Ctrl-Alt-Delete (Hagar Trilogy Book 1), page 22
What neither of the men knew was that Hagar didn’t have a Facebook page in their own name, but Hagar did have a number of false accounts and also sometimes used other people’s accounts that had been compromised. Innocent people’s accounts.
Warlock had an idea. He shared it with Haydn over e-mail. He was so convinced that one of the eighteen Facebook accounts that he’d noted down was that of their cyber killer, or at the very least a weirdo; alias Hagar, that it would take over his whole world again.
Since he’d first started trying to hack into the cyber café system he’d been spending more and more time online and less time taking regular rests, monitor breaks and eating proper meals. His GP had warned him about his expanding waistline, although he was a fine one to talk being more than a little overweight himself. He had started to consider exercise, although this was always going to be a last resort, but now he had a killer to catch his well laid plans to walk to the corner shop once a day took a back seat. His LDL cholesterol level would not be coming down this side of Christmas it seemed.
As Warlock wanted to infiltrate the cyber network of his target he had to blend in online, become accepted but not cause any alarm or draw too much attention to himself. He therefore decided to create five false accounts with five different e-mail addresses and start joining the groups that his targets had. This was going to take time and patience but seeing as he was scared and he might be next on the Hagar hit list he decided it was worth the effort.
He also told his mam that if anyone called for him he was out, or on holiday even. He instructed Pam to keep everyone out she didn’t know, even if they wanted to read the gas meter – don’t let anyone in he’d said.
Pam Jones was as pleased as ever to go along with anything her hard working boy wanted, she assumed he was worried about the rising crime rate in the village and afraid that he couldn’t make it down the stairs quick enough to help her if she got robbed. He was such a good boy to worry about his mother like that.
Meanwhile, Haydn had come up with a blank from his police source, who’d run a few checks on the list of names from the café. He didn’t think Warlock’s plan was that sound but what else could they do? There was still no murder reported anywhere in the valleys or further north for that matter, although there were a few near misses in the city as always.
Warlock had got the idea of teasing out Hagar via Facebook’s groups. That way he wouldn’t seem too obvious and could lurk quite happily. He was going to mention that he’d done some pretty dangerous things, that he liked certain web sites with dodgy content, try to get inside the mind of the killer perhaps. It was a dangerous game to play and Haydn was worried his friend was letting himself get in too deep with this particular approach.
Stalking a killer online was not easy, especially when the killer is probably well versed in the various techniques used by cyber stalkers, as they were one themselves! And how would he know which account belonged to the killer? Surely with so many to interact with he’d get confused or lost, maybe make a mistake somewhere. Would the killer start to stalk him instead? Would the hunter become the hunted? Haydn was not comfortable one bit.
Warlock was, of course, barking up the wrong tree but early on he did get lucky, even before he really started. Twelve of the Facebookers were kids, unlikely that they’d be the one they were looking for. Once he’d checked their pictures, friends lists etc. he’d established this. Of course Facebook has a Privacy policy on its web site but like most such pages no-one ever reads it. Theirs stated that they do not accept any information from children under age thirteen. It went on to say that ‘If you are under age thirteen, please do not attempt to register for Facebook or provide any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age thirteen, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from a child under age thirteen, please contact us through this help page.’
Kids weren’t bothered by this of course and just lied about their dates of birth when they signed up. In fact to do so was considered cool, like most things kids are told they shouldn’t do.
In the UK alone, tens of thousands of children much younger than thirteen already had accounts and Facebook didn’t seem to enforce this policy even if it wanted to or could do so. Many children in primary schools had pages, some with particularly worrying, explicit and revealing information on. In this particular cyber café all the users pretended to not only be over thirteen but also over eighteen, in order to gamble and use other sites. Warlock soon saw through the really young ones though and didn’t consider trying to infiltrate their social networks. This left him six accounts. He had four men and two women.
Although the history logs he had were very basic, just a list of sites with times, he saw by cross referencing the times, and assuming that the first Facebook account visited was that of the suspect and other, later timed pages they visited were friends, or future victims that there was only about five machines using Facebook at any one time. He started with the four male users first, found suitable groups to join and off he went slowly trying to creep in unnoticed to the online network of a possible dangerous and sadistic killer.
He did a similar thing with the two women, both of whom had been online for just ten minutes each; unusual for women, who used the program one after the other.
Later that week he checked his main forum again. The usual hackers were arguing over the best way to mess with the CIA without getting caught, Warlock would leave them to it, he didn’t want to get extradited to that shit hole, although he did have a couple of infamous 1337s on his board every now and again. Nothing unusual until he suddenly noticed a recent post. The username sent a chill through his bones. Hagar was back.
He checked the IP quickly, different to the café. He cross referenced to the small list of other IPs he had, nothing, probably a new shell.
‘Shit! Where are you?’ he said out loud.
But then, slowly, as his brain translated, he read what he assumed would be a violent rant at some poor unfortunate newbie but instead got:
‘I'm (0mi||g f0r u ||3x7 W4r10(k?’
Warlock went white as the colour drained from his fat face. How did Hagar know about him? Surely, he of all people knew how to hide as various anonymous people, lurking in the shadows of cyberspace? He needed a drink, but instead found himself clutching his chest as the shock and realisation finally registered within his obese frame.
Hyper-ventilating, he rang Haydn but got his answer machine. He sent an e-mail, then a text and rang again. No answer. Warlock went all clammy…
Half an hour later Pam called an ambulance when she found him slumped in his chair at tea-time and Steve Jones was rushed into the Royal Glamorgan Hospital with a suspected heart attack.
Sixty Eight
August 2010…
Judith had called in sick again. It was the first time ever, and she had already been off for a week. Jenny was spending more time on the web as her Internet addiction returned and less time making strained conversation with Carrie, Claire and the other girls. She missed Judith and their little chats. She missed how much the strange IT girl from the top of the valleys, with the terrible upbringing, seemed to hang on her every word lately. If only the other office girls knew what she’d been through they might not be so cruel to her. Jenny had a good mind to tell them but then thought better of it as she didn’t want to embarrass her friend.
On Facebook Jenny noticed Vanessa hadn’t been online for a while, over a month in fact. She also noticed Chris had been less active than normal. Then she caught sight of a post on Hal’s wall. He was meeting his friend Alun for a lunchtime pint.
‘Sugar! What should I do,’ she said to no-one in particular. She wished Jude was here, she could ask her advice.
‘Ah, why not! What would Rachel do?’
Jenny went to the bathroom to tidy her hair, she brushed her long dark locks in the mirror and seemed to notice another couple of wrinkles had appeared at the side of her eyes. Should she go to the pub? What would he think when he saw her?
She was getting cold feet already and toyed with going to the park for her usual walk instead when her mobile rang. It was Judith, she asked if Jenny wanted to pop round on the weekend. Another drink?
‘Hya Jude, are you feeling better?’
‘Oh yeh, fine thanks Jenny. Should be back in next week, will you come to see me again?’ she asked.
‘Yeh, OK, that’ll be lovely, or you can come to mine if you want?’
‘Oh, I’m decorating at the moment, would love you to tell me what colours I should use,’ said Judith.
‘OK, speak to you later, oh just one thing, I...’ Jenny stopped herself. ‘Oh it doesn’t matter, see you later.’
Jenny hit the red key on her phone and looked at her reflection again. She decided she was going for it, she needed to see him, if nothing else to see how she really felt when she saw him in the flesh. She adjusted her flimsy, summer cotton top so it hung just a little bit lower, added a subtle touch of lipstick, took a deep breath and off she went, down the stairs and out the door and into the hot Cardiff afternoon.
Sixty Nine
Jenny hesitated outside the door of the Old Arcade, the windows were down, open to the summer heat and there he was, sat in the window all alone. She walked up opposite Hal, still on the outside of the famous, old rugby pub. His face was a picture, he blushed a little, and then a huge smile radiated out.
‘Been here long?’ Jenny said, smiling too now.
‘Thought, you’d never come,’ replied Hal. ‘Come on in, I’ll get you a coffee.’
Jenny walked in and Hal stood up. They both just stood there for a moment, four feet apart, and then they both rushed at each other and hugged. She fell into his strong arms and snuggled into his large chest and tried to suffocate herself on his smell. It was like twenty years had suddenly vanished. The time in between was gone in a puff of smoke and all that mattered now, was this moment.
They embraced for over a minute and a few whistles came from the packed bar and the seats to the side by the dark wooden panels. When they broke apart they looked deep into each other's eyes and the whole bar seemed to be waiting, as if knowing what would come next. Hal leant forward ever so slightly, Jenny looked up at him, her large eyes locked onto his scraggy features, exploring every crinkle and scar. Their lips met ever so lightly and then nature took over. They kissed for what seemed like an hour, although it was probably only seconds, in front of a full pub of office workers on their lunchtime break and the hardened regulars on SA.
Soon the whole pub was clapping as if they wanted to be somehow involved too, but for Jenny and Hal the audience were both invisible and inaudible as the two ex-lovers tried to remember how they had existed at all without each other for all those years.
Hal had no problem not going back to work, he didn’t even bother to ring but Jenny insisted she go back in and gather her things, switch off her PC and tell the others she wasn’t well. Hal waited at the bottom of the office stairs, tapping his feet, playing with his tie, rubbing his hair and worried that she wasn’t coming back.
She did.
They decided to catch a cab to the Bay, Hal had told her the sunset over the water was worth seeing, even though they both knew they’d probably miss it tonight. They cuddled up in the back seat of the taxi afraid to let the other go in case something got in the way and they’d lose each other again. They walked up the stairs to Hal’s flat and straight into the bedroom, neither person was speaking now until Jenny broke the silence with a joke about romance being dead.
Hal smiled and asked if she was OK with this. She nodded, melodramatic, exaggerated. Like those funny plastic dogs on springs that you got in the back of cars. Jenny’s eyes grew to perfect spheres and she slowly undressed in front of Hal, who was now sat, slightly sheepish, mesmerised on the side of the bed. She slowly moved towards him and her hands touched his face and they kissed again, this time longer and harder until she was undoing his tie, helping him with the buttons on his white cotton shirt, and rubbing her warm hands all over his hairy chest.
Her hands found his belt buckle and undid it in an instant. Hal manoeuvred himself around to pull his trousers off and removed his shoes and socks too. Jenny pulled him back on the bed and started to kiss his belly, moving down to the one item of clothing left between them. Her lips traced the bulge in his pants and she eased them down with her fingers before feeling inside. She knew what he looked like and didn’t dwell. She took him inside her mouth and ran her tongue all along his length. After a few minutes she came back up and laid down beside him.
He turned sideways remembering every curve of her and he kissed her armpits and licked her arms, nibbling slightly until she giggled out loud. Then gently, he dragged Jenny back to the pillow.
He pulled the sheet back a little further and they slid inside together and she rolled on top of him again. They kissed for half an hour, occasionally stopping to look at each other. They spoke a little and kissed a lot more. They moved in a slow graceful dance. His senses enhanced as he took in her scent. She tasted of fresh strawberries in rain.
Hal felt so clearly now Jenny’s soft, fragile body pressed tight against him and the warmth from within her very being. Then she got off him and threw herself heavily down on her back on the bed.
Hal pushed himself up on his forearms. Her mouth was open again. Her tongue explored his. Hal pulled away again, teasing, and inhaled deeply the fragrance of perfumed soap, a hint of lavender as he slowly traced his hot tongue over the tops of her heaving breasts. He tweaked each nipple with his fingers in turn and sucked and licked and kissed until they were as hard as they’d ever been.
Then as he moved slowly but firmly down her smooth white skin, he thought he could smell sherbet, and finally strong musk as his long wet kisses explored her thighs as they gently moved apart for him bit by bit.
Infatuated and mesmerised by what was finally happening after so many months of wanting Jenny just wanted to lie back and let the feelings rush over her. She stroked Hal’s shoulders and ran her fingers through his chaotic black hair as his hands reached up and expertly cupped her breasts, the nipples becoming harder again as he did so.
His tongue pushed in deeper and his lips were hot on her moist skin. He ran his tongue up and down in rhythm with his kneading hands on her chest and she felt her body become flushed as blood flowed to her mottled skin. Finally, Hal began alternating his circular licks with small kisses and Jenny couldn’t hold back anymore. Her orgasm pounded through her whole body, her legs straightened, she stretched her arms and held on tight to Hal’s head, her belly went taut and stars blinked before her eyes and she floated away for a brief moment.
She eased his head away and he was soon on top of her again, kissing her mouth so she would taste herself.
Hal asked if she was OK again, desperate to please, not wanting to rush anything, not wanting to mess up like he had before. As if in reply to his concerns Jenny grinned like a naughty schoolgirl before kissing him full on again and pushing her tongue hard into his mouth.
‘Your touch has improved Hal,’ she said, smiling.
‘Been practicing all these years for you haven’t I,’ he grinned back.
Jenny reached down and guided him into her soaking wet warmth. Hal entered slowly, very slowly, still afraid he might hurt her. He pushed deeper until she squeaked a little before finally sighing in satisfaction.
‘OK,’ he mouthed.
‘Don’t stop,’ she moaned.
They moved together effortlessly and easy for twenty minutes or more, changing positions a few times, Jenny coming at least twice more that he knew of, until Hal sensed the moment was right, picked up the pace of his movements and finally let himself cry out before closing his open mouth around Jenny’s as they shuddered together and collapsed in a heap on the mattress.
Hal carried on kissing Jenny for another five minutes before slowly sliding off. Then they curled up in each other's arms and both went to sleep. Jenny moving in closer as they huddled together, in case he might go. But he didn’t.
When they woke up it was dark and the sound of the seagulls pierced the silence over the bay. Hal got up and made them both a cup of tea, he’d bought Earl Grey teabags over a month ago when he’d first seen Jenny on Facebook. He remembered they were her favourites. He couldn’t decide if she took sugar or not so skipped that. It was the right choice. So far, so good. They chatted about the old days, like long lost brother and sister, well past midnight, then Hal ordered them a pizza to be delivered. They made love again and slept in each other's arms until morning.
Hal still didn’t shut windows thought Jenny, as the seabirds woke her up at five o'clock in the morning. She crept out of bed and looked out across the water for a few moments. Back in the warm bed Hal was snoring softly to himself. She pushed him a little and he turned over and stopped snoring. Jenny smiled as she looked at him sleeping soundly, not a care in the world. She studied the lines on his face, a sign of a hard life, or the signs of falling over in too many gutters she wondered. She gently touched his face and ran her hands through his hair. He murmured in his sleep, sounded like he said frogs or something. She put her head back down on the pillow and watched him breathing until she nodded back off to sleep.
