Tracker Hacker

by Jeff Adams

  I pulled my phone and dialed John in secure mode.

  Traffic slowly went around Eddie’s car. People looked, but no one stopped. The sirens were getting closer.

  “Shotgun,” I said when he answered. “Winger here.”

  “Really? Shouldn’t you be in class?”

  “I….” I had no idea what the protocol was. I’d never had to call for help before.

  “Winger?”

  “I need help. Someone just tried to….”

  “Okay.” John’s voice was soothing. “Calm down. Where are you?”

  “Um….” I looked around for street signs. “Williams Street. Near Cherry. Someone grabbed me. I was in a van. Eddie….” I ran up to the Jeep. His eyes fluttered like he couldn’t focus. “Eddie cut them off. He’s hurt.”

  “Stand by.” I heard John typing. “Are you hurt?” he finally asked.

  “Maybe. Probably just bruises.”

  “I’ve got an ambulance and police coming. They’ll address you by codename first for confirmation and then by your regular name.”

  “I already hear sirens.”

  “I had those diverted. We need agents at your scene just in case.”

  “Theo?” It was Eddie. I stopped listening to John.

  “I’m here.” The window was on the pavement, so I leaned through the empty frame. His face was peppered with cuts, some large enough for blood to flow. I pulled a glove out of my jacket pocket and used it to get some of the blood off him.

  “I can’t move,” he struggled to say.

  “Stand by,” I said into the phone before I jammed it in my jeans pocket.

  The door gouged into his side, no doubt causing him breathing trouble. A bloody spot on his shirt slowly got larger. I took off my backpack so I could get out of my sweatshirt. I balled it up and put it against Eddie’s side. He hissed as I applied pressure.

  “I’ve called for help.”

  I ran my hand through his hair, trying to be soothing.

  “Are you okay? I saw them….”

  His eyes fluttered closed.

  “Eddie?” I pulled my phone out and screamed into it as I tried to keep pressure on the sweatshirt. “You gotta get someone here now!”

  “Are you guys okay?” I jumped at the woman’s voice. She was in a plaid shirt, jeans, and an apron. I couldn’t tell where she came from. “I heard the crash from the back of the shop. I called the cops.”

  “Winger, they’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” John used the same voice he’d used on me when I was six and thought there was a monster under the bed. He tried to calm me down. “Who’s there with you? That didn’t sound like Eddie. Is he conscious?”

  “Oh man,” the woman said as she looked closer at Eddie.

  It was too much to process with this woman I didn’t know plus Eddie’s injuries and John on the phone.

  “He was,” I said into the phone, ignoring the question about the stranger. “He keeps looking like he’s trying to wake up.”

  “Can you get the door open?”

  “Let me see.”

  I left the sweatshirt in place and tried to secure it in place with the seat belt to keep some pressure. I tried the door. It was stuck.

  “Help me!” I yelled at the stranger. More people gathered on the sidewalk.

  She didn’t hesitate to step up as I again pocketed the phone. We put our hands on the handle and pulled. We gave it all we had and ended up falling backward when the handle came free of the crumpled metal. I lost my balance and fell to the pavement while she stayed upright. She offered me a hand up as I let go a string of curse words Mom wouldn’t have been happy about.

  I snatched the phone from my pocket as I heard sirens in the distance.

  “We can’t get it!” My voice cracked on every word.

  Police and ambulance careened onto the street and pulled up a few feet from me.

  “They’re here,” I said.

  “Work with them. Leave the phone connected and I’ll be here if you need me. I’m gonna get in touch with Snowbird and let her know what’s happening.”

  “Winger?” the police officer asked quietly as two paramedics from the ambulance went to the car. Another officer went to the woman who’d tried to help me with the door.

  “Yes, sir,” I said. I was shaking now. It was cold out, but the temperature had nothing to do with it.

  “I’m Iceman. You can call me Officer Clark.” He pointed to the nametag on his uniform.

  I nodded and shuddered.

  “Let’s get you to the other medic,” Clark said.

  “I’m okay. We gotta get Eddie….”

  My legs gave out, and if it hadn’t been for Officer Clark, I would’ve been on the ground again.

  “We’ll take care of him. I promise. Let’s get you taken care of too.”

  He walked me over to the other medic, who was in the back of the ambulance. “Theo, this is Flurry.”

  Agents surrounded me. It didn’t help me calm down.

  “You can call me Jenny,” she said. “Let’s lay you back so you can relax.”

  I lay on the bench she indicated. “Can you find out how Eddie is?” I looked back at Clark. “Please?”

  “Sure thing.”

  He nodded at Jenny as she took my pulse. She nodded back. I noticed she had a gun under her jacket. I was pretty sure that wasn’t standard paramedic issue. The sounds of metal ripping echoed outside. They must be tearing the door off.

  Officer Clark reappeared as Jenny felt around my chest, which made me flinch and sometimes gasp depending on where she hit.

  “He’ll be out of the Jeep in just a few minutes. He’s conscious now. They want to take him to the hospital for stitches, X-rays, and to monitor for concussion.”

  I shook uncontrollably and nodded. I had to keep my shit together. These were agents. I couldn’t break down like a little kid.

  Clark put his hand on my shoulder, and the sympathy in that nearly broke my efforts not to cry.

  “You’re both going to be okay,” Clark said. “Let Jenny take care of you. We’ll take care of Eddie. He’ll be in here with you in a few minutes.”

  As he said that, one of the medics came and pulled the stretcher from the ambulance.

  “A TOS doc will see you at the hospital, and we’ll keep you secure there. Your mom—”

  “My game. Tonight. John’s got to….”

  Shit, I’d said his name. But these guys were okay. They were TOS. But dammit. Clark and Jenny looked at each other. I wiggled around to free my phone. It was still connected.

  “Jo—” I caught myself. I wasn’t thinking straight. “Shotgun, you’ve got to get hold of my coach and tell him what’s happened. I don’t think….”

  The shakes became uncontrollable and I dropped the phone. As I reached over the side of the bench to get it, dizziness overtook me and—

  Chapter Five

  “EDDIE!”

  I sat upright and looked around. Mom and John had been talking softly by the window and rushed to the bed. I was shirtless and hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV. I was in the hospital. Suddenly pains shot through me. It felt like a huge defenseman had mowed me down while I was on a full-speed breakaway.

  “Oh, Theo. I’m so glad you’re awake,” Mom said.

  Mom gently laid me back down and pulled the sheet over me. Taking inventory of my body, I quickly realized everything hurt, sometimes sharply. Someone had taken my jeans off, but I was still in boxers and socks. I seemed to be able to move okay, though.

  I found the controls on the side of the bed and raised myself up to more of a sitting position.

  “Eddie saved me,” I said rapidly while I adjusted the bed. “He stopped those guys. They grabbed me off—oh no, my bike! It’s somewhere on Williams.”

  My mind was so scattered. Thoughts flooded my head—Eddie, the accident, why did it happen, what was happening with the tracker problem. I couldn’t lock in on any one thing.

  “We’ve recovered it,”
John said, and it took me a second to remember what he was talking about. “A lot of people are investigating what happened.”

  “Eddie?”

  “He’s fine,” Mom said. “Banged up, stitches on his face and on his side, and a slight concussion. He was very lucky. It sounds like he’ll go home tonight, though.”

  “Can I see him?”

  “In a minute. He’s just down the hall and has been asking for you.” Mom took my hand. “Listen closely, okay?” I nodded. “We’re calling this a botched kidnapping attempt that Eddie saved you from, which is pretty close to the truth. It’s what’ll be in the police report, and it’s the story we give to anyone who asks.”

  “Got it,” I said.

  Why anyone would want to kidnap me was a mystery, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to sell that to Eddie or my friends. I guessed we’d figure that out later.

  A nurse came in. “You’re awake. That’s good. Let’s take some vitals and see how you’re doing.”

  “Can I see my boyfriend?”

  “When I’m done here, I’ll see if he’s still awake. I know he’ll want to see you.” She smiled and set about her tasks.

  While she checked me out, my phone vibrated on the bedside table. It was Lorenzo or someone else from TOS. Clearly the nurse wasn’t TOS-cleared because John didn’t give me the phone.

  “Everything looks good for you,” she said after what felt like an hour. “You’re going to have some bruises, and you’ve got a couple of stitches above your right eye, but otherwise you’re okay. As soon as this IV finishes, we’re clear to release you if your vitals stay stable.”

  “Thank you,” Mom said.

  The nurse patted me on the shoulder. “I’ll see if your boyfriend’s awake.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  As soon as she was gone, John handed me the phone. There was a text from Lorenzo to call him.

  “Doctor Possible. Winger here.” The weariness in my voice stunned me. All my usual energy was gone.

  “Thank God you’re okay.” Lorenzo sounded relieved. “Do you want an update or do you need some time?”

  “Let me have it. I can talk. Only Shotgun and Snowbird are here. I’m still in the hospital, so if someone comes in, I’ll be careful.”

  “Got it,” he said. “You should know your chip’s gone off the grid. When Shotgun called in to get your exact location, we saw it was out of the system. Checking the logs, we know your chip went off-line about two hours before you called Shotgun. We’re running analysis on the logs and comparing to the others that have gone off-line.”

  “Can you send me my logs?”

  “Already done. They’re in your email.”

  I thought about the info. That explained why the van was at the school. They were going after someone. Did they know who they were getting when they picked me up? Were they just told to pick up the person with the tracker they’d locked on to? Why the grab? Was that why the van circled around? Were they trying to figure out if I was the right target?

  We knew there were chips that had gone off grid, but the agents were mostly accounted for. At least I had two trackers I could test—mine that was off the TOS grid because of whatever’s happening, and the new one that was working normally, or at least it was this morning.

  “Thanks. I’ll work on it tonight.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mom piped up. “You need to rest.”

  “You can hit the ground running tomorrow,” Lorenzo said. “Get your strength back. We’ll keep new details coming to you in email.”

  The nurse returned, peeking around the door, and I pulled the phone away from my ear.

  “Oh, sorry,” she said, entering the room. “Eddie’s awake and you can see him. He’s right next door. If you want I can bring a wheelchair, or you can walk with the IV pole. I did bring you another gown so you can put it on backwards and cover up.”

  She put the gown on the bedside table.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’ll do the walk.”

  “I’ll let you get changed and I’ll be back to walk you, just to be safe.”

  I was about to say something, but John spoke up. “I can make sure he’s okay in the hall.”

  I was thankful for that. I didn’t like needing the help, but if I had to have it, I was grateful John volunteered.

  “Great. I’ll leave you to it.”

  She retreated.

  “Sorry about that, Doc.” I returned to the phone.

  “No worries. Go see him. I’ll email you later.”

  He disconnected, and John lowered the bedrail that was nearest him while Mom maneuvered the IV pole so I wouldn’t pull the tubing out.

  “Be prepared for how rough he looks, okay?” Mom asked.

  I nodded. I couldn’t imagine he could look worse than how he had in the crushed Jeep.

  I groaned when I stood up. Everything hurt. It was impossible to keep the grimace off my face. John helped me get into the second gown.

  “You sure a wheelchair wouldn’t be better?” John asked.

  “I’d rather not.”

  Mom gave me a light hug. “I’m so sorry, Theo. I….”

  She didn’t usually hold her words back. This wasn’t easy for her any more than it was for me. Usually my TOS work happened behind the safety of my desk. This was the first time I was directly involved. Yes, it was weird that occasionally I rescued my parents, but I didn’t actually see any of it. I just knew the outcome.

  This time Eddie and I got hurt.

  What had I done? If I hadn’t called Eddie, he wouldn’t be broken. I should’ve called John when I thought something was wrong. I’d put Eddie at risk. I owed him a lot, but what had it cost him? What if he couldn’t swim this winter because of his injuries?

  An eerie thought crossed my mind. What if TOS weren’t the good guys? I’d never thought that before. But this situation was different. We had to be the good guys. I’d have to figure it out later. I had more urgent things to deal with.

  This tracker problem was personal now. I had to bring down who or whatever had hurt Eddie.

  Chapter Six

  “SO YOU were just snatched off the bike?” Mitch asked. “That’s crazy, man. I don’t know what I’d have done in your place, or Eddie’s for that matter. Dude, it was ballsy to stop them like you did.”

  “I had to do something since they weren’t stopping. No one messes with my boyfriend like that.”

  Eddie sat up in his bed, propped up with pillows. Mitch and Iris were over along with me. I was on the bed next to him while Mitch and Iris were in his beanbags we usually played video games from.

  Since neither of us was fit for laser tag, they’d come here to hang out. There was, however, a rain check for the laser tag takedown.

  Eddie had gone home last night, and we video chatted when he got settled. Mom didn’t want me driving last night either since I was just out of the hospital too. Thankfully she let me out on my own today, even though there might still be a target on my back because my tracker was still not in the TOS system.

  Whereas I only had three stitches, the left side of Eddie’s face was swollen and peppered with stitches and butterfly bandages from the bits of debris caused by the crash. He also had a rib fracture, along with three bruised ones. A line of dozens of stitches ran down his left side where metal from the door had stabbed him. On top of that, he had a mild concussion.

  As much as it pained me to move, I knew it was a lot worse for him.

  My heart ached seeing him bandaged and bruised. His injury was because of me and he didn’t even know the truth about why. He rolled with the kidnapping story we were using. There was no reason for him to think it was anything else.

  “Why would anyone want to kidnap you?” Iris asked.

  “No idea. That’s what the police are trying to figure out. I’m nothing special. Yesterday I was just a kid on a bike, who got stuffed into a van. It’s bizarre.”

  “Are they close to finding the guys?” Mitch asked
.

  I shrugged. I actually didn’t know. When they briefed me this morning, TOS had reviewed traffic-cam footage. Mud covered the van’s license plate, so other than knowing it was from Massachusetts, there was no number to trace. The vehicle had come out of a residential neighborhood when it first appeared on traffic cams. They’d combed through that neighborhood, but found no leads. The van went out of sight less than ten minutes after it hit Eddie. There’d been no sign of it since and a manual sweep of the last known area turned up nothing. With the tinting on the windows, it also meant the cams couldn’t see the driver.

  They were analyzing my bike for prints or anything else that might help ID the guys in the van. So far that was pointless as well. As I recalled, the guys wore gloves, so it wasn’t surprising there were no prints.

  It had been hard to watch Eddie’s Jeep get hit. He’d turned right so close to the van that they had no choice but to hit him. TOS forensics thought the van was reinforced, due to the amount of damage caused when it was going thirty miles an hour. The van escaped with only dents while the Jeep was a total loss.

  “I haven’t heard anything,” I finally said. “I just know, if it wasn’t for Eddie, I don’t know where I’d be.”

  I squeezed his hand.

  “Like I said,” Eddie coughed between words. “I couldn’t let anyone just take you. And don’t worry about me, I’ll be up and around in a couple of days.”

  “We definitely missed you at the game last night, man.”

  Mitch had already told me about the loss. It had been bad. This was the first game I’d missed in more than a season. Mitch said he’d been out of sync with the wing who replaced me, and the team as a whole had been off its game. Coach downplayed it, saying it was only because of the surprising news about why I was out.

  Another reason to be pissed off about the whole thing.

  “Mitch!” Iris admonished. “Don’t talk about that. Theo’s got enough on his mind.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Next week we’ll get a W.”

  “Here’s what I don’t get,” Eddie said, without the cough. “Why would they grab you like they did? If they’re so eager to get you, there’s got to be so many easier ways to do it.”