Chapter FOURTEEN
CARTER:
I scroll through my phone, smiling at the pictures of Anika I took on our hike on Saturday. I’d never seen her so open and carefree. She was beautiful, and I had to find some sort of way to capture the moment so I could remember it correctly and perfectly. Her eyes, her wide smile, the way the mountain breeze whipped through her dark hair, and the way she would laugh and race me up the trail, dancing as she got to the top ahead of me. She’s flawed, but she’s perfect to me. I know we’ve both got our own battles that we’re fighting, but I want to fight them together. I want to share it all with her, and take whatever I can from her and replace it with something good… if only she’d let me.
A knock on my office door startles me. It’s after hours, and Anika already left ahead of me having had errands to run.
“It’s open,” I call across the open space and the door opens slowly to reveal Veronica. She has a serious look on her face as she saunters towards me and seats herself in one of the chairs in front of my desk.
“Can I help you with something?” I ask, trying to mask my irritation. She’s always up my ass about something, but she really is good at what she does, so until I find someone better, she stays.
“I know you and Anika have something going on between you,” she states simply, and I wonder if it is just a statement or if she’s gearing up for something else.
“Yes,” I don’t deny it. There’s no need to. I don’t have a formal policy about it, and it wouldn’t matter if I did. I made the rules and I can change them again if I need to because I wasn’t lying when I said I’d do whatever it takes to get that woman.
“How serious is it?” she pries.
“I don’t really see how that is any of your business. Is there something else I can help you with?” I rub my hands down my face in frustration.
“How serious, Carter?” she prompts again insistently, using my first name.
“It’s serious.” I don’t mince my words. We are serious. I know it and Anika knows it even if she’s not admitting it to herself yet.
“She’s cheating on you with your brother,” she says matter of factly, like she didn’t just deliver me a brutal blow.
“You’re full of shit, Veronica,” I say the first words that come to mind and only semi regret the fact I just said them to one of my employees, even though the topic of our conversation and our past conversations is anything but professional.
“Listen to me. A week or so ago I saw them out front of the office and they were looking pretty cozy. I thought the guy looked familiar, and I found out it was your half-brother, Braxton.” She’s talking, and I’m barely hearing her words because the only thing I am hearing is that Anika knows Braxton.
“Carter!” Veronica snaps her pointy acrylic nails in front of my face. “Pay attention.” I nod my head at her, motioning for her to go on as I listen in a daze. “I was sure you two had something going on at that point, so I hired my friend, who is a private investigator to look into her…”
I cut her off, holding my hand up in the air. “Wait. Am I hearing this correctly? You hired a private investigator to follow Anika around?”
“Yes, Carter, but just look…” she hands me an envelope across my desk and I take it from her, pinching the metal tabs to open it up.
Before pulling out the contents, I level her with a serious stare. “You do realize you should be fired for that… for this,” I hold up the envelope. “But given the circumstances I’m choosing to ignore it for now. We’ll be talking about this later…” I unfold the top and reach inside, sliding out a stack of glossy photographs that are dated.
The one on top has me stopping. It’s dated Saturday. Anika had plans on Saturday evening, but she was vague. She said it was business and I assumed she meant it had to do with Cultivate, her web design firm. She looks absolutely beautiful in her black cocktail dress and couture heels with her hair swept up. I continue to flip through the pictures one after another of Braxton and Anika, Braxton laughing, Anika smiling, the two of them holding hands across the table and sharing a meal. Him holding her closely outside of the restaurant. To Veronica, these pictures just prove infidelity, but to me they mean so much more. This is proof that Anika is not at all who she says she is, and her reasons for being at Lintech, for being with me are nothing but lies. All the times she warned me off, and I didn’t listen like a God damned fool. She’s working with Braxton. She’s Russian. And all of the lost pieces of the puzzle click into place.
“You can go now,” I snap at Veronica.
“But Carter there’s more,” she says and I get up to walk around my desk to physically remove her from her seat since she isn’t leaving on her own.
“What more could there possibly be?” I ask, taking her by the elbow and giving her a good pull as I start towards the door.
She stumbles after me on her sky-high pumps. “She’s pregnant!” she says loudly and I stop in my tracks.
“No. She’s not.”
“Yes, she is.” she pulls her arm from my grasp and squares her shoulders. “My investigator went in and spoke with their waiter after they left. He said that they seemed like a lovely couple, perfectly in love, and that Braxton kept talking about how she was pregnant.”
“She’s not pregnant, Veronica. She had her period last week. Give it up.”
“But how do you know?” she asks, wedging her body into the door frame so I can’t force her out.
“Because I had my dick inside of her! I think I’d fucking know!” I explode and she pales.
I feel bad for my outburst, but she asks, “You love her, don’t you?”
I bang my head against the doorframe, ignoring the hot feeling in my face. Embarrassment. Anger. Shame. Betrayal. I try desperately to cling to the last string of my control before it snaps.
“Yes. I love her,” my voice is rough with the emotions I’m trying to contain.
“I never stood a chance, did I?” she asks sadly.
“What? You thought you could show me a few pictures, ruin my relationship, and I’d come running to you? No, you never stood a chance because you weren’t even playing in the same league.” The guilty look on her face affirms my statement.
“I’ll have my resignation on your desk by morning. Thank you, Carter. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” she says, finally letting go of the door.
“Yeah, me too,” I say shutting the door behind her before I slam my fist into the wall, putting a gaping hole in the drywall.
“God damn it!” I yell.
I was an idiot. I loved her, I let her in and she’s been fucking me over since day one. Even now, I don’t know how I’m going to let her go. I’m addicted to everything that is Anika Borkova, and I haven’t even gotten to the good parts yet. I know they are there because I see them. I feel them, but she’s the worst part of me. She feeds my sickness, and she’s managed to work her way under my skin because I let her. I fucking let her in, and now I have to find a way to dig her out. She makes me weak, and I can’t let that happen. I can’t afford weaknesses.
Not now. Not ever.
I pick up the phone to call Marcus, and then slam it back down. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I know the right thing would be to give him her name, but how can I when I love her? God, I love her. I’m expertly fucked. Suddenly, my cell rings on my desk. I pick it up looking at the name on the screen, Marcus Booth. What are the odds? He always seems to know just the right time to call.
“This is Carter,” I answer.
“Hey man, it’s Marcus. I just wanted to touch base with you. We do have some more information, but I don’t really want to talk about it over the phone. Plus, I have a few questions for you. I’m actually in the Seattle office working on this, so can you meet me for a drink somewhere?” he asks.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I agree, giving him the name and address of a little place I know that should give us enough privacy without being too ostentatious. I quickly send off a few emails to our security team, to Leanne about the wall in my office, and to our Access Management team to revoke all of Anika’s access, not that it will make much of a difference if she is who I think she is.
It only takes me a few minutes to get to Tavern, the pub I’m meeting Marcus at. I step inside, immediately feeling like an overdressed douche in a nearly ten thousand-dollar Kiton suit, but I ignore the stares when I spot Marcus in the corner booth. He stands to greet me with a manly handshake, hug combo and we sit.
“You’re looking fresh, man,” Marcus says, eyeballing me. He hasn’t changed much over the years. Still the same dark buzz cut, tanned skin and piercing eyes, but now he’s grown a bit of a beard that carries flecks of gray. He’s gained some bulk too, no doubt from training with the Bureau.
“So are you. Looks like life is treating you pretty well.” I laugh, but it’s forced.
“Can’t complain. My wife is due pretty soon with our third, so I’m trying to help get this case wrapped up so I can be home with her for a bit.”
“Congratulations, Marcus. That’s awesome,” I say genuinely. The guy looks like he’s on top of the world. He looks like I felt just a few hours ago, and I feel that hole inside my soul open back up and begin to bleed out.
The waitress comes and takes our orders, and we catch up a bit with some small talk. After she sets a few beers in front of us, he leans forward.
“I trust you, Carter. I know you’re a good guy, and that’s the only reason I’m here.”
“What’s going on, Booth?” I ask, using his last name like we did in college.
“You have to promise you won’t repeat any of this.” I nod my understanding, and he continues. “We have some more information on your case, and Carter, this goes deep. Deeper than I think you realize.”
“Go on,” I say.
“Like I told you before, Braxton is involved in some shady shit. We’re still unsure of how the connection was made. Right now, it’s all based on assumption, but we think it started out as a gambling debt that he needed to repay. So, he did their dirty work since he had the deep connections socially… from there, we don’t know.”
“Who is he affiliated with? Who’s the boss behind it?” I want to know if it will be Anika’s name on his lips.
“I can’t tell you that right now, but just know we’re talking Russian mafia, politicians…Carter, it’s serious.” He says, and I nod in agreement.
“What can you tell me?” I ask.
“According to our source on the inside, these people aren’t hacking to steal the idea for distribution or sale. They are hacking to destroy your plans and prototypes and sell your technology on the Black Market to the highest bidder. Right now, it’s looking like Russia. They’ve already began opening bids and they are in the billions.” With his information, I place my head in my hands and massage my aching temples with my fingers.
“But why? Obviously, the tech is worth that, but they’d still make a killing if they just waited for our product to launch and just have everything replicated and sold themselves.”
“Think about it,” he says, and after a moment, I feel the hot sensation of panic creeping in.
“They want to weaponize it. They aren’t using it for information processing and data transfer, they are using it to build smart weapons and revolutionize warfare.”
“Bingo,” Marcus taps the side of his head thoughtfully.
“Fucking, Christ.” I pull at my hair and down my beer. “What are we going to do? This is fucking insane.” I feel sick to my stomach. I know what this technology is capable of because I created it. If it falls into the wrong hands before mass production, we’re screwed.
“We aren’t going to do shit. I am since it’s my job and stuff, but you are going to tell me as much as you know when I ask you a question.”
“Well, it sounds like you are still an asshole.”
“I am, but I’m an asshole who’s trying to save the world from total destruction, and trying to figure out how to save your company from the fallout.”
“Noted,” I say, beginning to feel the effects of the beer having not eaten dinner. I signal the waitress and order some food, figuring it’d be best if the information I gave wasn’t tainted by intoxication.
“Why does your brother hate you so much now? You guys were close.”
“Whoa, starting off with the big ones,” I joke, but I know he’s serious and there’s nothing funny about it. “That’s the million, or should I say fifteen-million-dollar question. I’m going to come right out and say it. Braxton is an idiot. He hates me because he blames me for everything, and I have no idea why. He tells people he didn’t get an inheritance because he was just Robert Linwood’s bastard son, when it reality my father left us equal amounts. He gave the money with the stipulation that we do something meaningful with it. I started Lintech. Braxton is still searching for that meaning. The money goes to charity, like the rest of the assets did if Braxton doesn’t figure it out by age forty-five. I guess he doesn’t have goals or an end game, and that isn’t my fault. That’s all I know.”
“That’s some heavy shit,” Marcus says and I nod as the waitress sets the burger down in front of me. I ditch my suit jacket, hanging it on the hook outside the booth.
He writes down a few notes in a notebook he conjured out of nowhere, and I laugh.
“What can you tell me about Anika Borkova? She began working for Lintech shortly before the hacking began.” he asks cautiously.
“Not much to tell. She’s brilliant. Smarter and far more talented than I am.”
“Anything to add?”
“Nope,” I pop the p, and take another bite of my burger.
“Carter, don’t insult me. You’re a good liar, but I did train at Quantico, just like all the other agents and I can smell that bullshit from a mile away.”
I drop the burger onto my plate. “Why don’t you tell me what you already know and I’ll fill in the blanks for you, because from the way it sounds you know a lot more than I do about her. I was just kept in the dark and fed shit.”
“I know you two fuck like bunnies every chance you get, so you must know something.”
“Just because you stick your dick in someone doesn’t mean you know them,” I defend.
“Fair point. I take it from the way you’re acting that you learned of her familiarity with your brother.”
“That’s one way of putting it, but how did you know?” I ask.
“We were there too. Since you’re eating I’ll talk and you can listen. We’re still trying to piece her together. This woman is a blank slate, a complete mystery. We only know the basics from what are in sealed files, but everything else has been scrubbed. Her father was a double agent for both the CIA and FBI. He was a Russian immigrant that was granted citizenship and protection from the Russian government if he were to work for the United States so they could benefit from his skills. Ivan Borkova was the best agent you’ve never heard of, and the best hacker there was. He singlehandedly uncovered information that stopped multiple terrorist attacks on foreign and home soil, and he was a certified genius.
We are still unsure on the details because the information was never recovered after he and his wife’s deaths, but the rumor is he uncovered information on or about someone he shouldn’t have and they came knocking on his door. His wife was murdered brutally. Several officers who worked that case ended up quitting or in therapy it was so gruesome, and Ivan kind of fell off the grid. He resigned and became a private contractor, but five years to the day after his wife’s death, he put a bullet in his own brain.
After that we know Anika’s younger brother, Erik was admitted to several rehab programs for minors, and some other therapies. Anika went off to college and graduate school, graduating with honors and launching multiple businesses and startups. Pretty impressive for a girl with such a screwed-up past.”
“I knew most of that. Apparently, she was truthful about some things,” I mumble, feeling like I got hit with a lead weight.
“That’s the strange part, Carter. There is absolutely nothing else on this woman. Nothing. Her social media is squeaky clean, no personal pictures. No online accounts other than online grocery deliveries, utilities, and your random retailers. No one has tagged her in anything. She has no real friends or social connections. She’s a living breathing ghost. It’s like she’s real and living, but with no footprint like a typical citizen would have.” Based on the Anika I know, everything Marcus is saying makes complete sense, but I’m still having trouble processing.
“I can see you’re still working through this. I’m ninety nine percent certain Anika is our hacker, Carter,” he says the very thing that I’ve been trying not to think is possible for the past few hours, but I know he’s right. She’s just that good.
He takes a swig of his beer and continues on. “We can’t prove it, but my gut tells me I’m right. I’m not kidding when I say, she’s the best. For years, we’ve been trying to track down Phantom Kiss with no success. I’m almost in awe here.”
“Why are you certain it’s her?” I ask, interrupting his little obsess fest.
“All the signs point to it. She’s Russian, her dad was a hacker and she works in technology so obviously she’s capable and familiar, she has an unnaturally clean record, she began working at Lintech shortly before all of this began, she’s clearly connected to Braxton, and she has you in her pocket, or I guess I should say, in her panties.”
I let out a heavy sigh. I knew all of this, I just had to hear it out loud. I had to hear the words from someone else before I could believe the woman I’ve fallen in love with could possibly be the very person that ruins my life and this country.
“Carter, can you tell me anything that I don’t already know? Like why she might be working with Braxton on this?”
“No. I’ve already told you. I only found out ten minutes before you called that she and Braxton even knew each other. I put a few of the other pieces together on my own out of common sense, but I have no idea. None.” I place my face in my hands as if the action alone will magically help me make sense of this train wreck.
“Listen, I’ve got to get back to the office because the rumor is that this is all coming to a head on Wednesday.” He stands, and I do the same, tossing a hundred on the table and grabbing my jacket.
“That’s fine. I’ve got some more work to do anyways,” I say.
“If you think of anything else, or hear from her, give me a call. Just try to keep things on lockdown in the meantime and lay low,” Marcus says, grabbing my shoulder before heading to the door.
“We’ll get her,” Marcus says confidently, looking back at me before walking through the open door. I’m not about to tell him that’s what is weighing on me the most. I can’t tell him that while I hate her, I still love her. My only option now is Obsidian where I can fuck my way to forgetting, but I don’t even think I have the energy to do that because all I feel is an ache deep in my chest where Anika used to fit.