Zero Day

by Jan Thompson

  “What happened to your previous system administrator?”

  “He died suddenly. We found him unresponsive in the machine room.”

  “Oh.”

  “No warning, no tell-tale sign. His heart just gave out. It was a shame. He was only thirty-seven.” Leland sighed. “After that sort of situation, you can see that it would be hard for Binary Systems to advertise an open position.”

  “Could be, if there’s a matter of perception. Will Kelvin be turned over to the CIA?” Once he was in the custody of the CIA, Yona was sure she could not get her hands on him any more.

  She had prepared herself for this, but today’s fiasco had raised too many questions.

  Leland was unexpectedly quiet. Then: “Does the Mossad want Kelvin?”

  “For questioning.” It was all Yona dared to say.

  “About?”

  “About the events leading to the death of one of our Mossad agents—one week before he was supposed to retire.”

  “I’m sorry. You’re close to him.”

  “I worked with him for years. He was like a father to me.”

  “That’s how Dmitri is—except he’s like a grandpa to me,” Leland said. “If our projects are related, we could save time working together.”

  “So what’s going to happen to Kelvin?” Yona asked as casually as she could.

  “Dario locked him in his room, presumably. Tomorrow, we’ll hand him over to the US Embassy to be extradited to the States.”

  “Why tomorrow?”

  Leland seemed to hesitate. “Well, because we need him to do something for us. Once we turn him over, he goes into the court system, and we can’t get to him except through a lawyer.”

  “But he… The EU would want him, not to mention the International Court.”

  “He’s American and he broke our laws too.”

  “And the laws of Israel and the EU.”

  “To be honest, I don’t know. All I know is that we found him first.”

  Yona looked at the ceiling and railings. “How safe is this safe house?”

  “It’s CIA.”

  Yona could tell her stories of how Mossad had discovered CIA safe houses. If Mossad could, who was to say that Molyneux’s successor couldn’t?

  Leland’s eyebrows rose. “You know something we don’t?”

  “FSB put Kelvin in Prague.”

  “We checked, remember? No tracker. No GPS.”

  “I don’t trust them.”

  “Neither do I. Dario is surely on it. Don’t worry.”

  “Speaking of Dario, he was going to look for some stretch gauze for my sprained ankle.”

  “Oh?” Leland looked around. Neither of them saw Dario anywhere. “I think he went to bed. I’ll go find some for you.”

  “Thank you. In the morning will do.” Yona stepped back into her room. “I better turn in. I’ve had a long day. I need to shower, read my Bible, and get some sleep.”

  Leland nodded. “All right. See you in the morning. Breakfast is at eight o’clock. Dario is making cereal and he doesn’t like people to be late.”

  “Cereal?”

  “Yeah. It’s his specialty.”

  “No eggs?”

  “There are some eggs and bacon in the fridge, but you do not want Dario to cook. He’s going to burn down the kitchen.” Leland laughed all the way down the stairs.

  Yona glanced down the hallway. Her observation skills must have been slacking. She didn’t recall seeing him come back this way after showing Kelvin his bedroom. Maybe Dario’s bedroom was also down the hallway. Maybe he was closer to Kelvin to keep an eye on him.

  Kelvin was now prized for the knowledge inside his head.

  Everyone wanted a piece of him, including Aspasia. Why hadn’t Aspasia killed Kelvin?

  Until they waded to the bottom of this mess, Yona had no choice but to tag along and see what was going on before she carried out her mission.

  In other words, don’t try to kill him off prematurely.

  Chapter 7

  Kelvin tossed and turned in his bed for half the night. He felt guilty for sleeping on a comfortable mattress. This was no punishment for his many sins.

  He felt clean after the long, hot shower. He had washed his hair umpteen times and scrubbed his feet. Then he brushed his teeth several times, as if once wasn’t enough. Trying to make up for his two months off the grid.

  It could have been longer had the FSB not retained him until they had exhausted all their questioning.

  It was unusual that they had not implanted him with a tracker. That could only mean one thing: they had dropped him off to die.

  “Hardly comforting that they have no use for me anymore,” Kelvin said to no one.

  Perhaps it was time for him to confess everything to Leland. She would understand his predicament, why he had done what he did.

  Then again, regardless of Leland’s compassion, Kelvin was going to jail.

  For how long, though?

  He could handle a few years, maybe.

  Kelvin closed his eyes. Too tired to sleep. Too stressed to dream.

  Stressed? How could he feel stressed if he was protected by Dario and his non-team?

  He was sure reinforcements would come soon. Probably not from Dmitri. His men had turned on them. Nearly gotten Kelvin and Dario killed. And Yona.

  Yona Epstein.

  Why was she here?

  What did she want from him?

  Kelvin could hear water running down pipes. He ventured to guess it was probably the second-floor washing machine. They had taken turns to wash their clothes tonight.

  Who had woken up at this time to put in another load?

  Leland?

  She sometimes stayed up all night.

  Kelvin heard the clothes dryer buzzer go off. Another load finished. If they didn’t fold the clothes now, they would be all wrinkled in the morning.

  Clink.

  Kelvin stilled. What was that?

  It couldn’t have been the dryer because it had just stopped running. Besides, what would sound like metal against metal?

  Kelvin had always prided himself for having sharp hearing. God had made him that way. He could hear very well—better than everyone in his family, with the exception of the family dog.

  That single clinking sound…

  Kelvin threw the covers off, leapt out of the bed, and tiptoed to his door to make sure it was locked. Then he crawled back into the bed and prayed.

  This was supposed to be his first peaceful night—

  The commotion began outside his door. It sounded like people fighting. Pounding at one another.

  He heard male and female voices.

  Kelvin started to shake. First, it was his hands. Then his legs. Then his entire body shook.

  I’d rather be back in my abandoned building, please!

  Someone knocked on the door. Keys turned.

  Kelvin couldn’t move. He was stuck under the blanket. He tried to lift his arms, but nothing moved.

  He was frozen in place.

  The door opened.

  “Come on, Kelvin!” Dario shook his head. “Let’s go!”

  Dario strong-armed Kelvin. He fell out of bed. He couldn’t get his legs to work.

  “Let go of the blanket,” Dario ordered. “We’ll get you another one. Right now, they’re trying to kill us.”

  The dim light from the hallway streamed into the room. Standing there at the door, Yona was in a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants. And carrying two weapons in her hands.

  “Upstairs, you said?” Yona talked to Dario. She had all but ignored Kelvin.

  Kelvin felt so small.

  So useless.

  So worthless.

  He wanted to cry.

  His life had hit rock bottom and there was no way out. Everywhere he went, the smell of death had followed him and lingered all around him.

  “I’m sorry,” Kelvin said to Yona.

  She didn’t reply.

  “Where’s Leland?�
��

  “Waiting for us on the roof.” Dario pushed Kelvin forward.

  They climbed the last flight of stairs at the end of the hallway. The door opened to a flat rooftop, where a helicopter waited.

  Standing on the helipad, Leland was motioning for them to hurry. Kelvin saw how Yona was still limping, and he slowed down for her.

  When they reached the chopper, Kelvin and Yona packed in like sardines in the back seats. In the front seats, Dario took the controls, and Leland sat in the passenger seat.

  Everyone put on their headsets and the chopper lifted off into the night.

  Suddenly Leland tossed Yona a large cable tie. “Put them on him.”

  “What?” Kelvin couldn’t believe what he was hearing on his headset.

  “Make sure he doesn’t jump out!” Leland said.

  Yona tied Kelvin’s wrists together.

  “Enjoy the ride,” she said.

  The night view of Prague below them made Kelvin feel like a tourist, but his heart wasn’t in the sightseeing. He prayed again to ask God to forgive him.

  It was starting to get real to him.

  He wished he had never taken the ten million dollars from Aspasia.

  He could have enjoyed this tremendous view.

  Instead, this could be the last flight of his life.

  Chapter 8

  The last place Yona expected to find a hacker hangout was near a golf resort some thirty minutes outside of Prague. However, their helicopter fitted in with the millionaire and billionaire crowd who flew there to enjoy life on the course, even if they might not be the best golfers.

  If Yona had thought they were going to mingle with the young, rich, and famous, she was wrong. As soon as all four of them exited the helicopter, a black van appeared, and they hopped in.

  Only four of them were heading south, with Yona and Kelvin sitting on the bench seat behind Dario and Leland.

  Kelvin hadn’t protested when Dario tied up his wrists with a giant cable tie. He seemed resigned to the fact that he had been caught and would end up standing trial.

  Yona figured that if Kelvin had a good lawyer, they might be able to shave years off his sentence. If he offered to help the US government or EU, he might even further reduce his years behind bars.

  It was two o’clock in the morning, and Yona was wide awake. Who wouldn’t be? The ride was too bumpy.

  She looked at Dario, driving the van. Whenever he turned to talk to Leland, Yona could see the bag under his eye. He looked like he didn’t have enough sleep. His hair was disheveled, and his chin looked rough, as though he would need a shave in a matter of hours. He didn’t speak a word.

  In the front passenger seat again, Leland was texting furiously. “No, no. I told you. We’re not going to the embassy.”

  Leland didn’t say which embassy, but Yona knew they basically had three choices. Israeli was out of the question because she was here without authorization. Russian wouldn’t be considered because the FSB had clearly infiltrated the ranks of Dmitri’s security force.

  The only embassy left with any possibility was American—all the way back where they had come from, on the other side of the river in Malá Strana.

  “Why not the US Embassy?” Yona asked after Leland put away her phone.

  “I think we have a mole in the CIA or at the Embassy,” Leland replied bluntly. “Nobody else knew we had Kelvin in the safe house. They gave us twenty-four hours of window to do what we need Kelvin to do.”

  “What did you want him to do?” Yona asked.

  “Kelvin knows.” It was all Leland said.

  Yona waited for someone to say something.

  “They want me to help them get Ulysses,” Kelvin told her. “However, we don’t know if he’s in charge of MedusaNet now.”

  “The situation is fluid,” Dario said.

  “If we get too close to Ulysses, we will all die,” Kelvin warned them.

  “Weren’t you waiting to die back in Prague?” Yona blurted before she regretted it. She didn’t mean that precisely. Yet the irony of her presence here was to end Kelvin’s life.

  Now all she wanted was an explanation. Why did you cause Issachar to die, Kelvin? What has he done to you to deserve death?

  “Let’s calm down and sort it out tomorrow.” Dario yawned. “How far away is this place?”

  Leland shrugged. “We’ll find out when we get there.”

  “I don’t know, Leland. This would be the third safe house?” Dario made a face. “I’m suddenly having trust issues. Maybe we should find our own place.”

  Kelvin buried his face in his hands. “It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry.”

  “You’re sorry the devil made you do it?” Without waiting for an answer from Kelvin, Dario turned to Yona. “Mossad has contacts in Prague.”

  Yona didn’t respond. It seemed to her that Dario already knew the answer. He was fishing for something else.

  “Can they help us?” Dario asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Because you quit your job, didn’t you? You came here without authorization or funding.”

  Wow. Dario knew.

  Whenever the streetlights appeared outside the van windows, Yona could see three pairs of eyes staring at her inside the van.

  Then they turned their attention to the elephant in the car.

  “When Binary Systems worked on MedusaNet, we didn’t know that it was going to be sold to Molyneux,” Leland said. “However, two years later, the British company went under and MedusaNet suddenly had a new owner. You knew about the sale, Kel. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Ten million dollars says he didn’t have to tell anyone,” Dario replied.

  Kelvin groaned. “My mother was in her last days on earth. There was no way Binary Systems could pay me that much for three months of work.”

  “Was that when you took a month off?” Leland asked. “Mental health sabbatical?”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you what I was up to. Aspasia threatened to kill my mother.” When no one replied, Kelvin said more. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Sorry? Will that bring back Vivek, Danika, and Jamal?” Leland’s voice was harsh. “You put us, our company, our reputation, our lives on the line. We nearly lost Cayson.”

  “I had no idea Aspasia was going to put implants in their heads.”

  “You escaped. How?”

  “They need me to maintain the network. Well, actually, I led the team that did it.”

  Yona was still listening. And recording the whole thing on her phone without anyone’s knowledge. They’d sort out the legal ramifications later. Or they’d thank her for the foresight.

  “You got names?” Dario asked.

  “In a secret safe. If I have to make a deal, that’s my insurance to get a reduced sentence.”

  “Fair enough. Continue.”

  “I worked on the system for a month, and then remotely for the next six months.” Kelvin slowed down now, as if measuring his words.

  “Didn’t you say three months?” Yona asked.

  “The project ran late.”

  “As with most software projects,” Leland added. “What were your specs?”

  “They wanted MedusaNet upgraded into a military grade network.”

  Leland shook his head. “And you did it for ten million dollars. How many lives did you sacrifice?”

  “I have no idea. I told you. I did it for the money. When I found out who Molyneux was…” Kevin choked. “Believe me, I tried to undo my work. Failing that, I tried to insert back doors so we could go back in and shut it down.”

  “We?” Leland asked.

  “We, Binary Systems. USA. FBI. INTERPOL. Mossad. Whoever. The good side.” Kelvin drew a deep breath. “I failed, Leland. I failed.”

  “You didn’t fail,” Leland reminded him. “We used the kill switch in Cayson’s implant to knock out MedusaNet.”

  “We—my team and I—designed another virus—a Plan B, so to speak, just in case the kill
switch didn’t work. It was never planted. I got caught in the middle of installing that.”

  “By Molyneux?”

  “No. By some dude working on implants. Neon. He was in Ulysses’s cybernetics division, but we had played chess together online. Somehow he found out what I was doing. It must’ve slipped out of my mouth when I was blabbering.”

  “And yet he helped you.”

  “He wasn’t going to, but it turned out that he was an informant for the Mossad.” Kelvin looked at Yona.

  Yona perked up when she heard Mossad mentioned, but Mossad had informants all over the world. She didn’t know anyone by the name Neon, but if Issachar were alive, he would know who worked with informants inside Molyneux’s organization.

  “Why don’t you find out who handled Neon?” Leland asked Dario.

  Dario nodded. “It would be easier if Yona asked someone.”

  “I no longer work there,” Yona said.

  “Early retirement. Were you forced?” Dario asked.

  “That’s irrelevant to this. Why don’t we hear the rest of what Kelvin has to say?” Yona decided there was no point editing out that part of the conversation from the recorder.

  In fact, because she no longer worked for the Mossad gave her more freedom to make her own calls.

  Speaking of calls, she wondered if she should contact Reuel. The seasoned Mossad agent, semi-retired, might also know who handled Neon—if they could get his real name.

  “What’s Neon’s real name?” Yona asked.

  “That’s the thing. He’s dead. He got run over by a truck while he was crossing the street. After that, I knew I wasn’t safe.” Kelvin sighed. “I wish I had never bought Mother the big house.”

  “You could have rented,” Dario said. “They have beachfront properties all along the coast.”

  “Where were you when I needed a financial advisor?” Kelvin asked. “Too late now, anyhow. I sold the house, tried to return the money to Aspasia, but she wouldn’t take it.”

  “When was that?”

  “A few months before I saw Aspasia at the convention talking to Cayson.” Kelvin recalled having a good time going from booth to booth and collecting free merchandize. “When I saw her splash something on Cayson’s face and he went down, I was like, what on earth?”

  “You ran, but you didn’t get far. Aspasia was after you.”