I’d bluff it out. I stopped and knocked on the nearest door. It was marked
“Human Resources.” I pushed Grace inside.
“Hi,” I said, to the woman who was sitting nearest the door. She had a photo of two children in a frame on her desk.
“Hello.”
“I’m looking for Belinda. Is she here today?”
The woman gave me a blank look.
“Or am I in the wrong room? Belinda Shepley?”
“I’m sorry,” she answered. “There’s no Belinda Shepley in here, not that I know of.”
She asked all of the other women in the office if anybody knew the imaginary Belinda Shepley. Nobody did. I stalled a bit by describing the imaginary person, hoping to buy some time for the security guard to wander off.
But then I realized that if Donald noticed anything wrong (had I turned everything off?), every moment's delay could be a mistake.
So I quickly conceded defeat with a humble, “Sorry.”
“I could try to look her up in the company phone book,” she offered.
“No, thanks. I’ll phone her myself,” I said, getting out my cell phone, and simultaneously opening the door, smiling my way through it, and taking Grace with me.
Thankfully, the guard was gone. Orion was smiling on me.
“Come on, Alison, you’re doing great, we are nearly there.”
We walked down the corridor, through the doors, and into an elevator whose doors were just closing.
After a very tense ride down to the ground floor, we got out and made our way through the exit, all along talking about some imaginary report that we needed to hand deliver to the nearest copy center.
The guard in the foyer never looked at us.
We walked out the front doors and through the parking lot, as dignified as we could muster.
We headed toward the main road, which seemed much further away from us this time, no matter how fast we walked.
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Chapter 17
We got to a quiet little diner on the main road, and I put Grace into a booth and then phoned a taxi.
When I got back, Grace was glaring at me.
“Do you want a coffee?” I asked.
She didn’t say anything.
“Grace? Are you okay?”
“I can’t believe you did that!” she exploded.
“What?” I looked around nervously, and added, “Please keep your voice down.”
“We could have got arrested!” she hissed angrily. “We could have been put in jail.”
“No, we couldn’t.”
She didn’t seem convinced. I knew that I had done a dumb thing. I had wrecked my relationship with Grace.
“You didn’t tell me what we were doing. I trusted you, and you used me.”
“I told you . . .” My voice trailed off with what was probably a guilty look on my face.
“I want to go home.”
I slumped down in the booth, and tried to think it out. Of course, it had been a stupid thing to do. Some of the happiest days of my life had been with my old crew, pulling stupid tricks on people who ought to know better. But it was kid’s stuff. It wasn’t fun to everybody. Grace was straight. She wasn’t involved in her stepfather’s tricks, and she wouldn’t—or shouldn’t—be involved in mine. I had to tell her something to try to calm her down.
“Look, I know this sounds unbelievable, but I’ve got a get-out-of-jail-free card, that I can play when—I mean, if I get into trouble. The . . . authorities . . . owe me.”
Grace, still glaring out the window, said nothing.
“I can’t explain it, but even if we had got caught, I could have gotten out of it.
. . .”
“You? What about me?!”
“I mean, both of us. I’m sorry. I’m just not thinking right now.”
“That’s for sure. You can’t explain anything, like what you were doing in there anyway. I should have known. You’re the only guy I know who wants to get into a girl’s bedroom so you can use her computer. I thought you were different. But guess what—you’re a criminal.”
“Would you just trust me? I wouldn’t have got you into trouble.”
It wasn’t actually lying to her. When I said I could have got out of it, I was thinking about Philips. If we had got caught back there, I could have explained it away to him, told him that I was working on Malik. Anyway, he wouldn’t have wanted to jeopardize his operation by having his star performer in jail. He’d have got me out of it. Otherwise, I would never have taken Grace along.
“Why don’t you tell me what you are really doing?”
“Because I have trouble trusting people, OK? People let me down. Whenever I trust someone, they hurt me. My parents. My friends.”
“But I’m not them. I’m not your parents. I’m not one of your hacker friends.”
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“I got put in jail for hacking. The guy who put me in jail is going to get what he deserves. That’s what I was doing. I am trusting you because I need your help. I am sorry I lied to you.”
“Is that what this is about—you wanted to use my house, my computer, me?”
“No. I mean, at first I did. But not now.”
How could I explain it to her?
“You were in jail?” she said.
“Yes. I don't ever want to go back.”
“My dad's in jail. My real dad.”
I didn't know what I could say to that.
“But he didn't do it. He was framed. They sold him out. The police made things up, because they weren’t good enough to get the right person. And now my dad is in jail.”
“Do you want a coffee?” I said. I didn’t know what else to say.
After a minute, Grace said, “If I drink coffee now, I’m going to have a heart attack.”
“Two decafs to go, please,” I said to the waitress.
I sat looking at Grace, waiting for her to return to normal.
“Seriously, I wouldn’t have done it if I thought it would get you in real trouble.”
Grace let out a breath. Somehow, her anger seemed to have subsided.
“I was scared.”
“Yeah, me, too. I’d have been stuck if you hadn’t been there.”
I heard a horn blaring outside, and looked out of the window to see a taxi waiting.
“That’s our ride,” I said.
We got in, but not before I had picked up the coffees.
We were soon back at the train station, sitting on a bench in the autumn sunshine, waiting for the next train, sipping coffee, and reminiscing about the good old days.
I caught myself: What good old days? So much had happened recently that it seemed a long time ago I first met Grace.
Glancing at Grace, who was sitting next to me, I decided that she wasn’t exactly lighthearted about our morning’s work; but now that we were out of danger, she had relaxed a bit, and was starting to talk normally again.
The commuters had all gone now, leaving only a few stragglers, including a homeless man. He was drinking from a bottle in a brown paper sack, even though it was not far past breakfast. I wondered, where did he go wrong?
For some reason, I don’t remember what Grace and I talked about, but I looked up at one point in our conversation and caught one of the station attendants, a woman in her fifties, looking at us. She was smiling, as if we weren’t two truant larcenists, but just a nice well-dressed young couple enjoying coffee and being together. Maybe we were. It doesn’t take much. Some girl likes a guy, some guy likes a girl. All you have to do is leave them alone and then one day you have a nice young couple.
I should have been happy. But now I had made it past one of the biggest hurdles, it wasn’t enough. For seven months, I had longed to see Knight get justice.
Knight had ruined my entire career: from now until retirement, I would never be able 81
to get a secure job, and never be able to work in the government, or the military, or any areas of interest.
Even wor
se, Knight wasn’t even a decent hacker. He was about one step above a script kiddy.
Similarly, the town where he had located his business, Oaksburge, was just one rail stop further along the line.
I knew I had to tell Grace the truth.
“Look, Grace, if you want, I’ll go home with you now. But there is one last thing I have to do before we go back home. It's only ten minutes away. I promise, it’s nothing that could get us in trouble. I promise you.”
She agreed, but without much enthusiasm. I bought two tickets. When we got off the train in Oaksburge, I bought a packet of cigarettes. Then we got into a cab, and I gave the driver the address.
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Chapter 18
Although Knight’s office was fairly modest in size, it was so new that it looked like it had been built the week before. The parking lot at the front of the building was full of expensive cars.
I stood at the front of the building, directly across the road, with a lighted cigarette in my hands. In those days, the smokers used to congregate at the entrances of buildings, and I wanted to look like one of them, so that Knight wouldn’t see me.
Being spotted near to his office was the last thing I wanted. Next to me was Grace, but she wasn’t saying anything.
For five minutes, we stared at the building, and it dawned on me that I had done a dumb thing. We couldn’t stand there all day. It was nearly noon on Friday, and I had somehow thought that Knight would leave his building for lunch. I wanted to see him—the man I had been thinking about for seven months—but my desire must have got the best of my good sense.
I didn’t know if he was even in the building. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
I spotted an empty bench in the middle of a grassy area, where in summer the office clerks would have congregated. Now it was cold, and there were only a few people coming out of their offices. I set off toward the bench, and then realized that I had left Grace.
“Grace?”
“What are we doing here?”
“I told you already. Let’s go to the bench.”
I didn’t talk to Grace. I waited and watched, watched and waited. I heard Grace draw in a deep breath and let it out slowly. I was just about to say something like, “Let’s get out of here,” when a man came out of the opposite building holding a bag. He was a tall man with a strut that had earned him a nickname. It was Knight.
He was dressed in a stylish suit and had grown his spiky blond hair a bit longer. The resale value of the car he unlocked would have beaten an FBI agent’s yearly salary. In just six months, he had gone from being a spoiled teenager to a CEO.
Grace’s voice broke my reverie. “That’s him?”
“Yeah.”
“He looks older than you.”
“He’s almost twenty.”
Knight popped open the trunk of his car, and put the bag into it. Then he went back into the office. He looked calm and cheerful, like he was getting ready to go on vacation.
“He doesn’t look like . . .” Grace said, stopping mid-sentence. “So, what happens now?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to see him is all. I wanted to see him before he went to jail.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I told you.”
“Tell me again.”
“When I was fourteen, I joined a group of computer hackers. Then one of them turned me in. His name is Knight. Now it’s his turn to go to jail.”
“So you’re going to turn him in?”
“No. He’s legit. He operates a company that gets paid to hack into computers.
Can you believe that?”
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Grace frowned. “So if he hasn’t done anything wrong, how are you going to send him to jail?”
“Back in the office, I installed a program that will make Knight’s computer connect to a bank and transfer a few million dollars to an offshore account that can't be traced back to Knight. Only it can be traced. I made sure of it over a year ago, before Knight had thought of selling me out. And that is how I get to send him to jail.
It’s not a bank at all. It’s an FBI server—what they call a ‘honey pot.’”
“What will the FBI do to him?”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. Will he go to jail?”
“Yeah. For a long time.”
“But you’re no better than him.”
“I never said I was. Knight is a nark. This is him getting narked. You don’t want to know what they do to narks in jail.”
“I want to go home.”
I turned to look at Grace.
“Would you just wait for a few more minutes?”
“No. If I had known this was just a vendetta, I wouldn’t have come. You said you had put your past behind you. You said that you wanted to become a computer programmer.”
“Thanks to Knight, I won’t ever get to be a programmer. Not a serious one, anyway. My record will always be there. No one serious will ever hire me. No government or military, no banks. The only hope I have got is to start a new life.”
“And do you think this will make that better? Will it change anything?”
It seemed logical to me. I was merely making another move in Knight’s game.
Only this was checkmate, and I win the game. I didn’t get what was so hard to understand, but Grace looked away.
My cell phone rang.
“Yeah?”
“Hello, David,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. It was Zaqarwi.
“My friend, the one I told you about. He wants to meet you tonight. Are you still interested?”
“What time?”
“Seven. At the coffee shop.”
“Sure. I’ll be there.”
“Good.”
I put the phone away.
“I have to go back in a few days. That’s the reason that I had to do this now. I just wanted to see Knight for one last time before he gets busted. Then it’s all over, for him. And for me. I finally get to start a normal life. We can be together.”
Just then, Knight reemerged, and this time he was followed by a woman. She was very good looking, and had on an elegant black-and-white checked dress. As she walked, she smiled and talked to the baby she was holding in her arms.
The woman passed the baby to Knight, who strapped the baby into a child restraint seat in the back of the car. I watched as Knight made funny faces at the baby.
Then the woman began to talk to the baby. Peripherally, I saw Grace turn her head to me, but I didn’t look at her.
“David,” Grace said with a puzzled look on her face. “Are you sure?”
“What?” I said blankly.
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I watched as Knight and his girlfriend paused to kiss. They looked happy, blissfully happy. Then they got in the car, and drove off. From where I was sitting, I could see them smiling and talking.
I didn’t have anything to say. The plan that I had been working on for seven months was nearly done. And my victory was as bitter as a mouth full of ashes.
I turned to look at my own girlfriend, but she wasn’t there. Grace had walked away.
“Grace?”
“Get away from me. You’re a criminal—no better than . . .”
“I'm not a criminal. Would you wait?”
Grace kept walking.
“Grace?”
Grace stopped and turned.
“I don't get it. You have everything, and all you want is to settle some score that’s in the past!”
I didn't get it, either.
“I have everything?” I repeated blankly. “I have nothing. He took everything.
Him and my mother.”
“Your mother? What are you talking about? You are just—get away from me.”
“Tell me what you mean. How do I have everything? Grace, please tell me.”
“You’re smart, hard-working, funny, and cute. But it’s a lie. Why can’t you just be that anyway? Under it all, you’re a decent guy. Do you know how many guys hav
e tried to get into my bedroom? And all you wanted to do was to play on the Internet. I thought you were different. God, I hate you.”
She started walking away again. I had to say something.
“Grace, please, can I ask you something?”
No answer. Surely, she wanted to get away from her horrible life.
“Look, if I . . . if I got some money, and somewhere to live. Would you come with me?”
Grace stopped. She turned her head to look at me, and stared blankly, not understanding.
“What?”
“I have some money stashed away. If I leave here, if I go away to another country, get a house, start working a normal job, would you come with me?”
“That’s crazy. I can’t do that. You can’t do that.”
“You could have a normal life. We would have all the money we could want.
Really. You could go to college, or start a business. So could I. We could be happy.”
Grace said nothing. But there was something she wanted to say.
“Your dad. Your real dad. He could come to stay with us.”
Grace sat silently. Her pretty dark eyes looked at me, and never wavered.
“Maybe you should give it more time—”
“No, Grace, it’s now or never. I have to leave. We could go live wherever you want to go. Anywhere. But we have to go within the next few days.”
Grace said nothing. But there was hesitation in her looks. Did I trust Grace? I hardly knew her, but my feelings for her were clear. I wanted to be away from the FBI and their schemes. I wanted to be away from my past. I wanted my own fresh start.
But most of all, I wanted to be with Grace.
We grabbed a taxi, and rode to the station in silence.
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We sat waiting for the train back to Elmwood. Neither of us said anything.
There was nothing to say.
Across from us was a guy begging for money. I remembered the bum I had seen that morning, the alcoholic guy.
Was that me? Only instead of spending my days inside a bottle, I had crawled into a virtual bottle, and spent my days, weeks, and years there. Was I on a similar path of self-destructive behavior? Was North right? Was I an addict, my programming faulty, stuck in an infinite loop? Would I end up being arrested, charged, and back inside for a ten-year stretch. Twenty years?
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