by Ravenna Tate
Santino squirmed in his seat, his eyes bright with excitement. “I believe we have enough information to safely say that Ernest, aka Rafael, is at least connected to them.”
“What?” The response was shouted in unison by the three men in the room.
“Rafael has been quite busy as JackHammer on the message boards.”
“Are you absolutely certain the user names are the same person?” asked Damien.
“Positive. Rafael’s log in for the computer that he uses for construction business traces back to the same machine that Ernest had been using.”
“So he switched IDs,” said Viggo, “but not computers. That wasn’t too bright.”
Santino grinned. “Actually, he tried to hide it by throwing up a mask, but since we’ve seen that so many times now, I recognized the code. It’s the same machine.”
“Where has he been posting under Rafael’s log in?” asked Dominic.
“All the usual places we’re tracking. Remember our old friend Rob Marin?”
The men all groaned. “How could we forget?” asked Viggo.
Rob Marin was the first name discovered accidentally by Harper posting under a specific user name on both PR boards at ACE Communications, owned by Ace Easton, and on several hacker sites and boards frequented by weather geeks and conspiracy theorists. He also, unfortunately, had worked on Ace’s team hacking into such boards to try to find any clues to the people responsible for the Tommy Twister virus.
Two new user names they were able to definitely associate with Rob showed up again when hackers tried to use one of the old weather satellites as relay stations to hide their online activity, and ending up encrypting conversation onto the data accidentally.
The satellite was shut down again, but not before Barclay Hampton, who owned Hampton Data Recovery Services, and his friends at Homeland Cyber Security, recovered the conversation and eighteen names.
“He’s back on the same boards where I found Rafael, using BreakingGlass and RisingWater, but that’s not all.”
All three men held their breaths while Santino obviously enjoyed taking a dramatic pause.
“He fucked up again, just like he did last time when we caught him, right before Ace fired him. He told JackHammer that he had inside information on Ace’s company, and of course JackHammer jumped all over that. Previously, we’d traced both user names to Rob’s IP address at his home in NorthCentral, and all of you decided to sit on it because he wasn’t doing any of significance. He’s done something now.”
Santino brought up another screen that looked like a text document of conversation. “This is the private conversation JackHammer and RisingWater had two days ago. When I hacked into Ernest, aka Rafael, aka William’s, construction PC, I found this saved in a private chat app. Rob, as usual, was being careless with what he says online, even in a place that would be difficult for most people to hack into.”
Damien and the other two men leaned closer to the screen to read it. It started out as Rob telling Rafael he still owed him money. Turns out they know each other.”
“How?” asked Damien, his palms suddenly damp.
“I wasn’t sure until Rob said something about being fired from Ace’s company. I went back to the logs my team kept and searched through the message boards, using ACE Communications, and Rob’s old user name as keywords. Shortly after Ace fired him, Rob went on the boards, begging anyone and everyone to contact him privately if they had any information on our companies. He used the term ‘blabber’ as a code word.”
“What information did you find on our companies?” asked Damien.
“Nothing that anyone couldn’t discover with a bit of persistent digging, until a few months ago. Shortly after Ernest was hired as foreman.”
Damien swore under his breath.
“He and Rob have been in touch all this time, and it appears based on what I found that Ernest was feeding Rob as much information as he could gather about Rivera Construction.”
Damien slammed his fist on the table. “Well, at least that pipeline has now dried up.”
“What did Rob mean about Rafael still owing him money?” asked Dominic.
“I don’t know. They never went back to that subject in this conversation, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other conversations out there where that question is answered.”
“Did Rafael and Rob talk about anything else in this particular one?” asked Viggo.
“Oh yeah. Take a look at this.” Santino zoomed in on part of the chat.
“Holy shit,” said Viggo, pointing toward a line on the screen. “Look at this. Do you think it’s true?”
“Hard to say,” said Dominic. “Ace described him as one of those men who liked to show off and pretend he was more than he really was. The fact that he’s not hiding online very well proves his skills weren’t up to the level Ace thought they were when he hired him for the hacker team.”
“What concerns me more is the wording here,” said Damien. “It almost makes it sound as though Rafael already knows this to be true, and Rob is merely restating a fact.”
“Possibly,” said Viggo. “Or Ace could be right and Rob is simply a narcissist who wants to be seen. He wants us to realize it’s him. It’s all about his ego.”
“Just the same,” said Damien, “I think we need to take this seriously until we can confirm it’s not real.”
“How do we find out if Rob is bragging or stating a fact?” asked Dominic. “If we confront him he’ll change names again. We only found him by accident the second time. We might not get that lucky a third time.”
“I have an idea,” said Santino, “but it’s not exactly … how shall I put this? It’s not exactly on the up and up.”
“Let’s hear it,” said Damien.
Santino laughed nervously. “You might fire me.”
“I won’t fire you.”
“After all this time,” said Dominic, “and after everything we’ve each done to find these bastards, if what you’re proposing gets us closer to the truth, we need to consider it. If Damien fires you for suggesting it, I’ll hire you and pay to move you here.”
The men laughed, and then Santino cleared his throat. “All right. Here’s my idea. I agree that if any of you confront him, he’ll take off again. I considered trying to hack into his personal PC, but he likely has detection software installed. He might be a narcissist, or he might simply be sloppy, but either way, I believe if he finds out we’re onto him, he’ll be gone again. We need his PC. No matter what firewall he has on there, we can break through it.”
“Angela can get through it if no one else can,” said Dominic.
“Are you proposing we steal it?” asked Viggo, grinning.
“Yes. We make it look like a burglary at his home. Once we have the PC, we can find out if what he said here to Rafael is true, and we’ll have access to everything he’s said to the other hackers if it is true.”
No one spoke for several moments. They’d all waited so long, and to think they might now this close was almost too much for any of them to believe.
“Have you tried to hack in?” asked Damien.
“Not yet.”
“He’s right,” said Dominic. “If Rob has detection software on it he’ll know that Santino tried. He’ll be in the wind again, and this is too damn important to let him get away now.”
The three stared at each other. In the seven years since most of them had moved underground and concentrated their efforts on finding the hackers that had driven them there, they had never done anything outright illegal. Once they crossed that line, they could never go back, but none of them needed to say that out loud. Damien knew they all were thinking the same thing right now.
As Damien weighed the pros and cons in his head, he pictured Sela’s face. What would she think of this plan? What would she think of him, going along with it?
Chapter Fourteen
Sela raised her glass and clinked it with Angela’s. “To our men. They’re dominant but not
cruel. They run their companies with iron fists, but they treat us like royalty.”
“Oh yeah,” said Angela, taking a large sip of her drink. Both women were on their third ones. “And they fuck like gods.”
Sela laughed. She loved Angela’s blunt honesty, but she also now knew more about the way Dominic made love than she imagined the man would be comfortable with. “Yes, they sure do.”
She eyed Angela’s engagement ring again. It was absolutely stunning, as was she. A hot pang of jealousy shot through Sela, but not because of envy for Angela’s looks or the fact that she was engaged. She was so content, and that’s what Sela wanted, too. Now that she’d found Damien, would she have that kind of a life with him? Was it possible? Did he want the same things that Dominic obviously did?
“So tell me more about … what’s it called? Your dance studio?”
Sela was grateful for Angela’s question. It was healthier to focus on what she did have. “Canción de la Danza. It means—”
“Dance song, right?” asked Angela, cutting her off.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“It’s similar in Italian. Cazone di ballo.”
“Do you and Dominic speak Italian to each other?”
“Not very often. How about you and Damien? Do you speak in Spanish a lot?”
“Once in a while. I love to hear him speak it to his customers and employees. So many of them speak it, so he does, too, out of respect for their native language. It sounds so sexy coming out his mouth.”
“It’s a beautiful language.”
“So is Italian.” Sela popped another jalapeno popper into her mouth. “Where did you learn to speak it?”
“My mother taught me. We still use it so I don’t lose the language. She actually speaks several languages and uses those skills in her work as a medical transcriptionist.”
“How amazing is that? I would love to learn another one besides the two I know, but I’d choose something less common as the third one.”
“Why don’t you?”
“I think I will.” Sela finished the last of her burger. “Right after I hire the remainder of the instructors for my studio, and make some money once it opens.”
“I admire you for doing that. For pursuing a dream that way.”
“Thanks.” She sighed as she finished her drink. “Sometimes I think I should have listened to my brother and earned a business degree. At least I’d be making real money by now.”
Angela snorted. “Not necessarily. The competition is fierce. I got lucky. And don’t forget, this is what I wanted to do from the time I was fourteen.”
“That’s a good point. At least we both have the chance to chase our dreams.”
Angela raised her glass, which barely had one sip left in it. “Exactly. Not very many people have that chance.” She clinked it against Sela’s. “Here’s to chasing a dream.”
“And to chasing it with a man we love by our sides.”
“Amen to that.”
****
Damien paced the apartment Viggo had let him and Sela stay in while they were in CentralWest. He knew she was safe, and that she’d be back soon. She and Angela had gone to a place called the Red Dog Saloon, and Dominic had assured him that he would escort them both home from the restaurant if necessary.
He wasn’t nervous about any harm coming to Sela. He was worried about telling her what he and the other Weathermen had decided to do about Rob Marin. They’d talked for two hours in the video call with Santino, and hadn’t reached their decision easily, but Damien knew in his heart that this would be a huge leap forward in finding these bastards.
When Sela walked in, he could tell she’d been drinking, but she was walking fine and addressed him a lucid voice. What he was about to tell her would likely sober her up in a hurry. After waiting while she told him what a fun time she’d had, and how much she liked Angela, he asked her to sit down.
“What’s wrong? Did something else happen with the mall?”
“No, no. Nothing like that. I have really exciting news, but we’ve all decided to handle it in a way that isn’t exactly legit.”
She frowned in confusion and took a seat on the sofa. He sat next to her. After outlining what they’d discovered about Ernest’s third alias, and what Santino had found on the message boards, he told her what they’d learned about Rob Marin. “We need his laptop.” He then told her why Santino was reluctant to try to hack into it, and she said she understood.
“But how are you going to get his computer?”
Damien took a deep breath. “Viggo has some acquaintances who happen to specialize in this sort of thing. He met them when he went to Northwestern above ground, in Chicago. That’s where he met Dominic, too.”
“What kind of associates?” The way she asked told him she knew exactly what he meant.
“The kind that aren’t above breaking into someone’s home.”
“You’re going to steal the man’s laptop?”
“Yes.”
She sighed, and then she leaned back and closed her eyes. She stayed that way for so long he wondered if she’d fallen asleep. Finally, she opened them again. “Are you absolutely certain there is no way to hack into it without him knowing you did it?”
“No, we’re not sure at all. But what’s the difference if we take it or hack into it? Either way, we look at all the information on his hard drive.”
She nodded slowly. “You’re right. Can Viggo’s associates do this without harming Rob or his wife?”
Damien held up his hands. “Absolutely. Without a doubt. That’s not what we want to do. The only thing that will be harmed is the lock on his front door, or the glass in a window. Whichever they feel will attract the least attention. They’ll be in and out, and will take a few other things so it looks like a burglary that got interrupted.”
“He likely has more than one computer or laptop.”
Damien shook his head. “If he does, he’s not posting from it.”
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one.”
“I know. They’ll look for another one while they’re in there.”
“Tell me one thing. What on earth did you find in this conversation you discovered that led you all to the decision that this was the only possible course of action?”
Damien grinned. “That’s the best part.”
****
It wasn’t the first time Sela had heard mention of the possibility of one or more of the Weatherman having to resort to illegal activities to accomplish what they were trying to do. What little Santino had told her about what their hacker and tracer teams did every day sounded barely legal to her as it was. She only wanted to make sure none of this could come back to haunt any of them, especially the man she loved.
Damien shifted his weight toward her. Every nuance of his body language screamed excitement. What on earth had Santino found?
“Rob told Rafael, aka Ernest, in that specific conversation that he knew the hackers. The original ones. The ones who found a way into The Madeline Project and tried to take it down with the Tommy Twister virus.”
She stared at him, unable to form a single word.
“But it was the way he said it that has us worried. As if Rafael already knew, and Rob was only restating a fact, because they then went on to discuss details that only the hackers would know. How the program was supposed to work, who was supposed to have access to it, when and where the real time tests had been scheduled to occur, and what failsafes were in place in case something went wrong.”
She tilted her head slightly. “Couldn’t he have found that somewhere else? I mean, wouldn’t it still be out there? In the files at NSSL, perhaps? Rob has hacking skills. What if he found all that and is now trying to convince people he knows more than he does? You said Ace described him as that kind of a man.”
Damien shook his head the entire time she spoke. “We thought of that, but all of us know what was still out there to find before the NSSL servers went down for good, and wha
t wasn’t. None of the information that Rob and Rafael discussed would have been found by hacking into the NSSL servers because it wasn’t on them.”
“What do you mean?”
He looked uncertain for a split second. “You can’t discuss this with anyone. Not even Angela. If Dominic decides to tell her, that’s his business, but I’m not supposed to be telling you this.”
His trust in her made her heart melt even more than it had already done. “Okay. I promise.”
“The information that the public believes the hackers had, and that allowed them to access The Madeline Project in the first place, was said to be on the servers at NSSL, but that’s not true. It’s what the public was told, but it’s a lie. A decision was made never to reveal the real source of the information the hackers used, because no one wanted copycats.”
“Oh, I see. And not saying anything would make the hackers think they were safe. You hid this information so you could find them easier.”
He smiled. “Yeah. Easier. No one thought in their wildest dreams that it would take this long, but yes. You have the gist of it.”
“How did you get the media to cooperate?”
“Blaine Parker was behind that. He owns Clear Channel Industries. They distribute media, including the news, over the Internet for half the world. He spoke with the people who own the rest of the companies servicing the globe, and they all agreed this information had to be kept from the public.”
“Wow. You really do have friends in high places. So where is this top secret source of information?”
“On servers located inside a silo on the outskirts of the former border between Texas and Oklahoma. The silo is north of a town called Perryton, on what used to be US Route 83. Very few people other than high level officials at NSSL knew about the silo and the servers housed there.”
“How do you know about it?”
“Six of the Weathermen knew about it because of the industries they were in, and because most of us had contacts inside NSSL. Even the government agencies who knew about The Madeline Project didn’t have the information about the off-site servers.”
Sela put a hand to her mouth. “That’s why Dominic always believed it was an inside job. Santino told me that.”