Binary: An Encrypted to Cipher Bridge Short Story (3 page)

The pilot kept them circling the building. In just about any other nation, a police or air force helicopter would have intercepted them. However, on this island, they were the only chopper besides a sightseeing one. The island didn’t even have a standing army. They only had volunteer reservists.

And, not surprisingly, not a single one of them felt the urge to come and intervene in this little war they had going on. They more than likely thought the Chinese Triad and Japanese Yakusa were going at it.

Quirk wasn’t doing anything to dissuade that belief. Not if it kept the locals out of the way. One less worry, and Lord knew he had enough to worry about.

His laptop dinged. Someone was attempting an unauthorized communication with them. Quirk made sure that his response was being pinged off of half a dozen satellites before he answered.

“Rockford Private Investigation Agency,” he answered the call.

“Quirk?” A familiar voice answered. “It’s us. Warp.”

“Warp, what the hell are you doing calling me?”

“Are you watching this?” he asked.

“Of course. Do you have any backup in the area?”

“No,” Warp said. “It was supposed to be a snatch-and-grab.”

Of Ronnie, of course. “Do the authorities even know you’ve got an operation on the island?”

There was a pause.

“Warp?”

“No,” the IT tech finally sighed. So there would be no backup from Zach’s end.

Like Quirk said. Ronnie was so screwed.

* * *

Ronnie stumbled into the room. Two men sat behind a large desk. The rest of the men all looked like guards, armed to the teeth. The room was poorly lit, so it took Ronnie’s eyes a second to adjust enough to realize that someone was kneeling in front of them.

“Zach!”

The FBI agent turned to face her. Since he’d left her, he’d acquired a black eye and multiple bruises up and down his neck. Apparently, he’d tried to fight back against the bokken.

“You were supposed to go.”

Zach snorted. “Like I’d leave you.”

Oh, but how she wished he had.

“Enough. My money,” the Chinese Triad leader said.

“I can get it for you,” Ronnie said, trying to keep the both of them alive.

The man spit, though. “We are not simpletons. We know the Robin Hood Hacker immediately distributes the money as soon as she steals it. My hundreds of millions are already gone.”

Ronnie could feel the muzzle of a gun digging into the base of her cervical spine. “True, but I have the money in my own accounts. I can transfer it back to you.”

“You have two hundred million?” Zach asked.

“Yes,” the triad leader said. “You have that much? The rumor is you are broke after the plague.”

“That
is
broke to me,” Ronnie explained.

“Prove it,” the leader of the Yakusa said.

“I just need a bank account number.”

The Triad boss nodded sharply to one of his men, who handed her a scrap of paper with a long string of numbers.

“I just have to let my assistant know so that he can execute the transfer.”

The man nodded. Ronnie read off the numbers.

“Got them,” Quirk said. “Give me a sec.”

“It’ll just be a moment,” Ronnie relayed to them.

“You have one minute,” The Triad leader barked.

* * *

Zach wanted to punch the guy out for threatening Ronnie like that, but there were at least two dozen guns trained on them, plus another dozen bokkens. Which had proved extremely effective deterrents that last time Zach went up against them.

“Won’t even need that much time,” Ronnie said. “Quirk, are you ready?’

She cocked her head, clearly getting his answer.

“Alright, Quirk, give them everything we’ve got.”

Zach could tell by her tone that money was not what she was talking about. Just in time, Zach closed his eyes as every light in the room exploded, plunging them into darkness. The only illumination came from the electrical outlets sparking.

Zach brought his elbow up into the sternum of the guard behind him. The man, already dazed, reeled back. Zach jumped to his feet, continuing the attack, grabbing the guy’s gun and spraying the guards with automatic fire.

Then he hit the floor as they returned fire.

“Zach!” Ronnie yelled as she threw something at him. Night vision goggles. He donned them, gaining a distinct advantage. He took out another four or five guards. Swinging around, he found Ronnie diving for an electrical outlet. Despite the sparking, she plugged a small hand-held device into the socket. It looked like a gas dispensing nozzle.

“Quirk. Do it. Reverse polarity! Zach, close your eyes!”

Zach did as ordered. A loud crack and then a sustained sizzle filled the air. He couldn’t help but push up the goggles and take a peek.

A huge electrical arc sprouted from her nozzle and landed at the outlet on the other side of the room. Men screamed as they were caught in the electricity’s path. It was as if Ronnie commanded lightning itself. Then she flicked her wrist as a fly fisherman might.

The arc jumped from one socket to another, mowing down the guards on that side of the room. Soon, the smell of burning clothing and flesh clogged the air. But Ronnie wasn’t done. She flicked her wrist again, and the arc leapt to the far side of the room. Men scattered, running and screaming as the electricity sliced through the air.

“Quirk, that’s enough.”

As suddenly as it had appeared, the huge arc vanished, plunging the room into absolute darkness. Zach pushed his goggles down again. The room was littered with bodies. Those not dead were crawling to the exits.

“Well, that’s one way to clear a room,” Zach commented as he rose.

“Yeah, guys, they’ve got guards to burn, pun intended. And those reinforcements are hauling their ass your way.”

Ronnie packed the device back up. “Come on.”

They took off, following Quirk’s relayed instructions. He only had to correct Ronnie twice. A record.

Zach pushed through the rooftop door. They rushed onto the flat-topped building’s roof. But there was no helicopter.

“Quirk,” Ronnie snapped. “Where are you?”

“Yeah, we were taking some heavy fire. They’ve got AK-47s.”

“No kidding,” Zach said. His ears still rang from the firefight back in the office.

“Pilot can’t risk getting too close. He wants you to head south. Get at least a block and a half away.”

“What exactly is the point in having a getaway vehicle if it doesn’t help you get away?” Ronnie asked, but then a spat of gunfire shot up at the circling chopper, convinced both of them that they needed to get on the move.

Zach looked out over the retaining wall. “That next building isn’t far.” Luckily, the streets of the island were narrow and curving. They could do this.

Ronnie sighed. “I really do need to do more squats.”

He took her hand and they ran full out, then launched off the retaining wall. They soared through the air, then crashed down on the neighboring building’s roof. This one was more sloped. He had to lash out and grab a pipe to keep from slipping off.

Ronnie was already up, scrambling up the tile roof to the peak. She then ran along the narrow board. From there, she launched to the next building. Zach hurried to catch up.

“Agent Hunt!” a voice called out in his ear. Warp.

“Yes, I’m in pursuit.”

“Interpol is losing its mind right now. You disrupted a major meeting between the Triad and Yakusa.”

“Tell me about it,” Zach grunted as he shoved off the roof to the next building.

“They had planned a raid,” Warp informed him.

“Well, then how about they get their asses in here, then?”

Another spat of gunfire came from down the street. This time, though, they must have hit a rotor on the chopper, as the vehicle careened sideways, wobbling on its axis. The chopper disappeared behind two buildings. So much for their getaway vehicle.

Still, they headed south. The pilot would find a way to get back to them.

Hopefully
.

They kept heading south until they ran out of buildings. They were at the ocean’s edge.

“Interpol staged their attack from a French frigate just across the twelve-mile international waters line. If you can get to that ship, you’ll be safe.”

Looking down at the dingy docks, there were plenty of small boats down there. Good to have a backup plan to the helicopter.

“Can you hotwire a boat?” he asked the hacker.

“Please,” Ronnie said, rolling her eyes.

She pointed to a large yacht. “I think we should nab the Zeus. It’s got some serious power under the hood.”

Zach raised an eyebrow. Where did Ronnie get this extensive knowledge of yachts?

Ronnie shrugged. “The Zeus was built with pirates in mind. Even the uber-rich have to be worried about being boarded. It was built for luxury, but also speed, so they could outrun their attackers.”

“But how do we get down to it?” Zach asked.

After pointing to an electrical wire that ran from the corner of the building down to the dock, Ronnie knelt down and cut the ends off the straps of her pack. She handed him one of the short woven bands, then put the pack on her back.

She placed the strap over the wire. “See you at the bottom.”

For such a high tech gal, she certainly could go low tech when needed.

* * *

The warm Pacific air blew through Ronnie’s hair, her braids long since unwoven. Her fingers cramped as she held onto the strap and streaked down the power cord, which turned out to be slightly harder than it looked. For one thing, the insulation on the cord was uneven, at times bunching, creating humps which threatened her hold on her strap.

And now, looking ahead, the end of the cord was pulling away from the post. If it came undone, they would be riding a live wire. Not a good thing. The ends sparked as they came unmoored.

Ronnie released the strap, hoping that Zach followed suit, just as the cord split from the post. She fell into the harbor as the end of the cord became an electrical snake. Zach fell near her as the cord flailed back and forth above them, powered by 230 Kv of electricity. Forget her little light show back at the office. This high voltage would fry them both in an instant.

She dove into the water, swimming under the nearest boat, and she didn’t surface until she had the boat between her and the cord.

Zach splashed up right beside her, blowing out a breath.

“Now what?” he asked.

She pointed to the large yacht at the end of the pier. Swimming like their lives depended on it—which, of course, they did—they struck out for the yacht.

Finally, Ronnie’s hand caught the stainless steel rung that led up a ladder on the aft side of the yacht. Clambering up, Ronnie’s very wet shoes hit the deck. She didn’t need to worry about slipping, since all walkable surfaces on the yacht were covered in either state-of-the-art high grip flooring or carpeting. You had to love the super-rich. Carpeting on a boat.

She hit the deck at a run, racing past the large party pit at the front of the boat. There were numerous coaches that surrounded two, not one, but two Jacuzzis, along with a fully stocked bar. Climbing the short set of stairs up to the bridge level, she opened the door and headed toward the controls.

Zach headed down the stairs to check below deck.

Surprisingly for such a fancy yacht, the thing still had a turn-key start. She easily broke through the resin to grab the two wires and tapped them together to start the engine. From there, she powered up the rest of the controls.

“Um, I think we stole the Triad’s yacht,” Zach said as he joined her.

“What makes you think that?”

“There were crates of weapons. Did you know there are five state rooms on this boat?”

“It’s the Zeus, after all,” Ronnie said.

“And they seem intent on re-securing it,” Zach said at the six gunmen running down the dock toward them. “They must have been guarding the boat at the gate.”

They must not have expected anyone to slide down a power line and swim to the yacht. Imagine that.

“Ronnie, are you stealing a Mangusta Zeus 165 super yacht?” Quirk asked in her ear.

“Yes.”

“Is it as magnificent as it looked in the catalog?”

“Surprisingly, the bridge is lined in plastic, fake wooden paneling.”

“No!” Quirk exclaimed.

“
Yes
.”

“Well, we can only hope they didn’t skimp in other areas.”

“Exactly.”

“What are you talking about?” Zach asked as Ronnie got the engines running and pulled the yacht out of the slip.

“You’ll see,” Ronnie said.

“I thought this thing was fast?” Zach said as they inched forward.

“We need to work up the speed,” Ronnie explained.

He put his hand on the bridge’s door. “I better get out there to lay down some cover fire, then.”

“No,” Ronnie said, putting her hand on his.

“But if I don’t back them off, they are going to spray this boat with bullets.”

“Remember when I said the Zeus was pirate proof? Well, we’re going to test that theory right now.”

* * *

The rattle of automatic weapon’s fire filled the bridge. Ronnie watched a bullet bounce off the windshield, and it didn’t even leave a scratch. Glad to see the glass was not just bullet resistant, but bullet
proof
.

“They weren’t kidding,” Zach said, putting a finger out to touch where the bullet glanced off.

Even so, Ronnie pushed the engines, milking as much speed as possible out of the yacht.

“How long until we rendezvous with Interpol?” Zach asked.

“Should be out there in eight minutes,” Ronnie answered.

“What? That fast?” Zach said.

“I know, this puppy can go 37 knots, which is over 100 miles per hour,” Ronnie said, patting the dashboard. She just needed to get it up to speed.

The shrill whine of Zodiac boats overtook her excitement. The long, low black boats fanned out around them, menacing their path.

“We just need to get past them,” Ronnie said. “Their top speed is 20 miles per hour.”

Which she wasn’t even doing right now. This yacht was powerful, but needed a long wind-up period to reach full speed.