Down to the Wire (20 page)

Katarina’s image slid to the screen’s upper-left corner. Three images of handwritten paper appeared in the center of the screen. “This is Octavias’s writing. I’m sure he handwrote them to avoid a computer trail. They’re in code. From my limited knowledge of
cryptography, I pieced together they’re about Stan, or Frankie as I now know is his real name. That’s when I contacted you.”

“Thank you, Katarina,” TL said.

With a slight nod, she disappeared from the screen.

Chapling raised a finger. “That’s where I come in. I’ve deciphered only page one. What I found, though, stopped me in my tracks.”

TL propped his fingers on the table. “Zorba admitted he devised the neurotoxin plan in order to flush out Wirenut. What has had us perplexed and Chapling working extra hard is how Zorba initially located Wirenut. How Zorba knew Wirenut was here in San Belden, California.”

Chapling pushed away from the table. He waddled over to the screen. From his pocket he slipped a metal retractor and expanded it.

He touched document one, enlarging it to full screen. Then he tapped it again, zooming in on one single line. “This is line five.”

Again with the number five.
Quickly, I read the code, isolating the prime numbers, matching them to letters of the alphabet. I yanked my notepad and pencil from my sweatshirt pocket, scribbled the letters. And sucked in a breath.

Everyone looked at me.

Chapling retracted his pointer. “GiGi, tell your team what you just figured out.”

No. It couldn’t be.
I glanced at TL for confirmation, and he nodded his go-ahead.

“Th-there’s an insider.”
Oh. My. God.

Wirenut straightened in his chair. “An insider? What are you talking about?”

TL leaned forward. “Someone on this ranch leaked information that the Ghost is here in San Belden. When Zorba heard, he composed his twisted charade.”

Wirenut shot to his feet. “Who?”

“We don’t know.” TL’s face hardened. “Yet.”

“But why? Why would someone do that to me?”

“I seriously doubt this was personal. Whoever released your whereabouts did it for money.” TL’s phone beeped. He checked the LCD. “I think you forget how famous the Ghost was.
Is
still. People, the media, would pay big money to know who you are. My only hope is that your true identity hasn’t been leaked as well.”

Minutes later, Chapling and I stood in front of the wide screen studying pages two and three of the handwritten documents. Strange letters and numbers I’d never seen before. Not English, nor Rissalan.

“What other language would Zorba write in?”

Chapling sniffed. “He was an international terrorist. There’s no telling how many languages he knew.”

“Why would he compose document one in English and the other two in a different language?” I scrunched my brow. “Doesn’t make sense. Unless they’re in different languages because they’re about different things. Could Parrot help translate these?”

“Why, when we have our computer,” Chapling said, smiling. In the screen’s upper-right corner, the computer continued scrolling through international records, searching for an identifiable language.

“My guess is that Zorba
wanted
us to easily decipher page one. He wanted us to know he had an insider.” Chapling took out a tissue and blew his nose. “Zorba liked games. He planned on pages two and three being a puzzle. My gut says that whatever’s encrypted there is very important. Life or death.”

“Got it.” I spun around. “Wiren—”

The conference room sat empty. I’d forgotten everybody had left Chapling and me to our work.

I took my phone and punched a series of buttons. “I’m texting Wirenut to get down here.”

We continued scrutinizing the documents while we waited on Wirenut.

I looked down at Chapling. “You got a cold?”

He rubbed his nose. “Little one.”

“Taking medication?”

“Over the counter.”

“Laying off the caffeine? Getting rest?” Chapling was twice my age.
Look who’s taking care of whom?

“What’s going on?” Wirenut stepped into the room.

I waved him over. “Come look at these.”

He approached and Chapling quickly explained the situation while Wirenut examined the documents.

“The language is vaguely familiar.” Wirenut moved a step
closer and perused the screen. “I’ll be right back.” He raced from the room.

In the upper-right-hand corner, the computer continued scrolling. Whatever Zorba had used was buried deep. Could be some old-world dialect of an ancient culture. “Wonder how many different languages and dialects there are in the world?”

Chapling sneezed. “Including biblical times? Thousands. Easily.”

Wow.

Wirenut zipped back into the room and over to the screen. He held up a small silver bracelet next to the documents. “I wore this home from the hospital when I was a baby. It’s from my mom.”

I squinted. Tiny letters engraved the back of the nameplate. “What’s it say?”

“It’s a prayer.
‘Lex fic nisabs dosoqua.’
May God protect your future.”

Chapling pulled a tissue wad from his pocket. “Looks a lot older than you.”

“It is. It’s been passed down from generation to generation. Every time a boy is born it passes on.”

I shifted closer to get a better look. “You’re the youngest of five boys. All of them wore this, too?”

Wirenut nodded.

A chill shivered my body.
May God protect your future.
Ironic that Wirenut was the last to receive it and the only survivor of his uncle’s wrath.

Wirenut rotated it, catching the light. “Someday my son will wear it, too.”

His sentiment brought a smile to my face. “What’s the language?”

“Kusem. I don’t think it’s spoken anymore.”

I extended my hand. “May I?”

With a nod, Wirenut gave it to me.

Holding the lightweight bracelet to the screen, I compared the letters and symbols. “It’s a match.”

“Oh good. Goodgoodgoodgoodgood.” From his shirt pocket, Chapling slipped a silver mike resembling a mechanical pencil. “Daisy,” he spoke into the eraser end. “Halt.”

The computer stopped scrolling.

Daisy?
I mouthed.

“
Dukes of Hazzard.
It’s the only show I watched as a kid.” He shrugged sheepishly. “Always had a thing for the female Duke cousin.”

Wirenut and I exchanged amused glances. I had no idea Chapling had named our ranch computer.

“Do the other guys call it Daisy, too?”

Chapling waggled his brows. “What guy doesn’t have a thing for Daisy Duke?”

“Well, I don’t want to be the odd one out.” I took the microphone. “Hello, Daisy. Sorry I didn’t know your name before.”

THAT’S OKAY, the computer typed, HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

“Search language Kusem. K-u-s-e-m.” I glanced at Wirenut for spelling confirmation, and he nodded.

Daisy scrolled. KUSEM LOCATED.

“Good work. Translate documents two and three. Print to computer lab.”

Daisy’s screen strobed. PRINTING NOW.

Chapling rapid-fire clapped. “Oh, she’s fast. Fastfastfast.”

I handed him the mike. “Imagine the world before computers.”

He shrieked, “Perish the thought.”

I laughed. “Let me change and I’ll meet you in the lab.” I needed to get out of the clothes I’d worn home from Chicago.

We crossed the conference room to the door. At the elevator, Chapling went back to the lab and I punched in my personal code, placed my hand on the fingerprint-identification panel, and rode it up four floors with Wirenut. We stepped off and halted in our tracks.

In total silence, every member of Specialist Teams One and Two lined the hallway. No one had changed from their PT clothes.

David stood at the very end near his room. He caught sight of Wirenut and me and came down the hall toward us.

“What’s going on?” I whispered.

“Lockdown. TL’s searching our belongings.”

What?
“You mean…like everything?”
Underwear, bras, tampons?

“Yep, everything.”

I closed my eyes on a silent groan. I had
so
many dirty clothes. “Even your stuff?”

David lifted his brows. “Can’t trust anyone when there’s been a breach in security.”

Yeah. But David? He’s TL’s right-hand guy.
“You’re okay with that? Not being trusted?”

“GiGi, it’s part of this life. Even Jonathan and Chapling get searched, and they have the same clearance level as TL.”

“What about TL? Him, too?”

“Yes. Someone higher up will search him. This is serious business. And it won’t stop here. The barn, the house, the property, the rooms below us. The entire place will be thoroughly investigated.”

Wow.

TL stepped from one of the guy’s room. He looked down the hall right at me. “What are you both doing up here?”

All eyes turned to me.

I swallowed. “I-I change clothes wanted to.” I shook my head. “I mean, I wanted to change clothes.” Seemed like a good idea at the time.

“You and Chapling are supposed to be working on the documents. You were given a job.” TL crossed the hall and unlocked the door to the room I shared with Bruiser and Beaker. “Get to it, and Wirenut get in line.”

“Yes, sir,” we both mumbled, completely humiliated.

As Wirenut shuffled over to get in line, David turned his back to everyone, blocking me from their view. He linked pinkies with me and gave my little finger a quick squeeze. Somehow that gesture made me want to smile and cry at the same time.

“Don’t take it personally,” he whispered. “TL’s extremely irritated right now.”

I nodded. But all I really wanted to do was bury my head in code for like a million years. Or maybe bury my head in David’s chest for the same amount of time.

Minutes later, I shuffled into the lab Chapling and I used. He sat hunched over his workstation, his fingers racing across the keyboard. I imagined that’s what I looked like when I existed in my zone.

Except for the whole he’s-a-red-headed-little-person-and-I’m-not thing.

I rolled my chair out. “Hey.”

He jerked straight up. “Ow!” And grabbed his neck. “Whiplash.”

Jeez, you’d think I’d screamed the greeting.

“Genius at work here. Heeelllooo? Give a warning next time.” He scratched his head, making his Brillo-pad hair poof out.

“You need a haircut.”

He waved me off. “Yeahyeahyeah.” He tapped his screen. “I’m working on the documents. You get cranking with phone records, postal, e-mail. Any communication between San Belden, California, and Rissala. We got an insider to nail.”

I slipped on my glasses and dove into cyberspace.

I visited the San Belden Phone Company first. Tried a couple of commonly used passwords to enter their system. Broke through on the fourth try.

Their IT guys needed a lesson in password protection.

Zipping through the past twelve months of phone calls, I isolated the ones to and from Rissala, tracing each one. Standard stuff. Family, friends, a few business calls.

I skimmed the numbers and matched them to the Rissalan police department, newspaper, radio, and TV. I hacked into police records…and silently laughed. Reporters from all over the world were bugging them for news on the break-ins and the Ghost.

Leaving the police records, I wove my way in and out of ISP servers. Lots and lots of e-mails to and from Rissala. Again, standard stuff. Family communication. Friends. And, of course, reporters looking for breaking news.

“Wait. What’s this? A pellucid image?”

I clicked a couple keys. Someone sent an alias e-mail and then wiped the image from the server.
Idiot.
Didn’t they know that nothing was ever truly wiped clean?

My heart revved as my fingers clicked away.
I’m onto something. I’m
definitely
onto something.
The e-mail was sent from a coffeehouse in town.

Sequestering the message, I ran it through a clarity program. At the same time I brought up the coffeehouse security cameras and scrolled the archives until I located the time matching the e-mail’s time/date stamp.

The clarity program dinged. I scanned the message. Definitely about the Ghost. I selected the camera archive link. A picture popped up on my screen.

I sucked in a breath.
Oh no.

“The documents.” Chapling looked up from his screen, his eyes wide with numb shock. “We’ve got to get TL. Now.”

“I’m right here.”

Chapling and I jerked around. TL stood inside the door. How long had he been there? I hadn’t even heard him come in. I glanced at my watch. Hours had gone by.

He came toward me, staring at my screen. “Is that the insider?”

“Yes, sir.”

With a hard jaw, TL turned to Chapling. “And the documents?”

“There’s neurotoxin. Here on the ranch. Set to be released at thirteen hundred hours tomorrow. According to the document, Katarina and Wirenut have to be together when it’s found.”

[14]

Minutes later, we stood
in the conference room waiting in silence.