And true to form, Dean had done something about it.
She unplaited her hair and picked up the shampoo bottle, a delicious excitement welling up inside her as she relived their making out at the beach. They hadn’t gone all the way, but she was sure Dean was going to make a formidable lover.
Marina curled her toes and hoped Victor wasn’t waiting for her in Portofino. It was selfish, but she wanted to spend the night with Dean, and if they arrested Victor today there was every chance of that not happening.
Inhaling the aroma of nutmeg, honeysuckle and ginger, she shampooed her hair. Would she get another day, another two, before Victor decided to show his traitorous face? She wasn’t due home yet, so it made little difference to her. But for Dean’s paralysed company, every passing day meant the loss of substantial earnings.
She rinsed her hair, quickly used the shower gel then turned off the taps. Wrapping her hair in a towel, she sent a silent thank you to Vlad, her body vibrant and alive from her outing at the beach. If he hadn’t insisted on her taking that gondola ride, Dean Logan may never have found her in Venice.
A hollow feeling settled like a weight in the pit of her stomach, but she pushed the thought aside and reached for the hair dryer. Despite the daunting challenges that lay ahead, Dean’s ‘can do’ attitude had infused in her a growing sense of optimism.
Like all was not lost.
And anything was possible.
***
Twenty minutes later she was in the saloon, dressed in knee-length denim shorts and a top, her hair three parts dry. Her phone lay on the coffee table in the saloon, switched to loudspeaker. Beside it was a recording device, set up by Rask should Victor phone. The USB stick was in a small handbag slung diagonally across her chest.
An extra table had been set up by the port side window, laden with sandwiches, drinks and cakes.
They were settling in for a long wait.
Marina fiddled with her bag and looked at Rask. ‘Where’s Dean?’
Holding a phone in each hand, Rask positioned a wireless receiver in his ear. ‘I think he’s taking a call.’
‘I’m right here,’ a deep voice said from the doorway.
He was virtually unrecognisable in an ill-fitting blue Hawaiian shirt printed with palm trees and yellow frangipanis and a pair of knee-length shorts. Trainers and a Yankees cap completed the outfit.
Marina’s heart swelled at the sight of him.
‘I raided Rask’s wardrobe. What do you think?’
She exchanged amused glances with Rask. ‘As a Red Sox fan, the cap’s the most offensive.’
Dean winked and headed for the sandwiches. ‘The trainers and sunnies are mine.’
‘I take it you’re going into Portofino with me, disguised as a tourist with questionable dress sense?’
‘You think Victor will recognise me?’
Marina smiled, relieved she’d have him nearby. She thought he’d stay with the Orion’s tender. ‘Not a chance.’
‘How’d it go?’ Rask spoke to Dean’s back as he piled sandwiches on his plate.
‘Just as we thought.’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘I paid the thousand bucks. The files are still encrypted.’
‘Son of a bitch,’ Marina murmured.
Rask turned and looked at her. ‘We expected as much. It’s confirmation the encryption was a smokescreen for getting the designs out of the country. I don’t want to underestimate our friend because he has serious skills I’m lacking, but I’ll bet it hasn’t crossed his mind that we might have the designs back.’
‘Not to mention Marina!’ Dean said, coming back with a laden plate. ‘I agree. It would be natural for him to assume I’d go home.’
Marina thought of the bulletins she’d watched on TV. ‘If he’s caught any of the America’s Cup coverage, the reports would corroborate that.’
‘True. Normally the media invent things about me because of a lack of information. This time they’ve done me a favour.’
‘Why didn’t you go back?’ She’d wondered about that herself.
Dean’s eyes cut to Rask then back to her. ‘Hektor maintains close ties with the police, that’s how we gained access to your apartment in Sydney so quickly. When we learned you were in Venice, I decided to intercept you myself.’
He sat on the lounge and stretched out his long legs. ‘Plus, I have a fundamental distrust of the police being able to handle things properly.’
He did have an issue with the police.
What had Rask said earlier? Our role is to support the police, not take matters into our own hands.
She didn’t understand.
She could only accept what he said.
Dean sighed. ‘Look, if all goes well, they’ll nab him as soon as he sets foot in the town.’
Suddenly Rask held up his phone. ‘Message from the local police. Ship’s due in twenty minutes early. Disembarkation in half an hour.’
Marina tensed, eyes drawn to her phone, heart slugging away in her chest. Earlier, at the beach, everything had seemed so normal, so natural, she’d been lulled into a false sense of security.
But suddenly, everything was very real.
‘Any sightings by the local police?’ Dean asked.
‘None yet.’
Dean put his hand on her leg, stroking his thumb over the denim material. ‘Remember, you can pull out if you want to. If you have any reservations, you don’t have to meet him.’
‘I’ll draw him out in the open if I do.’ Unable to sit any longer, Marina got up and walked over to the baby grand. The lid was open, and in the highly polished veneer she saw Dean stand and follow her.
Unaware she could see his reflection, his face was unguarded, his gaze lingering, his lips parted like he wanted to kiss her. And when he reached up and touched her hair, the tenderness in his eyes stole her breath away.
‘You opened the lid.’
She continued to watch his reflection.
He smiled a little. ‘I did.’
She turned, looked into his eyes and trailed her fingertips along his stubbled jawline, this man she was beginning to fall in love with. ‘I have to meet him, Dean, for both our sakes.’
If the police arrested Victor on the spot he wouldn’t have time to carry out his threat and expose her, and once he was in custody, maybe he’d give up the passwords and Dean would have his work back.
‘The quicker this is over now, the better.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
As the clock ticked past the four-hour mark, Marina’s head began to ache and her chest tighten from shallow breathing.
She tipped back her head, rested it on the back of the lounge and closed her eyes. It was reminiscent of her early years, when stage fright would get the better of her. She wished she could go to her stateroom, practise, lay down—anything but this interminable clock-watching.
She sighed and concentrated on deepening her breathing. Breathing was something she’d been doing a lot of lately, both in and out of the water.
A phone rang like a shriek in the night.
Marina’s eyes flew open.
She came to her feet as the two men jumped up from their backgammon game.
‘It’s mine.’ Rask reached for the phone and swiped his thumb across the screen. ‘Hello?’
Marina stood, hands clenched at her sides as Dean came over and put his arm around her waist.
Rask was moving about the room, phone to his ear.
‘Yes. Could you hold on a minute? I have Mr Logan here.’
‘Interpol.’ Rask mouthed the word as he switched the phone to loudspeaker. ‘Yes, go ahead.’
‘Bon après-midi.’
‘Bon après-midi, monsieur,’ replied Dean.
‘French, Anglais?’
‘Anglais s’il vous plaît.’
‘It’s Detective Delon.’ The man switched to English without hesitation.
‘I’m Dean Logan, the owner of the company affected by the crime.’
‘My condole
nces, Mr Logan. I’m calling from Interpol headquarters in Lyon. Your representative, Mr Rask, sent through some information earlier today.’
‘That’s correct.’
There was a rustle of paper, a halt in the conversation.
Dean waved them towards the lounge and they sat down, leaning forward and staring at Rask’s phone.
‘That particular cyber group is well known to us.’
Cyber group?
Marina glanced at Dean, struggling to understand the man’s heavily accented English.
‘We got a match on the photograph, as well. Chinese citizen, Li Chen.’
Detective Delon spelt the name out.
Rask wrote it down.
Dean’s gaze was fixed to a spot on the wall somewhere. ‘My security is working closely with the Australian Police and the Italian Police. We believe Li Chen is currently somewhere on the Italian Riviera.’
‘So I understand from Mr Rask.’
‘What can you tell us about him?’
The Frenchman paused.
Marina took a breath.
‘Li Chen was a founding member of “Chaos Bomb”. If you haven’t heard of Chaos Bomb, they were an anonymous online hacking group who operated throughout the world. We know they disbanded a few years ago.’
Another rustle of paper.
Rask took a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped at his brow.
‘The image of the worm and the guns is from a banner that depicted the group at the time.’
‘Were they mainly into file encryption?’ asked Rask.
‘They were into anything and everything. I understand from Detective Mooney in Sydney he’s been working at your office under the name of Victor Yu.’
Dean leaned towards the phone. ‘That’s correct. He flew out of Melbourne on that passport.’
‘Hmm. We know of other identities he’s used, but not that one.’
Marina shook her head. It was unbelievable to think this man had been living under her roof for six months.
‘We’ve never known a member of Chaos Bomb to show their face before. I have that on good authority. Many of these people end up working for institutions such as ours.’
Shocked, Marina stared at her two companions. Rask was shaking his head, while Dean’s forehead was creased in a worried frown.
‘Detective Delon. Are you saying there are currently members of Chaos Bomb employed by Interpol?’
There was a momentary silence.
‘I’m not at liberty to divulge confidential information of that kind. Suffice to say many of these former cybercriminals hold down some of the biggest jobs in IT in world security. And we need them. They know how to best protect vital government systems from people like themselves. They may have served time in the past, sometimes prison, other times home detention. But they’re working on the right side of the law now, and that’s where we want them.’
Marina watched as Dean raked a hand through his hair.
‘I can forward you a printout of the current world trends in the area of computer crime,’ Detective Delon went on to say. ‘Often, they’ll hit a certain kind of business, or one particular country, and then move on. I also have a printout of Li Chen’s movements through the international airports. The ones we’ve been able to track, that is.’
‘That could be of interest, and thank you, you’ve been very helpful. We’re hoping the Italian Police will arrest—Li Chen—in the next few days.’
‘I wish you luck, Monsieur Logan, and I look forward to meeting Mr Chen if the Italian Police are successful.’
‘Merci.’
The two men bade one another ‘bonsoir’, and then Rask took the phone and spoke to Delon, reciting the appropriate email addresses and fax machine numbers so the information could be sent through.
When the call finally ended, Rask was the first to speak, an expression of disbelief on his face. ‘What do you make of that? He sounds like he wants to recruit the guy.’
Marina nodded. ‘I thought so too. It makes sense though, when you think about it.’
Rask turned away with a frustrated shake of his head. ‘I’m getting too old for this technology caper.’
Hit by a sudden wave of sympathy for the former detective, Marina went over to him and put her hand on his arm. ‘It’s foreign to me too, Hektor. You’ve made great progress with this. My greatest worry is whether the Italian Police are up to the job.’
Rask went red, as if a show of support from her was the last thing he expected. Or maybe it was because she’d used his first name.
He gave her an awkward pat on the hand, then retreated behind the safety of the desk.
Dean looked up from where he was still seated on the lounge. ‘She’s right, Hektor. No-one else would have been able to pull together what you have in the last five days. Don’t be hard on yourself.’
Marina checked her watch and glanced at her silent phone. ‘We have one hour to go.’
The cruise liner was only in port for six hours, and she prayed Victor, or Li, would leave their meeting to another day.
‘Rask, get onto the local police. Clue them in that he goes by the name of Li Chen as well as Victor Yu.’
‘Yes, boss.’
‘Do you really think he’ll call now?’ Marina asked. Some of the passengers would already be returning to the ship.
Dean sighed. ‘I would have said no, but after hearing that, God only knows what’s driving him.’
Marina went and sat beside him again. ‘I assumed it would be money.’
‘Oh, money’s a big part of it. But what if there’s more to it than that?’
She frowned. ‘I’m not following you.’
‘Something Delon said. That he has it on good authority that no member of Chaos Bomb has shown their face before.’
Rask returned to stand at the side of the lounge. ‘No doubt he ran it by the former members he has working there.’
‘Exactly! Li spent six months working in the office. Why? Why risk putting his face out there, when he could have made millions anonymously?’
‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’ Marina looked at each man in turn. ‘He wants to be the best. I mean, I got RSI from overpractising because I wanted to be the best.’
Strange how it was the first time she’d actually admitted it to herself. ‘It’s what you do, isn’t it? Take risks? Go one better than the next person?’
Five seconds of silence followed.
Marina swallowed.
It made sense to her.
Then Dean reached over and picked up her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed it. ‘I believe you’re right, Marina.’
‘Now hang on.’ Rask huffed out a breath. ‘You’re losing me. Okay, he’s a man with a big ego. He wants to be the best. But why risk showing his face, getting on security cameras at airports, contacting Marina and telling her about the USB when he could have just fronted up at Rome airport on the day she was to fly out and demanded it. She would have been caught unawares, and probably handed it right over. Li could have disappeared without a trace. So, doing it this way—it doesn’t make sense. What’s he get out of it?’
Dean’s face broke into a knowing smile. ‘I’m pretty sure I know.’
Eyes shining, he pushed off the lounge and began pacing the floor. ‘Think about it. Yu, or Li, came to Australia, he worked among people—he became social.’
Marina made a face. ‘Well, that’s debatable.’
‘You know what I mean though. Most of these hackers live in the shadows. But not him. He was on our team, and he stole the designs right out from under our nose. My guess is he’ll shop them around on Europe’s black market. He’s moving around the globe, making money, proving he’s the best.’
He walked up to Rask, index finger raised, pointing at the ceiling. ‘And you know what, I don’t think he’s cares if he gets caught. He may even want to get caught.’
Rask’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Now you’re scaring me.’
‘No. That could
be it.’ Dean swung away and raked a hand through his hair. ‘He’s doing exactly what Marina says. He’s risking everything, the way she risked her arm. He’s out to prove he’s the best hacker Chaos Bomb ever had.’
Marina watched, enthralled to find out where he was going with this. Even disguised as a tourist, Dean Logan was impressive—the biggest life force she’d ever known.
He put his hands on his hips and shook his head as if berating himself for not seeing it all sooner.
‘Want to know my theory? Li Chen doesn’t care if he gets caught. He’s too busy adding to his resume. He’s living the dream, doing the internship of a lifetime.’
‘Li Chen wants a job.’
Chapter Twenty-Five
‘Time’s up!’ Rask put his phone on the desk. ‘Ship’s departing.’
‘Yes!’ Marina’s legs went weak with relief and she held up an open palm towards Rask.
He frowned and looked at her hand. Then suddenly it dawned on him. With a roll of his eyes he high-fived her.
Dean smiled and reached for the ship’s phone. ‘Alain, winch up the anchor and get us under way. I’ve already charted the course back to Livorno. Cruising speed should keep us well ahead of the ship at all times.’
He hung up and heaved a sigh of relief. ‘I think this calls for a drink. Marina, what will you have?’
‘Champagne, please.’ What the hell? If ever there was a time to ‘live it up’ it was now.
‘One champagne.’ He moved behind the bar. ‘Rask?’
‘Scotch for me.’
‘Coming right up.’
Dean looked at her and nodded in Rask’s direction. ‘Wait until he gets a few Scotches under his belt. He’ll start singing about trolls and fairies.’
‘They exist.’ Rask didn’t bother raising his head, just went back to perusing the email attachments Delon had sent through twenty minutes ago.
‘I love Icelandic folk songs.’
‘Now there’s a girl with taste.’
‘I know.’ Dean’s smile widened as he dumped a handful of ice into a crystal tumbler. ‘She likes me.’
Marina scowled, but couldn’t hold it, and ended up smiling. With the release of tension came a desire to play, so it didn’t even faze her when the engines hummed to life and a slight vibration began in her feet.
A Dangerous Arrangement Page 16