No Strings Attached

by Julie Moffett

  “Do I know you?” It was hard to see his face clearly with the oversize sunglasses on. Had he been in my workshop?

  He gave me a sharp glance and lowered his voice, leaning over the table. “Of course you don’t know me. Don’t be stupid. I don’t want to know your name either. I will never speak to you again after this.”

  “You won’t?”

  “No. In fact, this concludes our little interaction.” He pushed the manila envelope across the table at me. “Look, it’s all in there—half now and the other half deposited when you’re done. Good luck and have a nice life. Forget you ever saw me.”

  Before I could say another word, he got up from the table and disappeared into the crowd.

  I lurched to my feet. “Hey, wait.” I held up the envelope, but he was gone.

  What in the world? I sat down and examined the envelope. There were no words on the outside and it wasn’t sealed shut. I pulled it open, shaking out the contents onto the table.

  Stacks of neatly bound hundred-dollar bills spilled out, followed by a single, folded sheet of paper.

  Chapter Two

  Holy bank robbery!

  For a moment I stared slack-jawed at all the money. I stuffed the stacks of cash back in the envelope, then glanced around the bar, but no one seemed to be paying any attention. I unfolded the sheet of paper. It contained a username and private SSH login key, followed by a string of code. My eye caught the IP address 30.42.120.4. The NSA’s network block. I recognized it from my time at the agency.

  OMG! Alarm bells started clanging in my head. As I scanned the code, I began to see where this was headed...and it wasn’t good. Still, I had to know for sure.

  Code was my forte, so I opened my laptop and started following along. A knot formed in my stomach. Two keystrokes later, I backtracked, then slammed my laptop shut, my pulse jumping. I hadn’t followed the trail far, but far enough to know that seriously bad things were afoot, especially when accompanied by what looked to be about fifty thousand dollars in cash.

  “You’re early.”

  I looked up as a young woman slid into the chair recently vacated by the other guy. She was Asian, pretty and probably in her early thirties. Her thick black hair fell to her waist and her eyes narrowed in anger as her gaze fell on the envelope and the code lying open just to the left of my laptop.

  “What the hell do you think you’re you doing?”

  “What am I doing?” I glanced at the code like a kid getting caught sneaking a cookie. “Ah...ah...” Nope. Nothing even remotely plausible leaped to mind.

  To my dismay, she reached across the table and snatched the envelope with the money and the paper from the table. I would have grabbed them back, but she slid them inside her black purse and snapped the clasp shut.

  “It’s all here, right?” she asked.

  “It?”

  “The money.”

  My mind raced. “Ah, yes, it’s all there.”

  “It better be.” She leaned forward, her expression irate. “You weren’t supposed to open the envelope. For a well-paid courier, that was a stupid and dangerous thing to do.”

  I didn’t miss the threat her words and tone carried. This was serious stuff.

  I decided to play along. “I was curious. No harm, no foul.”

  “Why were you looking at the code?”

  I feigned surprise. “That was the code—that jumble of numbers? Didn’t mean a thing to me.”

  “That better be true.” Her words carried an unmistakable warning. “So, what about the rest of the money I’m due? How will I receive it? What’s the plan for that?”

  I paused, considering the significance and risk of what I was about to do. But things had escalated to a point of no return. I didn’t see another choice.

  I crossed my arms against my chest and rested my elbows atop the laptop. “The plan is—the hack is off. You can keep the money for your trouble, but your services are no longer required. So, give me back the code. You won’t be needing it.”

  Surprise and then anger crossed her face, but to my relief, she didn’t bolt. “That’s impossible. This directive came from the very top.”

  “Well, the very top is calling it off. A last-minute thing, I guess.”

  “Why?” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me, most likely wondering if she could trust me. After all, I was nothing more than a courier. I held my gaze steady, afraid that the slightest waver would tip her off.

  “I don’t ask why.” I lifted my shoulders. “Not my place.”

  “What about the other half of the money I was promised?”

  “I have no idea. You’ll have to take that up with them.”

  She pressed her lips together, presumably deciding whether she believed me or not. After a moment she spoke. “Fine, but I risked a lot to do this. This doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Agreed, but this is what they instructed, so this is what you do. If your services are further required, you’ll be contacted. The code, please.” I held out my hand, but she didn’t make a move to hand it over.

  Instead, she rose, wrapping her fingers tightly around the straps of her purse. “No.” She studied my face. “Not yet. You can tell them I was curious, too.”

  Before I could protest, she turned and strode away from the table, her dark hair swishing behind her.

  I stood up, sliding the laptop beneath my arm. I would have followed her, but she had already disappeared, melting into the crowd.

  I took a deep breath, thinking. I needed to stop the hack. But first, I needed expert advice and quick.

  Chapter Three

  My heart pounded as I jogged toward X-Corp, bypassing my office and heading straight for the parking garage. No way could I start an exploration of that hack from official X-Corp equipment.

  As I was pulling my red Miata out of the garage, I punched in a number on my cell. It rang twice before a computer answered, informing me the person I was trying to reach was unavailable and to leave a message.

  Crap. He wasn’t answering, probably because he didn’t recognize the number. I spoke fast. “Slash, it’s me. Call me quickly at this number. I’m on a burner phone and I’ve got a problem. A big one.”

  Luckily for the world, my boyfriend is one of the good guys behind the keyboard. He works for the NSA in a capacity that is unknown to me because I don’t have the proper clearance, and hadn’t, even when I’d worked there myself. Slash is a brilliant hacker. His skill at the keyboard and deep knowledge of cyberspace make him vital to national security. As a result, he has a special FBI detail on him 24/7, kind of like the President.

  My phone rang and I answered. “Slash?”

  “What’s up, cara?”

  “I intercepted a serious hack. We need to talk. Now.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I-95, headed toward your place.”

  “I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes.”

  “Great.”

  He paused. “Are you okay?”

  “Not really.” My hands were shaking. I gripped the steering wheel tighter, concentrating on calm, even breaths.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  His voice carried a hint of warning, reminding me not to share anything classified over the phone.

  “It was a total case of mistaken identity.” I tapped the steering wheel nervously. “There was nowhere to sit at the hotel bar at HACK CON, so I figured I’d just have a quick bite to eat and work on the details for Basia’s party at a reserved table. I’m sitting there when a courier passes me written instructions for a hack, along with an envelope stuffed with bills. Then, bam, he splits. Apparently he thought I was the person who was supposed to be sitting there.”

  I switched lanes, looking over my shoulder and into my rearview mi
rror.

  “Did you recognize him?”

  “It wasn’t just one person. There were two. After the courier, I met the actual hacker—the one who was supposed to be sitting there. The courier was about my age and wore big sunglasses, which means I didn’t get a good look at his face. The hacker was female, Asian. The guy passed off the code and the money to me. Then the real hacker showed up and snatched everything off the table before I could stop her. She thought I was the courier. So, I pretended the hack had been called off. I’m not sure she believed me.”

  “You called off the hack?” His voice was incredulous.

  “Well, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.” Now that I actually thought about it, it had been kind of ballsy. “What else should I have done?

  “Nothing. You did the right thing. Did you actually see the code?”

  “Yep. Saw it and actually followed it a little way, before it got too hot for my blood. First of all, I’m on a sterilized computer without the right software. Second of all, I’m sitting in a crowded bar with a dozen hackers sitting around me. Didn’t want to advertise where I was headed. Good news is, I’ve got the whole code here in my head.” I tapped my temple. “Photographic memory for the win.”

  “What about the written code?” he asked.

  “The hacker took it, along with the money, even though I told her the hack was off.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “You think? It’s why I’m in a hurry to get to your place.”

  I glanced in my rearview mirror. A small black car weaved through traffic behind me. My concern grew as the car pulled up beside me. I looked over at the driver and recognized the hacker from the bar.

  “Slash, she just pulled up beside me. The hacker. She’s got a gun!”

  “A gun?”

  “I’m in trouble,” I shouted as she raised the gun and pointed it at me.

  Chapter Four

  I lifted my foot off the gas just as the driver’s side window exploded. Somehow I hadn’t been hit. Her car screeched ahead of me as I swerved into the far right lane and nearly sideswiped a blue minivan. Traffic was too heavy for any fancy maneuvering, not that I even knew how to do that.

  Slash shouted something, but I couldn’t make it out.

  The shooter cut to the shoulder, slowed down, then fell in behind me again, boxing me between a truck and a silver Honda. She fired, this time from behind me. I heard the ping of the bullet hitting the metal frame of the car. I was a sitting duck.

  “She’s shooting at me,” I yelled.

  At this point, I had only one real option. If I stayed where I was, it was only a matter of time before she hit one of my tires and I’d be forced to pull over. I swerved to the shoulder and hit the gas, roaring off at the next exit.

  “The hacker is shooting at you?”

  I ran a red light and shot past two cars on the wrong side of the road before yanking the car back to my lane. She stayed with me. To my great dismay, no police car turned on its lights and started following us.

  “Yes! The Asian woman from the hotel,” I screeched. “Guess she didn’t buy my ‘the hack is off’ story. She’s in a black two-door sports car. I can’t see the license plate clearly. I’m too busy driving for my freaking life.”

  He swore. “Don’t get off the freeway.”

  “It’s too late. I didn’t have a choice. Traffic was too heavy and she was shooting at my tires. But I’m not sure which exit I got off on.” I ran another red light and so did she. She almost hit a red Toyota. Car horns were blaring and I imagined several middle fingers were being shot my way. Panic gripped my throat. “Seriously, I can’t shake her, Slash.”

  “Hold on, cara. Whatever you do, don’t stop the car. I’m already on the way to your location.” I could hear the wail of a siren and assumed he had placed the light on top of his SUV. “I’m tracking you via your earrings. My ETA is about seventeen minutes.”

  “What about your FBI tail?”

  “They’re trying to keep up.”

  Slash’s recent Christmas present to me, in addition to a gun, had been a pair of earrings that came with a tracking device he’d designed. They were our secret. Seeing as how a little black cloud seemed to follow me around, we’d agreed that for the time being, both the gun and the earrings were a good idea. Still, seventeen minutes seemed like an eternity.

  “I don’t know if I can last seventeen minutes.” I swerved and nearly took out a guy on a motorcycle.

  “Si, you can. You’ve got this. Stay calm.” Slash’s voice remained steady, while my heart galloped. “Are you on a two-lane stretch of road?”

  “Still four-lane.”

  “Good. Keep her behind you if you can. I’ve already alerted the police to your position. Help is on the way, I promise. Hold the course. Stay calm.”

  I glanced in my rearview mirror just before she slammed into the back of the Miata. I swerved to the left, clipped a green pickup truck coming the other direction. Pulling up on the right side of my rear bumper, she fired another shot through the back windshield. I hunched over the steering wheel as the bullet shattered the rear window and lodged somewhere in my car.

  “What happened?” Slash asked.

  “I’m okay, but my rear window is toast.”

  We pulled into a forested stretch and the four-lane road turned into two lanes. “Bad news, Slash. We’re now on two lanes and I think I’m screwed. Not much traffic along this stretch and she’s a better driver than me.”

  “But you’re smarter. You’ve got this.”

  Easy for him to say—he wasn’t being chased by a lunatic with a gun. Plus, I’d never told him I hadn’t gotten my driver’s license until I turned twenty-one, and I’d failed the driving test twice.

  Sure enough once the cars coming from the other direction had passed, she gunned forward, pulling up to the driver’s side again. I tried to sideswipe her, but she managed get out of the way. She raised her gun again.

  I hit the brakes just as she fired. She hurled past me, and the bullet pinged off the hood of my car. Unfortunately, the abrupt stop cost me. I was traveling at such a high rate of speed that the Miata skidded sideways, screeching across the asphalt. It slid into a spin.

  “Noooo,” I shrieked, wrestling with the steering wheel. The car veered off the road, Slash shouted something and I held my breath. For a moment I was airborne, then the car crashed and I blacked out.

  Chapter Five

  I blinked into consciousness. Everything was blurry and an acrid smell filled the car. My air bag had deployed. Swallowing the panic, I pushed aside the bag and yanked on the handle of the door. It opened and I fell out of the car, rolling to my knees and crouching, coughing and squinting at my surroundings in the sunlight.

  Luckily the car had fallen over a short embankment and not off a freaking cliff. I hadn’t hit a tree, a pole or anything solid either. I’d just come to a jarring, bouncing stop in a cleared, grassy area.

  A quick shake of all my limbs indicated I was in one piece, although my car was totaled. There was something wet on my forehead. When I swiped at it, my fingers came away bloody.

  A car squealed to a stop at the ledge above me.

  I limped to the tree line and hid. A door slammed shut. The woman from the bar appeared on the ledge, shading her eyes and peering down at my car. Glancing over her shoulder at the road, she pulled her gun, then started down the incline sideways.

  I wasn’t in any condition to outrun her, but it looked like I wasn’t going to have a choice. I started moving quietly through the trees. My heart pounded so loudly I was afraid it would lead her right to me. It would take her just a moment to see I’d left the car and then she’d be after me.

  I kept walking as quickly as I could, focusing on putting as much distance between us as pos
sible. After a couple of minutes, I paused, leaning back against a tree and panting. It was quiet. A squirrel climbing a tree, some crackles of the leaves here and there. How was I supposed to know what was her and what were normal sounds of nature?

  I didn’t want to stay in one place too long. I pushed off the tree, stepping carefully through the foliage. My foot landed on some branches covered by leaves. It made a loud cracking noise.

  Jeez, I was probably as easy to track as an elephant.

  I took a few more steps and ducked behind a large boulder. My knee hit the rock and I hissed through my teeth at the stab of pain. A rustle sounded to my right and I froze. If she was coming, how would I protect myself?

  I scoured along the ground for something and came upon a rock the size of a baseball. Misdirection always seemed to work in the movies, so I figured it was worth a shot. I didn’t have any illusions about completely shaking her, but I was out of ideas.

  I heard another noise, a rustle. It sounded too equally paced to be an animal, so I counted to three and threw the rock as far as I could.

  It made a crash. The rustle became louder, thankfully moving away from me. I headed in the opposite direction, trying to hop onto areas that were clear of rocks or leaves to limit the noise. A life-and-death game of forest hopscotch.

  After a few minutes of that I began to feel winded. A new resolution was to add cardio to my daily workout, which at this time was monthly, possibly bimonthly...oh, who was I kidding? It was nonexistent.

  I was breathing so hard it was difficult to listen. I hadn’t heard anyone overtly following me, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t right behind me at this very moment. She was probably just a heck of a lot better and faster than me at this. In my defense, I’d started up an embankment and moving at an upward angle on crumbly soil was killing my knee, as well as my stamina.

  My back foot snagged on a log. I threw out my hands to catch myself, but landed partially on my knee.

  Ouch!

  I rolled over, clutching my knee. As it was, I’d probably already made enough noise to alert anyone a mile away to my location.