Hacked: The Prequel Short Story to the #1 Action Packed, Encrypted. The techno thriller case where Ronnie and Zach's world's collided.
Don't worry, Hacked has no spoilers if you haven't read Encrypted yet!
Praise for the Robin Hook Hacker Series:
“Encrypted by Carolyn McCray is a fast paced, hair-raising thriller with a cast of fascinating characters. The heroine, Ronnie, has Laura Croft's moves, Sherlock Holmes' intellect and Indiana Jones' charm.”
Charlotte
Amazon Reviewer
“From the moment I started reading this book, I was in awe. Encrypted is action packed from the first sentence. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. From hackers, special agents, to the plague, you won't be able to put this one down until the end!”
The Book Goddess
Amazon Reviewer
“I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down. The author definitely told a unique story that left me sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for what's coming next.”
E. Smith
Amazon Reviewer
“Could not put it down, Kept me up until 4:00 AM once. Just when you think you have it figured out as to what happens next you discover you are wrong. Cannot wait for book 2 in the trilogy, Cipher, due out late this year.”
J. Benson
Amazon Reviewer
Main Menu
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Afterword
Other Works by Carolyn McCray
About the Author
Copyright Information
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
FBI Special Agent Zachary Hunt slammed his shoulder into the suspect, sending the guy reeling into the wreath hanging on the church’s door. Kind of served the suspect right after committing his crime right in front of the sanctuary, and on Christmas Day no less.
“Don’t even try to get away,” Zach growled as he put his knee into the suspect’s back, patting him down.
Zach’s partner, Ellard Macconi, trotted up, none too quickly, the gray at his temples slick with sweat. “Congratulations, Special Agent, you’ve caught yourself a jaywalker.”
“It’s a crime on the books that we are sworn to enforce,” Zach replied, although not exactly wholeheartedly. In his defense, the guy had ran. Who runs after an FBI officer yells for you to stop? “Have Warp run his name against outstanding arrest warrants.”
“Look,” Ellard said. “I get it. You’re a little frustrated that a three-day-long stakeout hasn’t panned out, but –”
“Are you going to take care of this?” Zach asked as he held out the suspect’s wallet. “Or should I?”
The older agent frowned, but accepted the wallet. “I doubt even Warp is in today.”
Zach cocked an eyebrow. Warp leaving his cyber den? Not very likely, even on Christmas Day. Ellard must have realized the same thing, as he got his phone out and called the field office.
“Come on, man,” the suspect whined. “It’s Christmas, dude. Lighten up.”
“Did you know that nearly three-fifths of all pedestrian deaths occur due to jaywalking?” Zach asked the guy. “Nearly five thousand deaths and one hundred thousand injuries annually. So, in essence, I just saved your life.”
“Yeah, right,” the guy snorted. “Do you know how pissed my wife is going to be if I’m late for dinner at her parents’ house?”
Zach ignored the question. He could only imagine the suspect’s wife would be as pissed as Zach’s fiancée must beright now, sitting, waiting for him at his mother’s apartment. So be it.
“Well, well,” Ellard said, walking back over to them. “Zachary Hunt, you were right again. This gentleman has an arrest warrant out, ironically, for failing to stop at a crosswalk..”
“I can explain that!” the suspect yelled. “You can’t lock me up. Not today of all days.”
“Watch me,” Zach said, guiding the suspect to the car.
“You realize we could let him off with a warning,” Ellard suggested.
“Yes, yes, a warning,” the suspect agreed.
Zach, again, ignored both of them. “And have him fail to appear, again? I don’t think so.”
“Jeez,” the suspect sighed. “Aren’t you supposed to be hunting down, like, super-criminals or something? Why are you picking on me?”
Ellard shrugged and patted the suspect on the back. “Sorry, kid, but you chose the absolutely wrong day to jaywalk in front of Agent Hunt.”
Protecting the suspect’s head, Zach helped the man into the car, then walked around to the driver’s side door. Ellard, though, lingered near the back of the car.
“What are you doing?” Zach asked. “We’ve got to drop him off, then get back out on the search.”
“The Robin Hood Hacker isn’t going to strike today,” Ellard said, bluntly. “Even world–class hackers take Christmas off.”
Jerking open the car door, Zach wasn’t so sure.
* * *
Ronnie, a.k.a. the Robin Hood Hacker, braced her feet against the metal wall and scooted up another foot up the shaft. It was slow going, climbing up the building’s small crawl space meant mainly for pipes and electrical cabling. Not a thirty-something hacker who was a tad bit out of shape.
“The FBI just posted another warning,” Quirk’s voice sounded in her ear. “They’re still describing you as a late-twenties male who probably lives in your mother’s basement.”
They both chuckled at that. Typical profile. The FBI really went more on averages than actual insight. Because, twenties? She wished she’d had this skill level a decade ago. Male? Her detailed, intricate work should have given them a hint it wasn’t a guy. And living in her mother’s basement? Not even close.
If anything, she was saving up to buy her own country with the tiny percentage of money she took out of each job. She was all about wealth redistribution for the poor, but come on. A girl had to keep a little something for herself and Quirk. There was altruism, and then there was just plain stupid.
“And nothing about an accomplice,” her assistant said. “Do they really think any one person could do all of this by themselves?”
Ronnie didn’t bother to mention that she had been doing pretty darned well on her own for eight years, but Quirk was right. The young man had brought her game up to a new level. They’d quadrupled their take once he’d come on board. Unicef could thank Quirk later.
“Just make sure they don’t get wind of us,” Ronnie said as she grabbed hold of a pipe, repositioned her feet and moved up another foot. “I’ll be in the penthouse soon.”
Quirk snorted. Even though they only had audio communications via her ear bug and sub-vocal cord implants, Ronnie could swear she could see Quirk’s meticulously-shaped eyebrow arch up. “Darling, you still have four floors to go.”
Damn Quirk and his heat sensing capabilities.
“How many times have I told you?” he continued. “Three days of weights, three days of cardio and some light Pilates on your rest day.”
Yeah, Ronnie was lucky to swing up and out of bed every day. But Lord knew that she didn’t want to start the fitness argument again. “Yes, Mom.”
Unfortunately, Quirk took that as a compliment. “That’s better.”
Ronnie stopped, pressing her ear against the metal wall. Christmas music drifted from the elevator on the other side. “Jingle Bells,” she thought. Yes, it was going to be a very merry Christmas for several NGO relief organizations. Funded by the rather Scrooge-like oil company that was hiding nearly ten billion – yes, that was billion dollars in a slush fund. The money should have been earmarked for cleaning up spills, but no, the corporation used it for private jets and raucous parties.
Not anymore. Not if Ronnie had her way with their servers.
“Um, are you actua
lly going to hack something, Ronnie?” Quirk asked in her ear. “Or are you practicing for an audition for Cirque du Soleil?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ronnie said hefting her way up another foot. She would have made it farther, but a rather large set of pipes loomed above her. “Quirk, I thought you said there weren’t any junctions in this access tunnel?”
“There aren’t.”
“Really, because some nice copper fittings here are saying otherwise.” She took a picture with her phone and sent it to Quirk. Between her and her assistant, they could pretty much hack their way around anything. Except a physical obstacle such as a pipe junction. Unfortunately, she needed to get past the pipes to get to the penthouse where the main servers were kept. Guess the oil company figured no one would be looking for them in the CEO’s office. They were wrong.
Months of planning had gone into this hack. Everything down to the last detail mapped out. And now it was all to be undone by pipes? It was so…dumb.
“Well?” she asked, scooting up a few more inches to see if there was a way around the jumble of pipes. There wasn’t.
“Tasking.”
Quirk and his love of all things Star Trek. Normally, Ronnie found it cute. Stuck in a tight, humid crawl space listening to jolly Christmas jingles that mocked her life choices? Not so cute.
“We are going to have to go to Plan B,” Quirk finally informed her.
“Plan B sucks, though,” Ronnie answered, trying to keep her frustration in check. She had probably failed, but at this point she didn’t care.
“What can I say, darlin’?” Quirk shot back. “Unless you can get emergency liposuction in that access space, you’ve got to cut a hole in the wall and get on top of that elevator before the guards go on their hourly rounds.”
Just because Ronnie knew what she had to do didn’t mean she liked it.
Pulling out what looked like an ordinary laser pointer, Ronnie hooked it up to a small battery-powered supply in her backpack. The pen was no longer a laser pointer but an actual laser laser.
“Don’t forget your glasses,” Quirk reminded her.
“Please,” she responded, then dug through her pack to find the glasses.
Ronnie would never admit it to Quirk, but she was a tad flustered. She had to get her head back into the hack. Crap happened out in the field. That’s actually why she liked going out into the field. Why she didn’t mind having to break into the actual main server. She liked the challenges of working outside of the cold room. Until, of course, the challenges surfaced. Then the challenges just annoyed her.
Securing the glasses that would protect her eyes from the ultraviolet portion of the laser spectrum, Ronnie turned on the “pen” and began cutting through the metal. The gray wall heated up, turned red, and then metal dripped down, creating a seam.
“They’re going to be at the elevator in ten,” Quirk prompted.
“I’m on it,” Ronnie reassured him, even though she had a lot of metal to cut through and not all that much time.
“And just remember how much junk you’ve got in your trunk, girlfriend. Make the hole large enough this time.”
Ronnie would really have liked to argue that point, but when Quirk was right, he was right. Which meant even more wall to cut.
Note to self… Do not eat a macho breakfast burrito on the morning of a hack.
* * *
Zach opened the holding cell door. The guy hung his head and walked in. Zach felt the tiniest twinge of empathy for the guy, but rules were rules.
“Cases like this aren’t going to get you back to DC,” Ellard said softly beside him.
Locking the cell door, Zach replied. “Who said I wanted to get back to DC?”
“Perhaps it is your no-holds-barred pursuit of the Robin Hood Hacker?” Ellard’s face softened, though. “Your mom’s been in remission for how long, Zach?”
“That’s got nothing to do with it,” Zach answered, brushing past his partner and grabbing the forms they would need to book the suspect.
“You only left your skyrocketing career in DC to take care of her.” Ellard stepped in front of Zach. “Now that she’s better, maybe go someplace that values your…enthusiasm.”
Zach ignored his partner. He’d made his decision and he was sticking by it.
“I bet Julia would love to head back east again,” Ellard pressed.
Well, the older agent had hit that one on the head. It was a never-ending topic with his fiancée. If they moved to DC, they could take the train into NYC for the theater, opera, ballet, and the orchestra. She didn’t seem to quite get that her argument wasn’t exactly helping her case. Even if she’d tried to make her argument with sports, he wasn’t all that fond of the Redskins.
“Look,” Zach said, trying to find a pen. “If you want a new partner for the next few months before your retirement, just ask Danner.”
Ellard sighed. “I just hate seeing you spin your wheels.”
This conversation was so done. Zach turned to ask one of the other agents for a pen, when he realized the bullpen was empty.
“Where’s everybody?” Zach asked.
“Christmas, remember?”
“But there should be two agents on call.”
Ellard tilted his head toward the back of the field office. “Probably playing cards in the break room.”
The older agent was probably right. Whoever pulled Christmas on-call duty was usually a junior, junior, junior officer. Straight out of the academy. Young and unattached. But not exactly observant. Zach walked through the maze of desks to the fax machine and pulled off a sheet as it printed.
Another warning that the Robin Hood Hacker was more than likely going to hit today. Of course, the bulletin from Washington didn’t have any more information than that. They seldom had much information until after the most-wanted cyber-crime suspect hit, and even then, there was little forensic evidence to go on.
He turned to relate this to his partner to find him gathering a few wrapped gifts from his desk.
“What are you doing?” Zach asked.
“Going home,” Ellard answered.
“We agreed to continue the stakeout until tomorrow morning.”
His partner shook his head. “No, you agreed that you were going to continue it. I’ve already missed caroling with my grandkids last night. I am not going to miss Christmas dinner, too.” Ellard patted Zach on the shoulder. “Go home, Zach. Make your mom and Julia happy. If you really are going to stick it out here and get married, you’ve got to start balancing things better.”
Zach took a step back. He’d heard it all before from Ellard. Just because the guy had been happily married for over thirty years didn’t mean he had the corner on relationship advice. But he did mean well, so Zach offered his hand to his partner.
“Thanks, but I’ve got to see this through.”
Ellard shook his hand back, but Zach couldn’t help but notice that there was little enthusiasm in the gesture. He watched the old man walk across the office to the exit. With each step, Ellard moved more and more quickly with more and more spring in his step. By the time Ellard hit the door, he was at a near-run. The guy was like a high school student with senioritis.
Once his partner was out of the office, Zach shrugged off his partner’s lack of dedication and sat down at his desk. There was paperwork to be done, and the sooner he filed it, the sooner he could get back out on the street again.
Yet, as he began filling out the intake form and the canned Christmas music filled his ears, Zach was no longer quite as gung ho. His eyes scanned the room. It was so odd to have the place so empty and still. Even Supervising Special Agent Danner’s office looked lonely.
Zach had tried to convince himself that today was just another day at the office, but it wasn’t. He could imagine his mom cooking all morning, filling her apartment with the sweet smell of her special candied yams and the rich aroma of roasted turkey.
While he felt certain the Robin Hood Hacker would attack today, what wer
e the chances it would be in El Paso? There were at least twelve more likely targets. Like Hong Kong. What would be served by him staying on alert when the hacker was probably an entire continent away?
Maybe he could do both. Run to his Mom’s, have an early dinner, and then, if the hacker hadn’t hit yet, go back out again. Zach wasn’t quite sure if that was the balancing act Ellard had in mind, but it was the best Zach could do.
Now to put his Rescue Christmas mission into action.
Grabbing his keys, Zach put his jacket on, then noticed a lone light on down the side hallway. Tech support. With a sigh, he headed down the hall. Sure enough, he found Warp, unkempt hair, baggy pants, and all, sitting in front of three video monitors.
“It’s Christmas, Warp.”
The tech nodded but didn’t answer.
“Even you’ve got to have plans for today,” Zach said.
“Sure,” Warp said, never taking his eyes off the monitors. “There’s a whole group of us pagan RPGers meeting at the vegan restaurant on Montrose, but this is way cooler.”
“What is?” Zach asked, even though he usually couldn’t understand half of what Warp was saying.
The tech turned. “Oh wow, Agent Hunt, when did you get here?”
Zach took in a deep breath. Warp suffered from some kind of split persona—personality disorder, or absorbed a twin in utero syndrome or something. Zach was kind of vague on the details. All he knew was that it made Warp twice as difficult to deal with. Hence why Zach seldom came down this hallway.
Already regretting coming into Warp’s lair, Zach tried to back out. “Just saying goodbye.”
“No, sorry,” Warp said, shaking his head, which kind of undercut his apology. “With everything going on, and then the Special Agent Zachary Hunt coming in, we got a little spooked.”
Not knowing quite what to say, Zach smiled pleasantly and took a step back. “Well then, I will leave you to it.”
“It will be amazing to see the Robin Hood Hacker in action,” Warp said.
Zach should know better by now, but the mention of the hacker intrigued him. “What do you mean ‘in action’?”
“Oh, the hacker is going to hit today, and with any luck we’ll be able to monitor some of the action.”
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