by Lee Perry
Jeffers’s grin was huge, “Excellent,” he stood, “then let’s get on with Operation Hacker Hunt so I can take America down for a serious reboot.” He followed Patton out the door, still impressed by the man’s height now they had actually met; He has to be at least five inches taller than me.
They walked to their vehicles and Jeffers privately lamented again that they were all now driving Humvees, That cammo painted one can never be driven into a city unnoticed… “Patton?” he called to the chiseled figure clad in jeans and a gray t-shirt.
He turned to him briefly as he walked to his dark blue Hummer, “Yeah?”
Jeffers hooked a thumb over his shoulder, “Aren’t you gonna’ lock your door?”
“No,” he shook his head, “I won’t be coming back here.”
New York City, NY
When Catherine finished her hacker program, she gave it to Jordan along with the briefest tutorial she had ever given, “Just plug it into a USB connector on Jeffers's workstation and it will do the rest.”
Jordan slipped the drive into her pants pocket and after planting a grateful kiss on her lips murmured, “Excellent work, Doctor Bernard. I believe we can now take a nap for a couple hours until Cameron gets up.” Holding her hand, she pulled her gently from the Project Room and Cyber Division.
Catherine’s smile was exhausted and she pressed close, squeezing the hand that held hers, “I need to keep working on that chunk of code you know.”
“I know.” She pulled her down the long hallway to their office, “But first you get to have a little snooze so you won’t snore into your Captain Crunch pancakes.”
While Catherine finished testing her new software, Jordan scrounged in the SWAT supplies for some sleeping bags, camper pads and pillows she set up in a warm corner of their office and Catherine giggled softly when she spied the pile of bedding in the corner. “Oh Jordan…” She turned into her and slung her arms around the slender waist, “thank you.”
Jordan placed a chaste kiss on upturned lips before closing and locking their office door behind them. “No hanky-panky now,” she urged her to sit on the stacked bedding, “Just sleep and I promise we can make wild and crazy love once we’ve both had a good night’s sleep at home, uh…” She knelt between Catherine’s knees and checked her watch, “tomorrow night, or… much much later today.” She pulled Catherine’s shoes from her feet and while she struggled out of her clothes Jordan followed suit.
They snuggled together under the sleeping bags and Jordan’s smile was blissful when she muttered, “Can you sleep this close?”
“Always.” Catherine mumbled into soft dark hair, inhaling the scent of her shampoo. “G’night.”
After breakfast, Catherine spent some time playing with Cameron in daycare and when she returned to their office, she found a note from Jordan that she was across the hall. Careful to knock on the door first she entered, her brows arching high when she saw Jordan hurrying to close open windows on the wall screen.
“More gross pictures?”
“Oh yeah,” Jordan sighed, craning her neck until at least one vertebrae popped, “Jeffers committed a double homicide in Santa Barbra.”
Catherine plopped down beside her, “What happened?”
“He found out he can’t access his money in Switzerland, then he tried accessing his offshore accounts and saw two more of our messages. We’re clearly getting to him because he got sloppy and reckless and killed one Raj Patel, a retired IT programmer.”
“A successful hedge fund manager?”
“And real estate tycoon of sorts…” Jordan opened a file on the screen, “He was aggressively reinvesting in the bad mortgage market and growing his gigantic pile of money. Anyway, Jeffers killed him and his wife. She must have walked in on him because she definitely showed signs of fighting back.” She cleared her throat, “I won’t go into details but compared to her husband she died an ugly, painful death.”
“And he still got his hundred million?”
“Oh no,” Jordan arched a single brow; “he stopped after fifty then stripped Mister Patel’s hard drive and took off.”
“So the wife walked in on him and after killing her too he was too freaked out to finish stealing the other fifty.”
“I think it’s a good guess, Mister Patel certainly had more than a hundred million in his offshore accounts.” One of Jordan’s tablets chimed at her as she spoke and she stood, crossing the room to the podium. Her tablet sat on top of Catherine’s special tablet and when she lifted it off her eyes flew open wide, “Oh my god! Jeffers is using the reply box to talk to me!”
Catherine’s mouth dropped open in shock and as she leapt from the theater-style seat Jordan quickly plugged the tablet into the wall screen and Catherine stopped abruptly in front of the podium, frozen as she stared up at the conversation box hugely illuminated on the wall,
“You should talk to me, I’m pretty smart.”
She recognized one of the many messages she and Jordan had written together to taunt Jeffers and she felt dizzy at his response beneath;
“Bring five red carnations to the bus stop bench on Terrace Dr. & 5th Ave. at 2:00 pm today. Wait for me there and we’ll talk.”
“Okay,” Jordan took a deep, clearing breath and exhaled, “here goes…”
Catherine gripped the rim of the podium and stared at the screen as Jordan typed,
“I’ll be there, flowers in hand.”
The tablet chimed again and a reply appeared on the screen,
“Till then.”
Jordan placed a gentle hand over Catherine’s where she gripped the podium, knuckles showing white, “The location field didn’t pop with anything, that means you can’t trace the source?”
Catherine exhaled forcefully, as though she’d been holding her breath, “Uh… yeah, sorry.” She pried her hands from the laminated wood and circled around to stand next to her, “The…” She stared at the tablet and after tapping a few commands into the chat window she shook her head, “No, sorry, Jeffers knows he’s been blocked from locating his hacker and he knows how to do the same, sorry.”
Jordan wrapped an arm around the small shoulders, “Are you kidding? He wants his money and we’re gonna’ get him!” She chuckled as she grabbed her cell phone and called Stewart, “It’s me, Jeffers took the bait, we’re meeting him at two o’clock in Central Park.”
PART 4
Assassination
New York City, NY
Jordan got out of the cab, driven by an undercover SWAT member and fumbled briefly with Catherine’s tablet and the flowers Jeffers instructed her to bring. She brought the tablet along in case he contacted her again before the meeting and she tucked it under her arm as she strolled to the bus stop and stood next to the bench, her right hand clutching the bouquet of five red carnations. At least I’m warm, it can’t be more than twenty degrees out here. She wore a Kevlar vest under the black three-quarter length trench coat and she noted how her warm breath condensed into a vapor in the cold air. She casually took in her surroundings; Stewart had planted ten undercover SWAT agents around her and her eyes gazed past the flower delivery truck parked across the street and the park employee picking up trash. They hoped Jeffers would arrive in a car and try to lure her inside so they could pin him in with undercover vehicles and quickly take him into custody. Jordan knew there were two sharpshooters in the two buildings across the street and she fervently hoped their plan wouldn’t result in gunfire in such a public setting.
Her trench coat was at least four years old, she liked it but seldom wore it since she preferred the simplicity of her black suit jackets and she groaned inwardly at how stiff the sleeves still felt. It’s been hanging in my office all this time, I should have made more of an effort to break it in… She shifted her neck and shoulders uncomfortably and felt the tablet slide from under her arm. Her reflexes were quick and when she bent to grab at the falling device, she felt a punch from behind, to the right side of her jaw and she lurched forward, falling
onto her hands and knees on the cement. Looking behind her and seeing no one, she scrambled forward, hurrying to take cover behind the bench when she heard shouting and hands grabbed at her, pulling her to her feet. She was half dragged to a gray paneled van that came to a screeching halt halfway up the sidewalk and shoved inside,
“Agent Hawkins, you’ve been shot.”
Jordan turned to a SWAT member in full tactical gear, “What?” she asked, looking around her as the car pulled away and hissed at the sudden pain in her neck and side of her face.
“I think a sniper caught you from behind.”
Her brow knit in frustrated confusion, “But I’m wearing Kevlar...” she cried out briefly at the wet, burning sensation as the SWAT agent on her right pressed a thick gauze pad against the base of her neck.
“It caught you right as you dropped your tablet; I saw your hair flip as the bullet flew right by, grazing you… in two places, it looks like.”
“Dammit.” Jordan muttered, hissing again in pain when he pressed another gauze pad just under her jaw line. “I dropped a tablet, have someone get it for me; I was using it to catch that rat bastard.”
“Unbefucking unbelievable!” he hissed, his gleeful anticipation quickly turning into rage.
“What,” Patton said calmly as he quickly dismantled his high-powered rifle, “are you really that surprised your hacker turned out to be the government?”
Jeffers angrily switched off the high definition camera he used to record the event, certain he was recording the demise of his one obstacle to initiating his path to glory until the SWAT team and their van blocked his view. “I was hoping,” he glared at the chaotic scene far beyond the glass, “to capture the moment my hacker’s head exploded in a brilliant red halo for posterity.”
“Well,” Patton shrugged; zipping closed the nylon bag that now held his rifle and bipod, “it happens sometimes…” Jeffers glared at him in angry bemusement and he clarified, “Missing the shot, and you only get one when it’s a fed in a secure perimeter.” He had used a glasscutter mounted on a compass to cut twin holes in the sealed glass window that faced the bench nearly three blocks away for his rifle and the camera. Then he had pulled the dining table under the window, laying his rifle and himself on it for stability so he could line up the shot on the woman holding the flowers. “Pack up your camera and leave first; I’ll be right behind you.”
Jeffers’s fingers fumbled as he fumed, removing the camera from the tripod and after quickly collapsing the legs, shoved both into his bag and stalked to the door, “How quickly can they trace the shot back to this room?”
“By trajectory? I don’t know,” Patton shrugged, “I missed so, a couple days maybe? They’ll make better time doing a door to door search of hotel rooms.”
“Don’t worry,” Jeffers scoffed, “I’ll remotely scrub the database here tonight.” He turned to leave then turned back, his gloved hand on the doorknob, “You don’t seem too surprised my hacker was really a fed.”
“I’m not,” Patton said, pulling on his jacket, “but you seem very surprised. Did you really think a man of your beliefs wouldn’t be suspected by the government?”
“No, I…” Jeffers began to smile, “no, I guess I really didn’t think of that.”
Catherine nervously gripped her hands together on the way to the hospital and she pried them apart, rubbing the cramped digits. She shook uncontrollably the entire drive and as soon as the car stopped, she bolted out the door, frantic as she ran through the emergency room doors. Bea sent two agents with her; one to drive and the other to accompany her and the young woman ran to catch up. Stewart waved when he saw them and Catherine forced herself to slow to a fast walk. As soon as they were close enough to speak quietly she begged, “Tell me.”
“I swear she’s okay.” He nodded to the agent behind Catherine and laying a hand on the small, quaking shoulder, led her down the hall, “She dropped the tablet and the instant she bent to grab it the bullet whizzed past her.” He stopped to demonstrate, bending at the waist, “Catching her here first,” Using his forefinger to indicate trajectory, he slid it past the flesh where his neck met his right shoulder, “and then across here.” His finger traced the bullet’s path, skimming it along his neck under his jaw. “An easy fix, I promise…” he assured her as they continued down the hall, “They just discharged her.”
Catherine only nodded tensely, So if she hadn’t moved the bullet would have hit her in the back of her head and killed her. She began to shake again and balling her hands into fists, willed her heart to slow. He pushed open a door and she saw Jordan sitting on an exam table, looking as pale as the powder blue hospital gown and the two white gauze pads taped to her neck.
“I’m okay.” Jordan hurried to reassure her, holding out a hand, “I really am.”
Stewart gave her a slight wave, “We’ll be right out here.”
Jordan nodded her thanks and stood, pulling Catherine close, “It’s a bunch of stitches, but I swear that’s all. Apparently that creaky coat has great timing.” She recounted the events for her, adding, “I can’t believe Jeffers has the skill to shoot like that, I think we have to assume he has help now, some fellow Nazi sympathizer, probably. But he knows now I’m not some hacker from that community, he knows I’m FBI, he knows what I look like…” She licked her lips, “So I can’t go home, Catherine…”
“No!” She clutched at her, “You are not…”
“The bureau has some very nice rooms on the top floor, residential rooms; I think the three of us should put in a few nights there, okay?”
The panic in Catherine’s eyes quickly evaporated, “We can what?”
“Didn’t you know?” Jordan’s tone was light and she snickered, “One of the wings in that place has a couple of residential apartments with mind-numbing security Bea designed some time ago. Stewart’s gonna have some agents go get some more clothes and stuff for us from home and we’ll camp out there for a while.” Catherine was speechless and Jordan hurried, “I’m sorry, Catherine, I really am, but I can’t take the chance of Jeffers figuring out who I am, and who I live with… who I love. Understand?”
Catherine felt as though she’d been holding her breath for a very long time and when she exhaled she burst into tears, “I’m sorry…” Jordan pulled her into her arms and Catherine squeezed her arms tightly around her waist, “I’m sorry, I don’t care where we are, as long as we’re together. I thought you were going to send us away to keep us safe.”
Jordan looked down at her with wonder, “What? No, oh jeez, I’m sorry, I…”
“Well,” Catherine pulled back and sniffed, gracing her with a beaming watery smile, “you did send me to a lighthouse for my safety, but you were with me then so…”
Jordan chuckled and tilted her chin for a quick kiss, “I did do that…” She slid from her arms and sat wearily on the exam table, “It won’t be for long, now that Jeffers knows the feds are after him he’ll have to hurry to get his program online, and that means I’ll have to step up my efforts to catch him so you can stop his software.”
While she spoke Catherine’s eyes fixed on the gauze pads on the side of her neck, “How deep did these go?” Remembering her own gunshot injury, she was careful not to venture too close and trailed the tips of her fingers along a well-defined collarbone. “Did your doctor really say it was okay for you to leave the hospital?” Worried brown eyes gazed deeply into Jordan’s.
“She really did,” Jordan assured her, taking the smaller hand between her own, “I swear, Stewart would have handcuffed me to the bed if she hadn’t, trust me. They didn’t even knock me out for the stitches…” She tried to lift a shoulder in a half shrug and grunted painfully, “Shit, but it still smarts…”
Catherine swiped the tears from her face, “Okay, okay… let’s go home then...” She shook her head and sniffed, “at the bureau, I mean…”
“Right,” Jordan stood and walked to the chair with her clothes, “the agents will take you back, it’s din
nertime, Bea’s people will take you to the apartment and you can have dinner delivered, she’ll tell you how, okay?”
“But… you’re coming?”
“I am, but I’m gonna ride back with Stewart… we can’t be seen together in public until we catch Jeffers, okay?” Her voice dropped to a saddened whisper, “I’m so sorry about this, Catherine.”
She snorted and cleared her throat, “Cam’ll love it as long as they bring his special toys…” She felt some of the tension finally drain away, “Tell me what you’d like for dinner.”
Williamsport, PA
They drove east, Jeffers had waited for Patton at a rest stop outside of Williamsport and from there he followed him to a campground where the other members of the group waited.
His anger and frustration had evaporated on the three-hour drive, and as he followed Patton into the campground he again felt anxiety begin to creep along the back of his neck. He barely knew these men and he schooled himself to a calm, commanding poise, Be wary, be on your toes now, they have to be on board for this or the difficulty factor is going to jump. He was pleased Patton was a smart, cool customer and he expected no less, having come to that very conclusion when he initially researched the man’s past. Once he decided on Patton and his group, he personally investigated each of the other members; Andy Holden was a career criminal before hooking up with Patton. Patton gave him a place to live and helped get him a job as a mechanic. Erik Johnson had a drug problem, and while he was in the county jail on a drug charge, he met Holden who told him about Patton. Patton took him under his wing and helped turn him from a cocaine habit to an appreciation for prostitutes, although Johnson then served time for beating the women he paid for sex. John Parker became friends with Patton while both were fringe members of a white supremacist group in Macon, Georgia, and when Patton formed his own fascist group, he contacted Parker and invited him to join. I may have to eliminate the others… Jeffers smiled at them, but Patton will be my loyal second.