Dangerous Code

by Stella Marie Alden

  Says? He may be pissed beyond reason but now, so am I. Other than that first day in the restaurant, I’ve told the truth. Mostly. A fact which he seems to have missed entirely. I glare at his back as he leaves the room.

  Joe’s tone is much nicer as he unbinds the phone cord wrapped around my ankles. “Did Colin tell you about the hypnotic program?”

  “A little. He’s being a butt-head. Can you explain more?”

  He snickers. “Give him a break. He was really worried about you and hasn’t slept for days. Nan can explain better than I can. Let me get you out of those.”

  He unlocks my cuffs, I thank him then lift my foot to my thigh. Dammit. The whole bandage is drenched in blood.

  Colin comes back into the room, carrying a medical kit and rips open a few packages. It looks like he is going to stitch me up. Have I mentioned how much I hate needles? Then as I try to focus on the monitor in front of Nan, he puts my foot in his lap.

  I ignore how good his hands feel on my legs and the long needle.

  Nan says, “Someone is controlling Jason.”

  “Yeah. I know. It’s Mahmoud Teherizad.”

  Everyone in the room stops talking and no one meets my gaze. I’ve learned that means that I’ve said something that makes everyone uncomfortable. In my experience, the only way to find out what is to ask.

  “What did I say wrong? Why are you all staring?”

  My primary developer, Sneha, knows me best so she answers, “They think you made up Mahmoud and that you are the terrorist.”

  “Wait. Me? What motivation could I possibly have? Has everyone lost their minds?”

  Joe scratches his head and says, “You have to admit. It’s a hell of a marketing campaign if you were about to put Jason up for sale. Already the paper is full of headlines about some remarkable program that the JTTF has purchased.”

  Whaaat? No way. “Colin. Tell them. I’m not like that.”

  He frowns silently, refusing to stick up for me. His turned down mouth means he’s either angry or sad. I’m not sure which.

  Georgio shrugs but Sneha mouths, “I believe you.”

  I mouth back, “Thank you.”

  Colin’s voice is as cold as the stuff he slathers over my wounded arm. “When did you first suspect Mahmoud was in your computer?”

  “Not until recently… maybe this week. But Mahmoud must’ve programmed a trap door early on in development. We did work together closely for months. That’s the only way this could’ve happened.”

  “Why not ask Jason to kick Mahmoud out?” Nan stops programming and looks at me.

  I wonder if she’s on my side. “He must have some kind of admin rights.”

  How can I convince them? They’re not smart enough to understand, except maybe Nan. If I shut Jason down now, there’s no way I’m ever going to be able to prove my innocence, especially when I tell them that the hypnotic program is probably mine, too.

  But none of that matters because Colin believes I’m a terrorist.

  Georgio kisses my hand. I like the handsome sweet talking analyst. Other than my team, he’s by far the nicest of the three.

  That why he’s the one I pick to share my old IP, the one with the hypnosis code. I explain how it works in whispers. “You need to let me talk to Jason. If he has this program, we can tell him to stop it but I wouldn’t do it yet.”

  “Why not?” His mouth is dropped open wide, still reading my code, and trying to understand. Nan scoots her chair over as well, then the rest of my programmers.

  “Let’s say it’s not Mahmoud but someone else controlling Jason. If you play your hand, they’ll just make a copy of it and start all over. Maybe this time, you won’t be able to catch them.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “That we insert a kind of virus into the program, render it useless, then find out who really is behind all this. It’s not me.”

  I get the feeling they aren’t going to agree to this. “If I’m wrong, Colin will arrest me. But if I’m right, we may find the real mastermind.”

  I hadn’t noticed that Colin had joined us, listening to every word. “Do it.”

  Chapter 24

  Colin, the butt-head.

  Megan’s sound asleep with her head on the table when I carry her upstairs to my loft. I tuck her in, struck with this painful longing. With her eyes closed and that angelic face on my pillow, I can’t help but want her. I have since I saw her in the Italian restaurant and it’s killing me.

  I need to forget her.

  My apartment is silent except for Nan, still sitting at the makeshift office, typing away. When Joe comes up behind her and whispers in her ear, she smiles and kisses him. He gives a quick look up at me and I nod. Then she takes his hand and follows him into the downstairs bedroom.

  I have to admit, I did not see that coming. My straight-laced partner and the tattooed hacker? Guess I’m taking the first watch.

  Downstairs, I crack open the front door. Simon, my Navy Seal buddy is out there. I helped him out of a jam a couple years ago and he was more than happy to pay it back. Not only that, he grabbed another friend on leave, both bored as shit. I gave them some state of the art surveillance gear and like kids on Christmas, they couldn’t wait to play. Simon coos like a pigeon which gives the all-clear and I shut the door.

  Megan should’ve sold that app long ago to Google or Microsoft or the government. Her small company hasn’t got the resources to protect her. The city is lucky nothing has happened before now.

  With such thoughts racing and the other guys occupied, I head back up the stairs and ease into a full lotus beside my sleeping genius. Women are nothing but trouble. Hadn’t I learned that by now? But how many woman would fight off a guy with a knife in the middle of the night, let alone stand up to me? I smile as I drop into a deep meditation with my senses wide open.

  For the next four hours, I fantasize every position I’d like to try with her, growing painfully hard, but at least it keeps me wide awake. When I can endure no longer, I go downstairs and tap on Joe’s door.

  “Just a sec.” He whispers to the tattooed girl in his bed and follows me into the kitchen.

  “You and her? Really?” I’m concerned about his choice in women. Joe doesn’t do casual and a girl like that is bound to break his heart. I’ve always pictured Joe with a blond soccer mom not with someone covered in ink.

  He pours a cup of coffee, sips, and grimaces. “Tastes like crap.”

  Then his eyes narrow. “Why don’t you go to bed? Otherwise you might as well take the second shift and I’ll continue where I left off.”

  I smirk, a bit jealous and wishing I could do the same with the woman in my bed.

  “What?” He grins from ear to ear.

  “Nothing. I just haven’t seen you this happy in years.” Not since his wife tore his heart out.

  He spits out his next sip and sets his mug down. Then he pours some grinds into a filter and adds water. “She’s amazing. Don’t say anything to her to scare her off. Okay? I mean it. I really like her.”

  “No worries.” I’m dying to ask how far the ink goes toward her privates but know that would earn me a punishing workout.

  Wandering back up to the loft, I spoon behind Megan. Her hair smells of that strawberry shampoo I scrubbed into her when we were in her tub. I know I’ve been a complete ass but what was I supposed to do? The people of the city come first.

  Finally, I fall asleep dreaming of that night in her office, when she leaned back on her elbows and spread her legs wide.

  “Colin! Dammit. They’re on the roof.” Joe’s shouting wakes me from some epic dreaming.

  For the second time in that many days, I wake by grabbing my gun and clicking the safety off. Then I roll on top of Megan and pull the comforter over our heads.

  Megan stirs and struggles. “What’s going on?”

  “Shhh… stay down.” Footsteps sound overhead on my roof.

  Joe barks out from downstairs, “Nan stay put. Georgio, to m
e. You awake, Colin?”

  “Yeah. I’m awake.”

  When my skylight cracks like gunfire, I duck us under the covers just as pebbles of glass pour down. Once out, I can’t believe my eyes. Masked Ninjas, dressed in black, descend from ropes tied to the roof.

  “There’s eight!” I yell down to Georgio and Joe.

  In the residual light from the city, I see they’re unarmed. Obviously, they’ve come for Megan. Not under my watch. Not again.

  When the first guy drops into the loft, I squat with two hands on the floor. Then I swing one leg around and kick behind his right kneecap. He buckles. I finish him off with a swift palm strike and turn to the next.

  Megan crawls out from under a pile of crumbled glass as four dash down the stairs. “Dan? Is that you? Are you nuts?”

  “You know this guy?” I almost lose focus, which is not good because there’s three in the upstairs loft coming for me.

  “That one is CIA.” She points to a dark-skinned man with slanted eyes trying to kick my ass.

  He tries to approach her. “Jenna, honey, stay clear.”

  Honey? She’s two timing me? With a spook?

  Her boyfriend, who’s been circling me with half-assed Jujitsu uses my surprise to get a solid blow to my chest.

  Joe shouts from downstairs. “So can I kill them or not?”

  Megan cries out, “No! Don’t! They’re CIA.”

  “That’s a negative. Lock her up.” I shove Megan behind me as Joe works his way to the foot of the stairs.

  Seconds later she’s pounding on the bathroom door. “Screw you guys. Let me out!”

  I can’t believe her asinine CIA boyfriend broke into my house and broke my skylight. “Look at my god-damned windows, Dan. Do you know how much those cost to replace?”

  I whip an arm out to block his roundhouse kick.

  I know by the clunk on the wood floor that Joe’s grabbed his favorite stick off the wall. Georgio prefers none. Those two can easily take on the four downstairs. If the intruders downstairs got the same lack of skills as mine in the loft, they’ll get the beating of their life.

  Me? I can’t wait to beat Dan-honey black and blue along with his two buddies but I’m a good guy and give them a chance to surrender. “You sure you want to do this?”

  “You slept with her, you bastard.” Dan-honey gets in a punch to my head while I’m busy breaking his fellow ninja’s arm.

  “I had no idea she was yours, Dan.” I say his name using as many syllables as humanly possible.

  He charges with a kick to my groin but I block it with a raised foot and use the momentum to follow through with my other foot to his head. While he drops onto his knees, dazed, his pal throws a punch at my face. I twist, block, and strike under the second guy’s ear with a ridge hand.

  They’re lucky Megan recognized them. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be pulling my punches and they’d be dead.

  “Stop!” The third intruder in the loft points a pistol from the far side of the room.

  “You know the weapon’s a game changer, right honey?” I back up with arms raised. There’ll be no more holding back.

  “Call off your dogs, hand her over, and we’ll go.” Dan-honey manages to stand and limp to the gunman’s side.

  My mind races, playing out the best scenario, one that won’t get anyone killed.

  On the floor below, my two buddies don’t hear my parley and finish off the last two standing. When Georgio runs half way up the metal stairs, I assume Joe’s guarding the women.

  Dan-honey shuffles over to the iron railing and looks down. “Don’t move Detective D’Angelo or O’Brien here gets a bullet in the head.”

  “Even spooks would have a hard time explaining two dead officers.” I really hate this guy.

  He shrugs. “Thank God we were nearby, heard a woman scream and were able to save her. Some drug deal gone bad. Dirty cops. Such a shame.”

  What’s taking Simon so long to respond?

  When her boyfriend tries a fist to my stomach, I block and hit him three times so fast that he stares with eyes wide. “They said you were good.”

  He has no idea.

  The guy in the corner waves the gun. “Stop dicking around, Chiang. Just get the woman and we’ll go.”

  A quick sidekick would remove the third ninja’s weapon along with the attitude but bullets can go wild. My neighborhood is peaceful, full of families and little kids. I bide my time. Idiots always make mistakes.

  Georgio steps aside so that Dan-honey can descend the stairs.

  He calls into the bathroom. “You can come out now, honey.”

  Again with the honey? I can’t believe Megan was two-timing me. What else did she lie about? My guts churn. I really know how to pick ‘em.

  “Get her out.” The spook motions to Georgio while the guy with the gun stands at the top of the stairs pointing.

  Whistling, Georgio wanders over to the bathroom door, struggles for a while, and shouts into the wood. “Stop pushing, Doctor Jones.”

  It’s not like Megan to stay silent for so long. Then I get what happened. My bathroom has a window to the street. Simon probably has her safe and sound by now. At least I hope so.

  “Sorry, man. I put a coin in the jamb but it’s stuck solid.” Georgio shrugs and raises his eyebrows up at me.

  And the Academy Award goes to…

  When the gunman growls out something, Georgio backs up with hands in the air and says to Dan-honey, “Go ahead. You try it.”

  “Not me. Him.” Dan-honey points at me, probably figuring we’ve got the door rigged to blow. What an ass.

  “Sure. Sure. Just a second. Let me get a screwdriver.” I amble down the stairs and over to the kitchen junk drawer. The gunman follows with his barrel stuck squarely in my lower back.

  “Sorry. I can’t find it.” I start pulling things out of the drawer and placing them on the shelf.

  Like I predicted, he takes a second to help me look over my shoulder. When he does, I spin slap his gun down, and simultaneously stab my fingers into his eyes.

  That’s yet another hole to repair. For that alone, I kick out both his kneecaps and he goes down for the count. Stray bullets no longer an issue, Dan-honey suffers a few blows from Joe’s fists and wisely stays on the floor with a foot on his neck.

  My partner’s seldom so pissed. He’s full of surprises today.

  Georgio removes the coin in the doorjamb, dashes into the bathroom, and shouts out the window. “Simon! Bring her to the front. All clear.”

  I rush across the room, open the door and slap Simon on the back. “Thanks, man. I owe you.”

  “De nada.” Simon pushes my lying, conniving lover into my arms while his Navy Seal friend hangs back, eyes darting up and down the street.

  Then my friend looks up at the broken skylight and the injured men on the floor. “Sorry I missed all the fun. They had a few more agents on the street.”

  Megan breaks out of my grasp, and winces on her injured feet as she stomps over to Dan-honey.

  “You are such a, a, jerk.” When she kicks him in the balls, I gasp knowing the slice in her heel will break open.

  Joe guffaws as does the tattooed girl peeking out from my downstairs bedroom door.

  Dan moans. “But honey.”

  She clenches her fist. “Aaaaggghhhh! Never call me honey. Ever! What’s come over you?”

  Feeling a whole lot better, I smirk, and say to no one in particular, “There’s an ice pack in the freezer.”

  “I’ll get it.” Laughing quietly, Nan crosses my workout floor wearing Joe’s t-shirt and a pair of his sweats. “You guys really know how to party.”

  She kisses him on the way to the kitchen and he pats her behind.

  Georgio shakes his head, still breathing hard but with only a few bruises. “Anyone hurt? I mean besides them.”

  Joe sniffs his armpits. “Didn’t even raise a sweat.”

  Enough joking. One of those assholes held a gun to my back. “Chiang? That was the worst
fucking attack I’ve ever witnessed.”

  He’s full of venom, even with ice on his balls. “You’re the screw-up. Jenna’s been kidnapped, drugged, and knifed under your supposed protection. You’re thinking with your dick. I came here to rescue her. Bring her to a CIA safe house. She needs me, not some stupid jarhead.”

  If that was intended as a sucker punch, it worked.

  Dan sits and sends me another verbal blow. “You realize JTTF’s got a leak. Right?”

  I may have suspected, but until now, had no corroboration. Then again, you never know with spooks. Those guys are trained to be the best liars in the world.

  I hand Dan-honey a broom. “Let’s clean up and we’ll talk.”

  What a morning.

  Chapter 25

  “Doctor Jones, could you start some coffee please?” Colin shouts down from the loft where he’s been talking to Dan for over an hour.

  Actually he’s been shouting and now he’s also back to calling me Doctor. I’m no longer Meggie. That can’t be good.

  How much coffee to brew? Let’s see, besides Dan and Colin, there’s Joe, Georgio and Nan. The eight ninjas left earlier. I assume the ones able to walk drove the rest to the hospital. I picture all those injured spooks in their own private wing and shudder.

  The weirdest thing is that after the fighting stopped, everyone seemed so amicable. But me? I’m completely freaked. I can’t believe that Dan Chiang staged a rescue and called me his honey. Surely, after a year of me lifting his grabby paws off from my body, he’d get that I’m not into him. And I thought my people skills sucked.

  Someday I’ll program Jason to explain the whole male species to me. Until then, I can’t take my eyes off from Colin. He’s wearing a black t-shirt that stretches over his incredible biceps. His sweatpants have dropped low as he squats to sweep up the glass, the tops of his cheeks showing.

  I wish everyone would go home so I can tell him how sorry I am about everything. Then I’ll show him. When we make love, it’s so friggin’ good I want our closeness back.

  With a hole in the roof, cold October air sinks into the loft and I shiver. Then Nan joins me in the kitchen area, standing with the refrigerator door open. She takes out a package of bacon, a carton of eggs, and searches the cupboards for a pan.