Fatal Transaction (Thriller & Suspense, Cyber Crime) (13 page)

Chapter 28

L
evy stood at the window, mindlessly following a few wispy clouds as they moved off the Rockies. “Where is she?”

Mike coughed behind him. “She’ll be here in two minutes.”

It had been a rhetorical question. He wasn’t referring to Kai.

Where was Sara? She had managed to escape his grasp. She must have resources he knew nothing about. That’s the only way she could circumvent his efforts.

“And what about New York?” Levy shifted his gaze to the surrounding buildings.

“Jarred has everything ready. Kai was able to walk him through the setup over the phone. The first test run will be tonight. If it goes well, we’ll start full operations this weekend.”

“You haven’t found any of the problems Sara warned us about?” Levy turned and faced Mike.

“We’ve been using all of the cards without any problems, even when the cards are full. The program works.”

Sara had lied.

“When I find Sara, I’m going to make sure her death is extremely slow and painful. How many times do you think Vance can bring her back to life in order to kill her again?”

Mike gave a distorted smile, but no answer.

A knock came at the door.

Breaking out of his depressed mood, Levy migrated to his desk. “Come in.”

Kai opened the door and stepped into the room.

“Were you able to recover the data from the hard drive?”

“Enough of it.” Kai’s gaze shifted from Levy to the floor.

“And?”

“It’s a complete copy of all the data from your computer.” Kai looked up.

Levy’s anger burned. “Was there anything on the disc that will help us find her?”

“No, sir.” Kai moved back a step.

“You spent the whole morning at Ted’s and that’s all you have?”

“I finished the search through the hospitals.” Kai shifted her gaze back to the floor.

“Let me guess. Nothing.”

Kai refused to look up.

Levy continued, “It’s been a week. You think she’ll still be at a hospital?”

“No, but you—”

“If you had done your job when I asked, I’d have her.”

“I checked the records for the last week. There’s nothing. No one by her name or who fits the profile has been in any of the area hospitals.”

Levy pounded his desk. If it weren’t for the fact he needed Kai right now, she’d be dead where she stood.

“Someone’s helping her. She was too beat up to survive on her own.”

“I made sure of that,” Mike interjected.

“What about the email? Why hasn’t your program worked?”

Kai didn’t answer.

“The problem is, she’s too smart for you. She’s too smart for all of you.” Maybe Kai wasn’t so good after all. He could replace her. Putting a bullet in her wouldn’t find Sara but—

Levy’s phone rang. “Yes, what is it?”

The call was from his offshore bank. Levy’s anger grew as he listened.

“No. I do not want to close my account.”

“Well, since all of the money was transferred out, we wanted to make sure you still wanted to keep the account open.”

“I did not authorize any transfers.” Levy’s voice was strong, determined.

“Your security code was used.”

“How’s that possible?” As the words came out of his mouth, he had the answer. Sara had gotten them off his hard drive.

“We are not responsible for your security code. You must have—”

“Stop the transfers at once, and get my money back.”

“I am sorry, Mr. Levy. But that is impossible. The transfers took place several days ago.” The voice on the other end stayed calm.

“Your bank guarantees my deposits.” Levy’s knuckles turned white as his grip the phone tightened.

“Sir, we only guarantee deposits up to one hundred thousand U.S. Dollars, and only against a failure on our part. Your loss is not our doing, and is therefore not covered.”

“Where did the money go?”

“I am sure I do not know, sir.”

“What bank was the money transferred to? Can you answer that?”

“I do not have that information at this time. But I will have one of my assistants look into it and send you what we learn.”

“Given the amount of my money you lost, you better make it a top priority. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir. And I am sorry—”

Levy slammed his phone down on the desk.

“What’s wrong?” Mike glanced at Kai, then back at Levy.

“Sara,” escaped his tightly clinched teeth.

Mike’s stare shifted between Kai and Levy again. “What’d she do now?”

Levy walked around his desk in an effort to master his emotions. “She hacked into my bank account. She has my money.”

“When?” Mike’s inflection revealed his lack of surprise.

“A week ago.” Levy turned to Kai. He needed her after all. “Can you put a trace on bank transactions?”

“Maybe, but when I moved her money into your account a couple of days ago, there was still a lot of money in there.”

Levy bore down on Kai. “Not my stateside account, you idiot. She hacked into my offshore account.”

Levy whirled toward Mike. “Get Kai whatever information she needs to get my money back, and do whatever you must to find Sara. Put the word out on the streets. Offer a reward. And double the number of credit cards out there. I need to get my money back.”

***

Taking Friday afternoon off, Derry headed over to the computer store Sara recommended. She said it was the only place in town that she was sure would have what she needed. Her instructions to pay with cash and to give out no personal information would have
seemed weird under any other circumstance, but Derry guessed the owner must have been part of her old life.

He headed down South Colorado Boulevard, to Babbage Computing. The store was easy enough to find. It sat in one corner of an L-shaped strip mall, with an alley behind the buildings. Derry parked his car at the end of the building, just out of sight of the entrance.

He surveyed the store on entering, and felt lost. The kid behind the counter appeared to be several years younger than him. “Can I help you?”

“Sure, I guess.” Was this the guy Sara warned him about? Maybe. “I need a—” Derry stared down at the paper.

“Here, let me see your list.”

Derry handed it over. The young man seemed nice enough.

“Looks like a fancy system you’re wanting.” He glanced up. “Did a friend make this list up for you?”

“You might say that.”

He studied the list for several seconds. “I don’t have one of these built up right now, but I have something close. It’s faster with more cache. I can give you a price break on it.”

Sara’s instructions were clear. She wanted the computer listed on the paper. “No, I need that one. It needs to be compatible with my friend’s system.” Derry nodded at the list.

“The newer one would be.” He glanced back at the list. “But hey, okay, if this is what you want, I think I have everything in stock. For an extra hundred, I can put it together and install the operating system, but it’ll take me a few days.”

“No, that’s okay. Just the parts listed.”

“Okay. You know, eight months ago this was the hottest system on the market. Now some of these parts are dated. You sure you don’t want something a little faster?”

“No, that’s okay. Sar—I just need what’s listed on the paper.”

A gleam appeared in the kid’s eye for a split second, just long enough for Derry to notice.

“You want Intel, AMD? What clock speed, and how much cache?”

Sara had said something about that when she was making the list. Derry was sure it was written down. He leaned in a little, and stared down at the paper. “Doesn’t it say?”

“Oh yeah, it’s right here.”

Something was up.

“What operating system? Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS, or maybe PS2?”

The only word Derry understood was Windows, but he wasn’t sure if that was what Sara needed. Feigning confidence, he told the young man that he was sure that was on the list too.

A small smile started to form as the boy studied the paper again. “Sure, it’ll just take me a few minutes.”

As the kid moved about the store, gathering parts, Derry watched with suspicion. He was way too happy as he filled the order. He suspected something.

The kid bagged up the smaller parts, then added up the cost and gave the total to Derry.

Derry reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money.

The boy’s eyebrows went up. “Cash? I don’t see that very often.”

After they both counted out the sum, Derry started to stack up the boxes.

“I need your phone number and address,” the boy said.

Derry stopped. “Why?”

“It’s for the warranty. Most of this stuff only comes with a 90-day warranty but hey, it’s better than nothing. I need your name, address, phone number. Also, if you give us your email address, we can send you alerts on specials.”

Derry reached for the bags. “That’s okay. I don’t need the warranty.”

“If any of the parts are defective, I can’t replace them without this information. It’s a lot of money to lose if one of the CPUs is bad. You should at least give me your phone number and address.”

Steadying the pyramid of boxes, Derry grabbed his purchases and headed for the door. “No, thanks.”

“Here let me help you.” As the kid reached for one of the bags, his phone rang. The call kept him busy while Derry escaped to his car.

***

Sara nibbled away at her fingernails, a habit she had broken herself of years ago. Where was Derry? Was sending him to Babbage Computing a mistake? Did he betray her to Ted?

Ted was one of Levy’s lackeys and owed him money. He would betray her in a heartbeat.

Sara opened the door for Derry. “Did everything go okay? Did you get everything?”

He set them in the dining room, the only place with enough room to work. “I sure hope so. You are going to pay me back for this, right?” He asked the question with a smile. Was it real?

“I said I would. As soon as I get everything set up. Is tomorrow soon enough?”

Derry didn’t answer as he headed back out the door. Sara surveyed the boxes. She had a lot of work in front of her. She took a seat at one end of the table, and opened the box containing the computer chassis. Removing the back, she checked the motherboard. It was the right one. Good.

He came through the door with Kevin in tow. “This is it.” Derry carried the remaining few boxes in and set them on the floor near Sara.

“Did you get your new laptop?”

“Yeah, right here.” Derry held up one bag.

Kevin set down the bag he was carrying, and addressed Sara. “So, how’re you feeling?”

“A lot better. Your wife’s a good doctor.”

“Feel up to coming over to our house for dinner?”

Sara glanced at Derry.

“He’s invited too.”

Sara returned her attention to Kevin. “Is this meal going to be out of a can?” She hoped to maintain a deadpan expression.
“I see Derry’s had a bad effect on you.”

“Hey, I heard that.” Derry set a box on the table at the opposite end from Sara.

“No, Natalie knows how to use a stove. In fact, she’s a very good cook. If it weren’t for us, he would starve.”

“There are always restaurants,” Derry protested.

“You know, I’ve seen his choice in restaurants,” said Sara. “Starvation is less of a punishment.”

“I think I’m being ganged up on.”

“Nope, just being honest.” She gave Derry a confident smile.

“So, I take it you want real food tonight?” Kevin shifted his attention between the two.

They both agreed.

Kevin moved toward the door. “So, about six?”

“Sounds good.” Derry opened his box.

That gave Sara two hours. She went to work putting the system together.

Derry sat at the other end, setting up his new laptop.

Sara stole a few glances as he worked. He seemed like a nice person. Was he really, or was he hiding something? “Where do your parents live?”

The mood in the room immediately changed.

“They’re both dead.”

Not what she expected. “Oh, I’m sorry. What happened?”

“My mother died a couple of years ago, at the hands of a street gang in my old neighborhood. My real father died when I was ten.”

Both parents dead; that caught her off guard. “Your real father?”

“Yeah. After he was killed, my mother remarried. My stepfather and I didn’t get along. He kicked me out when I was seventeen.”

His father’s death at such a young age was something with which she could relate. “Oh, I’m sorry. How’d your real father die?”

“He was in the Army. He died overseas. A squad in his platoon got caught in a firefight. It was a trap. They were outnumbered, pinned down, and running low on ammo. They needed backup. My dad and part of his squad rushed in to help them. As the men withdrew with the wounded, my dad stayed behind to provide cover fire. He never made it out.”