help you.”
He reached across the table and put a hand on Haley’s shoulder.
“I can help protect you,” he said. “But I’m not going to war for you.”
“What about for me?”
Haley looked up. The teen, Josef, was standing in the doorway by the kitchen.
“What did you say?” Miguel said.
“Would you go to war for me?” he repeated. “For my papa?”
“Your dad doesn’t have anything to do with this,” Eric said.
“We were raiding a Volkag shipment,” Josef said. “If she knows their shipping schedules, she probably knows who set us up.”
“Your father was killed because he got sloppy,” Miguel said.
“No, he didn’t,” Josef insisted. “They knew we were comping. They waited until we were in US waters.”
Eric rolled his eyes.
“Not this again,” he said.
“They had the Coast Guard do their dirty work,” Josef said. “If she has the information she says, we can actually hit back at them. Hell, we can have the cops do it.”
Miguel sighed.
“And what do you think your father would say if he were here?”
“To hit back,” Josef said. “We can’t let them think we’re afraid.”
Miguel shook his head.
“He’d advise caution,” he said. “That we’d need to think strategically.”
“What about this isn’t strategic?” Josef snapped. “She can give us everything we need. They don’t know we’re coming. If we hit them while they’re down, we could wipe out the competition for years to come.”
“And become the biggest guy in the yard,” Miguel said. “Luis knew the value of keeping a low profile.”
“And of not backing down,” Josef said. “You always say deal with a problem while it’s small. The Volkags will never be smaller.”
Miguel looked at Josef, his eyes growing unfocused again. Then he shook his head and glanced back at Haley.
“My nephew has a habit of throwing my words back at me,” he said. “It’s quite annoying. But he also may have a point.”
He shook his head again, but this time a smile tugged at his lips.
“Let’s at least hear what you have in mind.”
Chapter Sixteen
Imp4l3r resolved in a cloud of ones and zeros, like a transporter from a spaceship. He landed lightly on the floor, his robes swishing softly in the subtle breeze. He rested one hand on the pommel of the curved sword hooked to his belt and adjusted the feathered cap with the other.
Around him, people were drinking and mingling in the dimly lit nightclub. There were cages suspended above the floor where pretty girls writhed to the beat of the music. At the front, a DJ blasted the electronic tunes across the room, so loud it hurt his ears.
Gil appeared a moment later in a dark red tuxedo with a black tie and a white opera mask.
“Phant0m?” Impaler asked. He had to shout to be heard. “Bit on the nose, i
sn’t it?”
“Says the man calling himself ‘Impaler.’”
Impaler nodded, and together they started toward a booth at the back of the room.
He led Phantom past the stage and pulled aside a red velvet curtain with the wolf’s head embroidered in silver thread.
Two figures sat in the curved booth behind the curtain. The one directly opposite from the entrance wore a tailored navy suit with a white button-down. With one hand, he lifted a glass to his lips.
Or rather, to his jaws.
From the neck up, the man was a white wolf. His ears were up and alert, and his red eyes glowed with an otherworldly light that held Vlad’s gaze every time they met.
The booth’s other occupant was a young girl, maybe eight or nine years old. She had a yellow sundress on and giggled as she took a sip of the cherry-red drink in front of her. On the seat next to her sat a tan teddy bear, cuddled up to her hip.
“Ah, Vlad, good of you to join,” the wolfman said.
“My apologies for the delay, sir,” Impaler said.
“I’m sure.” The wolf turned to the girl. “This is the person I was telling you about. She has some exciting services to offer.”
The girl giggled again.
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said. “But another Shirley Temple might. And hi, Phantom!”
The wolf waved a hand, and another glass appeared.
Phantom bowed in greeting.
“Good to see you again, Miss Lucy,” he said.
“You two know each other?” Impaler asked.
“He used to work for me,” Lucy replied, then her smile disappeared. “Then he got careless and got caught.”
“It wasn’t—”
“What is it that you think you can do for us?” Impaler interrupted.
Lucy turned her attention back to him, and her smile returned.
“A little birdy told me that you recently got into a bit of a spat with a former colleague of mine,” the girl said. “B0nn13?”
Impaler’s eyes narrowed.
“You know how to find her?”
“Not yet,” she said. “But I can tell you how to make her life much more difficult.”
“How?”
“By hiring me,” she said with another giggle. Her pigtails bounced as she bent forward to take another sip.
“Sounds like a bogus sales pitch if I’ve ever heard one,” Phantom muttered.
The girl bolted upright and glared at Phantom. Her eyes grew brighter until the blue was nearly white, then twin bolts of lightning shot out from her irises.
They caught Phantom in the chest. There was a great crack and another flash of light, and when Impaler blinked, all that was left of Phantom was a purple shadow burned into his vision.
“Lucy, behave,” the wolf said.
“What?” She asked, batting her eyes, now back to the icy-blue color, at him. “He’ll be back online in a few minutes.”
“I think that proves that she’s too immature to be reliable,” Impaler said. “On the other hand, the associate she just blasted into oblivion was able to help me escape and get a lead on Ramos. If we’re going to bring someone into the fold, I think it should be him.”
“Oh, don’t be such a fuddy-duddy,” the girl said. “He isn’t the high caliber hacker you need. And besides, I’ve already proved myself.”
“By vaping my resource?” Impaler snapped.
The girl sat up straight, and for a moment, Impaler thought her eyes were about to start glowing again.
Instead, they became unfocused, and she twisted her head to the left, and his own voice came out of her mouth.
“Who is this?”
The girl’s head swung right.
“You’re about to be raided. Two SWAT teams were deployed to a warehouse two piers down.”
It was the robotic voice that he’d talked to right before the warehouse attack. Lucy flipped her head back to the left.
“Who is this?”
“Tick Tock.”
The girl’s head relaxed, and her eyes refocused on Impaler.
“See?”
“She makes a convincing argument,” the wolf said. “Without her, we would have lost our entire investment even sooner than you did.”
“It wasn’t my fault—”
“Vlad, we’ve been over this.”
The wolf’s tone wasn’t angry it was calm, like a parent disciplining a child.
“I don’t care if it was your fault or not. The fact of the matter is that you lost not only the girls but also caused our entire Eastern seaboard operation to go to ground. The only reason you’re still alive is that you had the presence of mind to destroy all hard drives that had information about Petrushka.”
Impaler swallowed. He’d known he had to destroy the data, but it hadn’t been an intentional effort to protect the operation.
“I understand, sir,” Impaler said.
The wolf nodded.
“Lucy can also help us with a few other problems,” the wolf said. “I want to be clear, in that I expect her directions to be carried out without question. She is not the one on thin ice.”
Impaler looked at the little girl, sipping her Shirley Temple and grinning at him.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll let you keep your pet hacker as long as he doesn’t cause too much trouble.”
“That’s very, gracious, of you.”
“Excellent to see you two getting along,” the wolf said. “Now that we understand each other, I have business to attend to. Lucy, please make yourself at home.”
He clapped twice and disappeared.
Impaler stared the suddenly empty seat, forcing his lips into a thin line instead of the frown that they wanted to form.
The two stared at each other a minute before there was a commotion from outside the curtain. Phantom bustled through, his maroon tuxedo now black.
“That little bitch,” he spat.
“Oooh, someone used a bad word,” Lucy said. “Naughty naughty.”
“I swear, I’m going to—”
He started across the room, but Impaler grabbed his arm.
“Phantom, relax,” Impaler said.
“But she—”
“I don’t care,” he said. “The boss said she’s calling the shots for now.”
Phantom’s jaw dropped several inches, and he looked from Impaler to Lucy.
“Her?”
Lucy giggled and clapped. “Yes, me!”
Phantom shook his head in disbelief.
“This is not what I signed up for,” he said. “I’m out.”
Phantom held up a forearm, and a red logout button appeared.
“No, you’re not,” Vlad growled.
Phantom’s hand froze just above the button.
“What are you going to do?”
“You know too much,” Impaler said quietly. “Do you think I’m willing to risk another leak at this particular time in my career?”
Phantom’s jaw dropped a second time.
“I helped you get out,” he finally said. “You’d still be locked up if not for me.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But if you stay, I don’t have to find you and kill you. And you’ll make a hell of a lot more money working for me than against me.”
“I thought she’s calling the shots now?” Phantom sneered.
“She is for now,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean she always will. And I have a long memory.”
Phantom scowled at Impaler, but he let his forearm drop.
“You screw me,” Phantom said. “And she’ll be the least of your problems.”
“Are you boys done with your staring contest?” Lucy said from the table. “I have some things I need you to do.”
Chapter Seventeen
The space station was crowded with astronauts in suits with blinking and glowing panels on the front, a few odd wizards, and characters from nearly every science fiction movie produced in the
last forty years.
Bonnie had traded her own sequin dress in for more utilitarian green fatigues and combat boots, though Rogue was still rocking her bright-orange flight suit. They strolled through the station, taking in the black expanse that dominated the glass dome above their heads. They could see spaceships zipping past, the engines glowing in a mix of reds, blues, and yellows, while larger capital ships were docked farther out, with smaller vessels queued up to deliver supplies and people like a row of glowing ants returning to the colony.
“How much did you actually promise them?” Rogue asked.
“Enough to get them interested,” Bonnie replied. “I hope.”
“How much longer do we have?”
Bonnie looked down at her forearm where she’d strapped a holographic Omni-tool.
“Twenty minutes.”
“That enough time?”
“He’ll come through,” Bonnie said with more confidence than she really felt. “How are you doing?”
Rogue’s eyes fluttered for a moment but then refocused on Haley.
“Thirty-two percent of the recipients opened the emails,” she said. “And twelve percent of those opened the attachment. If the numbers hold, we should have about four hundred systems by the end of the day.”
“More than I was expecting,” Bonnie said. “Nice work.”
Rogue smiled.
“I manage to tie my own shoes every once in a while.”
Bonnie pushed her shoulder.
“You know that’s not what I meant,” she said. “You’ve managed to get a bit better at this sort of thing since we started. I’m a very proud parent.”
“Maybe we should put Jacob into foster care if you’re proud that your kids are getting better at hacking people they aren’t supposed to.”
Bonnie’s smile soured.
“Sorry,” Rogue said quickly. “That sounded funnier in my head.”
Bonnie gave her friend another glare before turning her attention back to the station. About three dozen paces ahead, an animated board showed a scantily dressed redhead in glasses and a gamer’s headset dancing around a pole. Under her feet, “Ti++s and Trix” flashed in black and white letters.
“Oh, the places you take me,” Rogue sighed.
“Only the finest for you, my darling,” Bonnie said sarcastically.
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