“I know it isn’t, dear,” Mary said. “And I know you have to be going. But one thing; just one favor. Because we’ll never meet again, I have to know. How do you think he got into the casino?”
Haylie stopped, dropped her arm to her side and turned to face Mary. “Through the dev server in Pennsylvania. That’s what Agent Wilcox told—”
“No, my dear,” Mary said. “Think bigger. How did this guy get into the Xasis?”
“I’m not sure I—”
“You haven’t seen the logs, I have. He left traces everywhere. He’s sloppy. He’s got raw talent, but no refinement. How does someone like that get into one of the most secure systems in the world?”
Haylie looked back at Mary, thinking. “I don’t know, maybe he got lucky, maybe he—”
“Wrong,” Mary said. “You know better than that. There’s no such thing as luck in our world.”
Haylie stared back at her in silence.
“And why isn’t he talking?” Mary continued. “He’s left a calling card everywhere but my front porch, so why isn’t he all over the message boards, bragging about all this nonsense?”
It doesn’t make any sense.
“You’re the smartest girl in the room, remember?” Mary said. “So tell me how any of this makes sense.”
Haylie’s said the only thing that didn’t sound crazy. “Because he can’t get in on his own. Someone else got him in. And that same person told him—”
“Told him to keep his mouth shut,” Mary nodded. “That’s what I think, too. He’s not doing this alone. There’s someone else. You see, Haylie, I’m not interested in finding the Endling, I’m interested in finding out who’s really behind this.”
“Why? Why do you give a rat’s ass about any of this?”
“Because we’re the only people in this building who know how this guy thinks. We just figured out more in five minutes together than that whole team of NSA stooges out there. They need us. This is our ticket out of here. Both of our tickets. And if there’s someone else out there pulling the strings, they must have something bigger in mind. This is going to keep going. Tell me, what did you find on the forums?”
“I saw him,” Haylie said. “He was researching backdoors.”
“He’s not done,” Mary nodded. “He’s going to hit somewhere else. Soon. He’s going to continue collecting data—data about people. Why is he doing this, Haylie? Why would someone be collecting people?”
“I don’t know.”
“Things are happening,” Mary said. “The Endling is finding his feet, and your world is changing as well. Even if you don’t know it yet.”
Haylie extended an arm out to the window and leaned heavily on the glass, catching her breath.
“Take it from someone who knows, Crash. Where you go, what you become … It all gets decided right here.”
“I don’t want the government to turn on me. I don’t want to end up like my brother.”
“Neither do I, my dear. But aren’t you interested in finding out what’s going on? We’ll catch the Endling—you and I—but even better, we’ll solve the puzzle. The truth. The man behind the curtain. And the truth—that’s what’s going to set us both free. If there’s a conspiracy here and we can uncover it, they’ll give us whatever we ask for.”
Haylie nodded. She took long steps back to the table. Just as she took her seat, there was a knock at the door and the man from the desk poked his head in.
“It’s time, Ms. Black,” he said.
“I’ll talk to Agent Wilcox,” Mary leaned across the table with a smile. “I’ll tell her that I won’t do this without you. We’re in this together, you and I.”
Haylie nodded, shuffling back towards the door, her head hung low. She turned to face Mary.
“If the Endling’s not calling the shots here,” Haylie asked, “why is he doing this? Is it money? Fame?”
A smile made its way onto Mary’s face as she leaned back in her chair. “Now you’re asking the right questions. He’s not interested in money; he could have grabbed millions from the Xasis, but he didn’t. For him, it’s about the calling card. He wants to be someone who can’t be ignored. He wants to be in the headlines. He wants his name to be known across the globe.”
“He wants—” Haylie stopped short when she realized what she was about to say. A chill went down her spine.
“He wants to be you, Crash,” Mary said. “He wants to be you.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cape Town, South Africa
October 28th, 11:47AM
The faded signs, hung crooked across the sides of each street corner, were the only hint of color that Caesar could see anywhere on the whole damn block. The streets of Cape Town were washed with beige and tan—even under the blanket of afternoon shadows the city felt like it had been whitewashed. His sandals slid on the ever-present grit of sand under his feet as he crossed over to the next block.
He paced past the African Art Wholesale Market and a cheap hostel to an alley lined with short, black posts keeping traffic off the sidewalk. As he sank deeper into next city block, the surroundings grew with life and color, and he felt himself drifting into a new world. There, below a bright purple awning, was the sign he had been looking for: A1 ESPRESSO BAR.
The coffee house was an indoor-outdoor type of setup, with tables inside under the cover of the building but wide-open barn doors that let in the ocean breeze. Inside he saw Sean, sipping a small cup of coffee with his laptop open, lined up next to Margo and Phillip. Caesar slid onto the stool directly across from them.
“You’re encrypting your traffic, I hope,” Caesar said to Sean.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Sean said. “Of course I am. Do you think I got stupider after Sydney?”
“What are you looking at?” Caesar asked.
“We’ve been searching for any mentions of Char since last week,” Margo said. “But there’s nothing. Not in the mainstream press, nothing on the hacking boards or underground channels. It’s like she just disappeared into thin air.”
Caesar looked up to the waitress as she flashed the half-smile of a woman that would rather be surfing. He ordered a double espresso and checked the row of televisions above the bar, one showing a feed from CNN International. Senator Hancock took up most of the screen, standing at a podium and preaching to his followers, his arms flailing and hair wildly blowing in every direction, even upwards. He had the look of a madman who was given a bullhorn, to the delight of the crowd. The banner behind him read ‘A NEW SECURITY FOR A NEW TIME.’
“My guess is,” Caesar said with a gesture to the screen, “we’ll either hear a lot about Char, or nothing at all. That seems to be the way things are headed these days.”
Sean turned to look at the TV. “You shouldn’t have picked a fight with Hancock. I don’t think that was smart.”
“Who, me?” Caesar said, crossing his arms with a smile.
“You really think this is a coincidence?” Phillip said. “That he’s decided to make his war on hackers one of the biggest pieces of his campaign right after you released the Skull and Bones files?”
“He didn’t get the worst of it,” Caesar shot back. “Besides, his followers are so crazy, the stuff I released on him bounced right off him. His people don’t care about facts.”
“He knows it was you,” Margo said, shaking her head. “He must—that’s the only thing that explains what happened in Sydney. You’ve created a monster, Caesar, one that won’t be happy until every hacker in America is behind bars.”
“But we’re not in America,” Caesar said. “Besides, that idiot isn’t going to win the election. We all know that. In a couple of weeks, he’ll just be a loudmouth on the speaking circuit. He’ll have no power.”
“He still has a few weeks to go,” Phillip said. “And he already got Char. We weren’t smart enough to see that coming, were we? They could already be on to us, and we wouldn’t have a clue.”
“His talk track is having an impact,” Mar
go said. “All of these speeches about hackers being the next big threat to security—the public is responding to them. The media has started giving Hancock twice as much coverage as Ortega—this hacker stuff just makes for better television. A few months ago, we didn’t have anyone on our tails, we could do whatever we wanted. But ever since you decided to release that goddamned data, we’ve been running. We can’t even stop and take a breath.”
“What do you call this?” Caesar said, gesturing around the room. “We’re in South Africa. It’s beautiful here—sun and sand and surf.”
“And where will we be tomorrow?” Margo said. “You have no idea, do you? This is no way to live.”
She gestured over to Phillip, who rose from his seat. The two packed up their laptops, threw backpack straps over their shoulders, and disappeared through the front doors.
Caesar watched them walk away, his eyes narrowing to slits. Just walk away. It’s just that easy for you, isn’t it?
“They have a point, you know,” Sean said, sipping at his coffee as the dust settled.
“They’re not right.”
“They’re not wrong,” Sean shot back. “We’re in a place where we can’t find a rhythm, can’t relax. The Skull and Bones operation broke too many eggs.”
“Well, maybe we shouldn’t have been relaxing in the first place,” Caesar said, still glaring at the exit where Margo and Phillip were no longer to be seen. They don’t know how hard this is. They don’t understand the pressure. If they did, they wouldn’t act like a couple of children. A couple of brats who don’t deserve what they have.
“We have code that will get us into any system in the world; maybe we should be using it. Breaking more eggs.”
“Maybe we should chill,” Sean said. “Back off, just for a bit. Phillip and Margo—they could use a few weeks off.”
“We can’t.” Caesar pointed up at the election coverage on the screen. His mind raced, looping and spiraling, as he tried to push thoughts of his team imploding out of his mind. Stay positive. Stay positive. “This isn’t the time. If we stop now, we could just get deeper into this mess.” He placed his fingers on his temples to try and block out the rush. His breath turned into short huffs, stuttering in and out in rapid pushes of air. He gripped the wooden bar with one hand, just to make sure he wasn’t falling.
“You okay, man?” Sean asked. “You’ve been pretty on edge since Sydney.”
Caesar cracked his eyes open as he heard the sound of his coffee arriving. He stirred the spoon, around and around, without pouring in any sugar or milk, to feel the calm liquid swirl at his command. “I need you to stick with me. Just for a few more weeks. We need to see this through, and then, I promise, we’ll take a nice long vacation. All of us. We’ll hack the systems of the nicest resort on the French Rivera and get us all suites for the week. Massages and drinks and everything. Sound good?”
Sean, nodded, watched the television screen as Hancock continued to scream to the crowd. “It feels like it’s only going to get harder from here on.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Caesar said. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Pushing back from the bar and keeping a careful eye on Caesar, Sean chose his words carefully. “Easy there, man. I think you need to pump the brakes a bit. I know Char was a tough loss but—”
“She’s not lost,” Caesar snapped back. “We’ll figure out a way to get her back. She’s still part of the team.” He looked up to the screen, his eyes scrolling left to right to follow the closed captioning display.
Our democracy is at risk. It’s at risk, and no one is paying attention, certainly not your current leaders. We don’t need warships and tanks like Senator Ortega says. We need a new form of security.
The threats from overseas and terrorists all over the world no longer come from bombs, but from computer code.
This new breed of terrorist—the hacker—is putting not only our national security at risk, but also our bank accounts, our privacy, and the safety of our children.
It’s time for a change, and I’m the only candidate who understands that the new world of security comes from technology. We need to lock these criminals up and throw away the key.
“He’s going to blow a gasket up there,” Caesar said. “It doesn’t help that he has no idea what he’s talking about.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sean said. “The people believe him. He started as just another crazy politician, but now that he has the nomination, the talking heads are starting to come around to his viewpoint.”
“He won’t win,” Caesar said. “We both know that.”
“The polls are close. It’s a dead tie,” Sean shot back.
The two sat without talking for a minute, staring down at the coffee. Sean finally broke the silence.
“How’s your sister doing?” Sean asked. “You check in on her recently?”
“Not today,” Caesar said. He opened his laptop and logged into the NSA’s central tracking database through a Tor browser, pinging Haylie’s ID that he had found a few months back. A smile grew across his face when he saw the geolocation blinking away in her dorm room, safe and sound. The anger left him, drifting away with each blink of the dot. A few seconds later, he felt almost normal.
“How much longer does she have?” Sean asked. “A year?”
“Year and a half, something like that,” Caesar said. “She can do the time; she can make it as long as they keep their side of the bargain. I just hope she doesn’t trust them too much.”
“She’s a smart girl,” Sean nodded. “Probably smarter than us. She was right to take that deal.”
“We need to be more careful,” Caesar said. “They got Char—they’re not done. They managed to not only find us, but work their way into our workflow. Our systems and processes are secure, but we got sloppy somewhere. We need to tighten things up, and we need to get back on track. The team needs another win. Just one win, and we can get some momentum back.”
“Stockholm,” Sean said. “I have friends up there—there’s a safe house, and a potential project. It should be off the radar.” Sean brought up the details of the project, tilting the screen in Caesar’s direction. As Caesar read, Sean lifted his coffee cup up and drained the last few drops.
“Cheer up, we’re the good guys,” Caesar said, forcing a smile as he reviewed the project details. A human-rights lawyer being blackmailed, his personal emails that contained a few too many secrets being held for ransom. “This one is perfect, we can help this guy. Ping the team. We’re heading to Sweden.” He slapped Sean on the shoulder. “C’mon, this is going to be fun.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
NSA Texas Cryptologic Center
San Antonio, TX
October 28th, 10:54AM
Haylie beamed, soaking in the technology from all directions as she slid into the seat next to Mary at the heart of the NSA’s command center. Dozens of workstations were arranged in semicircles around the perimeter, all facing the giant wall of screens at the front of the room. Agents turned to take in the spectacle forming behind them—two notorious hackers sitting just feet away—with looks that said “I didn’t expect this when I walked into work today.”
Haylie resisted the urge to reach out for the keyboard in front of her and just hover her hands over the keys and feel the slick black plastic under her fingertips. She looked over to Mary, who was angled towards the glow from the row of windows on the other side of the room. The view wasn’t anything to write home about—a parking lot, littered with off-white sedans and with a chain-link fence supporting lines of razor wire above—but Mary balanced her chin on her palm, staring at the sky, happy as a clam.
“Let’s not be shy, ladies,” Agent Wilcox said as she approached. “I just received authorization from my supervisor and the Lord above to grant full access for both of you, heaven help us. I want you to use that machine however you see fit, as long as I’m watching.” Wilcox shot a poisonous glance over to Agent Hernandez. “And I will be watching.”
Haylie reached out to the keyboard, extending her fingers. I can do anything I want. Anything. She cracked her knuckles, closing her eyes, her heart pounding.
“Where do you want to start?” Mary asked. “What do we have to work with?”
Haylie sat up in her chair, pushing her glasses back into place. “Let’s begin with the healthcare hack. I can write a script to index the log files from Patriarch, compare them to the ones from the Xasis hack. With any luck, the Endling left the same pattern behind on both.”
“That’s good, but I’ve got another idea,” Mary said. “Let’s chart our own course. Let’s walk through the problem at a high level, not rush into the tech side of the answer. Never spin yourself in circles on work you don’t have to do.”
“What do you mean?” Haylie asked, sitting back in her chair.
“Let’s take ourselves through the Endling’s journey so far,” Mary said. “Walk me through it.”
“The credit card company, that was his first test. He was trying to break through, trying to see if he could actually do it. It was brute force, not elegance.”
“Good. What’s next?”
“Xasis. Tough security, but he found a hole. Took a back way in. Went through an unsecured server at a satellite location. Getting better, but still working around the edges.”
“And what about Patriarch?” Mary asked.
Haylie could see Agent Wilcox leaning in towards her, giving Hernandez a look as he did the same.
“Patriarch,” Haylie repeated. “From what the files say, that one he knew he could get into. He grabbed everything he could. And this time, he went public with the calling card, he didn’t just leave it on the internal systems for the FBI to find. It was on the homepage.”
Crash Into Pieces (The Haylie Black Series Book 2) Page 10