Worst Date Ever (Scandals #3) (8 page)

I jumped when my phone rang.  I so rarely got calls, I still hadn’t gotten used to the sound.  I glanced at the caller ID and answered, “Hey Christopher, what’s up?”

“You’re busy these days.  I have you set up for four p.m. at the police evidence warehouse.  I need you to come here so you can ride over with one of the detectives.”

“I know how to drive.”

“I know, but the evidence warehouse is at an undisclosed location in East Austin, and they don’t give that address out to just anybody.”

“All I want to do is see the apps that are stored and prove there was one that spoofed Michael’s phone, location and sent a text message out.  Is that so complicated?  Jeez, they act like I’m going to steal a bag of coke.”

“Listen Tulsa.  I made some notes and this may take a little time.”
Christopher ignored my rant and continued,
“Captain Romney said you can be there with the DA’s office when they…hold on…,”
he cautioned when he heard me snort.  “…
when they do their manual and logical analysis, the physical analysis with and without the chip on and finally, the micro read.  I don’t think this will be just a couple of hours.”

I sighed.  It wasn’t ideal, but I needed to check out that phone.  “Okay, I’m heading over now.  By the way, I’ve got a suspect and a plan on the identity theft part.”

“What?  Who?  Already?”

“I’ll tell you all about it later.”

I had barely hung up when my phone rang again.  When I saw it was Liberty, I put her on the speaker.

“Hey there sis…guess what?”

“What?  Wait…am I on that speaker thingy?”

“You are and Darius says hi.”  I glanced over at him and he nodded.

“Hey Darius. Yes I got tied up…so to speak.”

“Hail up!” Darius smiled broadly.

“What?”

“It’s Jamaican…hail up…hi.”

“Oh, hail up to you…too.  Hey listen Tulsa.” 
Her voice was excited.

“What’s up?  I was expecting you to call earlier.”

“You won’t believe it.”

“What?”  I was getting a little impatient.  The news had better be good.

“Your fireman guy, Cody…he’s a freaking computer genius.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

That gave me plenty to think about as I drove back to the office.  I replayed the conversation in my mind, trying not to be judgmental…but failing miserably.

“He’s worth a fortune!”
Liberty exclaimed.

“How much?”

“
He sold his on-line game for $1.1 billion, split 50/50 with his business partner.”

I hadn’t seen that coming.  “He’s a half billionaire and also a fireman?  Does that make any sense?”

“I don’t have any facts about him personally other than while he was at Cal Poly, he and his roommate came up with this on-line game called Medic Maze.  It’s sort of like Grand Theft Auto except that you’re trying to save lives and fight off the bad guys rather than run over hookers.  I tried it out, and it’s really fun…but hard. I got hung up trying to move from ride-along to trainee…forget about getting to the attending medic level.  My kill rate was outta sight…which, in this game, isn’t good.”

“It’s a paramedic game?”  I sort of remembered hearing about it when I was back in Oklahoma, but I’ve never really been a gamer, so I hadn’t paid much attention to the discussion.

“Yeah, and it’s really cool.  You can play against the computer or play against other people anywhere on the planet.  You have to be able to diagnose patients and figure out treatments.  I saved several today, but I lost most of them.” 
For a moment her voice was sad, then it perked back up.
“It has sirens…everything.”

“All right then.”  I tried to bring her back to the bigger issue.  “So, he probably paid cash for his condo.  That takes away some of the motive, but if he can create games, that certainly means he’s an expert at computer programming.”

“That’s what I thought, too.  But you don’t think he’s our hacker, do you?”

“I can’t rule it out. Sounds like he’s a little flaky.  I mean who would risk his life running into burning buildings when he has several hundred million dollars in the bank?  Maybe he’s bored.  Maybe that’s how he makes coffee money.  I don’t know.” 

“I’ll keep looking.”

Strike two for Cody.  Not only did his lines touch almost every one of the victims, but he had the bandwidth to write code and wreak havoc with Linked’s server.   But why would he do it?  Did he secretly hate Michael and was trying to get back at him for something?  Was he jealous?  Was he just doing it for fun?  I couldn’t begin to guess what went on behind those cobalt blue eyes.  It was obvious that he was, at the very least, in the middle of the mess, so the next step would be to find out more about him.

I was brain dead when I walked into the Scandals office a little after three.  I needed the caffeine, so I got a Diet Coke out of the mini-fridge, then went to my office and, without turning the light on, shut the door and collapsed onto my desk chair.  I leaned back and closed my eyes, relishing the blackness after six hours of monitor face time. Michael’s offices were really classy and plush, but the screen glare from looking over Darius’s shoulder in that cold, bright server room had drilled holes in my eyeballs.

There was a knock at my door, followed by a small voice asking, “Are we going home already?” 

I knew it was Liberty.  God.  Go away,
I muttered under my breath, but aloud I said, “No…I have a four o’clock at the APD evidence warehouse to go through Michael’s cell phone.  Wanna come with?”

“Sure I guess.  I’ve found out more about Cody.”

The door opened and Christopher walked in.  “You’re back.”

“Very good, Sherlock.”  I groaned as he flipped on the light and sat down on the plump chair in front of my desk. “Are we taking a meeting now?”

“Hopefully.  Sit down Liberty…this may take a while.”

I scooted my already sore ass back into a seated position and brushed my bangs out of my eyes.  “What’s up?”

Christopher leaned back, automatically taking control.  “What did you find at Linked?”

“I don’t think Michael or Darius were involved with the identity thefts.  So far, we’ve got only one suspect…Cody Daniels.”

Liberty shook her head.  “Oh no, it can’t be him.  He was nice.”

“Some people seem nice, but behind the smile, they’re evil.”  My voice was ragged with bitterness.  I had known a lot of people who were not at all like they seemed.  But still, there was no logical reason I was so upset about this man…this stranger.

“What made you focus on him?” Christopher asked.

I went through the details of the program I had run last night and the results on the screen with Cody centered in the bulls eye.  I also told him that it would take a computer genius to do the things the hacker had done to Linked.

“If it is this fireman, then how did he do it…I mean physically?”  Christopher was having trouble putting it all together on a logistics level.  Computers weren’t his thing, so all the specifics about my program were gibberish to him.

I tried to simplify it.  “Long and short is, Michael’s machine has been infected with a BOT, a really ingenious BOT.  As soon as it got in, it automatically broke down into small, almost undetectable pieces.  Then, somehow that fucker re-assembled itself, crawled through the servers, copied the personal identity records and shipped them out…to Cody’s computer or to a shell file.  Then it disassembled itself and went to sleep.  I don’t know if he remotely triggers it or if it’s on some sort of timer so that it wakes up and haunts the servers whenever another 250 to 500 new members are added.”

“Ever seen this before?”  Christopher frowned and leaned forward, resting his arms on my desk. 

“Never.  And to your question about Cody…he may be the brains behind this or maybe he’s just a conduit.”

Christopher’s dark eyebrows lifted as an idea hit him. “Why don’t you just hack him back?  Can’t you get into his system and look around?”

“I’m not a hacker,” I said, a little defensively.  “In the cyber security business, it’s called being a penetration expert.”

“Christopher’s eyes widened and he shook his head, clearly not daring to comment on that.

I laughed.  It wasn’t often I could catch Christopher off guard.  “Actually, I thought about penetrating his files, but if he’s as sharp as I think he is, he’d see me. I decided that maybe we don’t need him knowing that we’re on to him.  His machine still gets data and he could dump it in the deep net at any time.”

“Do you think he’s still holding some info?”

“There’s no way to tell how many files he’s captured.  My guess is he’s got hundreds, maybe thousands, and he’s dribbling them into the marketplace a few at a time.  The identity thefts seemed to happen in groups of five or six at a time.”

“He probably doesn’t want to flood the market,” Christopher commented.  “It would draw too much attention.”

“I think they’ve plugged all the holes, but he’s really good at finding a way in,” I told Christopher.  “I could send out some feelers, but I don’t want to leave any breadcrumbs that can come back on us.”

Liberty bolted to her feet.  “I know…you should become a member of Linked and work it so you’re matched up with Cody.  Maybe you could find something in his apartment or sneak a look at his computer.”

“Great idea, Liberty,” Christopher agreed.  “The more time you spend with him, the more likely he is to let something slip.”

“Bad idea, Liberty…and Christopher,” I protested.  I couldn’t deny that I felt a rush of excitement at the prospect, but I just didn’t think I would be able to coerce any information out of him.  I was a whiz behind the protective shield of my computer screen, but my people skills left a lot to be desired.  “Why not Killeen?  She’s gorgeous and I’ll bet she could get him to spill all.”

Christopher shook his head adamantly.  “The frat party was her last hurrah for a while.  She promised me she’d take it easy until the pregnancy is over.”

I turned to Liberty.  “Then, you should do it.  You’re probably more his type than I am.  I’m real sure I can force the algorithms to pop your profile up on his screen.”

“How romantic,” Christopher shook his head and laughed.  “But no, it’s got to be you.  You’re the only one that knows what to look for in his computer.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but I knew he was right…at least about that last part.  It would take me weeks to teach Liberty how to get in and out quickly, without leaving a trail. 

“We’ll call this
Operation Cupid
,” Christopher continued. “Nice touch, huh?”

I sighed and tried to swallow back the swarm of butterflies that had suddenly hatched in my stomach.  “I’m not sure I can…”

“Let me tell you about your new lover,” Liberty interrupted.

“Fine.” I gave up and tried to play along.

Liberty opened her tablet and woke it up.

“You’re using a tablet?  Who taught you?”  I was constantly amazed at how quickly she was embracing technology.

“Dallas,” she answered.  “Anyway…like I already told you…Cody and his friend, Skip Waller, developed a paramedic role play game, and they got a really huge following all over the world.  It’s called
Medic Maze,
and it has scenarios like terrorist attacks, plane crashes, high-rise fires, shootings, heart attacks, babies being born…you name it.  You and your partner or whoever…and they can be computer-generated or real people from anywhere on earth…roll up to the scene, triage the patients and start their treatments while following protocols.  Based on the accuracy of your diagnosis, speed of treatment and the effectiveness of the treatment itself, your patients survive, die, face a life time of being in a wheelchair or whatever.”

“Roll up, triage, protocol…what have you done with Liberty?” I teased.

“Ha ha.  I’ve been playing the game all afternoon.  It’s a blast.  I had two die on the gurney, three in the wagon and some were DOA.  I’m like the angel of death.”

Christopher and I laughed at Liberty’s dismay over the carnage she had created on line.

“They seemed real…some of the kids were standing there watching their parent die because I did the wrong thing,” Liberty cried.

“Okay…calm down.  What else?”  I couldn’t help but be impressed that a game could be so realistic and its players so involved.

“Cody and Skip split a 1.1 billion dollar payout when they sold
Medic Maze
.  Cody also reserved a bunch of trade names for his next game about firefighters.”

“So Skip’s off building their next game?” Christopher asked.

“No, apparently, Cody also has the rights to the technology, the cache and the names reserved for the firefighter game.  Skip took his money and moved to Belize.”

“Smart man.  Kind of makes you wonder why Cody didn’t do the same,” Christopher mused.

“So Cody just cut out his friend?”  That didn’t sound very heroic to me.

“Maybe he thought he should cut out the middle man and be the subject matter expert himself,” Christopher suggested. 

“That could explain why he became a fireman.  Maybe he’s just doing it for research,” I said.

“Pretty drastic tactic.  I’ve heard the fire academy is tough,” Christopher told us.

I was already thinking about the next step.  “I’ll bet his computer is locked down tight.  I’ll have to spend some time alone with it.”

“With
it
or with
him
?”  Liberty chuckled.

“The goal is
it
.” To be honest, I didn’t know what I’d do with
him.
  “Did Cody have a different end game in mind for
Medic Maze
?”

“He did…there were a number of articles that said he wanted
Medic Maze
to be as big as
Grand Theft Auto
…with sequels for firefighters, cops, DEA agents, you name it.  His partner, not so much.  He wanted to enhance the
Medic Maze
to be more like
Sim City
.  Different visions, I guess.”

“Yes.”  I glanced at the wall clock.  It was almost four.  “We need to go.  We’ll talk about this later.”

“See you guys at the pool…I mean staff meeting.”  Christopher held out his hand and pulled me to my feet.  “I’ll make sure John has a margarita ready for you,” he said to me, “and a glass of lemonade for you,” he added to Liberty.