Involuntary Control (Gray Spear Society) (15 page)

Wendy was silent again. "This is important, so listen closely. You need to keep your hands off the International Lenders Association. That bank actually does have one customer, and His name is God. It's where the Lord keeps His personal accounts. Very few of us have the privilege of handling that sacred money. Maybe one day the Satin twins will earn that honor, but not today. If you cross that line again, you'll die."

Bethany and Leanna exchanged anxious looks.

"Now it's my turn," Wendy said. "How did you choose the I.L.A. as a target? There are so many banks in the world, but you picked that one."

Bethany didn't have a ready answer. The twins had taken so much money from so many places she couldn't remember the details.

"We were running a virus for a while," Leanna said.

"A virus?" Wendy said.

"An agent that searched for inactive accounts with large balances."

"Even a virus can't find what doesn't exist. The I.L.A. has no phone number or address. There is no website. The name doesn't appear on any lists, and taxes are never paid. The computers are buried in a bunker under a house in a New Jersey suburb. Yet you discovered the holiest and most closely guarded of all financial institutions by accident. How is that possible?"

"I think we know the answer," Aaron said. "Bethany and Leanna couldn't fight White Flame Technology alone. They needed powerful allies. So, the Lord tweaked our nose to get our attention. He left a trail of breadcrumbs for us to follow, and here we are."

Bethany didn't like that explanation. It made her feel like a puppet. She wanted to believe she and Leanna were in charge of their own lives. She wished these people would just stick with practical, verifiable facts instead of speculating about God so much.

"And on that note," he added, "we should jump to the main topic of this meeting. Our investigation into White Flame's activities is proceeding too slowly. We need fresh ideas."

"We can't hack into their systems," Bethany said. "The important computers aren't connected to the outside world. Leanna and I have spent months looking for information leaks, but we can't get through the fence."

"What if we put a spy inside the fence?"

"White Flame has hundreds of ongoing projects," She stared at Aaron. "A spy wouldn't know where to start looking. That place is huge."

"You bought information from Kaitlin Simmons. Did you ever examine it? And I want a straight answer this time."

She furrowed her brow. "I only studied the files for a few minutes, but they looked like the specifications for a new kind of bomber. Not what we wanted. That's the problem with this investigation. Getting information is easy. Getting the information we need is almost impossible."

"Marina and Smythe are in Lemonseed right now. They're walking around town like a couple of suckers because I don't have any orders to give them. That's unacceptable. If a Spear doesn't have a plan, he's planning to get killed. Since they're your teammates now, you should be as worried as I am."

As far as Bethany was concerned, her only real teammate was her sister. Everybody else was either a temporary ally or an adversary. Her years in hiding had taught her to be very cautious with her trust.

"As a banker, my first instinct is to follow the money," Wendy said. "Let's try to steal all the data from White Flame's accounting system. That will give us a good overview of their entire operation and point us in the direction of where we should attack next."

"An excellent suggestion." Aaron smiled. "My team will get inside by disguising themselves as government auditors."

"How about agents from the U.S. Government Accountability Office?"

Aaron nodded. "Bethany and Leanna, this is your first official task. Construct new identities for my people, and make sure they can stand up to intense scrutiny. White Flame will check their credentials thoroughly. Also, build some kind of bug that can transmit data by radio. That will be the only way to get information out."

"Um." Bethany frowned. "I think we can build the bug, but creating a complete government identity from scratch will be difficult."

"That disc will help you," Wendy said. "Making up new identities is something we do all the time. You'll be experts soon."

"It sounds like we have a plan," Aaron said, "or at least the start of one. Let's get to work."

"Aaron, sir," Wendy said, "I must bow out at this point. The mystery of the missing money has been solved. White Flame Technology falls within the jurisdiction of Chicago, and I'm in Manhattan. It was a pleasure and an honor to work with you. Rest assured your cooperation will pay dividends in the future."

"Oh. Well, maybe we'll join forces again someday."

"Anything is possible. Bethany and Leanna, this may be the last time you hear my voice, but we can meet online if you need advice. You'll receive a large package in the morning. It's my personal gift to you, welcoming you to the Society as a fellow hacker. Good bye."

Aaron stared at the phone for a moment. Then he put it away.

He stood up. "Follow me."

The twins went with him out of the office and down the stairs. They headed deeper into the building.

They walked into a large room with a big, wooden table and a dozen chairs. The chairs had thick cushions and looked very comfortable.

"We're setting you up in here," Aaron said.

All of the twin's equipment had been unpacked. Monitors, computers, routers, and power supplies formed a neat line along the wall. Coils of wires formed a tall heap. A network cable hung from the roof, and it was labeled "internet."

"It will take a few days for us to set up everything," Bethany said. "We need to make new wires."

"What's wrong with all these?" Aaron said.

"They're the wrong length," Leanna replied.

He sighed. "We can't afford days. My people are in the field right now, risking their lives. I want each of you to pick just one computer to start with, and leave the rest unplugged. And the wires you already have will work just fine for now. The next time I come in here, I'll expect to see both of you working, not messing around. There will be plenty of time for that later. And from now on, address me as 'sir.' I'm your commander, not your buddy."

Bethany looked around the room. The table was the wrong shape, the chairs were the wrong height, and the lighting was uneven. Stains marked the concrete floor, which felt rough against the soles of her bare feet. The air in the room was too warm. She grimaced as she tried to imagine how to arrange the furniture in a more acceptable manner.

"I know these conditions aren't ideal," Aaron said, "but we have to make compromises. Innocent people are dying in Lemonseed, people like your friend Haykal. Every minute that passes has a cost measured in blood. Now, which of these computers are you going to use?"

Bethany pointed at a large, blue tower. Leanna pointed at an identical computer next to it.

Aaron grunted as he lifted one of the machines. "Damn, this is heavy."

"It's expensive hardware," Bethany said.

"Very," Leanna added.

With Aaron's help, the twins set up their two computers along one side of the table, so they could see each other's monitors. Bethany struggled to ignore the inherent asymmetry in the arrangement.

When everything was turned on, she remembered the disc in the gray case. Out of curiosity, she put it in her computer. Leanna came over to watch. Aaron was pushing all the extra chairs to the wall.

A window popped up, showing, "4857 5441 4920 2053 4854 2045 554e 424d 5245 4f20 2046 4f47 0044." A timer started counting down from five minutes. There was an empty space for typing in a response.

"It's a riddle," Leanna said.

"Yeah," Bethany said. "Tricky, but I think I understand it."

"Me, too. We don't need five minutes for something this easy." Leanna typed the response, "455a 4f52."

"That's right." Bethany hit the enter key.

The text on the window changed to, "Welcome to the Gray Spear Society. Choose the roads you travel carefully because death is now your companion."

A folder popped up, containing thousands of documents. She started reading titles and opening the ones that looked interesting. Leanna gazed at the documents alongside her. As they went along, they became so excited they started making squealing noises.

Aaron looked over. "What's wrong?"

Bethany faced him. "Access codes, logins, passwords, secret keys!"

"For what?"

"Every government on Earth!" she yelled.

He smiled. "Did you expect anything less?" His expression suddenly became intense and frightening. "Now get to work. We need those new identities, and they have to be perfect."

"Yes, sir," the twins replied in unison.

* * *

Marina sat in the passenger seat of an ambulance. Smythe was driving, and they were cruising through Lemonseed at an unhurried pace. She gazed out the window, but there was nothing worth looking at. She was certain she had seen every house in the entire town by now, and all of them were boring.

Marina and Smythe wore the uniforms of emergency medical technicians. The blue shirts were cute, but she really liked the pants. An elastic waist band and a gusseted crotch allowed her to stretch her legs. An abundance of pockets gave her plenty of natural places to hide weapons. It was an outfit she wouldn't mind fighting in.

A voice on the police radio said, "Public disturbance at Grant and Southern. Investigate immediately."

Smythe turned the ambulance around.

"I hope this is a good one," Marina said. "It's getting late. We don't want to be out here all night."

"Yeah, people will start to wonder why an ambulance keeps circling the town."

They arrived at the intersection. A police car with flashing lights was parked in the middle of the road. Two officers were talking to a woman who was dressed in a rabbit costume. She had pink fur, ears, and a puffy tail. Circles had been cut out to expose her bare, saggy breasts. She was hopping around and wriggling her nose. She didn't seem the least bit interested in what the police were telling her.

"Bingo," Smythe said.

He parked the ambulance. He and Marina stepped out into the warm night air.

One of the cops turned and said, "That was fast! We just called it in."

"We were in the area," Smythe said.

"This is one of those
special
situations."

"Obviously," Smythe replied nonchalantly. "Let's get her in the ambulance."

"You'll have to strap her down," the cop said. "She's out of control."

"I'll sedate her."

"Even better."

Marina was curious about the phrase "special situations." Apparently, the Lemonseed police had an established procedure for dealing with citizens who had lost their minds. She wanted to know more about it.

Working together, the two officers, Marina, and Smythe corralled the woman against a house. She kept trying to hop away like a frightened rabbit. She wouldn't even look at them. The expression on her face showed only vague, witless anxiety.

They dragged her by the arms over to the ambulance. Marina opened the back door and pulled out a gurney.

"So," she said, "where are we taking her?"

The cops gave her a funny look. "The usual place," one said.

They pushed the woman onto the gurney and held her down. She struggled ineffectively.

"The old place or the new place?" Marina said.

"There's only one place."

"No, last week they opened up a new place."

"Nobody told me," the cop said.

"Just tell me where to go."

"I didn't even know there was a choice."

Another ambulance arrived and parked nearby. Two EMT's stepped out.

The larger of them, a man with black hair, said, "What the hell is going on?"

"You can go," the cop said. "We don't need two ambulances for one woman."

"Those guys aren't with the company. I've never seen them before."

Both officers drew their guns and aimed at Marina and Smythe.

"Calm down," she said softly. "There is obviously a misunderstanding."

The rabbit woman climbed off the gurney. Marina used the momentary obstruction as cover while she drew her own guns from pockets on her thighs. Suppressors kept the noise to a minimum as she shot both officers in the face simultaneously. Teflon coated bullets went through their brains and out the backs of their heads.

Smythe was already in motion. He ran down one of the EMT's and tackled him from behind. The other EMT was climbing back into his ambulance. The only way to prevent him from driving away was to kill him, so Marina shot him through the windshield.

Smythe was sitting on the surviving EMT. Marina ran over and jabbed her fingernails into his neck to make him sleep.

"He's a keeper," she said. "I'll get the rabbit."

She chased after the rabbit woman, who hadn't gone far. Marina knocked her out with more venom. Smythe picked up the woman and placed her in the back of their ambulance with the unconscious EMT.