by Reiss, CD
“First, you’re going to tell me what you’re up to.”
“Trust me.” She took the jar from him and spun the cap off.
“I trust you. And I like the gentleman in the driver’s seat well enough to shoot pool and throw back a few. But trust is a different thing. I’m not risking my job for some rich, excuse the term or don’t, asshole. No offense.”
“None taken,” I said. “But you put the plant in my watch. So consider this more of the same.”
“That’s what I thought.” He dropped the bag back in Harper’s lap, stepped away from the car and into the darkness.
“Johnny!” Harper opened the door.
I reached over and closed it. “Stay here.”
“Why? What—?”
Grabbing her wrist, I gave her my full attention for two words. “Trust me.”
I grabbed the bag with the deodorant and got out of the car, where the road slanted away. I almost fell. Gravity pulled the door closed. As I went around the front, Harper’s face went to stone as she shut off the dome light.
No dummy, that girl. She could see us and not be seen if the dome light was off.
No dummy. Unexpectedly smart.
Why unexpected?
Say it.
To yourself, you can say it.
Say, “I always assumed pretty girls weren’t that bright.”
“Johnny!” I called, running into the bush. I found him with the clack of a zippo and the pin light of a cigarette. “Hold up.”
My eyes adjusted to the starlight. We were right next to his truck. He leaned on the bed.
“I’m holding up.” He held a pack of cigarettes out for me. I declined. “Good move. These fucking things killed my mother.” He took a drag as if testing mortality. “You want me to do you a favor. I know I don’t have much to lose, but it’s all I have.”
I leaned on the cab. He had a house. His wife had a barely profitable business. He had kids in school and a truck. No, it wasn’t much. And who was I to jeopardize it?
I had no right to ask him to do me a favor, but I had no other way to save myself. “Tell me how to make it worth your while.”
The smoke billowing from his lips was blue in the starlight. It dispersed when he shook his head. “I helped Harper with… what did she call it? Her exploit. A few of us did. Desperate people take risks. It was a stupid idea, but you showed up, right on time. It looked like it was working. You, then we were going to work on the Irish one. Fitzgerald. Then Catherine says you’re holed up in a room at their place. I had to practically tie Butthead down.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s ours. We protect her and her sister, and they protect us. That’s how it goes. And now I’m seeing… I don’t know what you got going on with her. I’m not making assumptions. I mean, I know well enough. It’s your intentions I can’t seem to figure out.”
“My intentions? What were your intentions bringing me here? You talk like you’re so clean. You ruined my life so you could squeeze me. And for what? You think I have some endless well of cash? I’m nobody. I’m ten years away from buying a factory.”
He threw his cigarette down and smashed it with the ball of his foot. A car passed, casting moving bush-shaped shadows across us before fading away.
“We’ll be here,” he said.
“Why?” I only said one word, but a lecture’s worth of questions was inside it. Why stay if it’s so miserable? Why risk everything for a town that had abandoned him already?
“We got nowhere to go. I wanted my children to raise our grandchildren here, but they’re in all corners of the country. Maybe three times a year Pattycakes gets one to show up. Maybe. My daughter, did you know she’s an artist? She can’t ever come back here. For what? So she can be alone? There’s no opportunity here for her to be more than a mother, and she can do that anywhere. My son, the one in law school? Who’s he gonna represent here who can pay him? I raised them to do better than we did. I didn’t know that meant I’d never see them. I miss them. I miss my children. And you can buy that factory and hire all of us at twenty-five an hour, but my kids aren’t coming back. It’s me, my wife, and this town. It’s all I got.”
That was that. I couldn’t offer him his life or the company of his children. His home wasn’t a place; it was a time in his life that all the money in the world wouldn’t bring back.
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t have any words of wisdom.
“Things were supposed to get better.” He seemed to speak to the dirt, the stars, his broken heart.
Jesus. I was turning into some kind of pussy. What was the difference? There were winners and losers in this world. We sank or we swam. Complaints were for whiners and failures. Change. Grow. Learn. Get it right the hundredth time if you had to.
I felt the truth of all of that, but I couldn’t say it out loud, even in a supportive, managerial way. It meant accusing Johnny of not trying hard enough, not getting lucky enough. It meant accusing him of being complacent, which wasn’t fair even if it was true.
My worldview was having a head-on collision with the world.
“I got you.” I switched the brown paper back from my right hand to my left and held the right out to shake. “Harper and I will figure it out.”
He clasped my hand and shook it. “Sorry I went girl on you.”
“Speaking of girl.” He let my hand go, and I pointed at her shitty car. “Harper.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m not playing around. I love her. You don’t have to believe me, but it’s the truth.”
“You take care of her then. She’s the gem of Barrington. You can’t break her, but you can lose her if you know what I’m saying.”
“Sure.” I started back for the car, but Johnny came for me and grabbed the paper bag.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “No promises.”
“None expected.”
He got in his truck and turned the ignition. The rear lights turned the greenery black and the ground red.
Harper was behind the bush.
“Is he taking the jar?” she asked when Johnny’s truck pulled onto the road.
“I don’t want to use him.” I passed her. “We’ll figure something else out.”
I got into the driver’s side, and she slid in next to me.
“What happened?” She slammed her door closed.
“Life happened.” I turned the ignition. “It’s one thing to risk your job for your own good. But this isn’t for him or Barrington. It’s for me. I can’t ask him to lose his job for me.”
“Get out.” She pushed my shoulder as if we were fighting on a playground. “I’m driving.”
“Fine. You drive this shitcan.”
“It’s not a shitcan. It’s a choice. Like you giving up.”
She had to scream the last part because I was already out of the car.
Note to self: this was a girl who didn’t like to change plans.
“Officially,” she said when I got in, “we are not speaking.”
She wasn’t cute when she was mad. I’d have been crazy to minimize her ferocity. She was formidable, and it was a massive turn-on.
“Unofficially,” I said as she made a U-turn to go back to Barrington, “I’d like to kiss you.”
“Fuck off.”
“Is that a smirk? Are you smiling?”
“Smiling doesn’t mean I’m not mad.”
“Letting Johnny off the hook doesn’t mean I’m giving up.”
She let that hang between us on the empty road, and I didn’t follow up. I watched the starry horizon change and let the thup whup of the seams in the road lull me. How many days had gone by? How many more until Keaton turned the boot code into open source? How long did he have to crack the rest of the Harperware? We had no time, and we had too much.
Five days.
Code laced like a drawstring bag.
Harper turned down the tight little dirt road to the Barrington house. The car did shimmy less when she drove.
When I bought her a new car, she probably wouldn’t know how to make a left at all.
The contract.
The contest.
The con.
She stopped in front and cut the engine. Didn’t get out. Didn’t open the door. Said nothing. We sat in the dark together, listening to the grass crackle.
My chain of thought wasn’t disrupted.
Cut the cord.
To the anchor.
And drift toward the horizon.
The lights went off on the bottom floor and clicked on upstairs. Catherine wouldn’t cry tonight. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I didn’t question the truth of it.
The system is closed.
Until it’s not.
Then…
“GreyHatC0n’s in less than a week,” I said.
“If you want to go, you should go.”
“You know how Bitcoin works, right? The information blockchains?”
“Yeah.” She slid down in her seat in a resigned slouch. “Transparency creates honesty. If everyone can see the transaction history, it can’t be falsified, et cetera.”
“Documentation of every Bitcoin transfer ever made is available on the blockchain. What everyone sees becomes the truth.”
She faced me. “Yes?”
She was so beautiful I didn’t think I could ever live without her. I was so far ahead of myself I was living in two mental time zones.
In one, she was mine.
In another, I’d lost her and everything I’d worked for to the consequences of my bad decisions.
“If I tell everyone the contest is on, then it’s on, whether Keaton wants it to be or not. He has to unlock it, or he looks stupid. He looks like he’s not in control.”
“If you tell them? How are you getting online?” She spoke softly, as if there were more on her mind than the elegant social engineering of my plan.
“You’re going to have to turn off your signal scrambler. If you dare.”
“I dare.”
I opened the door, and the dome light went on. She squinted.
“I want you to win it, goose.”
XLVIII
TWITTER
@Beezleboy363636
None of you bitches are ready for QI4.
#GreyHatC0n #QI4
@hackerbitch
Look who’s back. Still pwned?
Change your handle to
@BreachBoy. #QI4choked
@Beezleboy363636
Five mill says you can’t get in.
But bring what you got.
#GreyHatC0n #QI4 #IT_Solid
@git-up
You patch that RU hack?
Nyet? I got money on you shitting
your pants. #tool #douche # QI4choked
@anon_00110001
Bro. You find the dude who hacked
you? You fuck him good? Or did
41ph4_W01f break his kneecaps?
#BeezeIsBack #QI4rulz
@J0k3r_K1Ng
Oh, shit. It’s on.
#GreyHatC0n
@BeezleBoy363636
Wasn’t a dude.
@anon_00110001
Bot? AI?
@BeezleBoy363636
Girl. Female.
@hackerbitch
ALL HAIL KARMA.
@anon_00110001
Yeah… no.
@shelly-code
And you haven’t literally died of
shame yet you fucking sexist douche?
@BeezleBoy363636
Can’t talk now. Eating crow.
@hackerbitch
(dies)
@anon_00110001
Dude. Seriously?
@BeezleBoy363636
Bump in the road, people. You need to
have a little faith in the early fail.
@shelly-code
I’m buying tickets to #GreyHatC0n
just to see you eat shit.
@engadget
The QI4 Challenge is back on. bit.ly/4nfw8rfS
@Wired
EXCLUSIVE: Sources say QI4 code still on
lockdown but ready for a 5-million-dollar
exploit. bit.ly/7bfw9sfW
@gizmodo
Show us the money. Five-mill challenge to
hack QI4 is back.
@hackeropz
Buckle in. #QI4 @BeezleBoy363636 &
@41ph4_W01f are mid-stunt.
Just like I knew he would, Keaton came on a private thread like a gopher popping his head out of a hole.
What the fuck are you doing?
My damnedest to get QI4 back on track.
I HAVE IT.
I’ve secured my end. Just make sure
it’s unlocked in time. Out.
XLIX
I leaned back in her chair. She was on the love seat with her feet tucked under her, watching the hacker forums and Twitter blow up.
“It’s happening,” she said, eyes big. Was she pale, or was it the light?
“Hell, yes. And Keaton’s going to have to go along or eat his shirt. He’s got pride where most people have sense, so I’m pretty sure he’ll go along.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
I spun the chair to face her. “What? This is easy. You hack in. Then you get the five mil and do whatever you want with it. Pay the taxes on the factory. Buy everyone Oxycontin.”
“Not funny.”
I dropped to my knees in front of her, wedging myself between her thighs. She put her arms around my shoulders.
“What are you so nervous about?” I asked.
“This is so big.”
“You’ve done it before.”
“That was different. I locked it from the outside. I didn’t get in and crack it. I got QI4 to run my code. And I got a ton of lucky breaks. This time, once I decrypt—”
“Your encryption. Harperware.”
“I’ll be up against everyone. The best.”
“You know how to talk to QI4. You’re already ten steps ahead.” I leaned forward, elbows on her thighs. I wanted her to know I was serious, but I couldn’t touch her. She needed to believe it without the sex. “I built this to withstand the attack. I’m not worried about anyone at the conference. Just you. And you can take that money and pay the back taxes on the factory. Then you can sell it, give it away, break it up into luxury condos if you want.”
She turned her hands over in her lap and rubbed her palm with the ball of her thumb as if she wanted to change the lines of her fortune. “He won’t let me win.”
My phone buzzed.
Keaton. Right on time.
I squeezed her hand and dashed down the stairs, picking up when I was in the only enclosed, private space I could think of. The kitchen pantry.
“Hello.”
“I don’t know if you’re a genius or an idiot.” Keaton was as calm as ever. “Baiting me to unlock QI4 like that?”
“I’m not baiting you.”
“Describe what you’re doing.”
“Letting everyone know the hack is fixed and we’re going on as planned.”
“Is it? And are we?”
“It is. Once you open it up, we’ll decrypt the lock. The flaw was in the supply chain. That’s rectified with line inspections. We are a go.”
“What about the hacker? Who are they? That house you called from—”
“I can’t reveal that.”
“—is occupied by women.”
“I promised to keep it secret.”
“What does she want? She humiliated us for a reason.”
“Relax. We opened it up for hacks to test it.”
“In a controlled setting.” Keaton’s voice shredded in his throat. “That was the deal. This was an attack. A direct attack timed for the most attention. It was meant to kill the demand for a product that was set to revolutionize computing. And we do not sit still fo
r it.”
There was only one way to deal with Keaton when he had vengeance in his voice. Calm authority.
“We are sitting still for it because we see the big picture. We don’t get revenge because we’re butthurt.”
“We will discuss this when I see you.”
“When are you unlocking it?”
“When I see you.” He hung up.
Harper was outside the pantry door, looking more frightened than I’d ever seen her. If she was scared, I wasn’t doing my job.
“They say Alpha Wolf is a military contractor,” she said. “They say he’s a sociopath.”
“They say a lot of bullshit.”
“He already knows I’m here from the landline call.”
“No. He knows I’m here—and possibly the hacker. If we cloak right, and we will, he won’t know you and the winner of the challenge are the same person. Once he unlocks the system, we’ll open up the Harperware. He won’t find you.”
She didn’t believe me. Not one hundred percent. Twenty percent. All I had to do was fill in the other eighty. I took her hand and led her back to my bedroom, where we wouldn’t be interrupted.
“Do you know why I took Keaton’s money?” I sat on the bed and took her hand.
She stood between my legs. “He offered the most?”
“No.” I counted on my fingers, index to pinkie. “It was in Bitcoin. He’s Alpha Wolf. It gave me dark web credibility. It gave the impression I was watching hackers as much as they were watching me. Which…” I made a fist and dropped it. “That’s half the story. The other half is weirder.”
“Oh, I’m intrigued now.”
“Let me tell you a story. I was once a teen hacker who grabbed what he could. I could have gone the rest of my life like that, until one day, Keaton and I cracked Luhn’s formula. I was conflicted about it, but Keaton was already setting up a route for secure wire transfers. Then the FBI ended up in my parents’ living room.”