Chapter 21
In the car, I gulped a fast-food breakfast sandwich that promptly turned to lead in my stomach while I anxiously second-guessed my conversation with Riel. By the time I arrived at Sirius Dynamics I was convinced I’d made the wrong choices, said the wrong words, and was quite possibly the stupidest person on the planet.
When I reported the conversation to Stemp, cringing inwardly, he leaned back in his chair with a nod. “Excellent. Well done.”
I blinked. “Uh… okay. So, um… what did you want to brief me about?”
“We recently discovered that Harchman has resumed operating his ‘wellness spa’, which likely means he is once again operating a brainwave-driven virtual reality network. At first it seemed unrelated to the Remembrance Day threat; but now that Riel has invited you to the spa it warrants immediate investigation. Brock and Mellor haven’t been able to locate it so if it does exist, it’s a standalone network without internet access. And you are literally the only person in the world with the skills to infiltrate both the site and the network.”
I hid a shudder at the memory of what I’d witnessed the last time I’d infiltrated Harchman’s network, and held my voice level. “So you want me to check it out.”
“Yes. If he’s only using it to dupe the clients of his so-called wellness spa, we’ll downgrade its priority and monitor it going forward. If not…”
I nodded, fighting the tension that gripped my neck and shoulders.
“You’ll use your usual network key to access it,” Stemp went on, and I tried not to wince at the memory of the brain-cracking pain that always accompanied my forays into cyberspace. “You’ll also carry the remote network generator so you can link to our network,” he went on. “See Webb for a full briefing.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“Not at this time, but when you make the connection Webb may relay other instructions. It will depend on what you discover in Harchman’s network.”
“Okay.”
God, please let it be ordinary porn…
Stemp’s tone softened, sympathy peeking through his customary emotionless façade. “Regarding your friend’s abduction… the police have interviewed his friends, family, and co-workers, and they traced his last telephone call to a burner phone that had been discarded downtown. They’re currently looking for witnesses who might have seen someone dumping the phone, and they’re reviewing CCTV footage of the area. I’m personally monitoring their investigation and will notify you as soon as any relevant information surfaces.”
Gratitude rose, warming my heart and thickening my throat. “Thanks,” I whispered.
“You’re welcome.” His crisp business tone returned. “Also, our surveillance picked up this conversation from Labelle at zero eight fifteen this morning. He must have received the call on a burner phone because the wiretap didn’t pick up the entire conversation, but we did get his end of the audio from our makeshift bug.” Stemp busied himself at the computer keyboard and a few moments later Labelle’s smooth voice rolled out of the speakers.
“Yes?” There was a period of silence while his caller presumably spoke through the other phone. Then Labelle responded, “That’s short notice. It’ll cost extra.” Another pause. “Double the usual.” A longer pause. “I completely understand; but you can’t just snap your fingers to get somebody like that. And I’m only making a simple introduction between two businessmen. Whatever you arrange with him is none of my concern.” Labelle fell silent for a longer period before answering, “Yes… but I won’t send my best. I told you what happened last time.” A momentary pause. “Maybe, but I’m not taking any chances. So, after six o’clock tonight? …Okay. Yes, I have the address. See you later.”
The recording ended and I stared at the speaker, a trickle of fear chilling my heart. I had to clear my throat so my voice wouldn’t come out in a croak.
“I’m meeting Riel for dinner at six o’clock tonight.”
“Indeed.” Stemp inclined his head. “Be careful. Dismissed.”
Down the hall, I tapped on the open door to Spider’s office and poked my head in. He looked up from his computer with a smile.
“Aydan! Come on in!” As I settled myself into his guest chair, he added, “I missed you this week. I always worry when you’re assigned to a mission. Is everything going okay?”
“Thanks, Spider. I’d much rather be here, believe me. And I guess it’s mostly going okay…” The lie stuck in my throat, and I swallowed hard and went on, “So, what have you got for me?”
“Here’s your network key.” He held up the tiny cube containing the circuitry that allowed me undetectable access to any brainwave-driven network. “How do you want to carry it?”
“Um…” I frowned. “It’s so tiny, I’m always afraid I’m going to lose it. I don’t dare put it in my wristwatch this time.” I hid a shudder at the memory of how close I’d come to disaster the last time I’d carried it to Harchman’s. “Do you have any suggestions?”
“Well, we could put it in a necklace again,” Spider said slowly. “Not the big emerald one, but maybe in an unobtrusive pendant…” He hesitated. “But I’ve never seen you wear a necklace, and if they’ve been gathering data about you, they’ll know that.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I think that’s a little too obvious. It would be better if it was part of something that I always wear.”
“We could… um…” A tide of colour reddened his face. “…could we hide it in your, um…?”
“In my bra! That’s a great idea! It’s so tiny I could just open up a little bit of the underwire seam and tuck it in.” Resisting the mischievous urge to lift my T-shirt and demonstrate just to see his blush turn purple, I took the key from him. “I’ll do it as soon as I get home.”
“Oh…” The word puffed out in obvious relief as his flush drained away. “Okay, great. And here’s the network generator.” He handed me a USB stick. “If there’s a virtual reality network running, you can use the generator to contact me via the internet.” He eyed me worriedly. “But you won’t be able to switch networks without triggering your pain response.”
I shrugged, hiding my dread. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not like it’s anything new.”
Spider’s eyes darkened with concern. “I know, but I just hate that it hurts you so much.”
“Thanks, Spider.” My smile came easily, warmed by his friendship. “So how will I contact you? I don’t know what time of the day or night I might be doing this.”
“Just appear in the virtual file room in our network. I’ve set up a monitoring program that will send an alert to my phone as soon as you become visible.”
“Okay. Then what?”
“Well…” He hesitated. “If it turns out they are running a virtual reality network, you’ll need to install a program on their server. It’ll create a secret back door into their system that only I can access.”
Uh-oh.
“So, um… you’re saying I can’t just go in through the virtual network and install some spy software that way?”
“Well, no.” Spider gave me a regretful grimace. “That’s the problem; you can’t transfer information from one network to another without some kind of connection. So you’ll have to find Harchman’s physical server and plug this into it. It’ll automatically install my back-door program.” He handed me a second USB stick. “Give it about ten seconds. This little red LED…” He pointed to the end of the stick. “…will blink while it’s transferring the files. When it stops blinking and goes solid red, it’s done and you can pull it out.”
“But first I have to sneak into the secured server room and find the right server,” I finished, fear twisting my stomach into cold knots. “Great. Fabulous. No problem.”
Spider’s face lit up. “You’re such a great agent! Anybody else would be freaking out!”
“Um…” I couldn’t help it; I had to burst his bubble. “Sorry, Spider, I was being sarcastic. I am freaking out a bit. Harchman’s got a fingerprint scanner to secure his server room, and as far as I know he’s always got a guard in the room watching the closed-circuit security feeds, too. I have no idea how to get in; and if I do somehow get in and get past the guard, I have no idea how to find the server that’s running the virtual reality network. He’s got a bunch of computers in there.”
“Oh…” Spider’s face fell, but a moment later his smile returned. “Well, I can get you through the door. I knew about the biometric security from your report last year, so I had the lab make up some silicone fingertips with Harchman’s prints on them. And once you’re in, you can just plug that USB stick into all the computers you find. It won’t do any harm if it’s not the right computer, and it’ll only take a few seconds to transfer the files. Here are the fingerprints.”
He handed over a small envelope. When I peeked inside I had to squint to see the clear silicone caps. Extracting one, I pulled it carefully over my fingertip.
“Wow, it’s so thin and clear I can’t even see it!” I studied my fingertip.
“Well, um…” Spider shifted, pink rising in his cheeks. “Actually… maybe you should put your glasses on. I can see it from here. But of course I’m looking for it,” he added tactfully. “If somebody else just glanced at your hand they likely wouldn’t notice.”
I delved into my waist pouch for my reading glasses, and he was right; the edge of the silicone was visible but unobtrusive.
“Thanks, Spider.” I stowed the glasses and the envelope of fingerprints in my waist pouch with a sigh. “I don’t even want to know what else I’m not noticing without reading glasses, but I just can’t bear to wear bifocals fulltime. You only have to get hit in the face once before you get really damn tired of getting cut up by the frames.”
He let out a small incredulous laugh. “Getting hit in the face once would be more than enough for me anyway, glasses or not.”
“Well, yeah; it is kind of an overrated pastime. Anything else I need to know?”
“No, I think that’s it.”
“Okay.” I started to rise, then sat back again. “Wait, one more thing…” I dug out my bug detector and handed it over. “Can you check this for me? I want to make sure it’s still working right.”
“Sorry, not here,” he replied. “I’ll have to take it back to my lab. But leave it with me and grab a new one from Stores. I’ll run a diagnostic on this one later, and if it passes I’ll return it to Stores.” He frowned. “Do you think it’s defective?”
“Um… no… not really…” I gave him a twisted smile. “I’m just feeling paranoid right now. Nobody’s tracking me or listening in on me. It just seems… wrong.”
He shook his head. “I really wouldn’t want to live your life.”
“Believe me, I’m not crazy about it either.”