The Hacker

by Leslie Georgeson

  “If this is the same Hughes who is listed as a member of Super Soldiers, LLC,” I murmured. “Then he had to be very young when he signed that document. I’m twenty-seven, and I would have been around thirteen when he was born, which would make him only fourteen years old right now. Which means, twelve years ago when that document was signed, he was only two. Impossible. But since he ages so rapidly, I’m guessing he was closer to a teenager when that document was signed.”

  Shannon’s gaze met mine. “This is so creepy. Maybe it’s not his signature. Maybe it’s a forgery. Or maybe his brother. Or cousin. Or uncle. Or something.”

  I contemplated that. “His father is Waters, just like all the other recruits.” Could we be chasing the wrong Jonathan Hughes? Could there be another one out there? My gut told me Recruit 308 was the same guy. He fit the profile. He was an IT expert. And he wanted Shannon.

  “I’ll call Ryan and Luke and tell them what we found out.” I paused, then opened my micro tool kit that I’d set on the table and pulled out the tracking device. “I would feel better if you had this tracking device on you in case we get separated.”

  Shannon nodded and rose to her feet. “I’m going to get something to drink. You can insert it in my skin when you get done with your phone call. You want anything?”

  “Water, please.”

  She headed into the kitchen. I stuffed the tracking device in my shirt pocket and called Ryan and Luke and told them what we’d discovered. I hadn’t really been too worried before. I was a dreg, after all. I was adaptable. I’d been trained to handle any situation.

  But now the niggling fear that I might not be able to protect Shannon from this brute slithered through me. Hughes could easily have special abilities, superhuman strength, enhanced senses like the dregs…

  What if Hughes ended up being way more than any of us anticipated?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Noah

  As I ended my call with Luke, a sudden eeriness crawled across my skin, sending a chill down my spine.

  I stilled, my senses going on high alert. I slid my gun free from the holster at my back and slowly set my phone down on the table next to the computer.

  I cautiously glanced around, letting my senses take everything in. Ever since I’d lost my right eye, my other senses had been forced to compensate for the loss, growing more enhanced. As a result, my sense of touch had been heightened dramatically, so that my skin could detect slight temperature changes in the air. Hot or cold. A faint, barely perceptible breeze. Like a snake’s tongue sensing heat, my fingertips could sense these changes in temperature, slight differences in air pressure.

  I waited, scanning, holding my hand out, but detected no other presence. Nothing out of the ordinary.

  Was I being paranoid? Imagining things?

  Shannon hadn’t returned from the kitchen yet. What was taking her so long?

  I crept toward the kitchen at the opposite end of the living room.

  Then I peered into the kitchen…

  Empty.

  She’d set two bottles of water on the counter, but she was nowhere to be seen.

  My heart thundered. Where was she?

  The faint sound of the toilet flushing down the hall indicated she was in the bathroom.

  Shit. The breath whooshed out of me. I was just being paranoid.

  I lowered my weapon and turned, heading back toward where I’d set up the security system and the computers against the far wall.

  I checked my security system, flicking through all the camera feed, wanting to assure myself I hadn’t missed anything. But everything was quiet. Nothing stirred. Where was Hughes? I was sure he would have been here by now. What was that prick up to?

  My computer bleeped a notification. It was a new email from the FBI agent I’d been corresponding with. I clicked on it. He said he’d gotten the approval from his boss to go in and raid Vasquez’s compound. The government had approved the use of more troops. They planned to do the raid on the following Saturday, when Vasquez conducted his next flesh auction. That was great news. Too bad I wouldn’t be around to witness it. I was never going back to Augusta.

  Then a cellular phone went off, the ringtone a Christmas tune—White Christmas. I spun toward the sound, my heart thudding as I spied Shannon’s bag—the one we’d left in her car before Luke had dropped it off at her place of employment—sitting on the end table near the couch on the other side of the room. The noise was coming from inside her bag.

  Son-of-a-bitch! He was here! He was in the house!

  How had he gotten past my security system? That was impossible. No one got past it. No one.

  Hughes did.

  Shit! He’d somehow gotten past it without setting it off. How? Did it have anything to do with his ability to make himself invisible? Could he slip past security systems undetected? How long had he been here?

  Hughes is better than you. He got past your system.

  My computer made a loud pinging noise, then eerie laughter floated up from the speakers.

  I spun back around, my heart in my throat, as a screensaver bounced across the monitor.

  It was a skull on a black background, with the words, “I’ve been here all along, sucker! I’m better than you! I’ve been here all along, sucker! I’m better than you! Ha ha ha!” bouncing across the screen, over and over.

  Motherfucker! He’d hacked into my computer? How? Until a few minutes ago, I’d been working on it, decrypting files. I would have noticed him trying to get in. No one could do that! No one!

  “I’ve been here all along, sucker! I’m better than you! Ha ha ha!”

  I glared at the computer screen, at the words scrolling across the monitor in a continuous loop. Had he followed us here? Or had he been lying in wait all this time, knowing we would come here?

  He wasn’t winning, damn him. He wasn’t smarter than me. Where was that prick?

  At that moment, the sound of the bathroom door opening and Shannon’s soft footfalls echoing down the short hallway reached my ears.

  I needed to get her out of here. Get her someplace safe.

  Before Hughes got a hold of her.

  I had no idea what I was dealing with.

  Or if I even stood half a chance of beating him.

  He’s a modern Frankenstein.

  Then I sensed a stir in the air, as if someone, or something, had rushed past me.

  I froze, holding my hand out, letting my fingertips sense any changes in temperature or air pressure. Then I felt it.

  Heat. From across the room. Near the couch.

  But nothing was there. No one was there.

  No one that I could see.

  He’s invisible. He’s standing by the couch.

  Shannon stepped into the room, smiling at me.

  She spied my gun, her smile faltering.

  “Run!” I shouted. “Get out of the house!” But even as I turned, firing my weapon at the area where I believed Hughes was standing, I knew it was too late. Hughes was closer to Shannon than I was. And I couldn’t even see him.

  Bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang, bang!

  Evil laughter floated across the room, then a faint whisper of sound. Shannon screamed as Hughes snatched her up and tossed her over his shoulder like a rag doll. It was then that I was able to barely make out the outline of his figure, a shadowy shape in the darkness. Like fog rolling in off the water.

  I fired my weapon at his feet this time, hoping to knock him down.

  Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang!

  He laughed again, a swirl of fog moving just out of reach with Shannon bouncing across his massive shoulders. “Come get me, dreg. I dare you!”

  “Noah!” Shannon’s terrified gaze found mine as he swung around and raced down the hallway toward her bedroom.

  Shit! I thundered after them, careening around the corner and down the hallway into the bedroom. Hughes tossed Shannon onto the bed, then rolled her up like a burrito, wrapping her tightly in the sheets. He was fast
, his movements so swift they were barely even perceptible. Shit. He was like two—no, three—dregs in one. No wonder The General hadn’t discharged him.

  Shannon screamed and squirmed and struggled on the bed, trying to unwrap herself from the cocoon of sheets, but he’d secured her so tightly she could barely move. “Let me go!”

  Before I could react, he launched himself at me, a huge blur in the dark room.

  I braced myself for the impact, raising my now empty gun in preparation of slamming it into where I thought his head was. But he hit me with the force of a bulldozer, sending me sprawling backward, the gun flying from my hand. I slammed into the dresser behind me so hard that my head rattled, pain careening through my skull.

  “I’m better than you,” he hissed, moving to bend over me. I struggled to get up, my head spinning, but I couldn’t get my limbs to cooperate.

  He hefted me up and tossed me across the room again, slamming me into the far wall. I grunted at the impact, my body taking a terrible pounding against the wall. Damn, this son-of-a-bitch was strong. He wasn’t just a super soldier. He was a beast. A monster. More like five dregs in one.

  He bent and yanked me upright again, and this time as he leaned in, I was able to make out his face. Cold gray eyes glared at me. Spittle dripped from his lips as he spat, “I’m better than you! Now I’m taking her from you! She’s mine!”

  He was rabid, I decided. Deranged. Traumatic brain injury.

  I wrapped my hands around his thick neck, squeezing with all my might. He let out a roar, shaking his head back and forth like a wet dog, easily dislodging my hands. What the hell? How was he so damn strong? Then he hefted me over his shoulder like a sack of flour and threw me across the room like a torpedo.

  Wham!

  I slammed into the lamp sitting on top of the far nightstand, before my head crashed into the bedframe with a loud crack. Dizziness spun in my head. The sticky wetness of blood pooled down my face and dripped between my eyes. Hughes wasn’t human. He was a true beast. I would never defeat him on my own. He was more powerful than five dregs. He was a super machine. Unstoppable.

  I blinked rapidly, trying not to pass out, my gaze landing on the tiny Styrofoam packet containing the tracking device that had fallen onto the bed next to my head. The force of me slamming into the nightstand had knocked it out of my pocket. I stared at the tiny packet. I had to give it to Shannon somehow, but in the current situation, that seemed impossible.

  I snatched up the tiny packet and staggered to my feet as Hughes came at me again.

  If I couldn’t stick the device on Shannon, then I would stick it on Hughes.

  As he rammed into me again, I felt along his body, searching for a pocket of some kind. The force of his heavy weight knocked me backward, and I slipped my hand into his jeans’ pocket, shoving the tiny tracking device inside.

  My head cracked into the floor as he landed on top of me, smashing me beneath him. He lifted my head and slammed it into the floor, again and again.

  Whack, whack, whack!

  The dizziness returned, swirling wildly, my vision blurring.

  Hughes snickered and spun around. He moved back to the bed and tossed Shannon over his shoulder again.

  “No.” I struggled to rise, but couldn’t get my legs to cooperate. My head was spinning faster, faster, the swirl of darkness rapidly closing in. “No...”

  Hughes headed for the door with Shannon, letting out an evil cackle.

  “Told you I was better than you. Now I’ve got the prize. I won. Bye, bye...” He let out another eerie laugh, then shimmied out of the room with a shift of air, a foggy swirl. Then was gone.

  I struggled to get to my feet, my head spinning, but again failed. I fell back with a groan. Dammit. He’d knocked me fucking silly. I’d known he would be a worthy opponent, and I’d been counting on that, but I’d never anticipated his true strength. How was it possible that he could be so powerful?

  The front door banged open, and moments later Ryan and Luke thundered into the room, guns drawn.

  “Fuck,” Luke muttered. He and Ryan rushed forward and helped me up onto the bed. “What happened?”

  I drew in several ragged breaths, trying to stop my head from spinning so violently. “He’s a fucking machine. A beast.” I sucked in another breath. “He got past the security system. He hacked into my computer. He took Shannon.”

  Then the black swirl in my head yanked me right under.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Shannon

  Sgt. Hughes had me. He’d somehow gotten past Noah’s security system. He’d gotten inside the house. He’d hurt Noah.

  Noah might even be dead.

  No! I refused to believe that. Noah couldn’t die. I wouldn’t let him.

  My skin crawled as Hughes carted me off like a sack of potatoes, wrapped up tightly in the sheets. His huge bulk terrified me, the giant muscles clenching beneath me with his movements making me squirm in terror. He slapped a hand over my ass, shouting, “Hold still or I’ll knock you out!”

  I froze, seizing my squirming. I needed to get away. I needed to escape. And I couldn’t do that if he knocked me out. This man had evil intentions. He planned to hurt me.

  Terror shivered through me.

  I’m scared. So scared.

  My heart was going a thousand beats a second. I feared I was about to die of a heart attack.

  Calm down, Shannon. Get your fear under control.

  I tried to slow my breathing, tried to relax the rapid pulse that thumped wildly throughout my veins.

  Relax, and think of a way to escape.

  Relax.

  Relax.

  I drew in several deep, calming breaths, desperately trying to relax.

  Hughes carried me outside. Thankfully, it wasn’t as cold out tonight as it had been a week ago, the temperature around fifty degrees, so my cocoon of sheets and blankets from the bed were enough to keep me warm.

  Hughes strode into the hedge maze. A trickle of hope surged through me. I knew my way around this maze. But did he? If I managed to escape him, I might be able to elude him in the maze.

  But he’d been here before, many times in the past, “visiting” with my father. It was possible he’d already figured his way around inside the maze.

  Hughes had made himself invisible somehow. How could Noah and the other dregs fight an invisible man? What kind of creature was he?

  He turned to the right, then the left, then paused at the first bench and dropped me onto it. I squirmed and wobbled in the sheets, rolling back against the hedge as he lowered his bulk next to me, reaching a giant hand out to snag my fingers that I had worked free at the top of the sheets. I tried to jerk back, but he merely squeezed my fingers in his grip.

  “You’re not going anywhere, my beautiful Shannon. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to touch you, to make you mine?”

  I swallowed hard, cringing back. “Please. Let me go.”

  He was still just a dark, shadowy presence, not wholly visible. He let out an eerie chuckle that made my skin crawl again. “Let you go? I won you fair and square. I took you from the dreg. You’re mine now. I’m anxious to lay you down and unroll you from those blankets, unwrapping your beauty a little a time.”

  I recoiled. Swallowing hard, I drew in a deep breath for courage and looked up into his face. “How did you get past Noah’s security system? That’s impossible.”

  For a moment, I didn’t think he would answer, then he said, “When I make myself invisible, nothing can detect me. No type of scanner or security system can sense my presence because when I shift into the fog, I’m no longer human. Why do you think they kept refusing to discharge me, even after all my injuries? I am the ultimate super soldier.”

  I gasped. Even Noah couldn’t have predicted that. I breathed in deeply, then out, trying to tamp down my fear.

  “Why me?” I whispered. “What do you want with me?”

  “You are my one true mate. Together, we can make more perfect soldiers
like me.”

  What? I shivered. This guy was deranged. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block him out. Be brave, Shannon. Don’t let him frighten you.

  When I opened my eyes again, he’d made himself visible to me. He was huge, muscular. Like a gorilla. I flinched and cringed back at the purely lustful look in his dark gray eyes. I didn’t recall him being this big before. Had he grown since the last time I’d seen him, or was it just his close proximity to me now that made him seem so large?

  “Oh, come on, Shannon. Don’t you like what you see? I’m pretty like the dregs. Like The Hacker. Just bigger. Stronger. More powerful than him. I might have physical imperfections, but I’m a rarity. I can give you so much more than The Hacker ever can.”

  He was right that he wasn’t ugly to look at. But Hughes had always given me the willies. There was a creepiness about him, an inhumanness that made my hair stand on end. He was evil, through and through. A true monster. I sensed it.

  Tears sprang to my eyes. I was so worried about Noah. Terror wrapped tightly around me, squeezing me in its grip. My breathing quickened, turning rapid. I began to hyperventilate.

  He lifted a large finger and brushed at my tears. I startled, flinching back. “D-don’t touch me.”

  He shook his head, a strange sadness in his eyes. “Don’t cry, beautiful Shannon. Once you accept your fate, you’ll realize we were meant for each other. I plan to touch you a lot. A whole lot. And you will like it.”

  Bile threatened its way up my throat. No. I need to escape. I need to control my fear.

  Control your fear, Shannon, or you’ll never escape.

  Control your fear, or he will win.

  He rose from the bench and tossed me back over his shoulder. “The Hacker will come searching for you soon. I’ve already baited the trap. I’m ready to play this game. I’m going to show him who’s stronger, smarter, better. He can’t resist a challenge. So he’ll come. He’ll want to play hero.” He began striding deeper into the maze. “And when he does come, I will be ready for him.”

  “He’ll beat you,” I shouted. “I know he will. He’ll win.”