Danger On the Run

by Wylder Stone

  An odd silence stood between them, so much so that she could hear James swallow before he finally broke the moment they shared, with a softer than usual look and care in his voice. “He doesn’t get either, Genevieve. Not the money and not you.”

  Her breath caught when the meaning and sentiment behind his words settled in, leaving her with a soft smile. Her voice fell to a whisper. “This is the side of you everyone misses, James.”

  Like the flip of a switch, he turned off whatever it was he was revealing at that moment. James’s expression hardened, his body stiffened, and his eyes tightened as they went cold. “I’m the same person I’ve always been.”

  “What? Run when things get tough? Pretend you don’t feel anything?” Genevieve wasn’t giving up. One day he would break. He had to.

  “I feel plenty,” he defended, the coolness in his voice saying she’d hit a nerve. He gripped her shoulders and spoke through gritted teeth. “I don’t run. I fight for what I love because I can’t lose anyone else. You hear me? Anyone.”

  Releasing her quickly, he spun his chair away and held his head in his hands as his elbows rested on the desk in front of him. A deep sigh of frustration and maybe a little sadness escaped him. He was reeling, and Genevieve could see it. He wanted to feel. He wanted to tell her what he felt. She needed it. They needed it. They all needed him to finally break through.

  “Genevieve, I…”

  “Yes?” she asked, not letting him off the hook easily.

  “I can’t do this right now.” James went back to pecking away at his keyboard, the moment lost. “Tell me if you find anything else.”

  Before disappointment could settle in for either of them, several of the wall screens began to flash information, and an alarm sounded until all of them were flashing different error codes and images.

  “Holy shit!” James said with excitement, his hands cruising across his keyboard. “There he is.”

  Jackson walked in with Derek and said, “We’re back from school. Ru had a good day and no threats.”

  “What happened?” Derek asked, taking in the scene they’d walked in on. “What’s going on?”

  James turned around and panicked. “Where the hell is Ruby?”

  “Calm down,” Jackson said to his twin brother, “she’s across the street at Sugar Babies picking out a treat with Troy real quick. She’s safe, man.”

  Relieved, James took a moment to compose himself before turning back to his computer. “Message him and tell him to hurry up and get in the building. Watson, or who we suspect as Watson, made another move. We got eyes on him, not just his location.”

  “What the hell?” Jackson and Derek pulled up chairs behind their brother and Genevieve, who was typing away alongside James. They made a great team that way. “How do you see him? How do you know it’s him?”

  “Because he’s on camera, buying shit with our credit cards,” James answered. “That’s what the alarm is. He set it off and doesn’t even know it.”

  “You watch our accounts?” Jackson wasn’t pleased with the idea that his brother could see his financial comings and goings.

  “Hey, Ru is home. Mom’s with her, teaching her to sew or knit,” Troy said as he came in, enjoying a pastry from the box he was holding. “I think I know what we’re all getting from Ru for the next several holidays.” He began to laugh at the idea until he took in his brothers’ concerned expressions. “What did I miss?”

  “We just learned that James watches all of our financials,” Derek said, grabbing a donut from the box.

  “No. I protect them, making it hard for anyone to do this,” James defended, pointing at the screen. “We’re always targets, even in this way. What’s the first thing an enemy will do? Disable you. How? By all means. Money is all means. You’re welcome, asshole. And for the record, I don’t log in and search your shit. I wrote a program to sit watch.”

  “Fine.” Jackson tossed up his hands. “So, where is he?”

  “Well,” James began, scanning his screen, pointing out what he was looking at, “it looks like the first three purchases that popped up were online. He’s kind of all over the place?”

  “Is he sending the stuff here? Doing some sort of store pickup?” Troy asked.

  “No,” James chided. “I’m canceling and reporting each transaction as I go through them. Nothing is shipping anywhere. When he sees the cancellations, though, he’ll know I’m right on his heels. He’s used three cards. I’m just waiting for him to use mine and Genevieve's.” His words stalled as he got lost in his work and ignored the people around him.

  Troy was on the edge of his seat, completely intrigued. “C’mon, what did he buy?”

  “He did the online order simultaneously with my purchase. He must have programmed it somehow to buy on a virtual timer of sorts. Makes sense.”

  “If you say so,” Troy hounded. “What were the other two purchases? Anything we can use to catch up with him?”

  “It’s just random department stores and subscription services,” James shared. “Kind of all over the place. I don’t see a pattern in the items or a message of any kind if he’s trying to send one beyond the fact that he knows who we are and found our credit cards.”

  “Which is frightening,” Genevieve said. “How do you find that kind of information unless you know what and where to look. We may have a breach somewhere. I’ll start running a diagnostic on all our systems to make sure he didn’t sneak in anywhere.”

  “Good idea,” James said. “Looks like I got pictures coming up from Genevieve’s purchase. The camera feed is loading. Finally, let’s see the bastard.” James shook his head as he waited for them to populate on one of his screens. “You bought a car, Genevieve.”

  “He used her name to buy a fucking car? How? Her name is pretty universally a woman's name. So how does a guy use it and in person, no less?” Derek questioned.

  “Because the Genevieve they’re selling a car to is a woman. You’re not going to believe this.” James sat back in his chair as the pictures loaded on his screen.

  “There are two of them?” Jackson questioned. “No shit – two.”

  Genevieve let out a sharp gasp and looked closer. “Benson and Tasha?”

  Shock consumed her, and her face drained of all color when she flopped back in her chair, mouth gaping in surprise.

  “You okay?” James asked softly, knowing it would be a significant blow.

  “I don’t know. Yeah? No?” She looked at James, her head shaking, unsure how to answer. “I don’t know what to think.”

  “And they are…?” Derek left the question hanging, reeling his hand in front of himself as he studied the images, trying to piece together the scene and suspects.

  Genevieve turned to each of them, grief finally taking over in a tearful manner. “My ex-fiancé and sister…my dead sister.”

  “How is that possible?” Troy questioned after finding out exactly who the two on the video were.

  “I don’t know? When Benson disappeared and never came home, I assumed he ran with some money, or maybe he was one of the John Does in the warehouse explosion,” Genevieve explained of her ex-fiancé, who also worked for Watson. “Tasha, though… If she’s alive, who did I bury? And why is she with Benson, of all people?”

  “Good question.” James had been there the day Genevieve buried her sister. He remembered how hard it was for her. She’d lost so much.

  “Why did you think he took the money? Was he hacking on the side?” Jackson asked.

  “He worked for the same company, but I never knew if he was doing it willingly or totally in the dark like I was. I never got a chance to ask him. There was money James and I couldn’t find. We were able to account for what Watson was blowing through, uncovered the accounts that were just sitting there, but a couple of million just went…missing,” Genevieve recalled.

  “That must be the money he thinks you have. Maybe it wasn’t the money James put back but that money?” Derek paced the office, piecing toget
her what made the most sense given the circumstances. “Maybe he did break back past James’s fire things…”

  “Firewalls,” James corrected.

  “Firewall…” Derek continued. “Maybe the guy did his own accounting and noticed the inconsistency too. He knows there’s a few million out there somewhere.”

  “I suppose there’s a small possibility he was able to get in, but why didn’t he try to take the money once he was in?” James questioned. A guy like that, so savvy he could possibly break through a nearly unbreakable security wall – why not take what he could once inside?

  Jackson nodded slowly as he stared off at nothing in particular, letting the clues fall into place. “Under the radar. He’s dead, remember? Why let the world know he’s back from the grave if he doesn’t have to? Besides, getting in our files isn’t the only way he could look through ledgers and play with numbers. If he’s as good as you all say, he could have broken into sealed court records and evidence files.”

  “Good point, but none of this is really relevant.” It was a story with a thousand endings, Genevieve thought, but the only ending she cared about was the one where this guy was behind bars or back in the grave where he belonged. “Benson and Tasha should be our focus, and it looks like they’re working for Watson.”

  “Or…” James interrupted, standing from his chair, “they are Watson.” James looked down at her. “Is that possible, Genevieve?”

  “No!” Genevieve shouted. “N-Not my sister. She was just a kid, a teenager, then. She was in college.”

  “Okay, so rule her out for a minute,” James offered. “Could Benson be Watson? I mean, you both worked for him. What if Benson wasn’t really working for anyone but himself and was there to keep an eye on you? You were his biggest producer, his strongest hacker.” The more James said out loud, the more it all made sense. “You were also the most likely to blow his cover, and you did.”

  Jackson needed more, needed Genevieve to think harder and give them something she may not even realize she had, so he took a low blow. “You were engaged to the guy. How do you not know who he was or what side he was playing for, Vivi?”

  She whipped her head toward Jackson with a hard glare focused on him. “Yeah, Jackson, I was engaged to him and thought it was forever until he delivered my mom and sister to Watson and ran with money that Watson thinks I have.” With a surprised gasp, she quickly covered her mouth, shocked by her own admission. Was that what she really thought? Was that what really happened?

  Jackson leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. “C’mon, Vivi. Think, girl. What else? What else do you know? Put it together. What really happened?”

  Genevieve nodded her head, gaze locked on Jackson’s while searching his expression like it held all the clues. He had stirred something in her, uncovering memories she had long since buried in the deepest darkest parts of her psyche. It was coming back to her, though. She needed to remember, wanted to remember.

  “I never really met Watson, not face-to-face anyway. It was always through emails and messages where his voice was disguised,” she recalled. “He could have been anyone. I mean, when your ex and your sister rise from the dead, anything is possible, and this has Watson, or whoever, written all over it.”

  “Good job, Vivi,” Jackson said, offering her encouragement. He’d interrogated plenty of victims over the years as well as hostile witnesses and terrorists. He was a strong subscriber to the idea that people tended to know more than they thought or knew they did. “Keep talkin’.”

  “I didn’t blow it with Watson by asking too many questions. Benson…he knew I found out that Watson wasn’t legal,” Genevieve added. “I told him everything. He knew because I told him. I handed him the smoking gun, and he used it to blackmail me and keep me working by kidnapping my mom and sister.” Genevieve couldn’t believe what she was saying. What a fool she had been. “Benson bailed when you guys showed up. That’s how he knew you were coming for Watson. He was Watson. Right?”

  “Shit, Vivi.” Derek dropped his head and shook it in disbelief. “This really is the kind of shit made for movies. Okay, we have two theories and need to treat this like we have three unsubs until we know otherwise – Watson, Benson, and Tasha.” He looked at Genevieve, certain that referring to her sister as a criminal stung. “Until we know she’s innocent, we have to assume she’s in on this, Vivi. Even if they aren’t Watson, they look guilty pulling copycat crimes.”

  “I understand,” she said quietly.

  “Who’s Watson? Where is he? How does this Benson fella fit into it? And where’s your sister been all of these years?” Troy asked, bullet-pointing what needed to be addressed in their investigation.

  “And where’s my mom?” Genevieve added to the ever-growing list of questions and concerns.

  “We have current images now, so I can start facial recognition to pinpoint where they are and go from there. I won’t look too broad, or it will slow the search.” James was on a roll. They had a long list of questions, and it was time for answers. “If they get within one hundred miles of us, we’ll know they’re coming.”

  “Can’t you tell where they are by the online orders? Didn’t he put in an address?” Troy asked.

  “Sure, says he’s in Tallahassee.” James laughed. “And Seattle…Birmingham…Chicago…and San Diego, just a few hours south of here. He’s fucking with us.” James paused, looking at his screens, each holding different bits of information. “There has to be a clue in all of this, though. I just need to find it. I’ll write a program to look for patterns and dissect the pictures. Genevieve, I’ll want your help with that. Much faster with both of us on it.”

  “Sure thing.” She smiled. They were still worlds apart, but James’s request for help meant something. She didn’t know what yet, but she’d take it. He was about to be her knight in shining armor. She just hoped he was ready for that.

  “So, this is a game of who can out technology the other now?” Derek asked with a chuckle.

  “Exactly. He gave us a trail. We just need to find it in all of this,” James added, his fingers already tapping away. “There’s always a trail.”

  “Whatever happened to the bad guy just chasing us with a gun?” Jackson asked, his tone laced in sarcasm, but his question was real.

  “This is a new kind of manhunt, boys, like hunting someone who isn’t there,” James answered. “Technology can make you believe anything and everything, then hide it all in an instant, like chasing a ghost, or it makes you lose your mind when things you thought were there, suddenly aren’t. It’s now our greatest enemy while also our greatest tool. It’s how we are going to resolve this as much as it will threaten us.”

  “So, get on that fancy system of yours, James, and hunt like you’re starving for your next meal. Find him. Beat him. Case closed, brother,” Jackson said with overwhelming confidence in his twin.

  “I will, and it’s the innerweb.” James smiled, focused on his wall of screens. “I just need to find the first needle in the fucking haystack of layers and layers of coding and programming.”

  “Ummm.” Genevieve turned from her computer, interrupting the silence surrounding them. “I already may have found that needle you’re looking for. Well, found help anyway.”

  James stopped what he was doing and listened. All they needed was another small break. “Okay? And?”

  “He’s an old…friend. He’s actually how I got hooked up with Watson and ultimately met Benson,” she explained. “I can’t reach him, though. He’s off the grid. But I think I know where he is.”

  James jumped to his feet and hung his cardigan sweater, swapping it for a jacket.

  “Hold on, he needs to hang the sweater and switch from his inside jacket to his outside jacket. Are you going to change your shoes too?” Troy teased. James was often the butt of many harassing jokes because he was the quieter brother with all of the fun quirks to pick at.

  He flipped his brother off before turning to Genevieve. “Let�
��s go.”

  10

  “You may not like where we end up,” Genevieve said with trepidation. “In fact, you’ll probably hate it. Not your style. It’s just outside the city, a bit of a drive.”

  “I don’t mind the countryside, Genevieve,” James responded, looking out his passenger side window. “I assume that’s where we’re going to end up since we’re heading this way?”

  Genevieve kept her eyes on the road as she drove while trying to decide how much she should tell James in advance. “Umm, that’s not what I meant. Just keep an open mind.”

  The tall statured buildings and quick pace of the city slowly disappeared as they grew farther from city life. In less than thirty minutes, they would find themselves passing through the rural outskirts beyond Los Angeles. Their destination was in the middle of nowhere, which was hard to believe because the LA area was so saturated.

  Genevieve took an exit from the highway they had been traveling and continued along the tree-lined road that took them farther and farther away from civilization. Even the plentiful farmlands they’d happened upon became fewer and farther between until forest flanked each side of the road.

  James looked up from his phone when the signal grew weak, bouncing in and out of service. “Where exactly are we going? What could possibly be out here? I mean, there’s off the grid, then there’s this.” He laughed. “Does he live on one of those self-sustainable farms or something?”

  “Not exactly.” She snickered.

  As the trees grew thick, the bulky header shaded them from the sun, creating an eerie vibe that sent a chill down James’s back. “Are you sure this is the right way?”

  “How can you question my directions if you don’t even know where we’re going?” she fired back.

  “Well, we’re way the hell out here. It’s a little creepy. You also brought Owen’s big-ass dog. Is he for protection?” Irritated, James tossed a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at Killer the dog, who took up the entire back seat. “Do we need protection? I mean, if he hooked you up with the cyber Mafia and all…”