The Recluse

by D A Rice

  “Nikki,” someone was speaking softly to her now. Her eyes shifted, but only because the voice told her to acknowledge this man. He was different, if not more important than the others. This one came on orders from him, the voice inside her head. “My name is Dr. Heek, Nikki. I am here to help you.” She felt a clammy hand on her folded ones, and her eyes flicked down.

  She heard whispering in the back of the room as she moved her head to face the doctor. She said nothing as she gazed sightlessly at him, nodding in acknowledgement. The people behind him stirred in surprise, but Nikki ignored them as her eyes locked on Dr. Heek. He warmly smiled at her, his eyes assessing. No one else in the room drew her attention; no one else mattered for now. That’s what the voice said.

  “You’re safe now. No one here wishes to harm you.” There was a pause here, then, “I have a gift for you.” Dr. Heek set something on her food tray, and Nikki glanced at it without interest. “I know you’ve been having a hard time talking to those around you. I thought this journal might help.” It was striped with brown and green and had a magnetized strip that kept it closed. She could see the pink ribbon that was meant to be used as a bookmark. Her gaze shifted back to him, and he squeezed her hand in his in a reassuring way. She wasn’t sure if it was for her, or himself, but she didn’t care.

  “I’m here for you, Nicole. If you can’t vocalize what you’re feeling, that journal is your safe place. I want you to try and write in it every day. I think that if you do, it’ll unlock whatever mental or emotional hold has you paralyzed right now. You may not be able to tell me what is going on, but you can always tell that journal, ok?” The doctor smiled at her, and she nodded again, gaze drifting back to the small book on her tray.

  “Your parents tell me you like to write; I think that’s a great place for those hindering thoughts,” he stood, glancing to the back of the room. She followed his subtle look to who, she assumed, were her parents. Her mom was wrapped in her dad’s arms, tears streaking down her cheeks, slender fingers covering her small, tear-filled, hiccups. Give them a small smile, that cool voice whispered. She shivered with it, then met her mother’s eyes and smiled. Her mom gasped again, hope lighting her eyes.

  The vacant look in her daughter’s eyes did not dilute that hope, but Nikki could feel the cruel laughter of the man in her head. She shivered again.

  …

  Damion booted up his laptop as he sat at a desk in his room. The desk had another computer hidden in the corner, but it had room for this one too. The other computer was a PC from the 80’s Damion used when he needed to bypass security protocols that would detect anything newer. The chair he slid across from one side of the desk to the other was designed for all the comfort a programmer could need.

  His room was dark at the moment, with only the glow of his laptop to light it. He pulled on a headset as the Arachnid chat and video link flashed up on the far left, his music list on the far right. He cracked his neck and immediately started to search for the device he had planted in Rei’s apartment, having connected the program to his laptop remotely. He leaned back as he waited.

  With the Recluse coming to visit, Damion figured a discreet hack of the Recluse’s devices would be his best bet. As long as the Recluse was in range of the network he had left for him, Damion could upload his own spider to look for any holes. He didn’t need the device for that, but the device would be able to live-stream the Recluse’s face straight to him. Damion knew the Recluse was a street-savvy blackhat, but he was hoping that the other hacker wouldn’t find the device until it was too late.

  He took a small electronic box and stuck it up under Rei’s island counter. It was essentially a nanny cam he had programmed to connect to Rei’s wireless network and send the feedback to him.

  With the live-stream in place on his laptop now, Damion pulled up facial recognition next, silently thanking the FBI with a smug grin. Whoever had designed the program that allowed Arachnid to use it had been a flat-out genius. Damion could use their government database without them ever knowing he had been there. Too bad the program’s creator was dead. It was said that the hacker put a self-detonation code in his programs, one that only he could activate. No one knew who he’d been in real life, only that he was notorious within the eight, a legend they all strived to live up to. B3oW0lf: the hacker that could take down any firewall and code any program.

  They were trained as recruits into the group to hack as if B3oW0lf was their opponent. It had shaped Damion’s innate ability to code as fast as he could in real-time. It was because of the notorious hacker that Arachnid got around the FBI as often as they had. The program B3oW0lf made for them provided the backdoor, but Damion’s programming was unmatched within the group otherwise.

  This new threat no one knew how to deal with. His hacking skills were out of this world good. None of them could figure out how to track his programs back to the man himself, and they had tried. Like the law enforcement who chased him, Arachnid could only trace what he allowed them to. It always led back to a public place, just as the hacker was leaving, always making sure he was seen. It was infuriating.

  Damion could almost swear they had a ghost haunting them, but the other hacker’s signatures were too different. If the Recluse hadn’t used their own backdoors to delete the research that the Wolf coveted, they would’ve continued to think him an imbecile.

  Now Damion knew the hacker was something so much more. He was beginning to put puzzle pieces together: how the other hacker had always been caught on camera, had always hacked to be seen, but never caught. Underneath the surface, the Recluse was a threat. If Damion could get confirmation of who he was, taking the Recluse out would be easy.

  An icon blinked up in his peripheral vision, and Damion clicked on it, pulling up a chat.

  Have you exterminated the bug problem?

  Damion clenched his teeth before responding.

  It’s taken care of. I may have a lead on who “the Recluse” is as well.

  If you are interested, that is.

  There was a pause in the chat response before Fenris replied:

  Very.

  Damion smirked at that and minimized the chat. He knew Fenris would be waiting to hear back from him as soon as he had more information. He turned his attention back to Rei’s apartment and waited.

  Soon he would know exactly who this golden-eyed friend of hers was. Fenris seemed to believe that even if he wasn’t the Recluse, he was important. How much, then, would Fenris want this man taken down if he turned out to be the Recluse as well? But Damion knew he couldn’t just hand Fenris a suspicion. He had to be thorough, and he would be.

  Fenris knew more than he told anyone. He had an eerie sixth sense when it came to people. There was something about the man that hung out with Rei that Fenris was determined to know. However, finding out information about him was proving difficult. It was as if this man, Eli, was protected. How he could evade Fenris as a whole was beyond Damion’s ability to know.

  Fenris had been able to tell that Rei was different without even meeting her. The more Damion hung out with her, the more he knew the Wolf was right. Rei saw demons, but her ‘migraines’ were unearthly. He had seen her eyes, how they changed when she had them. Fenris seemed to think this man she was so interested in was similar, and Damion didn’t doubt that he was right.

  Other than what he’d been told, Damion knew nothing about who Eli was, how he operated, or where he’d come from. Whatever powerhouse Fenris thought him to be, Damion didn’t want to be responsible if the Wolf missed his chance to find out. He could only hope, in the end, that Fenris would treat Rei much kinder then he would undoubtedly treat Eli.

  Fenris wouldn’t let any of them live if he couldn’t use them. Even if part of Damion knew that Arachnid was not the group it once was, that it had become something darker, he couldn’t escape Fenris. So he’d hack and do as the Wolf commanded.

  Damion leaned back in his chair, listening to the whispers and updates of the other eight, wait
ing as a spider would for a fly.

  14

  Eli tapped the window to Rei’s bedroom with a loud rat-a-tat-tat and smirked when she stuck only her head inside the bedroom door. Then she brought the rest of her in, which included a baseball bat. Rei visibly relaxed when she saw him. With a hand on her chest, Eli saw her take in a deep breath before setting the bat aside to let him in. Eli slid through, shutting the window behind him as well as locking it before closing the blinds and turning. He pulled his hood off of his head with a smile before meeting her blue-eyed gaze. She took a few steps back from him, and he nodded once. “Hello,” he whispered.

  She raised an eyebrow, “the window, really?” she whispered back, and he chuckled, a finger to his lips. He pulled out his tablet, and she started in surprise. He raised an eyebrow at her, his lips twitching again as he tapped the screen. There was no need for him to pull out the keyboard he had, the code was running on its own. Eli didn’t need to do much to modify it.

  “Scrambler,” he said in his normal tone, nodding down at the tablet before tossing it gently on her bed. He met her gaze, his smile dropping, “I think you’ve been bugged, Rei.”

  “The FBI?” She gasped.

  Eli found his lips curving up again and shook his head, “not likely.”

  “Then...” he held up a hand to interrupt her before she could say more, his eyes taking in every detail of her room mathematically. She stood near the door, rubbing her upper arms as she followed him with her gaze while he systematically moved around it. His phone was in his palm a moment later, and he pulled something from out of his ear, letting it hang over his shoulder. It was an earbud. He had been listening to his phone as it scanned her apartment separate from his tablet for an outgoing signal that shouldn’t be there. It’d found what he was looking for.

  Eli strode past her and out of the room. She followed slowly, stopping just short of the kitchen as he crouched down and looked underneath her island counter. A smile broke out on his face. “You have a fly on your wall,” he said, again. His normal voice was almost a challenge as he spoke. He cocked his head as he studied the square-shaped device he had found.

  “Fancy piece of tech. Very clever,” and then he reached up and pulled it out of its hiding place. Eli purposefully yanked a wire, physically disconnecting the device, so that it would send no more signals. It seemed to be battery-operated anyway and was stuck to the bottom of her counter with two-sided tape.

  Eli wasn’t sure yet how strong his coded scrambler was compared to the signals of the box in his hand. The hacker on the other side lost remote access immediately once Eli messed with the wires. It was still possible that some feed made it past his scrambler. The box could’ve stored that information once that link was lost. Eli would have to find out. He showed the box, which fit nicely into the palm of his hand, to Rei now. She stepped forward in surprise as he turned. “You’re fine now. Speak freely.”

  “What...what the hell is that?” Rei’s hands came up to her mouth, and her eyes shut momentarily in startled disbelief. Eli watched her out of the corner of his eye; he knew the symptoms of her so-called migraines. She would need his help more tonight. He studied the device in his palm, his attention drifting from her to it as he turned it in his fingers with practiced ease.

  “Nothing you need to worry about anymore tonight,” he said softly. It was a home-made creation, of that he had no doubt. Whoever had wired it had done it ingeniously. It looked similar to a small nanny cam, but Eli didn’t doubt that whoever had planted it had made modifications. He had a suspicion that the coding that was programmed into this little device was far beyond what any normal person could do. Anyone who could battle his own coding was a master programmer.

  Eli’s eyes narrowed; this had Arachnid written all over it. It was pure luck that Eli had been able to kick the other hacker out. Whoever had been listening in was probably either very impressed right now, or very frustrated. Eli had seen the virus that had tried to worm it’s way into his tablet as soon as he connected to Rei’s wifi. If he hadn’t caught the program and disposed of it, he would have never been able to find the camera sending signals out.

  “Why would someone want to bug me?!” Rei asked, her voice in a panic as she slowly sank on the couch with her head in her hands. Her fingers massaged her temples. Eli came over and sat beside her, the little device held aloft in his palm..

  “Well, I suppose the bug part is obvious. The coding on this thing, however, I’m expecting to be beyond an average hacker’s ability.”

  “Wait. That means…” She met his gaze, and he nodded.

  “Apparently, you’re on Arachnid’s radar.”

  “Because of you?”

  Eli shook his head, setting the device gingerly on the coffee table. “No, Rei. They were monitoring you before I came along,” he glanced at her. “There was a spider in your phone. When I placed the Black Widow in there, it was found and disrupted. I had a feeling it was them, even then, but this… this proves it. You need to give this to Agent Montoya.” He waved a hand towards the table with a curious look on his face.

  She whipped her head to him, alarmed, “They must have found a way to break into my house. I wonder how long they’ve been spying on me!” She paused as another thought occurred to her. “How did you know about Montoya?”

  He met her gaze full on so that she knew he was telling her the truth. “After you activated the code I gave you, I did a little research. I found out about their visit to you. I’ve been watching Agent Montoya and Detective Jackson for a while now.” He shrugged.

  “I’m not surprised they linked you to me. Especially if someone has been keeping close tabs on you to begin with.” This device only confirmed to Eli that Arachnid had no idea as to his identity yet. If they did, they wouldn’t be trying to get video footage of him. But this plant was good evidence that they suspected, at least, that the Recluse was in contact with Rei. What they wanted with her, however, he still didn’t know. He wanted to be sure.

  When Eli looked at Rei again, she had the heels of her hands in her eyes. He leaned around her, his hands covering her own. “Hey,” his touch was comforting as he grazed his fingers along hers. She looked up at him; her eyes were already smoking. Eli braced himself, “what did I tell you?” His voice was a gentle reprimand, but her head raised a little more as he spoke.

  “You told me not to hold back,” she answered breathlessly. It was clear to him that she was in pain. “But I don’t know how.”

  Eli smiled at her, moving to kneel on the floor beside her. He found himself pushing the coffee table a little bit to make room. “First of all,” he tugged her hands away from her face and interlaced his fingers with hers. Then he met her gaze, “don’t hide.”

  Her eyes squinted, tears gathering but not going anywhere as her eyes began to glow a brilliant white, “it hurts so much.”

  Eli nodded, “then let go, Rei.”

  …

  Let go, Rei, his voice echoed in her head, then she was lost in the light that exploded from her eyes. She could see everything. Demons covered the walls, but that wasn’t all. There were other beings there she’d never seen before. They crouched on either side of Eli, made of pure light.

  They looked humanoid and had wings. One’s wings were protectively draped over Eli as well as herself. She glanced to her other side and saw the other one. its wings enfolded her as its hands gently touched her shoulders. She hitched a breath, as with that gentle touch came peace.

  Eli’s fingers grazed her cheek, bringing her focus back to him, “what do you see?”

  She sputtered for a moment, “beings…beings made of light and…and demons made of darkness. I don’t know what I’m seeing, Eli.”

  He shifted, pulling himself onto the coffee table right behind him. Eli was in front of her now, and she blinked, meeting his steady gaze. What she saw there made her tilt her head curiously, but she did not fear it this time. There was knowledge in that gaze. There was awe in it, and something els
e that sent shivers down her spine. It was as if he saw all of her, and found it beautiful. “Does it hurt?” he asked, his fingers still soothingly grazing her temple and cheek.

  She shook her head, her gaze shifting as she took in her surroundings again, “no, I think...I think it’s because this time I didn’t try to resist it as much like I always have. You told me to let go and-- and I just did.”

  He smiled, “I wish I could see as you do, again.”

  Her gaze found his, “again?”

  He nodded. “That first night we met, when this happened,” he waved his free hand around the living room. “That voice that sometimes tells me things before it happens?” She nodded, remembering how he had described it. I listen, Rei, as you see, he’d said. She smiled as he continued, “it told me to take some of your burden for you.”

  He shrugged, his smile turning sheepish, “so I kissed your eyelids and it opened my eyes. It showed me everything you saw at that moment. It was just the demons then. Something must’ve opened your sight further when you let go tonight, when you had faith and believed in something higher than your doubts. When you trusted just enough.” He smiled at her again here, as he referred to their conversation under the stars on the roof. She laughed, and his eyes twinkled.

  “Maybe I can open your eyes again,” she said, reaching up her hands to his face. She could see a light coming off Eli as she faced him. It was just as bright as the beings next to him, but different. Was that his faith? He watched her, his intense eyes moving back and forth on hers. Rei’s fingers grazed his cheeks; his hand stilled on her face with her touch. His grin grew gentle as she took him in, studying him in this new way of seeing. “I’m not crazy after all,” she said in a whisper.

  His lips twitched, “no, Rei.”