Fury

by Llewellin Jegels

  All done.

  We entered the living room and made our way to where Shelley and Mel were seated at the coffee table.

  “Nice place,” Masters said to Mel as we sat down in front of a cup of coffee each. “So you’re the guy who’s going to set me up?”

  I’d called Mel before we left, making sure he’d make good on all the promises I had thrown around like confetti at a wedding. I knew he would, no doubt. But I needed to secure it before Masters would agree to our deal. They’d spoken briefly on my burner phone, and the look on his face had grown more and more shocked as Mel told him all about his entire life, from childhood until now, letting him know beyond a shadow of a doubt he could do exactly what I’d said he could do.

  “Yeah,” Mel replied. “New identity. New life. Is that a pair of my trousers?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Sorry man.”

  “Do you know how much it cost me?”

  “Um,” I replied. “A lot?”

  “Yeah, dick,” Mel replied, grinning. “More than you can imagine. And now it’s ruined. Thanks a lot!”

  “It’s just a little spot of blood,” I replied.

  “I think it’s actually improved it,” Masters piped up.

  “You’re a dick too,” Mel replied.

  “Sorry.”

  “I’m sure you are.”

  “Did Division9 play a part in snatching your little girl?” Masters asked Shelley. For a second I thought she’d throw her coffee at him, but she just had a sip and put the mug back down on the coffee table.

  “We don’t know,” she replied. “But I wouldn’t put it past them. At the least they’re playing a part in this. We just need to know what part.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know.”

  “Screw you.”

  “He didn’t, Shel,” I said. “The guy is a computer geek, not a hit man.”

  “Thanks,” Masters replied, picking up his coffee. “But you’re right. My position remains the same.”

  “He played no part in your surveillance,” I continued. “Or the van parked outside my place. He just rocked up and stuck the device in the tree.”

  “So what good is he to us then?” Shelley asked. “What the hell are we going to do with some useless, know-nothing bloody computer geek?”

  “Geez, I’m sitting right here.”

  Mel and I filled her in on the plan involving Masters’ handler, his background in Division9 and how he needed out. Now more than ever.

  “So what are we going to do,” she asked. “Just call the guy?”

  “That might be the best idea,” I mused. “Old school is always worth a try. Besides, as Masters here says, all company phones are encrypted in the same way as the signal we found, so tracing it is out of the question.”

  “For now,” Mel interjected. “My people are working on it as we speak.”

  “Okay yeah. For now,” I agreed.

  “So in the meantime we’re going to phone the guy,” Shelley said. “And say what, exactly?”

  “We’re going to phone him and tell him we know who he is,” Mel replied. “And we want to meet.”

  “But we don’t know who he is,” Shelley replied. “Masters here doesn’t even know who the hell he is.”

  “Um,” Masters said.

  We all turned to look at him.

  “Well,” he continued. “Since we’re all friends now, there is something my team and I have been cogitating over for a while now.”

  “Did he just say cogitating?” Shelley said.

  “Just go with it,” I muttered.

  “Anyway,” Masters said. “It’s something of a given the guy isn’t actually a Division9 employee.”

  “What?” I snapped.

  Masters held up his hands and made a supplicating gesture. “What I mean is we think he works for us… for them as a consultant. As in off site.”

  “What makes you say that?” Mel asked, sitting forward intently, his elbows resting on his knees.

  “Well, for a start,” he replied. “No-one knows his name. And secondly, no-one has ever seen him around the office, at any level. Ever. Thirdly is the fact a very large amount of people in the company have never even heard of him when he’s brought up in conversation. Moreover the bosses refuse to speak about him and go out of their way to make sure nobody else does either.”

  “But people talk,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Masters replied, nodding. “People talk.”

  “So who the hell is this guy?” I asked no-one in particular.

  “A ghost,” Mel mused. “I’m surprised you even have his number.”

  “Yeah,” Masters said. “For all the good it’ll do you.”

  “You just leave it to me.”

  “Will do.”

  “So we don’t call now,” I said, thinking this through. “That would be a bad idea.”

  “Why?” Mel asked.

  “Because it’ll spook him,” I replied. “And he may dump his phone, just in case. We need to get him on the line after your team has cracked the encryption. I mean, we can’t take the chance that he has so much faith in the software that he’ll keep using the number after we call him up.”

  “He’s used it to deliver operations to me and others without any fear,” Masters said.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “But this is different. We’re making contact. It may shake him.”

  “Tom’s right,” Mel said, nodding. “My team needs to crack the code now.”

  He picked up his phone and called the tech team he’d assigned the task of breaking the encryption.

  “What’s taking so long?” he barked when the call connected. He listened then, nodding, not saying anything.

  Eventually he said, “Okay, good. Just keep at it. There’s a lot at stake here, James. I don’t need to tell you, do I?”

  He nodded again. “Good.”

  He hung up and we all looked at him, waiting for the news.

  “They’re getting close,” he told the three of us. “It’s not only heavily encrypted, but layered too. They’ve already broken through the main encryption coding, now they’re just pulling off the layers, sort of like an onion. It shouldn’t be long now.”

  “You’re kidding me,” Masters said, looking shocked. “The encryption software is unbreakable.”

  “Nothing,” Mel said, looking him in the eye, “is unbreakable. People shouldn’t put so much faith in technology. I’m in the unique position to understand its failings better than most.”

  “This guy is what you said he is,” Masters said, looking at me.

  “Yup,” I replied. “And then some.”

  About an hour and a half later the call came through, the encryption shielding the signal had been broken. We now understood the exact destination of the surveillance signal at the Abaid household. Mel picked up his laptop from the coffee table and looked intently at what his team had sent him.

  “Well, you’re right, Masters,” he said, not looking up from the computer screen. “This is some very impressive coding.”

  “Yeah, it is.”

  “Actually, the word ‘was’ is probably more appropriate now,” he said with a grin. “Anyway, I think you should take leave of us now.”

  Masters looked at him in shock, “I thought-”

  “Not that kind of leave, Masters,” I said with a grin. “There are just a few things we need to discuss in private, which means putting you in the guest bedroom. Relax man.”

  He left of his own accord, closing the door behind him. None of us felt it necessary to tie him up. Mel’s apartment was situated on the top floor.

  And I doubted whether Masters had the balls to. Besides, I’d sold him on his perfect new life, had given him real hope, and he’d be a fool to throw it away.

  And if he did, well…

  “Okay,” Mel said, tapping away on the laptop keyboard. “The decryption program is installed on the laptop now.” He took out his phone, set the number to ‘ID Wit
hheld’, and paired it through Bluetooth with his laptop.

  “So now we call?” Shelley asked.

  Mel nodded, “I’ve got a pretty sweet encryption setup myself. Better than what they’re using, matter of fact. This guy, whoever the hell he is, won’t be able to trace this call. I guarantee it. In fact, thanks to a little program I wrote myself, every time I set my phone to withhold its number, a false number rocks up on the recipient’s end.”

  I grinned, “Everything in its place, eh? You’re one jacked up bastard Mel.”

  “I try,” he replied, grinning back. “So let’s make contact with this son of a bitch, shall we?”

  “Wait,” Shelley said then. “Tom mentioned the possibility of tipping this guy off earlier.”

  “Yeah?” I said.

  “Well, wouldn’t it be safer if we just put a trace on my own home signal instead?” she continued. “That way the guy won’t realize we’re onto him until we’re right on top of him.”

  Mel nodded, “Good thinking, Shel. But we have no idea whether he is at the site sending the signal. What we do know, however, is that he has his phone. It’s a matter of playing the odds.”

  “This way, we’ve got him,” I added.

  “And as soon as the trace program completes,” Mel said. “I’ll have access to everything on his system, not to mention every wireless network within his vicinity. He can smash his phone, and I’ll already be in.”

  “Nice,” I said admiringly. “Very nice.”

  “So,” Mel said. “Shall we get on with it?”

  “By all means,” Shelley said.

  Mel put the call on speaker, and we waited as the it rang and rang and-

  “Hello? Who the hell is this?”

  “Hi,” Mel replied, with an animated spark to his voice. “This is Gary Palmer, from OnTrust Investments, I’m calling to find out if you’re interested in growing your financial portfolio?”

  “I’m not interested,” the voice dull, almost devoid of emotion.

  Mel glanced at the computer screen. Trace completed.

  “Thank you for your time,” he continued. “Please consider us if you have any further questions relating to our services.”

  “Yeah, sure,” the voice replied. “In the meantime, why don’t you go and fuck yourself.”

  “You first, bitch,” and Mel hung up.

  He turned to look at us, “We’ve got him. And I believe our friend in there isn’t lying to us. Not from what I see in front of me.”

  “You can come out now,” I yelled at the guest bedroom.

  The door opened immediately and Masters came out, a look of awe on his face. “You called him a bitch.”

  “Eavesdropping much?” Mel replied.

  “Maybe a little.”

  “Yeah, well, he is a bitch.”

  Masters laughed, “I’m beginning to wish I’d taken a job at your company instead.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Mel replied. “So I’m emailing my guys to set up your new life. Along with your beach house I’ll be depositing a very reasonable amount of money into a numbered account offshore, which you will have full access to, of course. Your work here is done, but I wouldn’t advise leaving until we’ve set you up.”

  “No problem there.”

  Mel got up and poured us all a drink while we waited for the new Masters’ documentation to be created and his online footprint to be replaced with a new one.

  It didn’t take long.

  After about an hour, the documents arrived at the apartment and Masters, Williams now, was ready to go.

  “Thank you,” he said sincerely to Mel. “I think you may have saved my life.”

  “You’re welcome,” Mel said gruffly. “And for what it’s worth, I think you may have saved Rachel’s. Something to remember, Mister Williams.”

  “Yeah,” Williams said, grinning. He turned to Shelley. “Good luck getting your little girl back.”

  “Thanks,” she replied, but she didn’t look at him.

  “Time to go,” I said.

  I drove him away from Mel’s place blindfolded, until we were just about at the airport, when I told him he could remove it.

  “You ready for your new life?” I asked.

  Williams looked at the ID and passport in his hands as if in a dream. “Yeah, I think I am.”

  “Good,” I replied. “And have a martini for me.”

  “I think I will.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  On the drive back to Mel’s place I found myself slightly envying the guy’s new life in paradise, courtesy of Mel, wondering what it would be like to start off completely new in some idyllic paradise without a care in the world. A fresh start, in an entirely new place with lots of sand and an ocean stretching out forever, sipping on exotic drinks brought by an exotic waitress in a skimpy outfit. And after watching the sunset, retiring to a luxury apartment and a fabulous dinner, perhaps whiling the evening away with a good book.

  Yeah, the guy had made the right choice.

  And I could do it too.

  I’d considered a fresh start often since Shelley had given up on us, but other issues always arose, preventing me from taking the leap.

  Six months previously I’d actually seriously considered it. And perhaps then I would have done it, but for the lack of motivation. And the hope that I would see Rachel again. I occupied a comfort zone which felt familiar, albeit lacking in happiness.

  A fresh start. Everything from my old life finally put to rest and left firmly in the past, chained there for all eternity as I embraced a bright new future. A way to escape the pain.

  But not now.

  Now I worried about Rachel. And Shelley. And they had provided me with a reason to carry on, to fight back. Not just lie on a beach and forget what I stood for.

  I finally arrived at Mel’s apartment building. I swung the car into the underground parking area and pulled to a stop. I spent the trip up to the penthouse decidedly not thinking about anything related to sunshine and beaches.

  Rachel’s beautiful face flashed in my mind, which made me all the more hard core, all business. Everything I’d been thinking about on the drive over here had simply vanished in an instant.

  I had a job to do, a little girl relied on me.

  Mel and Shelley sat in silence as I opened the door. They both looked up at me as I closed the door behind me. Shelley looked pale, but Mel spoke first.

  “How did it go?” he asked, not bothering with pleasantries, which I found odd.

  “Mission accomplished,” I said as I stepped into the room. “And I’ve got to tell you, I had more fun than expected. He’s actually a nice guy. Just, misunderstood. And I’m sure he became even nicer than usual, knowing he’s headed for paradise, one-way ticket, all expenses paid.”

  “Good work,” Mel said, nodding, but still keeping that disconcerting look on his face, which worried me.

  “Good work?” I said, wondering what lay in store. “Good work? Why the hell would you congratulate me on ferrying someone to the airport? It wasn’t exactly the Himalayas.”

  “Sorry man,” he replied. “I became concerned. Especially after our discovery.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, adrenalin starting to flow.

  “I feared a repeat of last night,” Shelley said. “Only unexpected this time. You left your phone behind, so we had no way to contact you. To warn you.”

  “Warn me about what?” I asked. “I just drove to the airport. What’s changed?”

  “I gained access to the wireless network our stalker had hacked into,” Mel said, the dark look on his face growing darker still.

  “Er,” I replied. “Isn’t that a good thing? Why do you guys look like you’re halfway up Mount Doom and you’ve just realized you forgot the ring at home?”

  “Let’s just say,” Mel continued. “It isn’t a network I’d care to gain access to ever again on the down low, or at all.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, stepping forward and takin
g a seat with them. “What the hell has spooked you guys so badly?”

  “It’s the CIA,” he said grimly, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. “I hacked into the CIA. Man oh man.”

  “Oh shit,” I said, trying hard to keep my voice under control and failing admirably. “Oh bloody shit. Bad news.”

  “Yeah,” Mel and Shelley said together.

  “When we discovered where the signal went, I realized you were going up against CIA agents. A lot less friendly than your average villain.”

  “We’ve just picked a fight with the bloody CIA?” I said, shaking my head. “What the hell? So what now? Do we need to go on the run? Get facial reconstructive surgery?”

  “No,” Mel replied, shaking his head. “I don’t think we need to worry about going for anything so drastic, Tom. Although you could probably benefit from that last one.”

  “Oh very good,” I muttered. “Get to the point, huh?”

  “I jumped out fast,” Mel continued. “And my company’s encryption would’ve hidden the login. I think it’s fair to say they have no idea I was even there.”

  “You think?” I said, shaking my head. “You reckon it’s enough, Mel?”

  “Indeed,” he replied. “I do, Tom. But even if they did intercept the intrusion, there’s no way they could crack the encryption and discover our whereabouts. The code is unbreakable.”

  “Masters said the very same thing about their own software,” I muttered. “And you broke through that in a heartbeat. So, you’ll excuse my concern.”

  “Trust me, Tom,” he replied. “We’re fine. The code is as good as I say it is. And besides, like I said, we masked the intrusion, a sort of digital plan B, if you will. They don’t know I was there, believe me.”

  “Ok,” I said, shaking my head again, deciding to take Mel’s word for it. He understood tech better than anyone, and if he said we weren’t in any immediate danger, I believed him. I did not feel particularly happy about it, but I didn’t have to be happy. Just ok. “Ok fine. Next question: What the hell are they doing? The CIA spying on a residential household? Aren’t they more into the whole espionage, global intelligence assets kind of thing?”