by J P Barnaby
“Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii will have to fix that,” Aleks said, and Thomas loved the way Hannah giggled like a little girl without the weight of the world on her shoulders.
“Aleks?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“I’m sorry your dad died. I would be so sad if something happened to my daddy.”
“Nothing is going to happen to your daddy. I’m going to take good care of him.” Then, after a pause, he added, “Want to know a secret?”
His voice had dropped to a conspiratorial level, exaggerated for a little girl’s interest.
“I won’t tell,” she whispered back, just as loud.
“I love your daddy very much, and I’m glad we all get to be a family.”
“Me too,” Hannah said, not in a whisper.
Thomas stood in the doorway, a little stunned. He knew Aleks cared for him. With everything he’d done, he had to. But it jarred Thomas to know that Aleks was in love with him. Thomas had no idea what it meant to be in love. He’d liked Sherry and he’d forever be grateful to her for Hannah, but love?
He didn’t have a clue.
κα͵
“LET’S JUST run. We’ll take Hannah and your mom and just leave,” Aleks urged the next morning over a plate of uneaten cinnamon rolls and his third cup of coffee. While the coffee didn’t seem to affect Thomas, Aleks was wired. He sat perched on the front of his chair. His hands shook with the need to reach for Thomas’s.
Thomas sat back in his chair, also on his third cup of coffee. They’d spent most of the night at the computer, trying to decipher meaning from the thousands of lines of code sitting in that file. In college, Thomas’s programming prowess was more intuition than education, but the past five or six years had left his skills stagnated. Some of the commands he didn’t recognize. Aleks tried to help, but the code was in a language he didn’t know, and they didn’t have time to google them all. Thomas had needed to get the gist, and get it fast.
Only, he didn’t.
Instead, they sat in their pajamas at the table. The sun had yet to rise outside their kitchen window. Aleks would say that they’d been up early, but he didn’t think either of them had slept. The software needed to be shut down at exactly 6:02 a.m. and turned back on at 6:08. Six minutes. Such a minuscule amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but it meant everything to them right then.
Aleks glanced over Thomas’s shoulder at the microwave. It was nearly five. They’d need to leave pretty soon to get into the city and up to the server room on time.
“I remember my dad being up really early on Saturday mornings. I always wondered about it. The one day he could sleep in, and he was up at dawn. Now I know.” Aleks glared at the tabletop, his eyes ablaze.
“Let’s just do it,” Thomas said, a sigh of sadness in his voice. “Today I really will be a criminal. It won’t be doing the wrong thing for the right reasons anymore. What will Hannah think of me?”
“Hannah will think that her daddy is brave and would do anything for her. Hannah will think that you love her. No matter what,” Aleks said and wrapped his arms around Thomas. They stood there for a long moment, and Aleks took comfort in the embrace. No matter what happened, he’d do everything to protect Thomas and Hannah.
They didn’t bother showering but dressed quickly in jeans and plain black T-shirts, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. The rolls continued to lay deserted on the table as Thomas grabbed his laptop bag and threw it over his shoulder. He wanted this shit done.
They got to the office faster than Aleks felt they should. He wanted more time to get used to the idea of what they were about to do. He wanted more time to stop his heart from pounding. He wanted more time before they got to the point of no return.
Aleks slipped the car into his spot after they pulled into the company’s parking garage. He’d needed to use his card to get in, creating a digital footprint of their visit—the dominoes had started to fall.
Thomas’s cell phone rang just as Aleks turned off the ignition. They’d expected to see no number, the goons checking up on them. Thomas gasped when he read the number from the display.
“How could Gerry be calling? How could he be calling? There’s no way he could know,” Thomas whispered.
“Let it go to voicemail.”
“It’s the first time since my release I’ve done that. He’s going to know something is up.” Thomas sounded panicky, and Aleks put a hand on his leg.
“It’s early. Maybe he’ll think you’re still asleep,” Aleks said without any real conviction.
“It’s probably for the best. He’d hear it in my voice anyway.”
“Are you ready for this?” Aleks took Thomas’s hand.
“No. But what choice do we have?”
His phone dinged with a text, and Thomas looked down out of habit. Aleks looked down too.
If you get out of that car, I can’t help you.
Shit.
They were officially fucked sideways. The FBI knew they were there and why. Panic rose up from Aleks’s gut, choking the air in his lungs. He didn’t know what to do. He had never balked at a decision. He’d always just done what he wanted and moved on, but right now he felt like a deer, ready to bolt at the slightest sound.
Don’t do this. Your little girl needs you.
Thomas growled, and he sent back a text of his own.
Why do you think I have to do this? They’re going to kill her if I don’t. They sent me pictures of her. They showed up at our house. They followed us to the fucking zoo. What the fuck am I supposed to do?
“What are we going to do?” Thomas asked.
Aleks leaned over and kissed his forehead and then grabbed the door handle.
“What are you doing?”
“Let them arrest me. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you or Hannah.”
Thomas hit the button on his phone to call Gerry. The agent answered almost before it had started to ring. They were there. They were watching.
“What’s your plan?” Thomas asked and turned on the speakerphone.
“We have a white hat here who needs the code you have,” Gerry said, and his voice was deafening in the confines of the small car.
“I’ve been through every line of that code.”
“Not with a human code encyclopedia. Let’s see how good you are,” Gerry challenged.
“You want to risk my daughter’s life on how good I am?”
“Agents picked her up an hour ago. Your mom too. They’re safe.”
“That’s how you knew. My mother. Jesus, you two really are BFFs, aren’t you?” Thomas scoffed.
“She saw them, Thomas. They were at your house. They were feet from your daughter. She was scared for you, all of you, and she has every right to be. These are nasty fucking people. Why didn’t you call me?”
“That didn’t go so well for me last time.”
“Are you in, or are you going to jail for that little stunt you pulled with the fire alarm? Or maybe the data you stole from Polytech when you pulled it?” Gerry pushed.
“Well, when you put it that way…. What do you want me to do? They’re probably watching, either directly or through the security feed,” Thomas pointed out.
“We’ve searched the floor. They’re not here, so they’ve got to be on the cameras. We swept the server room; there’s no surveillance. Our guys are already upstairs waiting for you, and we have a team trying to trace their hack into the security system. Just get out of the car and go upstairs. There’s no security feed inside the server room. They won’t know our guys are in there with you.”
“No matter what happens to us in here, you keep her safe. Promise me, Gerry.”
“I will keep your mother and daughter safe. They’re already in protective custody.”
“I hate you,” Thomas said, the relief in his voice apparent.
“I know.”
Aleks turned to Thomas, and as he did, he twined their fingers together. As he looked at his husband in the antiseptic fluore
scent light of the garage, he saw flecks of green in his eyes for the very first time. There were so many things he didn’t know about Thomas yet. So many things he wanted to learn about his husband’s childhood, about his dreams.
“Stay in the car,” he pleaded. “The FBI are already upstairs. I’m going to work with them to try and get us out of this mess.”
“It’s not you they want. Please, you stay here. Don’t go in. I’ll be back soon,” Thomas whispered against his temple.
“Not a chance. If you go, I go.”
“This isn’t Titanic, Aleks. It’s time to let go, Jack.” Thomas checked the time on his phone.
“We’re cutting things very close. I hate this feeling. I have to go.” Thomas glanced around to see if he could find the agents watching them.
“No.”
“Look, I need for you to take care of Hannah if something happens to me, Aleks. I need for you to make sure they’re okay. I need for you to be okay. I couldn’t stand it if something happens to you because I was careless and tripped that fucking code bomb. Please. Aleks, I love you.”
Aleks’s eyes widened, and his breathing became hard and shallow. Thomas leaned forward and caught Aleks’s open lips in a slow, quiet kiss and then pulled the door handle and climbed out before Aleks could say another word.
Thomas jogged up to the executive elevator they’d taken on that first exploratory visit to the office. Aleks noticed Thomas had swiped his key card during the kiss. They had about fifteen minutes before the software needed to be shut off, and he had no idea what the FBI had in mind. If he didn’t get to that elevator, he wouldn’t be able to get upstairs. Thomas slipped the card into the reader and the light came on.
Aleks’s phone dinged and he looked down, and then his heart stopped. He ripped the door open and ran flat out for the elevator.
“Aleks, please just stay in the—”
“They have Wes.”
“What?” Thomas turned and Aleks held the phone out. It bounced as he ran. But when he stopped, they could both see it clearly. Wes, the young man who had helped him to get the man of his dreams, was slumped sideways in a chair. Only the harsh black ropes that bound him kept him upright. Shaggy blond hair fell into his eyes across a bruised and bloody face.
“Oh my God.”
The text read: Grandma’s next if you don’t get a move on.
Thomas stepped into the elevator and pulled Aleks with him. There were cameras in the corner, so he didn’t dare do anything to raise suspicion. Wes’s life now depended on them.
“What are we going to do?” Thomas whispered.
Jesus fuck, he didn’t know. Who the hell was prepared to deal with this shit?
“I don’t know. We’ll have to let the feds handle it,” Aleks whispered back, though he didn’t know why. The cameras were video only.
“Wes’s life is in the hands of feds?”
“Got a better idea?”
“No.”
The elevator doors opened with a ding, and they took a brisk walk down the back hallway. It echoed like a tomb, their footsteps on the tile bouncing off antiseptic walls. Thomas swiped the card again. At least Aleks didn’t need to feel the wild panic of the cops finding out they were here. Now things were much worse instead.
Empty cubicles sat sentinel, waiting for their Monday morning workers. He wondered if he’d ever see them again. They crept toward the server room. Aleks didn’t see anyone around the office. He wondered if they were stationed in places the cameras didn’t cover. How many guys could they stuff into the office to cover two quiet geeks?
Thomas swiped the card yet again, and they opened the door of the server room. Immediately they saw that the room had been set up as some kind of command post. There were at least ten agents in the small space, making it crowded and suffocating. A man stepped forward. He was handsome, in a plain kind of way. He could have been the hot dad at a high school football game, fit and unassuming. His black hair had been cut with military precision, and his clothes were put together with care. Aleks guessed the man was Gerry. This guy had put Thomas in prison for five years: he hated him on sight.
“You guys doing okay?”
“They kidnapped Aleks’s assistant Wes.” Thomas shoved Aleks’s cell phone into Gerry’s face.
Gerry glanced at it and handed it to one of the agents behind him. “Get this picture to surveillance and find out where this kid is. Now.” His voice was authoritative but not hard. You could hear the respect he had for his team around the words.
“Give Taylor the USB drive with the code and start working on that with him,” he told Thomas. Aleks hated the superiority of his voice. “You guys are going to trace the alert that comes out of the worm. Kyle is going to capture the transactions so we can analyze the ones the program identifies.”
“You want me to turn off banking software?” Thomas asked, one eyebrow raised. He looked defiant and scared.
“Yes.”
“Is this the part where you say I did a good thing but badly?”
“No, this is where I say that you won’t be arrested for helping the FBI on an investigation, and if we catch these guys, all your little indiscretions might disappear.”
“Wait, you’ll wipe my record if I help you?” Thomas asked, his voice barely audible above the server room din.
“Documents have already been signed, they’re just waiting on you to do your thing.” Gerry held out a hand to the chair that sat in front of the terminal that would change Thomas’s life, one way or the other. He squeezed Aleks’s hand, though Aleks didn’t remember when he’d grabbed it, and then sat down next to their new friend Taylor. Thomas took the USB drive out of his bag and handed it to the agent.
“I’ve already been through most of the functions. I get the gist of what they’re doing, but I’ve not worked with the language,” Thomas admitted to the young tech. He didn’t look like he should be old enough to be working for the FBI. Clean-shaven and baby-faced, he smiled shyly at Thomas and took the drive.
“Let’s see what we’ve got,” he said and popped it into the port.
“Seven minutes to mark,” a voice said from behind them. Aleks looked at his phone.
Aleks’s heart banged, not just because of what they were about to do, not just because they had Wes, but because of what Gerry had told Thomas. They would wipe the conviction from his record like it never happened. Thomas’s skills were top-notch, especially once he mastered the new languages introduced in the last few years. He wouldn’t need Aleks anymore. He’d be able to get insurance for Hannah and take care of her.
But he had told Aleks he loved him.
In the heat of the moment.
“Oh, it’s in Python. Okay, we can work with this,” Taylor said as he opened the code in another window. “This is going to scan through faster than we could and look for the exit point. There has to be an IP address in here somewhere for the message to transmit.” His voice trailed off as their code tunnel vision took over. Aleks recognized it. In college, Thomas could code for hours, not even realizing that an entire day had passed. During those times, Aleks had brought him food. They were going to conquer the world then.
Aleks’s phone chirped again, and an agent called to Gerry that there was another image of Wes. “It says they better get the message soon.”
“The notification from the worm,” Thomas said and turned to the keyboard. His fingers flew on the keys, and Aleks recognized a directory structure. Thomas opened the folder where the software hid. He double-clicked on the file to open it, activating the worm and sending the message.
“Good boy, it says,” the man said again.
“That was really fast,” Taylor observed. “They can’t be going through too many hops to get back to the source.”
“Find it.” Gerry’s command carried no ambiguity about Taylor’s skill to be able to do so.
“I have an IP. Tracing the route now.”
It was more than they had been able to accomplish in an entire
night. This kid had found it in five minutes.
“Kyle, are you ready to pull the transactions going through?” Gerry called over the din of the servers.
“Yes, sir. We’re ready,” a disembodied voice called back.
“Okay, Thomas, initiate software shutdown.”
His heart clenched. This was it. Wes’s life depended on them now. Would they kill him anyway once Thomas’s job was done? Would they hold Wes forever to keep them in line? Would they get to Thomas’s mother and use her? Would they get to Hannah?
“Don’t think about it,” Gerry said, putting a hand on Thomas’s shoulder, and Aleks clenched his hands into fists. “Just get the job done. We’ll find the kid, Thomas. That’s what we do. Your mom and Hannah are safe. You just focus on the task at hand.”
Aleks watched as Thomas ran the code.
κβ͵
“TRANSACTIONS ARE coming through now,” a voice said from back near the row of server farms. Thomas dropped back in the chair and watched the scrolling on Taylor’s computer next to him. He wanted to ask what it was, but the overwhelming fear in his heart left room for only one question: Had he saved Wes, or had he killed him? No one could predict the mind of a psychopath, which Cash clearly was. Thomas ran through question after question. Would they kill Wes as a warning to stay in line? Would they keep him alive and use him for insurance? Would they simply dispose of him now, since he was just a means to the end?
“What?” Aleks asked. Thomas had nearly forgotten he was standing there. He reached up and held his husband’s hand but said nothing.
“Keep an eye on the clock,” Gerry said, though it didn’t sound like he spoke to anyone in particular. Maybe he was talking to Thomas. They had to turn the software back on in exactly three minutes. He’d do whatever it took for them to find that kid alive. He wouldn’t be responsible for someone’s execution.
“Coming up on thirty seconds,” Taylor said softly next to him. “You need to shut it off or they’ll know something is wrong and all of this will be for nothing.”
“It’s already for nothing if they kill Wes. We served him up to them.” Aleks looked like only sheer inertia held him upright.