by Jacqui Rose
Abel stared at Alice as she held out her hand. He glanced down then back up before hesitantly putting out his own. ‘Agreed.’
‘And no going back? Whatever it takes.’
‘No going back, Alice, whatever it takes.’
Ten minutes later, Isaiah Thomas sat in his poster-covered bedroom. He had locked the door, but now his mum was furiously banging on it loudly.
‘Isaiah, open this door, now! Have you any idea what time it is? It’s very late. What are you doing in there anyway?’
Getting his earphones out of the drawer, Isaiah shouted back as he sat in front of his array of computers, radio transmitters, Raspberry Pi computers, network adapters and Ubertooths wired up to various keyboards and ports. ‘Nothing, Mom! Now please go away.’
‘Remember, Isaiah, you may be able to hide something from me, but don’t forget, God can see it all!’
‘Whatever, Mom!’ He turned back to his computer screens, picking up the phone by his side. ‘Sorry about that, Alice, Mom’s on the warpath.’
Wistfully, Alice, remembering old times, said, ‘It’s fine. How is she anyway?’
Tapping some numerical data into one of his computers as well as biting into a giant Hershey bar, Isaiah laughed. ‘Oh, she’s still just being Mom!’
Alice smiled to herself, picturing Isaiah’s mother, but quickly she turned her attention back to the conversation. ‘Abel managed to put the iPad in the car. Can you get a signal? Can you pick up their location yet?’
Isaiah watched the screen of one of his computers, seeing a red flashing dot. ‘Yeah, I can. All systems go.’
Alice turned to Abel, giving him a big grin. ‘Hold on, Isaiah, I’m just going to put my cell on speaker … Where are they?’
‘It looks like they’re still at the hospital. The car hasn’t moved, but don’t worry, I’ll track them all the way. I’m also streaming to one of my hard drives, so even if I have to go out to one of Pastor Michaels’ Bible classes, I’ll be able to play back their every move.’
Eagerly, Alice asked, ‘And what about the emails? Have you managed to do anything about them? Did you get into my dad’s email account?’
Abel frowned, cutting into the conversation. ‘Hold up. What email? I never heard anything about this. You need to tell me what’s going on. I don’t want you two keeping me out of the loop, understand? If we’re going to do this, you run everything by me. And I mean everything.’
Isaiah Thomas, having been brought up with the best of manners, smiled as if Abel were in the room with him. ‘Hello, Mr Gray, it’s good to meet you. Alice has told me all about you.’
Abel glanced at the phone and then at Alice, raising his eyebrows. ‘I doubt it and if she had done, I doubt you’d be so pleased … Anyway, son, just call me Abel. But tell me about this email.’
‘I’ll tell you.’ Alice spoke quickly, talking both to Abel and the phone as she did so. ‘Well, Isaiah is a genius when it comes to computers.’
Isaiah leant forward, speaking closely to the phone. He grinned and blushed all at the same time. ‘Thank you, Alice.’
Ingenuously, Alice scrumpled up her nose happily. ‘Well, you are, Isaiah … Anyway, what we came up with was this. Actually, Isaiah, maybe it’s better for you to explain this part.’
Pushing his bifocals further up the bridge of his nose, Isaiah cleared his throat. ‘Getting into people’s email is easy, maybe not the President’s, but even that’s possible. So basically, what Alice thought was, if I get into Salvatore’s emails via her dad’s correspondence with him in the past, then I can send Nico an email looking like it’s from Salvatore. Once he opens the email, not only will I be in Salvatore’s files and accounts, but I’ll also be in Nico’s phone. So everything they do, every call they make, I’ll be able to monitor it all on my screen and they won’t know a thing. They won’t know we’re watching because within the email I’ll plant some malware, so when he opens it, I’ll get the payload.’
Abel frowned. ‘Payload?’
Opening another Hershey bar, Isaiah spoke with his mouth full. ‘Yeah, it’s basically harvesting the information on his phone and Salvatore’s computer. I’ll have a mirror image of it – nothing they do will go unseen. I’ll paint his whole set of files with spyware.’
‘Isaiah, who are you talking to? Are you on that computer again?’
‘No, Mom, I’m just talking to Elijah about the worksheets for Pastor Michaels.’
‘I hope you’re not lying to me, you know that the Bible says you shall bear no false witness.’
‘Whatever, Mom!… Sorry, guys. The point is this is real easy for me.’
Alice turned to Abel, eagerness in her voice. ‘What do you think?’
‘I think I understand it. I basically get the main drift of it and it’s clever, I’ll give you that, but if we’re going to do this, we need to do it properly. Let’s use this email to our advantage. We need to keep thinking like Nico … What Nico likes to do is set a small stone rolling until it becomes a landslide. He has an impact on one person and in turn that impacts another, then he stands back and watches until whole families are destroyed. So let’s play him at his own game. Let the Russos destroy each other.’
‘How?’
‘What is it that Nico hates, Alice? What is his Achilles heel, what will make him turn like a rabid dog on his own family?… Tradimento.’
‘Betrayal?’
‘Yes, Alice, betrayal. The harshest cut of all.’
49
Back in the flat in Soho, the next morning, with the dawn sun shining brightly through the window, Alfie Jennings lay fast asleep on the couch after having consumed the bottle of whiskey he’d found in the cupboard. Lola, having tried to sober Alfie up and getting nothing back for her troubles apart from a mouthful of abuse, feeling anxious and stressed about the whole situation, decided to retreat to her bedroom for a much-needed lie-down, leaving Alice alone listening to Isaiah’s plan.
‘I don’t know, Isaiah, that sounds crazy. How do you know it will work?’
Isaiah Thomas spoke quietly so as not to wake his mother through the paper-thin walls.
‘I guess it is crazy and I don’t know if it will work, Alice, but technically, there’s no reason it shouldn’t. This could be amazing and everything with the Russos could all be over. And think about it: if you can believe what Nico says, at the most Franny and Bree have only got about five days left.’
At that thought, Alice felt sick. She frowned, nervously biting on her bottom lip as Alfie snored loudly. ‘It’s such a risk and such a rush. And what about you? If they catch you, you could be looking at twenty-five years in prison.’
‘That would be worth it just to see my mom’s face. Look, I’ve booked a flight already. It leaves Gatwick at 3pm UK time.’ Isaiah stopped before adding sheepishly, ‘I used my mom’s credit card, but I’ll pay her back … Alice, you need to get him on that flight. Trust me, I can do this. I can pull this off.’
‘I don’t know, it’s a lot to ask and … Listen, Abel’s coming, I have to go, call me back in a couple of minutes.’
‘Will you think about it?’
Alice spoke hurriedly as she tried to finish off the call. ‘Okay, okay. I’ll think … Now I’ve got to go.’
‘Who was that?’ Abel walked into the lounge, glancing at Alfie through the bedroom door before turning back to Alice.
‘It was Isaiah.’
Abel looked at Alice oddly. ‘What’s going on, are you all right? Was it about the email to Nico?’
Thinking of what Isaiah had just suggested, Alice answered tightly, ‘No, it was about something else, but I’m fine, just tired.’
Not convinced Alice was telling him everything, Abel sat down next to her. ‘This Isaiah, are you sure we can trust him? It’s all a bit odd to me. The way he works is proper undercover.’
‘He’s not a black hat if that’s what you mean, he’s more of a grey one.’
Abel laughed, feeling more alive than he’d don
e since Natalia’s death. ‘No, darlin’, I didn’t mean that at all, not that I know what you’re talking about.’
‘Black hat hackers are people who do it for illegal purposes, like their own financial gain or even for the notoriety of it all, but the grey hat hackers, like Isaiah, they really only do it to be curious and to help out.’
Taking a sip of the drink Lola had made him before she’d headed back to bed, Abel shrugged. ‘And his mum doesn’t know anything?’
Alice shook her head. ‘Mrs Thomas doesn’t suspect a thing. She just brings his dinner and Hershey bars on a tray and as long as he attends Pastor Michael’s Bible classes and he comes out of his room occasionally, she’s happy.’
Before Abel could reply, the phone rang. It was Isaiah again. Alice put it on speakerphone.
‘Hi, Alice, just me. Is Abel there?’
‘Yeah, he’s here with me now.’
‘Cool. So I just wanted to let you know that the email to Nico is all done and awaiting your approval before I send it.’
Abel let out a long sigh. ‘And you stuck exactly to what I said? It’s got to be believable.’
Still in his pyjamas, Isaiah lay back on his bed. ‘To the letter, Abel. The email is exactly how you wanted it. I can send you it if you like before I send it to Nico?’
Abel gave a wry smile as he squinted from the sun in his eyes. ‘What? And have you crawling all over my phone? Inside me mobile? After what you told me you can do, no thank you.’
‘Mr Gray, how do you know I’m not inside your phone already? For all you know I could be.’
‘You’d better be having a laugh, son, let me tell you that. Atlantic between us or not, I’ll come and sort you right out.’
Isaiah grinned as he held the phone closer to his ear. ‘Just kidding, sir.’
Alice grinned as well, at which Abel scowled, not fully trusting that Isaiah actually wasn’t kidding.
Isaiah continued: ‘Once Nico opens the email, what he’ll read will make it look like Salvatore’s sent it to him by mistake. I’m guessing he’ll then want to look at Salvatore’s email account to see what else is there. If he does, obviously Nico won’t have the passcode to get in, but that’s okay, because he’ll do what everybody else does – he’ll try different passwords. But as I’m controlling his phone, I’ll make it easy for him: I’ll let him get into Salvatore’s emails on the third or fourth attempt. But it won’t actually be Salvatore’s account I’ve let him into; although it will look like it is because I’ve created a mirror account.’
‘What if he knows the actual password?’
‘That won’t make a difference because I’ve blocked the pathway from Nico’s phone to Salvatore’s actual email account to redirect to this fake one I’ve set up. But I’ve also copied some of Salvatore’s real emails through and I’ve embedded fake ones as you suggested, Abel. So the point is, if Nico goes into Salvatore’s emails, what he sees he’ll think is real, it will look authentic, and what he reads won’t make him happy at all.’
Abel stood up, looking out of the window. ‘But what if he doesn’t try to look at Salvatore’s account, Isaiah?’
‘Then it doesn’t matter because he’ll still have the email we sent him, but wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you want to know what else a person close to you was doing behind your back?’
‘I guess I would and knowing Nico, thinking like Nico, that’s exactly what he’ll try to do, which means—’
Alice cut in. ‘Which means the landslide has started.’
‘And I’ve saved the best till last, guys. I know where they are. I know where Franny and Bree are being kept.’
Alice jumped in the air, grabbing hold of Abel’s hand. Her face lit up as she spoke. ‘That’s brilliant! That’s amazing, you’re my hero, Isaiah Thomas.’
Touched by Alice’s words, Isaiah just smiled to himself. ‘It was easy, the tracker in the iPad worked perfectly. My computer followed it to a place just outside Kintbury in West Berkshire. The location on these things is pretty darn accurate. I’ve pinpointed where they are. It’s a disused farm, a good few miles from anywhere. But that’s where they are or at least that’s where the car is.’
Abel nodded. ‘But we haven’t got long. Time’s running out, quicker now thanks to Alfie; though at least we’ve got the whereabouts of Franny and Bree. Maybe – and it’s only a maybe – I can pull out some favours, get some men together. Hopefully I still can, but that will take a couple or so days. Then somehow we can try to get them out of there. But it’s how to piece it all together, that’s the main problem. Trying to do all this without risking Franny or Bree’s life. I mean, what now?’
‘Alice, why don’t you tell him about my plan?’ Isaiah said.
‘What plan? Is this what you were talking about on the phone earlier? I told you you had to run everything by me.’ Abel looked at Alice firmly.
‘I just don’t think it’s safe, I don’t think it’s a good idea.’
‘How about I be the judge of that, Alice. Come on, spit it out.’
Alice walked over to where Abel stood, looking out over Old Compton Street. ‘Well, this is where Isaiah thinks you should come into it.’
Abel stared at Alice. ‘What are you talking about?’
From his bedroom in Mississippi, Isaiah cut in. ‘To stop an infestation of ants you have to get to the queen. Get inside her nest.’
Abel frowned at the phone. ‘Isaiah, you’ve lost me.’
‘Mr Gray, you are going on a trip.’
Standing in Old Compton Street by the door of the flat, Alice held Abel tightly in a big, warm embrace and hesitantly he moved his arms, self-consciously hugging her back. ‘I don’t want you to do this, Abel. Please stay here.’
Abel shook his head then pulled back so he could look at her. ‘Alice, I have to go. Isaiah’s right, this will stop it all. It’ll be over. We need it to be over for both of us. I’m so tired, Alice, and you need to be able to stop running.’
‘But Isaiah doesn’t even know if it will work.’
Abel smiled at Alice, surprised that he could feel her warmth, her care, but even more surprised that he felt something back towards her after years of feeling numb. ‘You have been so good for me, but you know this is the right thing. Do you trust Isaiah?’
Moving out of the way of a group of tourists, Alice stepped to one side. ‘Yes, yes, of course. I’d trust him with my life.’
‘There you go then. And that’s what I’m doing, Alice.’
Desperate to stop him, Alice said, ‘But what about the others, what will I tell them?’
‘Tell them everything. They’ll understand.’
Abel turned and walked away.
‘But what about Natalia?’
Abel froze then slowly turned around to stare at Alice. ‘What did you say?’
Alice swallowed hard. ‘What about Natalia? What will happen to her if you don’t come back?’
Abel tilted his head then walked back to Alice. He spoke in a low voice. ‘She will understand, like you have to understand. Now goodbye, Alice, I have to go, otherwise I won’t have time to get my things from my house.’
‘Abel … Wait.’ Alice grabbed Abel’s hand, her corkscrew curls falling over her face. ‘Thank you … thank you for everything you’ve done.’
‘Alice, you’re speaking like you won’t see me again.’
She looked at him, her almond eyes full of kindness. ‘But we don’t know, do we? We may never meet again.’
‘Alice, we will. I know we will. Like I shall meet Natalia again.’
Alice smiled at Abel sadly, her heart breaking as tears ran down her face. ‘Isaiah will look after you.’
‘I know he will, because he’s a friend of yours, isn’t he? It’ll be fine. I’ll be back before you know it.’ Then, gently, Abel kissed her on her head. ‘Now take care, Alice Rose. I’ll let you know when I’ve got in contact with some of my old acquaintances, so they can come and help you. It won’t be long until we get Franny and
Bree back, I promise. Whatever it takes, remember?’
‘Whatever it takes.’
Alice watched Abel walk along Old Compton Street and at the top, he turned around and waved before disappearing into Shaftesbury Avenue, leaving Alice with a sinking feeling in her heart.
50
In her house in Cranfield, Mississippi, Mrs Thomas stood on the landing outside Isaiah’s bedroom. From out of her red-and-white apron pocket she pulled out a key and slotted it into the lock. Opening the door, she gasped at the scene in front of her, tutting and shaking her head. Coke cans, Hershey bar wrappers, coffee cups, dirty plates and dirty laundry were discarded and thrown around the room.
Sighing, Mrs Thomas, armed with a black bag and bucket, rolled up her sleeves, picked up the rubbish and threw Isaiah’s dirty clothes outside on the landing. She dipped her checked cloth into the warm soapy water and started to clean, tackling the layer of dust that seemed to sit on every surface.
Ten minutes later, red-faced and perspiring, Mrs Thomas sang loudly an unrecognisable version of ‘America the Beautiful’ to keep her spirits up. She wrung out the cloth tightly before setting about cleaning Isaiah’s computers and keyboards with great vigour.
‘Mom! What are you doing? What have you done?’ Isaiah stared in horror at the screens of his computers, which flashed and lit up brightly.
Mrs Thomas, small and petite with green eyes and a neat blonde bob, stared at her son with annoyance. ‘Isaiah Thomas, the state of your room, no wonder you didn’t want me to come in. Cleanliness is next to godliness and you, Isaiah Thomas, are a long way from that.’
Isaiah, throwing down the Hershey bar he was eating, walked towards one of his computers.
‘Mom, what did you do? What did you touch?’
‘What I did was what you should’ve done a long time ago. Clean.’
Isaiah continued to stare at the screen, shaking his head. ‘No, no, no, no, no, Mom!’
‘Calm down, Isaiah!’
‘Tell me you didn’t press this button? Tell me anything but that, Mom.’