The Hack, page 13
Her pulse raced a little faster as the footage loaded. She didn’t want to see the truth—she wanted to see what she wanted to believe. But she had to know, regardless.
Twenty minutes after she’d gone to sleep, Ari’s face appeared on the footage as he’d moved to stand in front of the laptop.
His eyes darted between the laptop and the bed where she’d been sleeping. He placed his hands on either side of the laptop, leaning over the table. She could see the urge in his eyes and she saw the moment the temptation was too great. He lifted his hands and placed them over the keyboard, his fingertips hovering above the keys. Then he drew a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “Don’t do this,” he seemingly said to himself before he cursed under his breath, drew his hands back and clenched his jaw before walking out of view.
Raya released the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She closed the laptop and put it back on the table before she selected a change of clothes from her Walmart haul and headed for the bathroom.
She heard the door open and she paused. “It’s me,” he called out and she relaxed. She finished brushing her teeth and applied some mascara, but she couldn’t be bothered with any more makeup than that.
She left the bathroom, tidied the remaining things on her bed and then sat, while Ari rummaged through the items on his bed. He packed his gun then folded a wad of cash and tucked half of into his pocket. He put the other half in Raya’s backpack.
“What are you doing?” she asked quickly.
“Packing what we need for tonight,” Ari said, seemingly confused by her question.
“I mean with the cash,” she asked, nodding toward her backpack.
“Nothing . . . I just thought . . .” He sighed, choosing his words carefully. “We need a backup plan in case we get separated. And if we do get separated, you need cash.”
“I can survive without—”
“My cash? I’m very well aware of that, Raya. But let’s not make this harder than it needs to be. I have cash on me, it’s not more complicated than that,” he said gently but firmly.
She tilted her head, then looked down. Raya had never owed anyone money—she’d never wanted to be in a position that gave someone power over her and she wasn’t about to start with Ari. “I don’t like owing people money.”
He frowned. “You don’t owe me money. I’m hoping we don’t need to use it, but I don’t want to rely on hope,” he said. “Just keep it safe for me because it’s not a good idea to carry too much in my pocket and I don’t want to leave it here either in case we can’t come back.”
She mulled it over, and decided it was okay because she had no intention of using it and would give it back to him when they got back to the motel. She stood, wanting to be useful.
“What else do we need?” she asked.
“Laptops, cash, phones, gun . . . that’s about it, I think,” he said, sliding his laptop into her backpack—once again proving he had no intention of betraying her.
“Thank you, by the way,” she said, looking up at him. For a moment she lost herself in his eyes. “I don’t think I’ve properly thanked you for . . . everything. You’ve saved my life, and you don’t even seem that pissed off that I pulled you away from your comfortable life and dragged you into this mess.”
Their eyes locked and her pulse spiked.
“I’m not angry Raya, not at you. I’m angry at the corruption in this world. I’m angry at the abuse of power and the greed of men like my uncle. I’m angry that men who want to keep their dirty secrets buried are prepared to kill people like you. You may have dragged me into this with your bribe . . .” he said with a grin, “but I’m not angry.”
She gave a small smile and his eyes dropped to her lips before he looked away and finished packing.
Ari grabbed a baseball cap from the bed and changed out of his leather jacket into a hooded sweatshirt. He looked unrecognizable from the Ari of yesterday.
“Ready?” he asked, picking up the car keys.
“Ready,” she said with a nod.
He followed her to the door. She peered outside, then said, “All clear.”
Ari strode toward the driver’s seat and she wondered if he’d ever actually teach her to drive. She hoped he would. She hoped when this was all done, they could be friends in real life—not just in the online world.
But Raya didn’t dare hope for more than that.
CHAPTER 25
Ari looked over his shoulder as they walked toward the car. He felt eyes on him, but he wasn’t sure if his nerves were getting the better of him, or if someone was really watching them. Either way, he wasn’t sticking around to find out.
He unlocked the car and slid into the driver’s seat. Raya got into the passenger seat and Ari locked the doors, reversing out of the parking lot.
“We should swap cars again,” Raya said, her eyes sweeping over the streets.
“You can’t steal a car in broad daylight,” he said, shaking his head. “I have a better idea,” he continued as he turned left and reprogrammed his navigation system.
“Where are we going?” Raya asked, her eyes on the screen.
“My friend’s name is Luke—he might be able to help us with Higgins. You saved the copy of the invoice, right? We’ll visit him before we go to the cabin,” Ari said.
Raya nodded then returned her attention to the laptop balanced on her knees.
Ari’s eyes bounced between the rearview mirror and the road ahead as he drove. It was a short drive to Luke’s house and when he pulled in the driveway his anxiety decreased a notch.
“Come on,” he said, getting out of the car.
The sun was high in the sky, but the bitterly cold wind lashed around them like a whip.
Raya shivered and he made a mental note to get jackets for each of them.
Ari knocked on the door and waited. He should’ve called in advance but he didn’t have Luke’s number—because Luke regularly changed it—and until Ari knew for sure if someone had access to his emails, he couldn’t risk it.
A moment passed, then another.
“Maybe he’s not home,” Raya said, looking at the window. The drapes were drawn—but they always were.
“He’ll be home,” Ari said. Luke rarely left his house during the day. “He’s probably asleep.” Ari banged his fist on the door a little louder and they waited. Eventually, Luke’s voice came through the intercom.
“This is a surprise, Aureliano,” he said.
Ari smiled. “Isn’t it? Can you please let us in?”
No response followed but the door opened a few seconds later and Ari placed a hand on the small of Raya’s back, guiding her inside.
“I’m Luke,” Luke said.
“Raya,” she said, shaking his hand.
Luke looked to Ari. “You upgraded your car,” he said, deadpan.
Ari grinned. “Something like that.”
“Do I want to know why?”
Ari shook his head. “It’s best you don’t. But a cup of coffee would be great.”
“Be my guests,” Luke said, holding out his right hand, gesturing them toward the kitchen.
Raya’s gaze swept in an arc and Ari knew she was taking it all in. Luke’s house was nothing like Ari’s—it looked like he’d just moved in but those packing boxes had been in his living room for the six years Ari had known him.
“Good to see you’re making progress,” Ari said, nodding toward the boxes.
“It’s storage,” Luke said with a chuckle as he motioned toward the dining table. He turned on the coffee maker, made three cups and then went to sit with them. “So, why are you here?”
“First, I need to borrow a car—that one is not to my style,” he joked, tilting his head to the front of the house. “Second, I need you to have a look at a security system.”
“Yes to the car,” Luke said. “Maybe to the security system. Tell me more.”
Raya looked to him and he saw the uncertainty in her eyes, but he trusted Luke.
Luke had introduced Ari to hacking when they’d been in college. Neither of them had finished their degrees, but they hadn’t left without a valuable education. Despite Ari’s reputation, he’d spent many more late nights at Luke’s house hacking than he had out at bars talking to women. But he’d worked hard to keep his skillset a secret, because he’d always had one goal in mind: use it to take back the Rossi empire, and his chances of doing that were much better if his uncle didn’t know about his hobby.
“We’re looking into a man named Gregory Higgins. I need access to his personal computer, and I can’t hack it so I need to get inside his house,” Ari said.
Luke looked between Ari and Raya. “What is so special about Mr Higgins?” Luke asked, pushing his black glasses up his nose.
“I’m looking for a link between him and my uncle,” Ari said.
Luke chewed on his cheek, his eyes on Raya.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but how do you fit into this?” he asked.
Raya met his gaze. “I’m looking for a link between him and my mother.”
Luke’s eyes widened and he nodded. “Oh, so this is a family affair,” he said with a tinge of amusement. “Okay, that’s what we’ll call it.”
“Can you help us or not?” Ari asked.
Luke hesitated a moment. “Did anyone follow you here?”
“No,” Ari said quickly, then added, “I’m confident no one did.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “When do you want to do this?” Luke asked.
“Tonight,” Ari said. “I need to do something this afternoon, but we’ll meet you at his address at nine this evening. Higgins has a meeting scheduled with my uncle so I know he’ll be out.”
“Family?” Luke asked.
“None, his wife left him twelve months ago and took the kids with her. He lives alone,” Ari said.
“Do you know what system he uses?” Luke asked.
Raya turned her phone to face him, showing him the screenshot she’d taken from a security company which kindly provided a detailed invoice post installation of the system.
Luke pressed his lips together. “It’s not impossible.”
Ari grinned. The pieces were falling into place. “Can you work on it while I borrow a car to run an errand?”
“Sure. What errand do you need to run?” Luke asked with narrowed eyes.
“I need to check on a vacation property I rented,” he said, his eyes dropping to his watch. He wanted to get there as soon as possible. If anyone turned up to watch the house, he wanted to see them and it was nearing check-in time.
Luke shrugged. “Follow me,” he said.
Ari and Raya walked behind Luke through the long hallway to his garage. Luke flicked on the lights. “You can take the Jeep, nothing else.”
Ari grinned, the Jeep suited him just fine. “Thank you,” he said, extending his hand.
But Luke pulled him into a hug. “Be careful, whatever you’re doing.”
Ari nodded, took the keys, and unlocked the car.
“Thank you,” Raya said and Ari saw Luke smile.
“You’re welcome here any time,” he said with a nod before disappearing inside.
Ari slid into the driver’s seat and buckled in. Once Raya was inside, he gave her the address and she programmed it into the GPS.
CHAPTER 26
“He seems nice,” Raya said as they drove away from Luke’s house.
“He’s a good friend. He is one of the few people I kept in contact with from college,” Ari said, weaving through the traffic.
“What is your degree in?” Raya asked.
“It would have been in law. I was one year from finishing when I failed a class because I was spending my time hacking rather than studying. But I already knew I’d be a terrible lawyer—I had no interest in it, truthfully. I’d only gone to law school because that’s what my father would’ve wanted. I dropped out before I could graduate, something my uncle has never let me forget. But what he doesn’t know is that I didn’t drop out because I wasn’t ambitious enough and wanted to coast through life, I dropped out because I had a hobby I loved and I figured I knew enough about law to be helpful to the business without having a full degree. I was never going to practice as a lawyer—that had never been the plan.”
“So you met Luke in law school?” Raya asked.
Ari grinned. “No, Luke was studying to become a psychologist; we met in the computer lab. He was sitting at the computer next to me and I got up to go to the bathroom. As I was walking back to the desk, I saw him writing code. I used my video app to zoom in and see what he was doing. He was having trouble with some code, I helped him write an alternative, and the rest is history. We’ve talked nearly every day since then—mostly about hacking, but sometimes about life. He still hacks, but mainly for one sole purpose: he’s building a security system that will basically be impenetrable. I think every system is penetrable, but he disagrees. If he pulls it off, he’ll make billions.”
Raya made a clucking noise with her tongue. “I don’t think anything is impenetrable. But regardless, how is he going with it?” she asked.
“He’s close, but he’s been close for years. There’s a reason it hasn’t been developed before now—it’s virtually impossible to do.”
“What does he do for work, though? How does he earn money? Judging by that house and the multiple cars in the garage, he earns a decent income,” she said.
Ari nodded. “He’s a penetration tester for one of the largest private organizations in the world. He gets paid a lot of money to hack into systems to find their weaknesses, then he works with a team of developers to create patches to fix the issues.”
“It’s a good gig,” Raya said, sliding on a pair on sunglasses as they turned onto a highway that put them straight into the sun. That was her ultimate career goal, but first she had to find out what happened to her mother. That was her first and only priority and she wouldn’t let a job divert her attention from that. “So he never went into psychology?”
“No, it’s a field that still interests him, but ultimately I think he prefers the challenge of hacking and the money that comes with it.”
Raya nodded. “Good for him,” she said genuinely.
Ari checked the mirrors for a tail, but he was uneasy even though no one seemed to be following him. The closer they got to the cabin, he noticed the change in Raya too. She’d been relaxed when they’d left Luke’s—leaning back in her seat and paying more attention to him than the mirrors. But now her eyes were on the side mirror, and she’d barely looked away for the last ten minutes.
Ari said nothing as he turned off the highway and onto the road that wound around the lake. His chest grew tighter with every house they passed. He saw the cabin ahead and drove past, continuing along the road before taking the next right. He’d noticed a house for sale farther up the hill and drove in that direction, pulling up in the driveway. Most of these homes were vacation homes, and if this one was for sale, chances were it was vacant—but there was no guarantee.
“We’ll take a look around,” Ari said, opening the car door.
He walked to the back gate with the confidence of the person who owned this house. Raya was right behind him and they crept down the side of the house, peering in the windows. The house was unfurnished and the lights were off. Ari was confident the owners weren’t camping inside, so he continued around to the front of the house. The online pictures didn’t disappoint—the house had sweeping, elevated views of the lake but more than that, he had a view of the cabin he’d rented for the night.
Ari spotted a small garden bench in the corner of the yard, underneath a wispy tree and he silently thanked the owners for being so thoughtful.
“Let’s sit,” he said, gesturing toward the bench so brilliantly positioned that they could hide in the shadow of the tree but still have a full view of his rental.
Ari wondered how long they’d have to wait, but as soon as the sun began to fade into the horizon, Ari saw movement on the street. A black SUV drove past and Raya typed the plate number into her laptop and came back with a hit.
“Integra Security,” she said.
Ari’s jaw clenched. Thomas either had access to Celine’s email account, or Celine had told Thomas where he was.
A third idea occurred to Ari—perhaps they had been followed here—but he dismissed that idea when he saw a figure jump into the neighbor’s yard and take photos of the cabin. They weren’t looking at the house Ari was standing in front of, they were looking at the cabin he should be staying in.
He picked up his burner phone and dialed his mother’s number. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, Ari. How are you? Are you at the cabin?” she asked innocently enough.
“I’m here. It’s beautiful, you’d like it. I tried to call Thomas today. Have you heard from him?” Ari asked.
“No, I haven’t seen him or spoken to him. He sent me an email this morning saying he was trying to reach you. Is everything okay, Ari?” she asked, and he could hear the concern in her voice.
“It’s fine, I just wanted to let him know I’ve reviewed the updated employee contracts. I've made some notes and sent them to the lawyers for a final review,” he said, the lie sour on his lips.
“Okay, I’ll pass it on to him if I speak to him. Enjoy the cabin, Ari. I’ll see you tomorrow night for dinner,” she said.
“Bye, Mom,” Ari said, hanging up.
Ari looked to the man crouching in the garden.
Why did Thomas send you?
“Ari,” Raya said, her voice wary.
His eyes snapped to hers and immediately saw what had caught her attention. “Don’t react,” he said quickly as a man in a suit stepped onto the front porch three doors down. He wasn’t looking their way, though, he was looking at the cabin.
Ari’s stomach twisted and he felt cold. It could be a coincidence—this man could’ve just arrived home from work and stepped outside to admire the view, but Ari didn’t believe that. Either the men in suits were following the Integra Security guys, or Thomas was behind it all and he was prepared to do anything to bury his dirty secrets. Ari needed to look harder for a connection between KinTech and Rossi Enterprises because this didn’t feel right.
