Binary Code

by D H Sidebottom

  “Charlotte Johnson,” Jobe said, earning a warning glare from me. He shrugged. No point in keeping more secrets than we had to. “Gareth Johnson’s sister.”

  Harley gasped and gripped the edge of the sofa, but she didn’t break. I couldn’t believe I’d expected her to. She’d been so fucked up, had so much confusion thrown at her that nothing would break her now.

  “You ruined everything,” she said. She’d been saying the same thing for weeks, but never explained herself. “Bill Clancy was supposed to protect me from Michael. I went out with him willingly. I needed him to fall in love with me so he would hide me when Michael finally came for me.” Jobe and I growled in unison. We’d killed the cunt, and had a very good reason to. Harley was ours. Ours. “And Mole knew something about my family’s murder. You killed the only two people who had answers.”

  “Perhaps,” Jobe said, nodding at me to continue.

  “But you’re forgetting you’re in love with two people who will leave no stone unturned to help you.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, pouting when she reached for the whisky again and I refused to let her have it. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” I chastised. “Your father was a…technical man.”

  “My father was a hacker. That’s no secret to me.”

  “We know.” Jobe nodded, shifting to get comfortable. “It’s the risk you take when you infiltrate people’s lives without a trace. There’s always the risk you’ll hack the wrong man, leave a trail, open yourself up and leave yourself vulnerable.”

  “Okay…”

  “Your father hacked a man called James Forester. He was instructed to clean his bank account and forward it to a woman named Claire Rathbone.”

  “Why?”

  “James knocked her up.” I shuddered. “It was a trap. It was James himself who instructed him to do it, and placed a tracker on your father. James was a powerful man, none other than Jamie Forester, Mole’s, father. The Foresters were notorious hackers, working with the government with unlimited resources. Your father was a rival and, unfortunately, that was enough to secure his hit.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t.”

  Harley covered her mouth, her paranoia and knowledge of who we were making her suspicious.

  “No, we didn’t. We’re just as fucking skilled as the Forester’s, with as many fucking contacts and a much better reputation.”

  “So how did you find out?”

  “The Foresters were under surveillance, which is why Jamie went underground after his father’s death from the big C. It’s why he became Mole. There’s a file on him in the database. We found it and put two and two together. We’re not sure of Michael’s involvement…”

  “But mark our words, Harley,” Jobe said, reaching over to take her hand. “You’ll have every fucking explanation you deserve before we kill him.”

  Harley cried. She rested her elbows on her knees, buried her face in her hands and sobbed. It was chemical. It was emotional. It was real—so fucking real. Both Jobe and I got up and pulled her into us. There was no competition for her to accept more of the embrace from one of us, and there was no favouritism from her—no attempt to lean further into one of us than the other. She took us both and she loved us both with the same fierceness we’d come to love her with.

  “Thank you,” she said, wiping her eyes on my shoulder before doing the same on Jobe’s. Always equal. I loved her more for it. “Thank you.”

  We held her until our knees went numb and her tears had run dry. When she released us and sat back, she smiled sadly.

  “I love you,” she said, somehow looking into both of our eyes at the same time. “I love you both so much. All I can do is apologise for dragging you into this. I’m not Charlotte.”

  “I know.” I stroked her hair.

  “We’re both crazy in love with you.” Jobe stroked her cheek.

  “We’re going to figure this out,” I said, as I squeezed her knee and jerked her to lay back on the sofa with her ass over the edge.

  “There’s never been a story like ours before,” Jobe said, parting her legs as a coy smile decorated her stunning fucking face. We were fucked. All of us. “We get to decide how it ends.”

  Twenty-Eight

  “I’ve found him!”

  I jerked awake from where I’d fallen asleep on the sofa. I glanced across at Rome who hadn’t woken from Harley’s frantic outcry. Getting up, I pulled on my tracksuit bottoms and kicked my brother. He jolted awake, rolling off the sofa and reaching for his shorts.

  “She’s found him.”

  I raced towards the office with Rome not far behind me, and stormed into the room to see Harley tapping away at the keyboard. She had all three screens open, black boxes with vivid green code scrolling faster than I could read it.

  “He was pulled over for speeding on the M11.” She pointed at the code, copying and swiping onto another screen to copy into a textbox and bring up the information. “Charged with drink driving. Posted bail sixteen hours ago.”

  “Can you trace it back?” Rome asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

  He’d taken the night shift last night to watch over her and the poor fucker hadn’t slept. Pair that with the stress of finding the cunt who abused our girl—our fucking girl—and the rampant sex we’d had with our personal nymph, and he was fucking exhausted.

  Harley, wrapped in the blanket from the back of the sofa, glanced over her shoulder at us, flipping us a visual ‘fuck you’ for doubting her skills. Her hair was wild and unruly, matted over on her shoulder, stray strands falling across her face. Her eyes were filled with vengeful excitement. She was ready. After weeks of rehab, suffering, grieving and throwing up at all hours of the day, she was back to her fiery, sassy self, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t boil my blood with lust and the need to feel her excitement as she came all over my cock.

  “Of course I can fucking track it.” She grinned and turned back to the computer, her fingers tapping away at an impossible speed. “He’s staying at a hotel just out of town. Dumb shit didn’t think we’d be tracking Mole’s cards. He paid with an Am-Ex and hasn’t checked out yet.”

  “Get dressed,” Rome growled.

  “Dude.” I placed my hand on his shoulder. “You should sleep first. There are…preparations to be made.”

  I hoped, nodding my head in his direction and lifting my eyebrows to remind him of our predicament—the anomaly that had joined us uninvited but not entirely unwelcome, would snap him out of the single track his mind had taken.

  “No fucking time. We end this now.” Leaning over, he plucked Harley from the chair and carried her in the direction of the bedroom.

  He’d lost it. The obsession to protect Harley like he used to protect me when we were kids had sent him spiralling into blindness and I knew devastation would find us soon. Sighing, I decided I’d have to remain in control, and took Harley’s place at the desk to make the necessary preparations. We were going to get Michael and it was down to me to make sure the three of us left the hotel intact.

  Harley and Rome emerged from the bedroom dressed as I pulled on my clothes in the living room. They both looked ready but, much like when I was a kid, I was doubting this. We’d never been this personal, never allowed our emotions to get in the way of a job, because feelings got people killed. I was the worthless twin, you see. There was no point in feeling much because I would be persecuted for it. It was in my name. But I’d fallen in love with Harley, and everything that had been created as a result, and I would protect her with everything I had in my worthless soul.

  “Let’s go,” I said, tossing Rome the keys and grabbing Harley’s hand.

  We couldn’t fuck this up. The future of all of us was relying on us ending this. Today.

  Twenty-nine

  “Fuck!” Rome hissed, his fists clenched as he stood and looked around at the empty and spotlessly clean hotel room.

  “We’ve been played,” Jobe sighed as if he’d known. We should
have known.

  Michael wasn’t stupid. Far from it. Yet it still didn’t make sense. “But why bring us here?” I muttered, chewing my lip as I wrestled to make my brain work.

  Both my men shook their heads, feeling my frustration. It had been all too easy, and I should have counted on Michael’s intelligence, but it still didn’t make any damn sense. Why here? Why lay a trail to bring us here?

  I licked my lips, the need for a recreational stimulant making my skin crawl and I shivered. Jobe slipped his hand into mine and shook his head. “Think, babe. Think what would he do now?”

  “Michael will be laughing at us.” I mused, the memories of his sick and twisted humour churning the Coco-Pops I had devoured earlier in the day. “He’ll be watching us, and knowing he’s won will make him giddy. Make him want to score.” I held my breath. “I need to find out who his dealer is.”

  Rome narrowed his eyes on me. “That’s too risky for you at the moment. There’s no way you’re fucking traipsing around all the known dealers…”

  I shook my head. “I can do that from my house. It isn’t like the sixties anymore, Rome. There’s electronic records that are veiled, camouflaged as regular goods sale documents, even drug dealers like to keep their records up to date.”

  He looked doubtful but shrugged. “Fine.”

  I rushed from the room, eagerness for the end making my mouth dry. “Chew!” Jobe barked at me as he slipped me a piece of gum “It’s supposed to help.”

  I looked at the gum sceptically but gave him a smile and thanked him as I popped it into my mouth and concentrated on every chew. Both him and Rome flanked me, each of them cocooning me protectively. My heart flipped and swelled in my chest. I loved them both. It was really that simple. I wasn’t sure how, or even where, life would go from here, but I had a feeling they had already decided it for me. Forwards. With both of them. I should have been horrified at that, except I wasn’t. I was excited, warm with hope and love for the first time in a very long while. Our relationship was as unique as their eyes. What should have been one was two. They had given each other a piece of themselves before they were even born, split their irises and their souls. And now I was included in their extraordinary coding, creating something that had never been formulated before.

  My veins trembled with excitement. Michael would need a lot of shit to ride his high, and if we could find his dealer then we’d find Michael. I smiled, for the first time in a long time, I fucking smiled. “I’m coming for you, you piece of shit,” I muttered under my breath. “I’m coming.”

  As always, everything fired up as we all descended into the basement. Rome took my desk as I took Evan’s. Jobe hovered behind us, cracking his fingers rather annoyingly as I started to modify a program Evan had written to hunt out unadulterated files hidden covertly under any fabricated ones. Even in death my best friend was assisting, and I couldn’t hold back the grin when his unique coding fired up and started to scroll down my screen, my fingers already adapting it for what I needed.

  “What do you need me to do?” Rome asked as he looked at me, his fingers hovered over the keyboard awaiting my instruction.

  “Do you know what you’re doing?”

  He quirked an eyebrow and said nothing, his expression saying everything.

  “Okay,” I smirked. “Sorry. I need you to open my connection with the NS database…”

  “You hacked into the national security database?” Jobe asked, his eyes wide with shock but his smile full of pride. “My girl is fucking awesome.”

  I beamed at him. “I have been trying to tell you this for a long time.” I blew him a kiss before I turned back to Rome. “You need to input Michael’s name alongside Mole’s, and give it some keywords to work though. It should do what we need it to and compile a list of associated dealers for us.”

  Rome nodded and turned to face the screen. A shiver tracked its way up my spine, biting into every single vertebra before it exploded in my brain, and time seemed to slow down when Evan’s voice whispered in my ear. “Noooo.”

  But it was too late.

  I’d been too eager to even notice it. Too fucking stupid to see it.

  “Noooo!” I screamed.

  But it was too late.

  As soon as Rome’s finger pressed the ‘enter key’ Michael’s virus hit my kit.

  “DO NOT TAKE YOUR FINGER OFF ENTER!” I screamed at Rome, diving across the room and slamming my hand down on his to stop him from moving.

  His face blanched, his whole body freezing as his eyes widened on the screen in front of him.

  “Harley?” Jobe whispered.

  I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. My heart didn’t beat.

  “Hello, my Harley Queen,” Michael’s face grinned back at us from the screen. “Figured it out, baby? Well,” he laughed. “You must have cos you’re still there watching this.”

  “No.” My head finally shook as tears of horror and rage singed my eyes.

  “Harley, what the fuck is going on?” Jobe hissed behind me. Rome just sat, white and silent, his acumen telling him exactly what was going on.

  “Trouble is,” Michael’s recorded voice continued. “I know you. I taught you well, my queen.” He sighed. “I think I really did love you, in my own special way. You were just a pawn in the game I had to play, princess. Your daddy, he was a mean fucker. And well, he had to pay for what he did. You were supposed to go with your family, on the same day. But don’t blame me for that one. I had no control over it. And James wanted the whole family. But I thought I should have a little play with you first. Might as well have some fun, huh?” He laughed again. “But now I’m bored.”

  I was vibrating with rage, with fear, with undiluted vehemence and I couldn’t get my brain to work.

  “Get out,” Rome finally spoke, his voice barely a whisper. But I heard it. I heard it as if it was as loud as a scream.

  “Anyway, I digress,” Michael continued. “You think I would just offer you a key tripwire? With my expertise?”

  “What – the – fuck!” Jobe finally gasped in realisation as his eyes slid down to the key Rome still had pressed down hard under his finger, his knuckle white with the sheer strength he held that fucking thing down with.

  Michael tutted. And then he grinned. Cruelly. Coldly. And fucking victoriously. He leaned toward the camera, his ugly fucking face growing ever nearer. “Take your pick, my Harley Queen. Trip-mine, or…” He rocked his head from side to side and clicked his tongue in rhythm, “…Time bomb?” And he winked.

  His image disappeared and a photograph of my family filled his place.

  With a simple timer in bold red letters.

  03:00

  Thirty

  02:56

  The silence was deafening. My mouth was so dry, my throat closing in as my heart rate escalated to accommodate the adrenaline surging through my system.

  02:47

  I could taste the fear pouring from Harley as she slowly stood up beside me. Her heart beat so hard I swear I could hear it within the ear-piercing wail of nothing.

  02:38

  “Can it…Can it be broken?” Jobe asked so quietly I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined his voice.

  Harley’s swallow was loud. “No. It’s a constant. It can’t be altered, or broken down.” Her tiny voice quivered and the sound of it made my heart roar in pain.

  “Go,” I whispered, unable to form words with the thickness of my tongue.

  “No.” Jobe growled. “No! We’ll figure it out.”

  Harley was silent. She knew.

  “It’s unbreakable,” I uttered quietly, forcing saliva into my mouth. “Go. Now.”

  “What about if we weigh the key down?”

  “It’s finger sensitive,” Harley choked out, her words practically inaudible. “There isn’t a way to replicate the force of a human touch. Not in three fucking minutes anyway!” She spat, her voice finally finding her.

  Jobe appeared beside me, his face as pale as Harley’s. “Rome.”
His head shook wildly, his eyes hard on mine when I pierced him with a knowing stare.

  “You know what to do,” I told him. “It’s yours, dude. You know.”

  02:14

  His bottom lip quivered and he grabbed at his hair, spinning and screaming into nothing. “No! Not this time!”

  He moved so quickly I didn’t see it coming. His finger pressed the key at exactly the same time as he pushed me out of the chair, my body skidding sideways and into the wall with the impact.

  Every part of me ceased to function as horror took control.

  “Get out!” Jobe screamed when the timer ticked under two minutes. “GO.”

  “Jobe!” I roared at him as I flew across the room.

  “Get her out of here!” he snarled at me as he grounded himself over the keyboard. His eyes fixed on me, tears spilling over as he nodded to me. “It’s my turn now, brother. I need to do this. You kept me safe for so many years. Now it’s my turn.”

  Harley dropped to her knees, a desolate cry ripping from her heart and making mine shatter inside me.

  “No.” Every part of me bled into the room, my soul reaching out for help.

  Jobe lifted his hand and cupped my face. “I love you, Rome. God, only you know how fucking much. You think I could last without you?” His head shook harder. “I would never have survived without you. You loved me so hard that I’m going with a fucking smile, brother. You loved me so hard that wherever the fuck I go, you’ll be with me.”

  Harley crawled over to him, burying her face into the side of his neck. He turned his face and squeezed his eyes closed, inhaling her, allowing her to drug him and give him that last final high. “You take care of him,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to each of her eyes.

  She nodded, a choked sob torturing us all. “I love you,” she breathed. “So, so much.”