The Paranoid Thief (22 page)

“What,
you’re trusting
me?”

“Why not?
You keep
saying we’re partners. So, partner, how do we go about it, as I couldn’t have
any of my surprises stashed on me to visit the
senator.
”

Jill smiled. “As I had an understanding why
you made certain these clothes were reversible, why don’t you give me a few
minutes in the ladies room before heading for the men’s?”

Randolph eyed Jill across the table, and
crocked a finger, mouthing, “No one is to get hurt,” whereby she smiled, wiped
her mouth, and announced she’d be just a moment. While Jill was in the ladies
room, Randolph paid the bill in his brother’s establishment, regretting what
the next few minutes
was
going to cost Mick. But as
Randolph really had no choice if he and Jill were to lose their unwanted
escorts, his brother would simply have to absorb the cost till Randolph could
apologize properly later, after he cleared his name in those murders Mr. Hilden
slandered his name with.

After leaving a considerable tip, Randolph left
for the men’s room and entered a stall. After inverting pants, jacket, removing
goatee and working in place a different-colored rug on his head, he waited for
Jill’s distraction. When a loud explosion sounded in the ventilation vents,
followed by alarms, Randolph walked out, took a hold of Jill’s arm, and hurried
out like all the other panicked diners.

An hour later, while they changed clothes
in a department store, Randolph had to ask, “And how did you manage that?”

“I’m sure you haven’t forgotten I’m trained
in demolition. How hard do you think it is to make a bomb out of house hold
items?”

“Okay, I’ll grant you that, but I know we
hadn’t ordered anything which would cause that explosion.”

Jill smiled and leaned into his ear to
whisper, “A man’s playground is not exclusively for men’s toys.” She kissed his
cheek and pushed away to find Randolph a bit startled with that admission. She
patted his face in affection and added, “Not everything fits nicely in a
woman’s purse.” Jill became serious after this, and while Randolph looked over
the latest video-cams for sale, she asked, “So who were those men?”

“Probably Senator
Sterling’s.
It would’ve served him well to have kept tabs on
us,
in-case turning us over was more advantageous then
running us in the field.”

“And we trust him why?”

“I never said I trusted him. I said we can
work with each other,” Randolph corrected, checking out a video-cam, and
considered what it would take to adjust the resolution and zoom for the first
step in taking down Mr. Hilden.

Two months later, after careful research
into an apartment’s security system and available hard lines, Randolph set up
four work stations, one counter measures station and two remotes, unplugged for
diagnostic program checking, plus inexpensive amenities for the two of them
while living in the apartment. Although this was not very comfortable for
Randolph, Jill made a good point for not following his normal route of setting
up shop, and it galled him to know she was right. Mr. Hilden knew Randolph’s
MO, thus he was sure to have Mr. Stanton and company checking out warehouses
throughout the city. Randolph also had to admit lying low, allowing Jill to do
his errands, was also advisable so as not to come into contact with Mr.
Hilden’s roaming people, who Randolph couldn’t possibly know were working for
him. Besides, Randolph told himself, Jill’s face is still not associated with
the killing of that sheriff; it will be my face paramount in all law officers’
posters and not hers.

When it came time to consider his specialty
equipment, Randolph held a short, heated argument with himself. The smells of
constructing, and the oddity of having such equipment arrive at an apartment
building in the west side area of
Harcuss
—a college
district in the city of
Barbella
, twenty miles from
Willing—just screamed something wasn't kosher. Randolph had to leave this up to
Jill to construct, from the plans he gave her as soon as he had her enrolled,
at a small workshop the local college rented.

Dressed in tight-fitting, Tom boy-styled
clothes of yellow and green, sporting no less than twelve bracelets on each arm
and hoop ear rings, Jill’s softer side gave Randolph a playful embrace and a
farewell kiss before bouncing out the door. She was absolutely bubbling over
with pride that Randolph entrusted her to carry out this part of his plan; not
that it mattered, he had no other choice. The equipment he needed would have to
be custom made for the job, and Randolph never knew what was required till he’d
done his homework. So while she built some basic tools he used in any job,
Randolph
surfed
the hard line net, matching businesses
to the county grid to understand who was where and what possible run-ins he
might have on the electronic highway. Even though he had circumvented countless
counter measures before, new programs were designed and implemented every day,
and unless he attended to them, one could infiltrate Randolph’s own system.
Which does happen, as I’m not infallible,
he reminded himself. In fact, Jill returned later that day to find Randolph in
a very black mood, staring down on a box full of hard drives with a worm on
each he couldn’t trace down.

“Love, what’s the matter?” Jill asked,
concerned, laying her burden down and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“We’ve a smart-alack kid in that college
who I may have to deal with,” Randolph said in irritation. Jill glanced at the
box of hard drives as Randolph elaborated. “As soon as I hit the node near the
college, a program hit my inquiry and traced me back to my fire wall, where
it’s sitting, and no matter what program I’ve designed to counter it, it
leeches on to the new drive and embeds itself, and I’ve yet to discover how.”

Jill let go and picked up one of the
drives. “Is it on this one?”

“It’s on all of them!” Randolph exclaimed
in disgust.

“What does it do?”

“At present, I don’t know. Like normal when
I hit an unknown, I pull it out and run programs to dissect it. After that, I
can learn its purpose, but as soon as I hook it up to a clean drive, it invades
the programming so I’ve no way of activating it.”

“Well, how’s about I make an inquiry or two
at school? Perhaps I can find out what it does. You know they have an excellent
computer theory class,” she reminded him.

If he’d been located in a warehouse,
Randolph would have simply ordered boxes of drives and worked the problem out,
but being forced to down size in all avenues by his choice in work environment,
eyebrows would be lifted if he tried that here. So mulling over the advantages
and disadvantages, Randolph reluctantly agreed, only he couldn’t have her take
any of his drives; they had information on them he’d not like anybody to
discover. So instead Randolph sent Jill out for a new laptop from the local
store then took two days setting it up like any college kid’s drive before
introducing it to the worm.

Jill gave Randolph a peck on the cheek
after breakfast, then took her arm load of books and new laptop with her as
Randolph worked on another possible theory on the worm’s programming. Hypothesizing
the very flow of electricity as its catalyst, he took a palm computer with a
lower voltage, reduced its usage even further so the CPU acted like a vacuum
tube compared to today’s technology, then he hooked up the leads to his screen
and connected it to an infested drive. What he saw rolling across the screen
floored him. It wasn’t a program at all, but rather an algorithm which hadn’t
been used in a hundred years! For a time, Randolph watched the peaks and
valleys roll along, hitting every circuit, resister, and diode, anyplace the
current flowed. To this revelation, Randolph stood and walked away to stare off
into space, so he could puzzle over how to purge something embedded in the very
thing that gives society life.
This is
far beyond me,
he thought to himself as he put his hands a top his head.
It’s the ultimate in security measures, and
not built by some smart-alack kid, either. This is far too sophisticated for
some college kid. No this is a corporate-financed worm, one designed to
do…what?

Randolph took out a beer and settled on the
couch, and nursed the drink, thinking.

That’s where Jill found him some hours
later, when she triumphantly walked in declaring, “John, love, I’ve got it!”
She displayed a chip before his up-turned face with the biggest smile on her
lips. “I was told all I need do is
insert
this chip
into my computer and the worm will be neutralized.”

Not liking the note in that, Randolph still
gave Jill a smile when she handed him the chip.

After a quick examination, Randolph plugged
the chip in a new clean drive and checked the programming out, and had to sit
back in wonder at its genius. Jill’s arms encircled his neck, before she kissed
his cheek. “Did I do
good
?”

Still looking at the registration code,
asking for identification of the user, Randolph asked her, “Uh, when you asked
about the problem, did they happen to look at you oddly?”

“Now that you mention it, I did get some
raised eyebrows.
Whys that important?”

Randolph disengaged her arms. “Jill, please
don’t take this personal, but I need to speak to your other half.
Now.”
Her eyes turned sad, then they dilated and her posture
changed slightly, letting Randolph know when she changed places.

“What’s up, sweetie?” Jill asked, her eyes
sweeping the room.

“Jill, I need you to search your
memories—did anyone follow you?” Randolph asked urgently.

Upon hearing his tone, Jill stood
straighter, folded her arms, and looked inward. After a bit she looked squarely
at him. “I can’t be sure, but they may have.”

“That’s it then. We’ve been nailed!” He
jumped up, gathered the drives and shoved them into the oven, setting the dial
to high. Jill asked no questions but headed briskly into the bedroom, gathering
up clothes for the pair of them as Randolph activated a special chip in each
computer that would melt them down into useless sludge. He then snatched up the
few tools he’d been able to make, and wondered how long the pair of them had
till the local police arrived. Not having had the time to acquire a proper DNA
scrambler, Randolph pulled out a box of insect fumigator canisters and headed
for the bathroom, tossing a mask to Jill in passing before he pulled the tabs.
After dropping one in the bathroom, he open all drawers and cabinets and moved
to the next room. In this manner, business like, the pair of them moved with
practiced efficiency. After Randolph set off the last canister, he crawled into
the kitchen cabinets after Jill, and down the escape hole he’d cut out into the
lower apartment he’d rented under another name. Closing up the hole, Randolph
followed Jill out the door and moved swiftly down the hall to the elevators. As
Jill pushed for the elevator, Randolph gathered their masks and ditched them in
a carry bag she held, before he combed his hair back, trying to look publicly
presentable as they watched the elevator pass them by going up.

While they awaited the elevator to come
down, the unmistakable sound of multiple feet moved swiftly down the hall
overhead. Randolph grimaced, hating his paranoia when it was right. But for the
moment he gave thanks and followed Jill on the elevator when it opened on their
floor.

Randolph pushed the ground button. “They’ll
have the lobby covered, as well as the stairs and service door.”

“Don’t forget the garage,” Jill added.

“That’s why you’re driving.” Randolph
sighed as she fished out the keys and he took up the luggage. Even though
Randolph knew Jill’s car had been tagged, it made little difference in their
choice, for both of their DNA could be retrieved from the car’s interior. By
necessity that made the car their next priority to scramble.

Randolph hit the passenger door as Jill
piled in.

“Any preference on our
heading?”

“Some place underground with lots of exits
so I can trash the car,” Randolph replied, buckling up.

“Hmm, monorail station should do.” She
activated the lifters before setting them in motion.

“And, Jill,” Randolph warned as she pick up
speed, “try not to kill anybody, they’re just doing their jobs.”

“Okay, sweetie…” Jill smiled over at him
before her face hardened.

Randolph knew that look. He grabbed the
door handle when they neared the exit. Jill gunned the motor and crashed
through the blockade, rammed a car on the street jarringly before she changed
gears and hit the boosters. Pushed back into the seat, Randolph felt a
momentary tingle in his feet from the fast-acting officer who got off an
electrical pulse shot, meant to fry the motor. Fortunately it was a glancing
blow.

Jill called out, “Hold on!” before turning
sharply, slamming into another car to keep them from rolling over because of
their momentum.

Shaken by the suddenness, she hit one more
car before righting theirs and punched up the map of the city. Belatedly
knowing what she sought, Randolph took over so she could keep hands and eyes on
the street. With blaring sirens notifying them of oncoming police cars,
Randolph cussed under his breath and dug out a police scanner from under the
seat.

“You really aren’t used to this kind of
business,” she observed, as he worked the controls to pick up the signals of
the tracking cars.

Not sparing Jill a glare, Randolph
answered, “Being around you, I’m taking a crash course.”

“Speaking of crashes, sweetie, hold on!”
Jill made another hard turn, and purposely slammed into some parked cars to aid
in making another tight corner going the wrong way down a one-way street. With
a glance of Jill’s face as she dodged the oncoming traffic, Randolph could
swear she was really enjoying this. As coded calls came over the scanner, Jill
picked up, as he did, the interception street the police were shooting for to
shut them down.

“Randolph,” Jill said seriously, “as they
only have my face on video, why don’t you jump out and I’ll lead them a merry
chase?”

“No dice. If you’re caught, they’ll have
your picture match up in minutes. Then knowing who you
are
they’ll bury you so far under in maximum security, I wouldn’t be able to get a
remote controlled ant in the building to see you.”

“They have things like that?” Jill asked,
shifting into a higher gear.

“I’m being facetious,” Randolph told her.
Jill let a smile touch her lips as they heard the next junction was being
blockaded. “If you avoid this one, they’ll know we have a scanner,” Randolph
warned.

“I’m quite aware of that, sweetie, but you
told me not to kill anyone.”

“And that still holds.”

“Then I’ve no choice,” she said. “You know,
the high school I attended had a very nice coffee shop across the street. I’ll
see you there.”

She turned a corner so fast Randolph had no
time to prepare. Once the car straightened out, Jill stomped down on the brakes
and surprised Randolph with a right cross, hard enough to cause stars to dance
about his eyes. While his world remained in a daze, Jill disengaged his buckle
and opened the passenger door without completely stopping. Shoved out, Randolph
hit the pavement with enough sense to roll and heard Jill call out as she drove
away, “I love you!”

Shaken after his tumble, Randolph gained
his feet and stepped off the street moments before two squad cars, sirens
blaring, sped by. To clear his mind, Randolph leaned on the building towering
over him and shook out the remaining stars. Once able to think, he cussed under
his breath at Jill’s idiocy, adjusted his clothes, and set off at a causal walk
in the opposite direction.

The fact he never saw that coming had him
mumbling; the fact she did it so deftly made him truly consider their
differences. Jill was trained for uncontrolled action in combat situations of
life and death where he was but a liability. By tossing him out on his ear, she
knew she’d lead the chase after her so he could escape in his own way while she
could do the same in hers. Even so, her last words didn’t make his knowledge
any easier, nor did it help to know she was sacrificing herself for him.

Randolph took a deep breath and sighed with
guilt, knowing how he’d been trying to handle their relationship when Jill had
been straight up with him all along. And of course this doubled his regret as
he stuffed his hands into pockets and joined the street crowd, heading for the
nearest monorail station, trying to hold back his deteriorating emotions.