Insertion, page 15
“Not a word to anyone else about this. She said she was very hesitant to even tell me, but she said my skills might be needed when I get back.”
Taking another swig from his bottle, he said, “What does that even mean?”
“It means someone may or may not make it to see her birthday when I get back, if you catch my drift.”
“Sounds like fun,” Antonio said.
“It wont be for who I have to take out, I can promise you that.” Max continued. “Janet also said, as far as location, they think our guy is in Alejandro’s mansion. Which, once again, we figured that but we just needed a definitive answer. They have constant surveillance over it and have phone calls talking about a new person in one of the bedrooms. How long do you think it’ll take us to get to Cartagena?” Just then, Courtney, Kyle and some of Antonio’s men trickled into the conference room.
“Slow down, buddy, you can’t just waltz into Cartagena and roll up to Alejandro’s mansion without him noticing you’re coming. His mansion is on top of a hill thirty minutes outside of the city, and it sits below a big cliff. He’s very smart. It also sits on ten acres of land and there’s only one road leading in and out of his property. On top of that, the second you make the left onto it from the main highway, he’ll know we’re coming. He has lookouts everywhere in the city, intense security around his home, the army base on standby close by, and not to mention random guards scattered all along the road in the forest that surrounds it on both sides until you reach the clearing at the top.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“We’ve raided his property a couple of times and every time he gets the charges dropped. It’s to the point we stopped conducting them until we’ve compiled enough evidence—”
“But the evidence won’t sustain anywhere in court with the judges that I’m sure are on his payroll?” Max interrupted.
“Yes,” said someone else, taking the seat next to him. “Ricky,” the man said, extending his hand. “Max,” he responded, holding out his hand and doing the same. Ricky’s demeanor suggested he saw plenty of action and had definitely been around the block. He never made eye contact and just kept his eyes glued to the rice and eggs that were in his bowl. It was amazing to Max how much life was sucked out of people when dealing with this type of threat.
“All of the men who helped me today would give their lives for one another. They’ve been briefed on the operation and are more than willing to go forward and rescue your friend. However, I have a favor to ask of you.”
“And what’s that?” Max asked, raising his eyebrow and crossing his arms.
“We will rescue your friend, but you will help us kill Alejandro. He’s had a strong hold on this country for too long and has too many people in his pockets. Everybody fears him and his sicarios. They’re like the Egyptian plague, the locusts eating up everything in their path, leaving nothing behind. With him dead, his organization will crumble, and we can finally finish what we started long ago,” he said.
“Fair enough,” Max replied.
“Good, now go take a shower,” Antonio stated, “you stink.”
CHAPTER 30
Jack’s knew in his gut already who the mole was, but he needed to make sure. Pulling up to the security office, he walked up to the doors and stepped inside as younger people dressed in casual business attire walked by him. Entering the building, the smell of fresh bleach from the clean floors instantly stung his nostrils.
To the right and left were nothing but rows of empty seats with TVs hanging on either walls. One was broadcasting Fox News and the other ESPN. Nice to see nothing has changed, he thought to himself. He walked up to the bulletproof glass and asked the young woman where her supervisor, Jeff, was. Looking up from her tabloid magazine as if he were annoying her with such a mundane question, she hollered for Jeff. He thanked her, and she shook her head and went back to her magazine.
Jack stepped away, paying attention to the television screen where two commentators were arguing with one another about police brutality and the upcoming election.
“Jack!” He heard a familiar voice from behind him. “The Jack Knowles! How are you?”
Turning around and embracing his old friend with a partial handshake and hug, he answered, “Really good, man! How’s the job treating you?”
“Great, Shelly is finally graduating high school and Sean is doing pretty well at Dartmouth. Although I had to tell him once or twice to not let the girls distract him from his grades.” Both men laughed. “What can I do for you, man? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
“I know, and I’ve been trying to have you guys over for dinner, but I’ve been swamped lately with work. That’s why I’m here, you got a moment to talk?”
Nodding, Jeff said, “Here, follow me into my office.” Jack followed him through a side door and down a small hallway. Entering his office, he noticed pictures hanging on the walls along with previous accolades from his time in the Secret Service.
The two had met one day when Jack’s battery in his car was dead on the facility. Making his rounds around the massive base, Jeff pulled over and let Jack borrow a pair of jumper cables. They made small talk as his car battery was charging. Once they found out they grew up in the same city—Austin, Texas—it was a match made in heaven.
Taking a seat in the leather chair across from the massive glass and mahogany desk, Jeff leaned back and kicked his feet up on the desk.
“You think you’re someone important now or what?”
Jeff responded, “I don’t think I’m important, just more important than you.”
“Go fuck yourself,” laughed Jack, pushing his feet off the desk.
“Enough small talk, have you heard anything about what’s going on?” Jack asked, anxiously.
Jeff said, “Only that someone from the agency,” gesturing to the massive complex on the other side of the building, “was kidnapped or something, nothing more. And you already know I’m the only person who ever hears anything down in this office. I may not be an agent, but seniority has its perks around here,” he said. “And don’t worry, if I hear anything of interest I’ll give you a shout.”
“Good, so, that’s kind of the reason why I’m here. I need a favor.”
“Yeah, name it.”
“Can you show me the cameras for the last twenty-four hours?”
“Lock the door,” he said, turning to his computer and banging away at the keyboard. In the amount of time that it took Jack to stand up, walk to the door, and sit back down Jeff already had the video camera files pulled up on his computer. Turning the monitor so that both men could see the same screen, Jack witnessed four video files on display.
“Okay, so what am I looking at?” Jack asked.
Pointing to the first screen in the top left corner, “All of our files are organized by fours inside of their respective locations wherever the cameras are that we are trying to access. There being twenty-four hours in a day, each video is broken up into six-hour increments and after a full seven days, they are all transferred to a massive storage unit that is actually located in the main compound.”
“I know about the security compound in the main building, but I didn’t know all the files got shifted there,” Jack responded.
“Yeah, I started that about a year ago. We can access any and all security files, but I figured that the safest place for them is inside on of the safest places in the country. That way no one can come in this building and just erase the files.”
“I’ll give you that. You do realize that by you saying that it is one of the safest places in the country that you’re touting your own security detail and that’s a pretty big bullshit claim,” Jack said, trying to get a rise out of his old friend.
Leaning back from his chair and staring at him, Jeff said, “Do you want to take this outside, old man?”
Chuckling, Jack responded, “Relax, I wouldn’t want you to break a hip.”
“Who are we kidding? We’ll both probably break something if we start to roll around in the grass.”
“You’re also seven years younger than I am,” Jeff said. Getting back to what they were looking at on the monitor, he said, “Where exactly do you want me to pull up?”
“Let’s start with the front gate at around five o’clock yesterday morning.”
Jack watched Jeff click on the file, which opened another file with labels just like he said of locations on the complex. He moved the mouse over the one labeled “front gate.” Clicking on it opened a video which he expanded taking up the entire screen. With the enhancements in technology, everything looked super clear and crisp. Clicking play, Jeff leaned back but kept his hand on the mouse indicating when Jack wanted him to stop.
“Keep going until you hit eight o’clock,” Jack said, who was now so close to Jeff he could smell the ham and cheese sandwich he had for lunch.
“Do you have any gum?” Asked Jack, crinkling his face and leaning back for a second to get some fresh air.
“Yeah, why? You want a piece?” Jeff said, reaching into his drawer and pulling out a stick of gum. Handing it to Jack, he refused to take it.
“That’s for you, not me bro,” Jack said, watching his friend pause and raise his hand to smell his own breath. Nodding silently in agreement, he peeled the gum foil back, popped the stick in his mouth and continued with the computer files.
“Thank you,” Jack said.
“Jeez, you went soft.” Stealing a glance at his old friend, Jack did nothing but raise his eyebrow. Jeff smirked and continued, “Jack, there’s so many cars, if you tell me which one you’re looking for, I can maybe narrow it down. You have to remember I see y’all day in and day out, so I more or less know a lot of people’s schedules.”
Leaning back and scratching his chin he thought for a second. “What about Miss Alexandria?”
One of Jeff’s eyebrows raised. “The smoke show? Sure, she usually comes in at around eight or so.”
“Why did you say ‘usually?’”
“Because I was working yesterday morning and specifically remember her coming in early. If we pull up the tape here,” he said, minimizing the current file and pulling up an earlier one. “Give me a second here to rewind. It would be at the very end of the video because she was the last car to come in for at least fifteen minutes or so until Janet drove up.”
Moving the mouse back to when Jeff and Alexandria had their ten second conversation, he paused the video.
“Tell me exactly what you said and exactly what she said.” Jack leaned back, staring into Jeff’s soul, hoping to get some sort of clue to help him in this investigation.
“I said, ‘isn’t it a little bit early for you to be in right now,’ she said, ‘yeah, well if you want to get work done around here you have to beat everyone to it’ or something like that.”
Looking back at the screen, Jack said, “Okay, now can you track her through all of the footage for the next thirty minutes or so?”
“Why don’t you give me something harder to do?” Jeff said. After pressing some buttons, he right-clicked on her car. Everywhere the car went, the video cameras would pull up automatically without needing Jeff to touch anything. The cameras continued to track her when she stepped out of the car and walked through the building to her office.
Looking at his watch, Jack’s stomach growled. “Can we speed this up, bud, I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
“Yeah, give me a sec,” he said, moving the mouse and clicking a button labeled with the number one and an X next to it. Speeding up the video just a bit, both men watched her enter her own office, drop off her bags and throw away her drink before she exited her office.
“Okay, slow it down,” Jack asked. Jeff complied. “Where are we going, Miss Alexandria,” Jack said underneath his breath. Suddenly, the video screen went dark.
“What the hell just happened?”
“That, my friend, is a very good question.” Restarting the video, and taking off the follow feature, Jeff pulled up the individual video files for each camera and both men watched as the exact same thing happened. As soon as she left her office, the video went black.
“Jeff, who else has access to these files?”
“All of the supervisor shift chiefs, so four in all. I will always have access, obviously, because I run everything down here, but only the chiefs of whatever watch they’re assigned to have access to these tapes.”
“Do you trust them all?”
“With my life,” Jeff responded, who now had a sense of annoyance in his voice. “You’ll have to excuse me if I sound upset, but I know it’s not my guys who would erase any of these files.”
“So, you’re thinking it’s foul play on my end somewhere?” Jack asked.
“Either that or someone from the outside managed to hack into our system, which wouldn’t make any sense because if they could get through the impenetrable firewalls, etc., then why just stop at erasing that video file? Why not go after personal information and other stuff?” Jeff asked, his brain working in overdrive trying to figure out how someone hacked into the files without his knowledge.
“Dammit.”
“What?”
“There’s a lot of hackers out there, but only a handful of people who I know that are capable of hacking into databases like ours without a trace, and one of them doesn’t live too far away.”
CHAPTER 31
It was a quarter past their meet time and Preston Anderson was running late. Alexandria hated it when people arrived late. Growing up in a household with strict parents who had a military background, she quickly learned that on time meant you’re late and arriving early meant you’re on time. She had arranged the money transfer at the local bar, The Mountain Top, named because the owner climbed Mount Everest.
Happy hour began thirty minutes prior, and she was on her second Mojito when she saw an overweight man with a pimple-ridden face stumble through the door. Wearing a Call of Duty short-sleeved shirt and jeans smeared with pizza all over them, he made his way over to her. Lowering her baseball cap over her face, trying to hide that she was remotely associated with this man, she looked down into her drink. Luckily, she snagged the last high top in the back of the semi-crowded bar so less people would see them together—or so she thought.
As Preston sat down across from her, giving her a gentle shit-eating grin, she slid the thin happy hour menu over toward him with the money in a small envelope underneath. “I heard the Moscow Mule is really good,” she said.
Grabbing the menu from the bottom and quickly shoving the envelope in his pocket, he replied, “Yeah, I do like a good Moscow Mule from time to time.”
The waitress walked over to take Preston’s order and walked back to the bar. “You look nice,” he said, noticing her stunning figure in yoga pants and a tank top.
“Save it,” she said. “I’m literally here for as long as I finish this Mojito, and then I’m leaving. You know the drill,” she said as she put the tall glass to her lips and taking two big gulps. The waitress walked back over, dropping Preston’s drink off with a polite smile.
“You know, you might do better with attracting women if you dressed, you know, like a normal person,” Alexandria said in a condescending tone.
Preston responded, “Careful now, you can’t talk like that when you go to prison.”
“You idiot, if I go, you go, that’s how this works. And that’s what I’m paying you for, to make certain things disappear so that we don’t have to go to prison,” she said, pointing to the both of them.
“Ohh, that’s a very good drink,” said Preston, ignoring her. “You know, I’ve been in this business a very long time, a lot longer than you have. I have watched people go to prison for the work that I have done for them and yet here I still stand.”
“You know, if you’re so good at IT work, why don’t you get a legitimate job somewhere and make an honest living?” she asked, taking another long gulp of her drink.
“Because I like doing what I do and I hate working for people. It doesn’t get simpler than that. As far as your video file, that was an easy fix. I just had to—”
“Listen, I don’t want to know how you did it and quite frankly I don’t care, just as long as you are one-hundred-percent certain that it’s done,” interrupted Alexandria, disgusted more and more the longer she sat. The occasional feeling of a million beady eyes behind her, and her taking small shots to check, confirmed her earlier suspicious of people staring at the two of them. God forbid they thought they were a couple.
“It is. Trust me.”
“How can I trust you when you just told me you watched people go to prison for what you do on the reg?” She sat back in her chair watching his long dark hair fall over his eyes.
“Not everybody has been to jail, it’s just the ones that don’t listen. What you asked me to do is very easy and I can do that in my sleep, no problem. Even some of the things that you have asked me to do in the past like erase emails from people, hack into bank accounts, etc.—however, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You forget that we’re in D.C. This is a political town and it pays to know the right people when you have to run for office.” He finished his sentence with a big smile exposing his yellowish teeth.
She winced at the sight of his teeth. Looking at her glass one more time and downing the rest of the alcoholic drink, she slammed it down on the wooden table. “It appears that our time is up.” She slid her barstool back and grabbed her purse.
“That’s fine,” he responded. “I’m meeting some friends here anyway.”
“You have friends?” She said, raising her eyebrow and slinging her purse over her shoulder.
Chuckling softly, he said, “Yes, even though I am an evil person who does jobs for people that are completely illegal, I do have friends.”
Shaking her head in disgust, she gave her hacker acquaintance one last pity smile and made her way to the front door. If she were more aware of her surroundings, she might have noticed a familiar figure sitting just to the right of the door on one of the barstools that looked out onto the street.
Taking another swig from his bottle, he said, “What does that even mean?”
“It means someone may or may not make it to see her birthday when I get back, if you catch my drift.”
“Sounds like fun,” Antonio said.
“It wont be for who I have to take out, I can promise you that.” Max continued. “Janet also said, as far as location, they think our guy is in Alejandro’s mansion. Which, once again, we figured that but we just needed a definitive answer. They have constant surveillance over it and have phone calls talking about a new person in one of the bedrooms. How long do you think it’ll take us to get to Cartagena?” Just then, Courtney, Kyle and some of Antonio’s men trickled into the conference room.
“Slow down, buddy, you can’t just waltz into Cartagena and roll up to Alejandro’s mansion without him noticing you’re coming. His mansion is on top of a hill thirty minutes outside of the city, and it sits below a big cliff. He’s very smart. It also sits on ten acres of land and there’s only one road leading in and out of his property. On top of that, the second you make the left onto it from the main highway, he’ll know we’re coming. He has lookouts everywhere in the city, intense security around his home, the army base on standby close by, and not to mention random guards scattered all along the road in the forest that surrounds it on both sides until you reach the clearing at the top.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“We’ve raided his property a couple of times and every time he gets the charges dropped. It’s to the point we stopped conducting them until we’ve compiled enough evidence—”
“But the evidence won’t sustain anywhere in court with the judges that I’m sure are on his payroll?” Max interrupted.
“Yes,” said someone else, taking the seat next to him. “Ricky,” the man said, extending his hand. “Max,” he responded, holding out his hand and doing the same. Ricky’s demeanor suggested he saw plenty of action and had definitely been around the block. He never made eye contact and just kept his eyes glued to the rice and eggs that were in his bowl. It was amazing to Max how much life was sucked out of people when dealing with this type of threat.
“All of the men who helped me today would give their lives for one another. They’ve been briefed on the operation and are more than willing to go forward and rescue your friend. However, I have a favor to ask of you.”
“And what’s that?” Max asked, raising his eyebrow and crossing his arms.
“We will rescue your friend, but you will help us kill Alejandro. He’s had a strong hold on this country for too long and has too many people in his pockets. Everybody fears him and his sicarios. They’re like the Egyptian plague, the locusts eating up everything in their path, leaving nothing behind. With him dead, his organization will crumble, and we can finally finish what we started long ago,” he said.
“Fair enough,” Max replied.
“Good, now go take a shower,” Antonio stated, “you stink.”
CHAPTER 30
Jack’s knew in his gut already who the mole was, but he needed to make sure. Pulling up to the security office, he walked up to the doors and stepped inside as younger people dressed in casual business attire walked by him. Entering the building, the smell of fresh bleach from the clean floors instantly stung his nostrils.
To the right and left were nothing but rows of empty seats with TVs hanging on either walls. One was broadcasting Fox News and the other ESPN. Nice to see nothing has changed, he thought to himself. He walked up to the bulletproof glass and asked the young woman where her supervisor, Jeff, was. Looking up from her tabloid magazine as if he were annoying her with such a mundane question, she hollered for Jeff. He thanked her, and she shook her head and went back to her magazine.
Jack stepped away, paying attention to the television screen where two commentators were arguing with one another about police brutality and the upcoming election.
“Jack!” He heard a familiar voice from behind him. “The Jack Knowles! How are you?”
Turning around and embracing his old friend with a partial handshake and hug, he answered, “Really good, man! How’s the job treating you?”
“Great, Shelly is finally graduating high school and Sean is doing pretty well at Dartmouth. Although I had to tell him once or twice to not let the girls distract him from his grades.” Both men laughed. “What can I do for you, man? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
“I know, and I’ve been trying to have you guys over for dinner, but I’ve been swamped lately with work. That’s why I’m here, you got a moment to talk?”
Nodding, Jeff said, “Here, follow me into my office.” Jack followed him through a side door and down a small hallway. Entering his office, he noticed pictures hanging on the walls along with previous accolades from his time in the Secret Service.
The two had met one day when Jack’s battery in his car was dead on the facility. Making his rounds around the massive base, Jeff pulled over and let Jack borrow a pair of jumper cables. They made small talk as his car battery was charging. Once they found out they grew up in the same city—Austin, Texas—it was a match made in heaven.
Taking a seat in the leather chair across from the massive glass and mahogany desk, Jeff leaned back and kicked his feet up on the desk.
“You think you’re someone important now or what?”
Jeff responded, “I don’t think I’m important, just more important than you.”
“Go fuck yourself,” laughed Jack, pushing his feet off the desk.
“Enough small talk, have you heard anything about what’s going on?” Jack asked, anxiously.
Jeff said, “Only that someone from the agency,” gesturing to the massive complex on the other side of the building, “was kidnapped or something, nothing more. And you already know I’m the only person who ever hears anything down in this office. I may not be an agent, but seniority has its perks around here,” he said. “And don’t worry, if I hear anything of interest I’ll give you a shout.”
“Good, so, that’s kind of the reason why I’m here. I need a favor.”
“Yeah, name it.”
“Can you show me the cameras for the last twenty-four hours?”
“Lock the door,” he said, turning to his computer and banging away at the keyboard. In the amount of time that it took Jack to stand up, walk to the door, and sit back down Jeff already had the video camera files pulled up on his computer. Turning the monitor so that both men could see the same screen, Jack witnessed four video files on display.
“Okay, so what am I looking at?” Jack asked.
Pointing to the first screen in the top left corner, “All of our files are organized by fours inside of their respective locations wherever the cameras are that we are trying to access. There being twenty-four hours in a day, each video is broken up into six-hour increments and after a full seven days, they are all transferred to a massive storage unit that is actually located in the main compound.”
“I know about the security compound in the main building, but I didn’t know all the files got shifted there,” Jack responded.
“Yeah, I started that about a year ago. We can access any and all security files, but I figured that the safest place for them is inside on of the safest places in the country. That way no one can come in this building and just erase the files.”
“I’ll give you that. You do realize that by you saying that it is one of the safest places in the country that you’re touting your own security detail and that’s a pretty big bullshit claim,” Jack said, trying to get a rise out of his old friend.
Leaning back from his chair and staring at him, Jeff said, “Do you want to take this outside, old man?”
Chuckling, Jack responded, “Relax, I wouldn’t want you to break a hip.”
“Who are we kidding? We’ll both probably break something if we start to roll around in the grass.”
“You’re also seven years younger than I am,” Jeff said. Getting back to what they were looking at on the monitor, he said, “Where exactly do you want me to pull up?”
“Let’s start with the front gate at around five o’clock yesterday morning.”
Jack watched Jeff click on the file, which opened another file with labels just like he said of locations on the complex. He moved the mouse over the one labeled “front gate.” Clicking on it opened a video which he expanded taking up the entire screen. With the enhancements in technology, everything looked super clear and crisp. Clicking play, Jeff leaned back but kept his hand on the mouse indicating when Jack wanted him to stop.
“Keep going until you hit eight o’clock,” Jack said, who was now so close to Jeff he could smell the ham and cheese sandwich he had for lunch.
“Do you have any gum?” Asked Jack, crinkling his face and leaning back for a second to get some fresh air.
“Yeah, why? You want a piece?” Jeff said, reaching into his drawer and pulling out a stick of gum. Handing it to Jack, he refused to take it.
“That’s for you, not me bro,” Jack said, watching his friend pause and raise his hand to smell his own breath. Nodding silently in agreement, he peeled the gum foil back, popped the stick in his mouth and continued with the computer files.
“Thank you,” Jack said.
“Jeez, you went soft.” Stealing a glance at his old friend, Jack did nothing but raise his eyebrow. Jeff smirked and continued, “Jack, there’s so many cars, if you tell me which one you’re looking for, I can maybe narrow it down. You have to remember I see y’all day in and day out, so I more or less know a lot of people’s schedules.”
Leaning back and scratching his chin he thought for a second. “What about Miss Alexandria?”
One of Jeff’s eyebrows raised. “The smoke show? Sure, she usually comes in at around eight or so.”
“Why did you say ‘usually?’”
“Because I was working yesterday morning and specifically remember her coming in early. If we pull up the tape here,” he said, minimizing the current file and pulling up an earlier one. “Give me a second here to rewind. It would be at the very end of the video because she was the last car to come in for at least fifteen minutes or so until Janet drove up.”
Moving the mouse back to when Jeff and Alexandria had their ten second conversation, he paused the video.
“Tell me exactly what you said and exactly what she said.” Jack leaned back, staring into Jeff’s soul, hoping to get some sort of clue to help him in this investigation.
“I said, ‘isn’t it a little bit early for you to be in right now,’ she said, ‘yeah, well if you want to get work done around here you have to beat everyone to it’ or something like that.”
Looking back at the screen, Jack said, “Okay, now can you track her through all of the footage for the next thirty minutes or so?”
“Why don’t you give me something harder to do?” Jeff said. After pressing some buttons, he right-clicked on her car. Everywhere the car went, the video cameras would pull up automatically without needing Jeff to touch anything. The cameras continued to track her when she stepped out of the car and walked through the building to her office.
Looking at his watch, Jack’s stomach growled. “Can we speed this up, bud, I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
“Yeah, give me a sec,” he said, moving the mouse and clicking a button labeled with the number one and an X next to it. Speeding up the video just a bit, both men watched her enter her own office, drop off her bags and throw away her drink before she exited her office.
“Okay, slow it down,” Jack asked. Jeff complied. “Where are we going, Miss Alexandria,” Jack said underneath his breath. Suddenly, the video screen went dark.
“What the hell just happened?”
“That, my friend, is a very good question.” Restarting the video, and taking off the follow feature, Jeff pulled up the individual video files for each camera and both men watched as the exact same thing happened. As soon as she left her office, the video went black.
“Jeff, who else has access to these files?”
“All of the supervisor shift chiefs, so four in all. I will always have access, obviously, because I run everything down here, but only the chiefs of whatever watch they’re assigned to have access to these tapes.”
“Do you trust them all?”
“With my life,” Jeff responded, who now had a sense of annoyance in his voice. “You’ll have to excuse me if I sound upset, but I know it’s not my guys who would erase any of these files.”
“So, you’re thinking it’s foul play on my end somewhere?” Jack asked.
“Either that or someone from the outside managed to hack into our system, which wouldn’t make any sense because if they could get through the impenetrable firewalls, etc., then why just stop at erasing that video file? Why not go after personal information and other stuff?” Jeff asked, his brain working in overdrive trying to figure out how someone hacked into the files without his knowledge.
“Dammit.”
“What?”
“There’s a lot of hackers out there, but only a handful of people who I know that are capable of hacking into databases like ours without a trace, and one of them doesn’t live too far away.”
CHAPTER 31
It was a quarter past their meet time and Preston Anderson was running late. Alexandria hated it when people arrived late. Growing up in a household with strict parents who had a military background, she quickly learned that on time meant you’re late and arriving early meant you’re on time. She had arranged the money transfer at the local bar, The Mountain Top, named because the owner climbed Mount Everest.
Happy hour began thirty minutes prior, and she was on her second Mojito when she saw an overweight man with a pimple-ridden face stumble through the door. Wearing a Call of Duty short-sleeved shirt and jeans smeared with pizza all over them, he made his way over to her. Lowering her baseball cap over her face, trying to hide that she was remotely associated with this man, she looked down into her drink. Luckily, she snagged the last high top in the back of the semi-crowded bar so less people would see them together—or so she thought.
As Preston sat down across from her, giving her a gentle shit-eating grin, she slid the thin happy hour menu over toward him with the money in a small envelope underneath. “I heard the Moscow Mule is really good,” she said.
Grabbing the menu from the bottom and quickly shoving the envelope in his pocket, he replied, “Yeah, I do like a good Moscow Mule from time to time.”
The waitress walked over to take Preston’s order and walked back to the bar. “You look nice,” he said, noticing her stunning figure in yoga pants and a tank top.
“Save it,” she said. “I’m literally here for as long as I finish this Mojito, and then I’m leaving. You know the drill,” she said as she put the tall glass to her lips and taking two big gulps. The waitress walked back over, dropping Preston’s drink off with a polite smile.
“You know, you might do better with attracting women if you dressed, you know, like a normal person,” Alexandria said in a condescending tone.
Preston responded, “Careful now, you can’t talk like that when you go to prison.”
“You idiot, if I go, you go, that’s how this works. And that’s what I’m paying you for, to make certain things disappear so that we don’t have to go to prison,” she said, pointing to the both of them.
“Ohh, that’s a very good drink,” said Preston, ignoring her. “You know, I’ve been in this business a very long time, a lot longer than you have. I have watched people go to prison for the work that I have done for them and yet here I still stand.”
“You know, if you’re so good at IT work, why don’t you get a legitimate job somewhere and make an honest living?” she asked, taking another long gulp of her drink.
“Because I like doing what I do and I hate working for people. It doesn’t get simpler than that. As far as your video file, that was an easy fix. I just had to—”
“Listen, I don’t want to know how you did it and quite frankly I don’t care, just as long as you are one-hundred-percent certain that it’s done,” interrupted Alexandria, disgusted more and more the longer she sat. The occasional feeling of a million beady eyes behind her, and her taking small shots to check, confirmed her earlier suspicious of people staring at the two of them. God forbid they thought they were a couple.
“It is. Trust me.”
“How can I trust you when you just told me you watched people go to prison for what you do on the reg?” She sat back in her chair watching his long dark hair fall over his eyes.
“Not everybody has been to jail, it’s just the ones that don’t listen. What you asked me to do is very easy and I can do that in my sleep, no problem. Even some of the things that you have asked me to do in the past like erase emails from people, hack into bank accounts, etc.—however, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You forget that we’re in D.C. This is a political town and it pays to know the right people when you have to run for office.” He finished his sentence with a big smile exposing his yellowish teeth.
She winced at the sight of his teeth. Looking at her glass one more time and downing the rest of the alcoholic drink, she slammed it down on the wooden table. “It appears that our time is up.” She slid her barstool back and grabbed her purse.
“That’s fine,” he responded. “I’m meeting some friends here anyway.”
“You have friends?” She said, raising her eyebrow and slinging her purse over her shoulder.
Chuckling softly, he said, “Yes, even though I am an evil person who does jobs for people that are completely illegal, I do have friends.”
Shaking her head in disgust, she gave her hacker acquaintance one last pity smile and made her way to the front door. If she were more aware of her surroundings, she might have noticed a familiar figure sitting just to the right of the door on one of the barstools that looked out onto the street.
