Hunter groaned as he rolled over to look at his phone as it dinged. The tone signified a message from Chad, which was unpleasant to wake to. The burn in Hunter’s ass from yesterday, however, was a very happy reminder of Cal, who had left for work first thing as usual.
Earlier in the week, Hunter had dead-dropped the thumb drive at a gun range. He’d stayed to fire a few rounds—the powers that be had wanted to see he could shoot—but when Chad didn’t pick up the drop personally, it weirded Hunter out.
He’d gone over and over their last meeting in his head. Chad seemed smarter than Hunter had credited him with. Had Chad decided Hunter’s ties to Cal made him too suspicious to trust?
But late last night, after Cal had turned in, Hunter received an alert that the thumb drive had been engaged. The spyware he’d loaded it with gave him full run of Chad’s computer—which Hunter quickly mirrored—but Hunter didn’t have time yet to analyze it. He didn’t want to dive too deep with Cal at home.
Now, as he read Chad’s text, it looked like there wouldn’t be time to evaluate Chad’s computer before he had to deal with him in person. Hunter sighed.
Chad wanted to meet for a late lunch at a very exclusive restaurant downtown. He went so far as to request Hunter wear a suit, which he’d have to do to get into that restaurant anyway, but it felt like Hunter was being groomed into another damn dapper Nazi. He might as well go with it. What choice did he have?
Hunter rolled out of bed and limped to the shower. A suit.
Jesus, I hope this isn’t a date.
The nice thing was that they were meeting in public. At two in the afternoon, it was unlikely many people would be there, but such a nice restaurant surely wouldn’t put up with too much nonsense.
Should he call Nikki?
In the afterglow yesterday afternoon, Hunter had been tempted to confess everything to Cal. Not just because he was sexed up and feeling trusting, but also because he thought Cal might feel better. Wouldn’t he like being on track to protect people from the alt-right? And Hunter hated seeing Cal beaten down by his job.
Hunter promised himself that after this meeting, he’d give Cal’s friend Barnes a call. Something about that guy rubbed Hunter the wrong way, but Hunter trusted Cal with his life, and if Cal trusted Barnes… Maybe Hunter was letting his jealousy get the better of him.
Barnes was, after all, an attractive man. Successful. He had that air of danger about him that differentiated him from all Cal’s other dull exes. Plus, he had ambitions beyond being a troll. And money. Sure, Hunter did as well, but the root of his current aspirations was his need for vengeance, not some higher calling.
Prior to that, Hunter had been working to streamline intelligence gathering from publicly offered information. He’d been setting up dragnets of social media on his own, but he didn’t have the computer power or scalability to utilize it beyond Weisse Drache and a couple other movements. A partnership with Barnes would make sense if Hunter could trust the man with Hunter’s precious algorithms.
Hunter showered, shaved, took Bruiser for a walk, and then changed into the charcoal gray suit Cal had bought Hunter. He took a Lyft an hour early and disembarked two blocks from the restaurant so he could blend in with the lunch crowd while he scouted the area.
What was he looking for? Black vans? Helicopters? Nazi flags? The General Lee? All he saw was a thinning crowd of douchebags hustling hither and yon.
Though Hunter arrived at the restaurant ten minutes early, the host seated him immediately, even with his incomplete party. They’d been expecting him.
Who knew Chad had that kind of pull?
Hunter settled in and sipped his glass of water, watching the door. To his surprise, Barnes appeared, backlit but unmistakable.
Shit. How was Hunter going to explain this? Could he escape through the back? If Barnes told Cal…
But it was too late. Barnes caught Hunter’s eye and grinned as he approached.
“Hello, stranger.” Before Hunter could do more than stare, Barnes slipped into the seat across from him, looking suave and composed, if not faintly amused with Hunter’s discomfiture. “Imagine meeting you here.”
Hunter didn’t know what to say. Barnes made him uneasy for reasons he couldn’t explain. He glanced toward the door and tried not to squirm. What would Chad say if he caught Hunter talking to a man who maybe wasn’t an actual Fed but was certainly Fed adjacent?
One FBI agent, okay. A second one?
Hunter eyed a clock. Five minutes before Chad was supposed to arrive. Chances were, he’d be a couple minutes late. Hunter could get rid of Barnes in five minutes, right?
Shaking off his nerves, Hunter shrugged. “Yeah, that’s weird, huh? You’re not stalking me, are you?”
“Mm, tempting, but no. I’ll leave that to Callum.” Barnes chuckled and then raised a brow. “Not that you let Cal know what you’re up to… How would he feel knowing you outed FBI agents to a white supremacist organization?”
Hunter stopped breathing and just stared. Was this a bust? Had this all been a sting? Had he grossly underestimated Chad?
The server arrived and offered them both menus. Hunter was too shocked to say Barnes wasn’t going to be dining with him.
What if he was?
Grasping the menu, Hunter took a deep breath. He opened it, scanning the pages but unable to read.
“I’ll just be back when you’ve had a few minutes to consider your choices.” The server smiled at them and then made herself scarce.
Pulling himself together, Hunter realized he had no explanation for his actions. He lifted his gaze to meet Barnes’s. “I think we both know he’d be pretty fucking pissed.”
Barnes’s smile widened. “Yes, he really would. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like Riggs when he’s angry. Perhaps we should avoid that scenario.” He tapped his menu against the table and narrowed his gaze. He looked around, verified they were alone, and then leaned in just a bit to ask, “So what prompted you to betray the FBI to Weisse Drache? Domestic drama between you and my former partner, or was our friend Cal always a stepping stone for an ambitious young hacker?”
Hunter was mortified. He tried to control his expression, schooling it to neutrality. Without knowing where Barnes was coming from, Hunter wasn’t sure how to answer. He certainly didn’t want anyone to get the impression that Cal was a fool.
“What makes you so sure I don’t believe in the cause?”
“Nikki, I believe, is her name? Or are you bitter about taking the fall for your little sister? I could see that poisoning an impressionable young man.” Barnes raised a brow. “Call it instinct, but I don’t peg you for a true believer, although you certainly look the part.”
Great. So, Barnes had been investigating him. Finding out about Nikki would be easy, but unsealing juvie records… Unless Cal mentioned it.
Hunter hadn’t been explicit with Cal about the situation, so he couldn’t have told Barnes much. Squinting at Barnes, Hunter took in his seemingly casual interest, at contrast with the intense way he watched Hunter. He looked amused, not angry. “Is this a casual inquiry, or should I lawyer up?”
“I’m trying to get your measure. Are you an opportunist like me, are you a disgruntled brat like Chad, or are you a true blue racist?” Barnes tilted his head. “Or do you dislike that word? I know some prefer gentler terms. What do you call yourself?”
Hunter could tell by the victorious look in Barnes’s eyes that he’d flinched visibly at Chad’s name. It had felt like a punch to the gut. How much did this guy know?
Hunter flicked his hair back from his brow. “I’m a hacker, which I guess is a tactical opportunist, since I’m looking for flaws in a design.”
The server returned to take their order. Hunter checked the time. Two-ten. Chad would be ten minutes late by now.
Did he see Barnes and leave? Probably. That was for the best. Hunter had bigger fish to fry.
To Hunter’s surprise, Barnes ordered something to eat along with a glass of wine, apparently making himself right at home. Not having read the menu, Hunter ordered the lunch special, neither knowing or caring what it was. The server departed again, and Hunter refocused on Barnes.
“What do you mean when you say you’re an opportunist, exactly? Are you planning on blackmailing me to work for you?”
Barnes laughed as if it was delightful and shook his head. Leaning in a little he whispered, “No, Hunter. I’m Weisse Drache. It’s my org.” Raising a brow, he sat back again and spread his hands wide. “I’m not a white supremacist, but it’s a hell of a way to drum up business. Tell me you’re not the same.”
I’m not the same.
Business?
Jesus, and Hunter worried his revenge scheme was petty. He leaned in, matching Barnes’s intensity and his expression. Hunter wasn’t a spy, but he knew instinctively that mirroring this guy was the best way to impress him.
This was Cal’s fucking friend? Hard to imagine.
Then Hunter processed the dismissive way Barnes had spoken about Cal at the start of the conversation, the attitude slowly breaking through Hunter’s fading shock and fear.
Rage spiked in his gut, but Hunter isolated that emotion and set it aside. As satisfying as it might be to tell off Barnes, Hunter needed to know what he’d meant about Weisse Drache.
“I got into this because…” Hunter exhaled. There probably wasn’t much point in lying about his motives; the truth would lend credibility to future lies. “Because I want Chad to go down for something. I didn’t tell Cal because I knew he wouldn’t understand. I didn’t call you because I didn’t think it had anything to do with you. But what business are you doing with the moneyed redneck brigade?”
“Can’t you guess? I’d think a hacker would know all about ‘false flags’.” Barnes raised a perfectly groomed brow and smiled, just a little, in a way that didn’t quite reach his dark eyes. Physically, he wasn’t unlike Cal. In every other way…
How fucking reckless. How fucking destructive. How fucking unbelievable.
“Genius.” Hunter signaled for the server ordered his own glass of wine. When he was alone with Barnes once more, he pursed his lips. “So, the infiltration of Antifa… You’re setting this up like the Russians did? Working both sides?”
Hunter was so out of his depth. Depending on how far into this he’d fallen, they’d need a team of FBI agents to sort this out. And who knew how many agents were already on Barnes’s payroll? He was obviously working Cal, but to what end?
“Oh, I haven’t thrown in with Antifa. They’re not nearly as well-funded as the Nazis. There’re deep corporate pockets pouring into Weisse Drache. You won’t believe—or maybe you will—just how frightened old rich white men can be of 2044, when whites will become the numerical minority. You suggest to them you can make the Pacific Northwest a white ethnostate, they will do almost anything for you.” Barnes’s bright smile resembled a shark’s, all teeth and no warmth. “No, Antifa is on their own. Besides, Cal’s secretly pulling for them. They’ll be okay. And if they can afford Dark Sun, then they can hire us too.”
They fell quiet as the server returned with their wine. She left again, all elegance and smiles and high-end luxury.
After a beat, with Barnes searching Hunter’s face in increasing delight, he whispered, “I’m starting a race war, Hunter. Dream a little bigger. The government will pay Dark Sun handsomely if we can make riots stop—and I know exactly how to make Weisse Drache stop. I know how to game the system, because I am the system. And I want you to work with me.
“Don’t worry about burning bridges with Cal. He’s a good lay, I get it. You want to hold onto that. I’m not going to tell on you any more than you’re going to tell on me. You’ve already sold out the FBI. You’re in this now.”
Technically, it would be difficult for Barnes to prove Hunter sold out the FBI. He’d logged in as another FBI agent, and that was who would be flagged for the breach. Hunter covered his tracks well, even down to the code he’d left on the thumb drive. At best, he could be circumstantially connected to the dead drop, but he could erase video from the shooting range.
Barnes studied him as Hunter worked through it mentally. Then Barnes picked up his wineglass and held it out. “How about we drink to it?”
Hunter held up his glass and grinned. “We haven’t discussed my compensation.”
“Ah, a businessman. I knew I could work with you. That you have Cal wrapped around your finger suggested you knew your way around a negotiation. It takes a lot to get him on board.” Barnes’s smile faded a bit. “He didn’t trust me until I saved his life. Charm didn’t work. Bringing him coffee every morning didn’t work. He was so professional, so distant. Then he almost died in a random firefight, got cut off from backup, and I saw a clear path to him and took it. The risk was minimal, but man, the payoff…”
Barnes shrugged and gestured with his glass. “Well, you know all about Cal’s payoff. Anyway, I pay nearly as satisfyingly as he does. Six figures easy for a month spent infiltrating Antifa, feeding information to both sides and instigating online. Basically, be the troll you were born to be, and get a pretty payday.” He clinked his glass against Hunter’s then and said, “You’re in. Don’t pretend this isn’t the role of a lifetime.”
Hunter kept smiling, but he was gritting his teeth. Cal put so much stock in Barnes, particularly for saving his life. Maybe Barnes was just showboating, but Hunter had the feeling that he really had been working Cal that whole time.
To this end? Maybe. Barnes seemed flexible enough to go where the winds were blowing.
Hunter gave himself a mental pat on the back for reading Barnes, but understanding psychopaths wasn’t that difficult. He’d had plenty of experience dealing with the damaged online. They were so predictable, easy enough to manage if he made sure someone else was more disposable than he was and kept the compliments coming.
Sipping his wine, Hunter smirked at Barnes. “Sure, that sounds easy enough, but I do have a sister in the middle. If there’s going to be actual violence, I want to keep her away from it.”
He set down his glass and gestured vaguely. “I mean, depending on how far this ethnostate thing is going to go, I can relocate her. I’m guessing Seattle is just the initial staging ground. Proof of concept before going wide?”
“Bingo. And sure, you can relocate her. We’re going to surrender the south. It has such negative connotations. All the worthwhile tech companies are West Coast and Northeast. We’ll be reclaiming our space from the Asians, which has a lot of people very excited. You can imagine, though, we’re focusing on recruiting programmers and technicians…
“The white supremacists assume they can do the job better, but they’re delusional. It’s going to take some white boys really stepping up if we don’t want to see a massive nosedive in our quality of life.” Barnes sipped his wine and shrugged again, as if it was all the same to him. “There are some kinks to work out. But they like what I’m offering, and there’s a place for you right near the top if you play your cards right.
“I know what you did with Liberty Association. I get that you’re...out and proud and all that. But this is a post-Milo world. There’s room for you here…especially if you’re ready to play the long game.”
Hunter shrugged. “Can always just declare Asians white, right? Wouldn’t be the first time a group’s been accepted as white for economic reasons. Would push out your 2044 date even further. I’m sure it would piss off your disaffected youth, like Chad, but if they can’t cut it, what’s the point? Bet you could sell that better to your old white guys who don’t want to lose any bank in the stock market on their internet properties.”
That he could say this so easily made Hunter sick with himself, but that was what being a good troll was about. He’d seen enough discussions like this online to be conversant. Hell, sometimes he could even sympathize.
“Oh, Chad.” Barnes rolled his eyes. “Chad is dead weight, but he serves a purpose. Everyone already knows he’s a bad seed. He’s exactly what we need to ditch moving forward.”
Barnes polished off his wine and set down the empty glass. Meeting Hunter’s eyes, Barnes smiled, and this time it was warm and disturbingly sweet, as if he were about to give Hunter a gift. “Chad told me what he did to you. Rest assured, you will have justice. I’m grooming him to be the fall guy for this. We’ll need someone to hang for the violence to come, and Chad’s not good for much else. I tried him on as a plaything, but honestly, he’s impossible to train, like that spoilt mutt of Cal’s.”
Hunter finished his wine quickly, hating that Chad was telling that story. “It’s what he deserves.” Hunter didn’t have to fake his angry pleasure in hearing that Barnes had probably literally dicked Chad around.
Of course, speaking that way about Cal and Bruiser did not endear Barnes to him, but Hunter wasn’t going to give that away. “So how do we move forward? I don’t need to be out and proud in your organization. FBI keeps my name off things, which is good for both of us. I prefer to work quietly and as anonymously as possible. I’m no Milo; I’m way too smart to make myself a target. And what’s your plan for Cal?”
“Cal is exactly the kind of man we’re going to need. It may take some work from you to help him see the light, but he’s always been an exceptionally useful, loyal individual. Chad will go down—that should please Callum—and you and I will spearhead Cal’s transition into the new world order.” Barnes shrugged and then tilted his head to the side, sizing up Hunter. “Unless you wanted to move on. In that case, it’s really your call. I’d like to preserve him if I can, but he belongs in Dark Sun, not in the Fed.”
“Agreed.” At least he didn’t mean any harm to Cal. That was good. And bad. “It’s funny; he was telling me that I should talk to you. Makes me wonder if he already kind of knows. He trusts you completely.”
That should hopefully give Cal some cover until Hunter got a better handle on what exactly was going to happen. “So, I suppose I should actually contact you so that you know how to get back to me. I’ve already got some accounts and bots built up, just need an idea when we’re going to turn thought into action.”
Barnes looked pleased that Cal trusted him and even more pleased that Hunter was giving him contact information. “I’m ready for you to infiltrate Antifa as soon as you can dye your hair and change your wardrobe. Start online, keep me apprised, and see if you can hook into their Seattle chapter. They’re pretty open, compared with us. Open to all misguided do-gooders who can look them up on Facebook. That’s going to be their downfall.”
With a little wink, Barnes added, “Give it a month, and we’ll be neck-deep. Once Seattle erupts, Portland’s next. So many angry, frightened white people. Lots of ‘good guys with guns’ trying to combat the colored threat. You’ll come work with me at Dark Sun, and we’ll ride out the riots together. Weisse Drache will operate under my orders, and we’ll herd everyone where we want them to go between my mercenaries and my race warriors.”
“Great.” Hunter pulled out his phone. It was still on the profile he’d used to contact Chad, so he plugged in Barnes’s number, having memorized it from the card. “I have a knack for numbers.”
Barnes’s phone chirped as Hunter’s text arrived. As Barnes set up contact info for Hunter, their server arrived with a huge silver platter laden with their entrees.
Hunter looked down at the swordfish steak with some surprise. Huh. Lunch special.
Then he leaned over to whisper to Barnes as the server walked away. “I bet we could get this wrapped up if you’ve got somewhere to be.”
“Mm,” Barnes agreed. “Or we could go somewhere more private and get to know one another better….” He licked his lips in a way that probably worked on people who didn’t know how fucking evil he was. “I could clear my afternoon for you. You are a key asset. We’re already keeping secrets from Riggs. What’s one more?”
“Sounds fun, but Cal’s been unpredictable at work lately. You know he’s not happy with the way things are going, which is great for moving him to Dark Sun, but not so great if he comes home and wonders where I am.” Hunter gave what he hoped was a dirty smile, but his stomach churned.
“He’s already started asking uncomfortable questions about—” Hunter gestured at his hair. “Besides, I bet with very little goading, we could probably share him. If he feels betrayed…might be harder to deal with him.”
“You…” Barnes wagged his finger at Hunter and grinned broadly. “I knew I liked you. That man’s dick…” Barnes laughed and motioned the server over. “Let’s box these up. My friend here needs to get back to his worried fella.”
When the server departed with the food to box it up, Barnes smiled at Hunter anew. “I look forward to working with you, Mr. Walsh.”
As the server returned with the artfully wrapped food and the check, Barnes handed over what looked like a corporate card and waved Hunter off. “I’ll be in touch.”
If Barnes weren’t such an evil shit, if Hunter was more amenable to sharing, if… if… but hearing about Cal’s dick, while true, bothered him. It also made him wonder if Cal would believe Hunter when he explained what was going on.
Because he had to tell him. He couldn’t let Cal keep talking to this person in ignorance.
“Thanks for lunch.” Hunter stood slowly, picking up his lunch to take with him. He limped slightly. “I’m sure we’ll all get to play soon.”
He gave a saucy look that had always seemed to work on the guys at school and then headed out. He walked a couple of blocks, changed his phone profile, and ordered another Lyft to take him home.