Vengeance: An Action-Adventure Novel (A Jon Steadman Thriller Book 3)

by Nellie Neeman

  Wang looked wary. “Ok, Frank, I trust you. Always have, always will.”

  They fist bumped again and went to play some Skee-Ball.

  Chapter 24

  New York City

  Doug got back to his office after four. He had hit traffic coming downtown from the hospital. He looked at his desk piled high with new reports. It would be a long night. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep up this schedule. His boss suggested he take time off, but he’d refused. There was too much to do. And lately Erica was asleep most of the time.

  He still couldn’t grasp how drastically their lives had changed in such a short time. The cancer came out of nowhere. One day she was at the courthouse giving a closing argument and the next in the emergency room with debilitating pain. They admitted her right away and diagnosed her by the end of the day. If the oncologist’s prognosis was right, she had three months max.

  Everything felt different. He wasn’t used to sleeping alone. He didn’t know how he would live without her.

  Craig knocked on his door. “Sir, got a minute?”

  “What’s up?”

  “Steadman called with an update. He's back in LA from Texas.”

  “What the hell was he doing down there?”

  “Following a lead. Looks like he’s onto something. I can get him on the phone for you. Let him explain it.”

  Doug rubbed at his eyes. He was spread too thin. The last thing he needed right now was to deal with Steadman.

  “Just tell him to email me an update tomorrow. Dismissed. Close the door behind you.”

  ***

  Los Angeles

  Jon was famished. After landing, he texted Luanne and they agreed to meet at the sushi place on Pico and debrief.

  “Are you a sushi nut or something?” Luanne asked him.

  “Since moving to New York, I’ve developed a real taste for it. Just look at this sweetheart roll.”

  “Okaaay. Maybe we can find a seafood anonymous meeting for you to join.”

  “Yeah yeah. So what’s been happening here?”

  She brought him up to speed on Peter Cromwell’s confession.

  “He also got an email from an unidentified hacker?”

  “Yeah, who offered him access to medical DNA of his entire workforce.”

  “That’s crazy,” Jon said.

  “What’s crazy is he accepted. Trying to save the floundering business. He figured better to sacrifice some jobs than all of them.”

  “And that could only be done by invading his employees’ privacy rights?”

  “He felt he had no other option. But the guilt was eating away at him. He admitted to telling the hacker that you and I are investigating. He was told they would take care of any breaches. Bottom line he is scared now for our safety and his own.”

  “What an idiot. What did he think would happen?”

  Luanne broke eye contact. “I kind of feel sorry for him.”

  “Well, I don’t. Not one iota. He preyed on peoples’ weaknesses to make a buck.”

  She had no answer to that.

  Jon said, “I’ll get local agents. They’ll need access to his office, confiscate everything, get into his computers and trace them. See what they can find.”

  “He’ll cooperate.”

  Ignoring Luanne’s misguided empathy, Jon said, “You bet he will. If he knows what’s good for him.”

  ***

  Salt Lake City

  Franklin aka William Sherman had embedded Wang’s spyware into Peter’s system as insurance for cases like this. The app was genius. It would erase all his messages even from the hard drive. Any correspondence would be eliminated, never to be retrieved. Though Wang’s spyware app was still in the beta phase, they’d used it successfully with their clients. Peter Cromwell’s computer system was the most recent one they’d surreptitiously commandeered. And now wiped clean.

  The app’s design was still clunky, making the work painstaking but necessary. Once betrayed, Franklin was no longer playing the role of savior or cavalry. He was on the offense. And he wouldn’t lose.

  He didn’t think of himself as a violent person. But he needed to make an example of Peter. Other potential clients must see there were consequences to breaking a contract.

  He spent the next hour studying Cromwell. When he was satisfied, he turned his attention elsewhere, playing the latest Call of Duty video game. At one a.m., not tired enough to sleep, he decided to check one more thing. Wang’s phone.

  Franklin logged into his friend’s apps. He didn’t use a backdoor. Wang would quickly be alerted to that. And it wasn’t necessary. Franklin used Wang’s actual password. Several months ago, the friends had met for drinks at a local dive bar. Wang, a self-described lightweight had enjoyed one too many, leaving his phone behind when he rushed to the bathroom. It was an opportunity Franklin couldn’t pass up. While sounds of hurling emanated from the men’s room, Franklin ran password cracker software on Wang’s phone. By the time Wang returned, Franklin had broken the code. It was more about the challenge than lack of trust, and Franklin seldom checked his friend’s phone activity.

  Franklin scrolled through Wang’s recent emails and froze. Two days ago, he’d received a message via a VPN. The virtual private network allowed access to the dark web and prevented Wang’s real IP from being tracked, a tactic all hackers employed. Franklin stared at the sender’s name on the screen. The message had come from one of the world’s most infamous black market traders of classified information. The White Knight. They were discussing terms of sale for Wang’s spyware app. Further developed, the software would demand many millions.

  Franklin read the email thread three times, unable to shake the growing sense of betrayal. Some might say he was a hypocrite. After all, he had kept secrets from Wang. If he was being fair, his secret could spark harsher ramifications for them both. And yet, discovering that Wang was negotiating a deal with a big-time broker behind his back was painful. Perhaps Wang would still tell him what he was up to. Maybe he was waiting until the deal was sealed as a surprise. Or maybe there was more to Wang than he’d realized.

  Franklin would need to compartmentalize. He’d handle Wang later if needed. For now, he had Peter Cromwell to deal with.

  ***

  Los Angeles

  Peter knew the young Fed, Agent Steadman, was coming today. He was more relieved than scared of the punishment that would be meted out. He would need to call an emergency board meeting and warn them. And hand in his resignation. He felt bad for Pamela. She would be the one left to pick up the pieces. He had created a mess and now she would have to try and clean it up.

  He stopped at his favorite coffee shop as he always did to pick up his drink for the drive in to the office. It was one of the few cafes that was completely peanut-free. A new guy worked behind the counter.

  “Iced chocolate with low fat milk and light on the whip please.”

  He paid for the drink and walked to the door, taking a long draw through the straw.

  He never made it to his car.

  ***

  Jon arrived at OBooks with two other LA agents hauling cardboard boxes to confiscate Peter’s computers. Curious stares all around. The worried-looking greeter told him Peter had not yet arrived. Jon would be livid if the man decided to back down now. He’d go after him with force.

  Ten minutes later, a prim woman whom everyone called Pamela came running into the lobby.

  “I’m Pamela, the CFO. I’m not sure what all of this is about, but I was told to cooperate with you. However, I just got a call from UCLA Medical Center. Peter was just brought in. He’s unconscious.”

  Jon asked, “Did they tell you what happened?”

  “He had a severe allergy attack. Closed his throat off.”

  Jon ran to the door telling the other agents to stay put.

  By the time he arrived at the ER, Peter Cromwell was dead.

  Chapter 25

  Los Angeles

  “Nothing?? You’ve got not
hing?” Jon was shouting at the lead field officer in charge of Cromwell’s computer.

  “That’s what I’m telling you, Steadman. It’s all gone.”

  “You mean to tell me there is no one in all of the LA tech office that can outsmart some random hacker? There’s got to be a way to retrieve that data.”

  “If there was, they would have found it. Let it go. We’ll keep on it but don’t expect anything.”

  His one lead just hit a dead end. He had only ten days left to break the case.

  ***

  Salt Lake City

  “Oh God. What did you do?” Wang looked like he’d have a heart attack. He and Frank were back at Boosters, but the camaraderie was gone.

  “Calm down. We had no choice. He was going to expose us.”

  Wang lowered his voice. “Cromwell’s sudden death is all over the news. You killed him.”

  A young boy materialized beside them, his eyes wide, clearly having overheard what Wang said.

  Frank turned to the kid. “My buddy here is talking about a soldier in Battlefield One,” he said, referring to the popular video game.

  “How’d he do it?”

  “With the mighty flame thrower.”

  The boy’s eyes grew large. “Way to go. That one’s hard.”

  Franklin gave the kid some prize tickets and he ran gleefully to his mother.

  Franklin stared at Wang. “Take it down a notch. The man had an allergic reaction.”

  “You knew that. You got someone to serve him peanuts so he’d go into anaphylactic shock.”

  Franklin remained silent.

  Wang was pale and sweaty. “I can’t go along with this. We need to stop.”

  “You can’t back out now. We have six other active clients. Let’s finish those jobs, and then we can close up shop. You’ll sell your app and never have to work again. If we’re careful, we’ll have enough money to last us the rest of our lives.”

  A tear slid down Wang’s cheek.

  Franklin said, “Look, you’ve already submitted all the samples for our current clients. All that’s left is my job. I’ll send them the data and get payment. Then we can both be done.”

  That seemed to calm Wang. “Okay. We can never speak of this again.”

  “Agreed. I’m sorry I upset you.”

  Wang looked away, said a quiet goodbye, and left his friend behind.

  ***

  The truth was Franklin had no intention of closing his growing business. At least not until he got his full and final retribution on one more target. He had been tracking the man for years, well before he was fired from his job at ItsRelative.com. He had bided his time, waiting for a ripe opportunity to take his revenge. He had the means to do so.

  A hit man wasn’t sufficient for this job. Neither was a dose of something deadly. No, those methods would only destroy the target. Franklin needed to destroy all he held dear. His family.

  Sitting at his bedroom desk, Franklin pulled up the DNA results again. When the lab tech sent them over, he had to read it three times till he believed it. It was a jackpot.

  The man had an illegitimate child no one knew about. Including his wife. The child was eighteen years old. A girl. The man had been married for twenty. Perhaps a need to learn her lineage had compelled her to submit to a DNA ancestry test. Finding her had not been a real challenge anyway. Franklin had submitted his own DNA when he took the job at ItsRelative.com.

  His and the girl’s DNA were a near perfect match.

  ***

  Los Angeles

  Jon knew it was only a matter of time before Doug would comment on his lack of progress. He was back at square one with Peter Cromwell’s case. He’d skipped the memorial service but heard from Luanne that it was sparsely attended. For years, Cromwell had been a well-respected man until the final few months when he went down in a scandal. An unfortunate state of affairs. She did mention that Pamela, the once-stoic CFO, was sobbing uncontrollably. Maybe she had unrequited love for her boss.

  With no reliable evidence from Cromwell or Caroline Atwood, Jon felt like the investigation was taking one step forward and two steps back. In Caroline’s case, there was no obtainable paper trail. It had been sent directly to the queen’s secretary. It would take an act of Congress to get his hands on it.

  Jon spoke with Stan Reynolds to swap information. The man had conducted a thorough probe into the congressman’s emails. The hacker must have a private server as no ISP was locatable. But there was a flicker of hope. One payment of two grand had been made to Chavez a week before Luanne’s assault in the mountains. If a second one was supposed to be made following the success of the attack, it never was. After all, the man had a bullet in his head and wouldn’t need the money. The issuing bank was based in Utah. That surprised him, given that all the victims currently resided in California. He would check it out.

  ***

  New York City

  The season’s first snowfall was always a romantic time for Doug and Erica. On their first ‘morning after’ Erica had woken up in Doug’s bed, opened the shades. “Snow!” she’d exclaimed with sheer delight.

  Overnight, the world had turned into a winter wonderland.

  They had gone outside and made snow angels.

  From then forward, they managed to be together for each first snowfall and make love fireside.

  As he looked out the hospital window, Doug knew they had shared their final winter together. Erica had opened her eyes only once since yesterday. They were giving her stronger medications for the pain. The cancer was raging inside her, more aggressive than they first believed. He knew her wishes were to not offer any lifesaving efforts. He prayed he wouldn’t have to face that. He sat in the chair beside her, took her hand and fell into a fitful sleep.

  His eyes shot wide open in response to a loud sustained alarm. Two nurses ran into the room, firmly telling him to leave. He was shaken to his core but abided them. On his way out the door, a doctor ran past him. He turned to look at his wife. The woman who stood by him the last fifteen years. As the door was shut behind him, he heard a sound he would never forget. The piercing sound of the heart monitor flatlining.

  ***

  Salt Lake City

  Wang returned to his apartment, drained, scared and confused. He thought he knew Franklin. Thought his brilliant friend had been mistreated. Thought they were alike, always on the hunt for a new challenge, even if it was occasionally outside the lines of legal practice. Most prolific programmers had dabbled in hacking at some point. It was a thrill. So what if he and Franklin did it a bit more than most? The business started out as a means of seeking justice, using people’s own identity, no false accusations.

  Even though Franklin had his own motives, Wang was glad to help. Granted, things shifted when he’d followed Franklin’s lead to upgrade their efforts to a money-making enterprise. If they made a good living in the process, where was the harm? It was the American way.

  Expanding to “social enhancement,” as Franklin referred to it, was more of a leap, but there too, Wang allowed Franklin to talk him into it. He’d convinced him that keeping the royal house pure and the U.S. Congress available to the able-minded, were worthy objectives.

  Never had he considered that Franklin was becoming obsessed. That he had only this left in his life that mattered. That he was capable of murder. Thank heavens he hadn’t told Franklin about the negotiations with the White Knight. The guy had morphed into someone else. Someone dangerous.

  Wang, while single, had a loving family. Parents who put him through the best schools and gave him every opportunity to succeed. It would kill them to know how deep he’d gotten into this.

  He wasn’t sure how he would extricate himself without getting on Franklin’s dark side. But he desperately needed to try.

  Chapter 26

  New York City

  Something was wrong. It was the last day of the symposium. Terry sat alone at a large round table, people milling about exchanging contact information.
She had done everything possible to make herself available, and yet “Netta” hadn’t made a move since taking off in the cab after the cocktail party. A bundle of nerves, Terry couldn’t help but feel like she was running out of time. Would Yosef keep her tied up with the mission until something shook loose?

  Terry took a deep breath, regrouping. I never agreed to be perpetually on call. I can stop whenever I want to. She took solace in that realization, mentally kicking herself for being so compliant until now. She was doing her job as best she could. If she lost her chance at drawing out the broker, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Still, the stakes were dangerously high and the pressure was more than she was comfortable with. Her failure could result in a devastating theft of her country’s intellectual property. Perhaps Yosef had made the wrong choice with her.

  Terry was about to make her way around the room when Charlotte Colbert sat down beside her. “How are you, dear? You seem . . . lost.”

  Terry offered a genuine smile. “I have a lot on my mind. Thanks for caring.”

  Charlotte opened her handbag and unwrapped a napkin revealing two chocolate chip cookies. “I stole these from the tearoom earlier. Would you like one?”

  Terry laughed. “Sure, why not?”

  Charlotte took a dainty bite. “You remind me of my granddaughter. She’s younger than you but has the same petite figure and lovely blond hair.”

  A mob of convention attendees entered the room. A panel discussion must have ended.

  “If I may be so forward, do you have a significant other? You’re beautiful, highly accomplished. I’ve been known to dabble in matchmaking.”

  Terry scanned the room, studying the faces.

  “You seem distracted,” Charlotte said.

  “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

  “A significant other. Do you have one?”

  Terry looked the woman in the eye. Charlotte dabbed at her mouth with the napkin. Two middle-aged men took seats at the far end of the table, chatting among themselves.

  Terry said, “Actually, I’m engaged to be married.” She turned her attention back to the doorway.