A Slow-Burning Dance (13 page)

“I
wasn’t sure until Rob said something about being fired from Ace’s company. I
went back to the logs my team kept and searched through the message boards, using
ACE Communications, and Rob’s old user name as keywords. Shortly after Ace
fired him, Rob went on the boards, begging anyone and everyone to contact him
privately if they had any information on our companies. He used the term ‘blabber’
as a code word.”

“What
information did you find on our companies?” asked Damien.

“Nothing
that anyone couldn’t discover with a bit of persistent digging, until a few
months ago. Shortly after Ernest was hired as foreman.”

Damien
swore under his breath.

“He
and Rob have been in touch all this time, and it appears based on what I found
that Ernest was feeding Rob as much information as he could gather about Rivera
Construction.”

Damien
slammed his fist on the table. “Well, at least
that
pipeline has now dried up.”

“What
did Rob mean about Rafael still owing him money?” asked Dominic.

“I
don’t know. They never went back to that subject in this conversation, but that
doesn’t mean there aren’t other conversations out there where that question is
answered.”

“Did
Rafael and Rob talk about anything else in this particular one?” asked Viggo.

“Oh
yeah. Take a look at this.” Santino zoomed in on part of the chat.

“Holy
shit,” said
Viggo
, pointing toward a line on the
screen. “Look at this. Do you think it’s true?”

“Hard
to say,” said Dominic. “Ace described him as one of those men who liked to show
off and pretend he was more than he really was. The fact that he’s not hiding
online very well proves his skills weren’t up to the level Ace thought they
were when he hired him for the hacker team.”

“What
concerns me more is the wording here,” said Damien. “It almost makes it sound
as though Rafael already knows this to be true, and Rob is merely restating a
fact.”

“Possibly,”
said
Viggo
. “Or Ace could be right and Rob is simply a
narcissist who wants to be seen. He wants us to realize it’s him. It’s all
about his ego.”

“Just
the same,” said Damien, “I think we need to take this seriously until we can
confirm it’s not real.”

“How
do we find out if Rob is bragging or stating a fact?” asked Dominic. “If we
confront him he’ll change names again. We only found him by accident the second
time. We might not get that lucky a third time.”

“I
have an idea,” said Santino, “but it’s not exactly … how shall I put this? It’s
not exactly on the up and up.”

“Let’s
hear it,” said Damien.

Santino
laughed nervously. “You might fire me.”

“I
won’t fire you.”

“After
all this time,” said Dominic, “and after everything we’ve each done to find
these bastards, if what you’re proposing gets us closer to the truth, we need
to consider it. If Damien fires you for suggesting it, I’ll hire you and pay to
move you here.”

The
men laughed, and then Santino cleared his throat. “All right. Here’s my idea. I
agree that if any of you confront him, he’ll take off again. I considered trying
to hack into his personal PC, but he likely has detection software installed.
He might be a narcissist, or he might simply be sloppy, but either way, I
believe if he finds out we’re onto him, he’ll be gone again. We need his PC. No
matter what firewall he has on there, we can break through it.”

“Angela
can get through it if no one else can,” said Dominic.

“Are
you proposing we steal it?” asked Viggo, grinning.

“Yes.
We make it look like a burglary at his home. Once we have the PC, we can find
out if what he said here to Rafael is true, and we’ll have access to everything
he’s said to the other hackers if it is true.”

No
one spoke for several moments. They’d all waited so long, and to think they
might now this close was almost too much for any of them to believe.

“Have
you tried to hack in?” asked Damien.

“Not
yet.”

“He’s
right,” said Dominic. “If Rob has detection software on it he’ll know that
Santino tried. He’ll be in the wind again, and this is too damn important to
let him get away now.”

The
three stared at each other. In the seven years since most of them had moved
underground and concentrated their efforts on finding the hackers that had
driven them there, they had never done anything outright illegal. Once they
crossed that line, they could never go back, but none of them needed to say
that out loud. Damien knew they all were thinking the same thing right now.

As
Damien weighed the pros and cons in his head, he pictured Sela’s face. What
would she think of this plan? What would she think of
him
, going along with it?

Chapter
Fourteen

Sela
raised her glass and clinked it with Angela’s. “To our men. They’re dominant
but not cruel. They run their companies with iron fists, but they treat us like
royalty.”

“Oh
yeah,” said Angela, taking a large sip of her drink. Both women were on their
third ones. “And they fuck like gods.”

Sela
laughed. She loved Angela’s blunt honesty, but she also now knew more about the
way Dominic made love than she imagined the man would be comfortable with.
“Yes, they sure do.”

She
eyed Angela’s engagement ring again. It was absolutely stunning, as was she. A
hot pang of jealousy shot through Sela, but not because of envy for Angela’s
looks or the fact that she was engaged. She was so
content
, and that’s what Sela wanted, too. Now that she’d found
Damien, would she have that kind of a life with him? Was it possible? Did he
want the same things that Dominic obviously did?

“So
tell me more about … what’s it called? Your dance studio?”

Sela
was grateful for Angela’s question. It was healthier to focus on what she
did
have. “
Canción de la Danza
. It means—”

“Dance
song, right?” asked Angela, cutting her off.

“Yes,
that’s right.”

“It’s
similar in Italian.
Cazone di ballo
.”

“Do
you and Dominic speak Italian to each other?”

“Not
very often. How about you and Damien? Do you speak in Spanish a lot?”

“Once
in a while. I love to hear him speak it to his customers and employees. So many
of them speak it, so he does, too, out of respect for their native language. It
sounds so sexy coming out his mouth.”

“It’s
a beautiful language.”

“So
is Italian.” Sela popped another jalapeno popper into her mouth. “Where did you
learn to speak it?”

“My
mother taught me. We still use it so I don’t lose the language. She actually
speaks several languages and uses those skills in her work as a medical
transcriptionist.”

“How
amazing is that? I would love to learn another one besides the two I know, but
I’d choose something less common as the third one.”

“Why
don’t you?”

“I
think I will.” Sela finished the last of her burger. “Right after I hire the
remainder of the instructors for my studio, and make some money once it opens.”

“I
admire you for doing that. For pursuing a dream that way.”

“Thanks.”
She sighed as she finished her drink. “Sometimes I think I should have listened
to my brother and earned a business degree. At least I’d be making real money
by now.”

Angela
snorted. “Not necessarily. The competition is fierce. I got lucky. And don’t
forget, this is what I wanted to do from the time I was fourteen.”

“That’s
a good point. At least we both have the chance to chase our dreams.”

Angela
raised her glass, which barely had one sip left in it. “Exactly. Not very many
people have that chance.” She clinked it against Sela’s. “Here’s to chasing a
dream.”

“
And
to chasing it with a man we love by
our sides.”

“Amen
to that.”

****

Damien
paced the apartment Viggo had let him and Sela stay in while they were in
CentralWest. He knew she was safe, and that she’d be back soon. She and Angela
had gone to a place called the Red Dog Saloon, and Dominic had assured him that
he would escort them both home from the restaurant if necessary.

He
wasn’t nervous about any harm coming to
Sela
. He was
worried about telling her what he and the other Weathermen had decided to do
about Rob Marin. They’d talked for two hours in the video call with Santino,
and hadn’t reached their decision easily, but Damien knew in his heart that
this would be a huge leap forward in finding these bastards.

When
Sela walked in, he could tell she’d been drinking, but she was walking fine and
addressed him a lucid voice. What he was about to tell her would likely sober
her up in a hurry. After waiting while she told him what a fun time she’d had,
and how much she liked Angela, he asked her to sit down.

“What’s
wrong? Did something else happen with the mall?”

“No,
no. Nothing like that. I have really exciting news, but we’ve all decided to
handle it in a way that isn’t exactly legit.”

She
frowned in confusion and took a seat on the sofa. He sat next to her. After outlining
what they’d discovered about Ernest’s third alias, and what Santino had found
on the message boards, he told her what they’d learned about Rob Marin. “We
need his laptop.” He then told her why Santino was reluctant to try to hack
into it, and she said she understood.

“But
how are you going to get his computer?”

Damien
took a deep breath. “Viggo has some acquaintances who happen to specialize in
this sort of thing. He met them when he went to Northwestern above ground, in
Chicago. That’s where he met Dominic, too.”

“What
kind of associates?” The way she asked told him she knew exactly what he meant.

“The
kind that aren’t above breaking into someone’s home.”

“You’re
going to steal the man’s laptop?”

“Yes.”

She
sighed, and then she leaned back and closed her eyes. She stayed that way for
so long he wondered if she’d fallen asleep. Finally, she opened them again.
“Are you absolutely certain there is no way to hack into it without him knowing
you did it?”

“No,
we’re not sure at all. But what’s the difference if we take it or hack into it?
Either way, we look at all the information on his hard drive.”

She
nodded slowly. “You’re right. Can Viggo’s associates do this without harming
Rob or his wife?”

Damien
held up his hands. “Absolutely. Without a doubt. That’s not what we want to do.
The only thing that will be harmed is the lock on his front door, or the glass
in a window. Whichever they feel will attract the least attention. They’ll be
in and out, and will take a few other things so it looks like a burglary that
got interrupted.”

“He
likely has more than one computer or laptop.”

Damien
shook his head. “If he does, he’s not posting from it.”

“That
doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one.”

“I
know. They’ll look for another one while they’re in there.”

“Tell
me one thing. What on earth did you find in this conversation you discovered
that led you all to the decision that this was the only possible course of
action?”

Damien
grinned. “That’s the best part.”

****

It
wasn’t the first time Sela had heard mention of the possibility of one or more
of the Weatherman having to resort to illegal activities to accomplish what
they were trying to do. What little Santino had told her about what their
hacker and tracer teams did every day sounded barely legal to her as it
was.
She only wanted to make sure none of this could come
back to haunt any of them, especially the man she loved.

Damien
shifted his weight toward her. Every nuance of his body language screamed
excitement. What on earth had Santino found?

“Rob
told Rafael, aka Ernest, in that specific conversation that he knew the
hackers. The original ones. The ones who found a way into The Madeline Project
and tried to take it down with the Tommy Twister virus.”

She
stared at him, unable to form a single word.

“But
it was the way he said it that has us worried. As if Rafael already knew, and
Rob was only restating a fact, because they then went on to discuss details
that only the hackers would know. How the program was supposed to work, who was
supposed to have access to it, when and where the real time tests had been
scheduled to occur, and what failsafes were in place in case something went
wrong.”

She
tilted her head slightly. “Couldn’t he have found that somewhere else? I mean,
wouldn’t it still be out there? In the files at NSSL, perhaps? Rob has hacking
skills. What if he found all that and is now trying to convince people he knows
more than he does? You said Ace described him as that kind of a man.”

Damien
shook his head the entire time she spoke. “We thought of that, but all of us
know what was still out there to find before the NSSL servers went down for
good, and what wasn’t. None of the information that Rob and Rafael discussed would
have been found by hacking into the NSSL servers because it wasn’t on them.”

“What
do you mean?”

He
looked uncertain for a split second. “You can’t discuss this with anyone. Not
even Angela. If Dominic decides to tell her, that’s his business, but I’m not
supposed to be telling you this.”

His
trust in her made her heart melt even more than it had already done. “Okay. I
promise.”

“The
information that the public believes the hackers had, and that allowed them to
access The Madeline Project in the first place, was said to be on the servers
at NSSL, but that’s not true. It’s what the public was told, but it’s a lie. A
decision was made never to reveal the real source of the information the
hackers used, because no one wanted copycats.”

“Oh,
I see. And not saying anything would make the hackers think they were safe. You
hid this information so you could find them easier.”

He
smiled. “Yeah. Easier. No one thought in their wildest dreams that it would
take this long, but yes. You have the gist of it.”

“How
did you get the media to cooperate?”

“Blaine
Parker was behind that. He owns Clear Channel Industries. They distribute
media, including the news, over the Internet for half the world. He spoke with
the people who own the rest of the companies servicing the globe, and they all
agreed this information had to be kept from the public.”

“Wow.
You really do have friends in high places. So where is this top secret source
of information?”

“On
servers located inside a silo on the outskirts of the former border between
Texas and Oklahoma. The silo is north of a town called Perryton, on what used
to be US Route 83. Very few people other than high level officials at NSSL knew
about the silo and the servers housed there.”

“How
do you know about it?”

“Six
of the Weathermen knew about it because of the industries they were in, and
because most of us had contacts inside NSSL. Even the government agencies who
knew about The Madeline Project didn’t have the information about the off-site
servers.”

Sela
put a hand to her mouth. “That’s why Dominic always believed it was an inside
job. Santino told me that.”

“Exactly.”

 
“Which Weathermen knew?”

“Ace,
Emmett, Dominic, Barclay, Grayson Jensen, and Oliver Fairchild. Grayson owns
Jensen Software and Web Development. Between him and Emmett, they own the
entire market share for those services in the US cities. Oliver owns Fairchild
BioSystems. His company is the reason we all can breathe and grow food
underground.”

“Is
this silo still there?”

“Yes.
It’s partly underground so we’re confident it’s still there, but the servers
are down. They were taken down once the project was compromised so no one else
could access anything.”

“Is
it accessible? I mean if someone were to go above ground, could they get in and
get the servers up and running again?”

“We
don’t know. No one has tried. If they did, we would have known.”

“So
do you all now believe the hackers worked for one of those six men?”

“Yes,
or they still do.”

“What
a horrible thought.”

“A
very horrible thought.”

“What
about Rafael’s computer? Don’t you need that, too?”

“Too
risky, considering this lumber pricing scheme he’s involved in. Plus, we aren’t
entirely sure of his part in the original hacking. What we need to know will be
on Rob’s laptop.”

Sela
sat back against the cushions again and thought about everything Damien had
just told her. She was stunned, but not really surprised. Between everything
Santino had told her over the years, and what she’d learned from Damien himself
in the past month, she’d come to realize the Weathermen had their hands in
everything, and had contacts that went all the way to the top.

She
also now saw that their plan had to be executed. They had to find out what Rob
knew, if anything, and whether he truly had the names of the hackers, or was
one of them. He had worked for Ace, after all. For that matter, one of the
hackers could be an employee that her brother currently supervised. The
magnitude of this revelation was staggering. How could any of them trust even
one of their employees?

“You
do what you have to do. I understand now, and I won’t judge any of you.”

Damien’s
look of complete relief was all she needed right now. He pulled her close and
held her. “I love you so much.”