The Silence of Six (22 page)

“No one?” He looked around. “Well, we have an exciting twenty-four hours ahead. I hope you’re well-rested and well-caffeinated. We will be holding a number of workshops, panels, and discussions here in this auditorium, along with other activities in conference rooms and workspaces throughout the other floors.
Mi casa es su casa.
And at the end of it all, I’m going to ask again for volunteers to remove their masks, and we’ll see if any of you have changed your minds. At the very least, you’ll be sleep deprived and your judgment will be compromised.” He smiled.

“A little housekeeping: Details about our challenge quests this weekend are all in your packets and in the HackerAid app, but feel free to visit the registration desk or stop me or another Panjea staff member if you have any questions. There are showers in the gym downstairs, next to the cafeteria.
Use them.
And we have a zero tolerance policy of harassment; if anyone makes you feel uncomfortable, speak to one of the toasters and we will handle it.” He gestured to the Cylon guards by the doors.

Ignacio clapped his hands again. “Now go make awesome stuff!”

This started off another flood of applause. Max glanced behind him and saw the Cylons had opened the doors again.

“That was disturbing,” Max said.

“You think so?” Print said. “I think it’s all really exciting.”

“Why didn’t you take off your mask?” Max asked.

“Because this is the one place where people judge me for what I can do instead of what I look like.”

From Evan’s file, he knew that print*is*dead’s real name was Timothy Hawson. His picture had shown a doughy face covered in eczema.

“Can you point me to a workstation?” Max asked.

“Allow me, Max.” The synthetic voice sent a chill down Max’s spine. Print backed away, waving and muttering an excuse.

Max turned around.

“Evan?”

23

Max saw a figure in
a familiar white mask, with large, evil eyes and a grimacing mouth. A red hoodie was pulled up over his head, with a black T-shirt underneath. Gray cargo pants.

“Evan?” Max asked again, his voice cracking.

“You like it? I wanted to pay a tribute to our dear friend STOP.”

Then Max realized. “That’s in poor taste,” Max said.

Wearing a mask like Evan’s, with that flat, robotic voice . . . he was straight out of Max’s nightmares. But after the initial shock, Max noticed he was taller and broader-shouldered than Evan. His body language was completely different too. Evan had always been fidgety, constantly in motion when he wasn’t behind a keyboard. But this guy was strangely, eerily still.

“You know who I am, but who are you?” Max asked.

“0MN1. Good to finally meet.” He extended a hand to Max. Max hesitated before shaking it.

“How about a behind-the-scenes tour?” 0MN1 said. “I want you to meet some more of my friends upstairs.”

“Great. Thanks for the sponsorship,” Max said. “How did you know I was coming?”

“I was hoping you would, so we would have a chance to talk.”

Max nodded. He wondered what 0MN1 wanted with him. If he played along, this could provide the opportunity he’d been hoping for to infiltrate Panjea’s servers.

0MN1 guided him to an elevator and took him to the third floor. “This is the heart of Panjea. Programmers are up here, doing the real work, and all the business stuff is on the second floor. PR, marketing, graphics.”

Max’s phone buzzed. He snuck a peek at it. A text from Penny:
looking for open conference room with a live jack

“Are all Panjea programmers hackers like us?” Max asked.

0MN1 led him past rows of cubicles, five-by-five spaces, each one identical but for a few indications of the personality of the occupant: action figures, comic books, printouts of celebrities. Photos of kids and dogs and spouses. One of them even had a replica of an axe from
The Lord of the Rings
balanced on a shelf, surrounded by hobbit figurines.

“Every company has an A-team. Here, those are the hackers. The grunt programmers handle basic maintenance, server expansion, software implementation, that kind of thing.”

“STOP worked here, right?” Max asked.

“His station was over there.” 0MN1 pointed to the center of the room. There was a pod with ten workstations facing each other in a circle. Only two of the stations were occupied. 0MN1 waved. “Hey guys! Look, it’s 503-ERROR. I told you he’d show.”

“What up.” A twenty-year-old guy stood to greet Max. He was thin with a goatee and a too-large flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looked a lot like Shaggy from the
Scooby Doo
cartoons. His Panjea badge identified him as Nolan Harrison, but Max recognized him from the photo in PHYREWALL’s file. His real name was Nat Hardy.

The hackers were using aliases IRL too. It seemed trust only went so far when you were routinely breaking the law and there was always the chance that a supposed friend was reporting back to the FBI.

The second hacker didn’t stand. He spoke up in a soft, depressed voice that reminded Max of Eeyore. “Hey, Five-Oh-Three. I’m GroundSloth.”

GroundSloth! Evan hadn’t had a good photo of him, but he knew the heavyset man was thirty-three and named Oliver Morton, even though his badge identified him as Austin Rhod
es.

PHYREWALL was from Cleveland, Ohio, and GroundSloth was from Syracuse, New York. Did they work here all the time, or were they just in town for Haxx0rade?

“It’s weird to meet in person.” Max shook their hands.

Sweat pooled on his upper lip and he felt his mask sliding down his forehead. He grabbed it from the bottom and started to lift. He paused, eyeing the others. There was no point in hiding his face here—they all knew who he really was, thanks to the news. Still, anticipation and anxiety over what he was about to do made his pulse quicken.

Max pulled off the mask. The cool air felt good on his bare face. He slicked his damp hair back.

He looked at 0MN1 expectantly, but his host made no move to follow suit.

“Pretty ballsy to come here, with everyone in the world after you,” PHYREWALL said.

“If any place is safe for him, it’s here,” 0MN1 said. “We’re all wanted by the Feds. We protect our own.”

“Is that right? What about Infiltraitor, @sskicker, and L0NELYB0Y?” Max asked.

“No one knows what happened to them,” 0MN1 said.

“L0NELYB0Y’s holed up in the woods somewhere. Living off the land,” PHYREWALL said.

0MN1 shot him a warning look.

“Well, that’s what I heard,” PHYREWALL said.

“Evan doxxed everyone in Dramatis Personai. Those guys aren’t just ‘offline.’” Max said. “They’re dead.”

PHYREWALL laughed.

“What’s funny about that?” Max asked.

“He couldn’t have doxxed everyone,” PHYREWALL said.

“He doxxed you,
Nat
,” Max said.

PHYREWALL froze.

“Nat?” GroundSloth chuckled.

“It’s not as nice a name as Oliver, is it?”

GroundSloth’s jaw went slack.

“Evan knew the identities of the other members of Dramatis Personai, and he found out about the ones that died under mysterious circumstances. Other people too. Did any of you know Ariel Miller? She was a hacker who worked here just like you, and coincidentally, she’s dead too,” Max said.

PHYREWALL turned to 0MN1. “Was she that cute redhead?”

“Panjea employs a lot of hackers,” 0MN1 said.

PHYREWALL sat down at his computer and typed. “Damn. He’s right.”

PHYREWALL’s screen showed the same article that Evan had copied into Ariel’s file. But Max was much more interested in what was next to PHYREWALL’s computer: a small silver globe mounted on a circular base.

He slowly moved to PHYREWALL’s side, pretending to look at the article. The surface of the globe was covered in faint lines—broken into puzzle shapes. The word
PANJEA
was printed across it, but the piece marked with the
N
was missing. Max had to get a closer look at it. It might just be a paperweight, but he was willing to bet that Ariel had one just like it.

“Ariel was killed six months ago,” PHYREWALL said.

“That hit-and-run was intentional. She was targeted,” Max said. “Murdered.”

PHYREWALL was visibly shaken. He looked at 0MN1. “Did you know about this?”

“Max, can we talk somewhere more private?” 0MN1 gestured to a long conference table by the window, right below the last
A
in Panjea. Max nodded and followed him.

“Have a seat,” 0MN1 said.

Max ignored him and headed for the window. He looked down to the street below and saw three black cars line up across from where Risse was parked. On cue, his phone buzzed in his pocket, but he couldn’t look at it now. Instead, he studied 0MN1’s reflection in the glass.

“Did STOP dox me too?” 0MN1 asked.

“No, but I can make an educated guess. You’re the only member of Dramatis Personai he didn’t identify, and you’re also the one who has been acting like he’s in charge—even though the group isn’t supposed to have a leader. Considering DP’s stance against big corporations, namely Panjea’s competitors, I’m willing to bet you’re the person in charge here. Victor.”

0MN1 tilted his head. Then he pulled off his mask. Victor Ignacio took a deep breath. “Why don’t we start again? Hi, Max. I’m Vic Ignacio. It’s good to meet face-to-face.”

Max felt a little lightheaded. He’d been pretty sure that Vic Ignacio and 0MN1 were the same person, but it had still felt like a gamble, which had paid off. 0MN1 could have kept his mask on and laughed it off, so why had he finally revealed himself?

“Did you mean all that stuff you said in your speech?” Max asked.

“Did I sound like I meant it?”

“Yes.”

“That’s what matters.” Vic pushed his hood back and rubbed the top of his bald head. “You might be surprised to hear this, but I’m glad you figured out who I am.”

“Why?”

“I hate wearing masks. You can’t speak in these things.” Vic laughed.

Max allowed a thin smile, humoring Vic.

“Truthfully? I like surrounding myself with smart people. It’s how I’ve become so successful.” Vic winked. “Our little secret.”

“Online you were very interested in knowing if Evan had sent me anything before he died,” Max said.

Vic had taken off his mask, but it was like he was still wearing one. Max knew what a strain it was to put up a front for others, in order to get people to like you or help you. That pasted-on smile never left the CEO’s face, but his eyes betrayed that Max had his attention.

“Maybe you were worried about some e-mails about your selling Panjea data to Kevin Sharpe, and that you’re basically working for the government?”

Vic blinked. “Max, you have it wrong.” He sounded almost disappointed.

“You’re a big fan of transparency. Let’s see what happens when I release those files and we let the public decide,” Max said.

Max’s phone vibrated again, twice in quick succession. He could feel the urgency behind the messages, but Penny and Risse were on their own for now.

“That’s not what I’m interested in,” Vic said.

“What about SH1FT?” Max said.

Vic paused, calculating. Then he came to a decision.

“You have the code?” Vic asked.

“I know where it is.”

“It’s stolen property.”

“Come on. That means nothing to a hacker. The theft didn’t harm anyone, and information belongs to everyone, right? And so does the truth.”

“I wouldn’t say
no one
was harmed by its loss,” Vic said.

Max felt a chill. “Are you admitting murder?”

“I didn’t kill anyone,” Vic said.

“But you knew people were being killed.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“You knew Ariel’s death wasn’t an accident. Maybe you were even the one who sent the order to remove evidence of her employment with Panjea. But whoever you sent missed something.” Max flashed the puzzle piece. Vic’s mask finally slipped and he showed genuine surprise.

“Whether you killed them or just let it happen, it’s all the same result. My friend is gone, and six others are dead.”

“Evan’s death was his own choice. I didn’t pull that trigger. But I’ll make you the same offer I made him, and I hope things will turn out differently this time.”

Vic put his hand inside the pocket of his hoodie. Max readied himself to fight or bolt.

Vic removed his hand and showed . . . a phone.

He held it up and pointed it at Max, as if he knew what he was thinking.

“These days this can be much more powerful and devastating than a gun.” Vic turned and aimed his phone at the fifty-inch monitor on the wall. He pressed a button and the screen lit up. A series of video windows appeared. The first one showed Max’s dad talking on his phone. The second showed Courtney in her bedroom walking past the camera in a bathrobe. The third showed Lianna Stein in an office, typing.

Mom?

Max took a step forward. He hadn’t seen his mother since he was five years old, but he recognized her immediately. Her black hair was shoulder length now and she was wearing glasses, but it was her. The woman who had virtually disappeared. How had Vic tracked her down, when Max and even Evan had failed to?

The images froze.

“When I ask you about SH1FT again, I want you to think about your friends and family, Max,” Vic said.

Max tore his eyes away from the video image of his mother. If Vic knew how important it was for Max to find her, he would make Max a deal he might not be able to refuse.

Max looked out the window again. Four FBI agents in black vests were hurrying from their cars toward the building. At least they didn’t seem to notice the car Risse was waiting in.

Max’s heart was pounding. He wasn’t sure which fate was worse: getting picked up by the Feds, or being stuck here with Vic.

The CEO switched the screen to a security feed from the Panjea lobby. The agents were walking inside.

“Right now, this is the safest place you could be. If you help me recover the software Evan stole, I’ll consider you a temporary employee of Panjea, with all the protection that offers. When I have what I need, I’ll do what I can to clear your name and send you home to the people you love, safe and sound.”

“And if I don’t help?”

“I could let those agents take you. They have a lot of questions about Evan and your history as 503-ERROR.” Vic put his phone away. “Sabotaging private websites through DDoS attacks is very illegal. I’ll get what I want. One way or another.”

“I’ll think about it,” Max said.

“Think quickly.”

Max heard a phone buzz, but this time it wasn’t his. Vic pulled his phone out again and answered.

“Keep her there. I’ll be right down,” Vic said.

Penny.

“Don’t go anywhere, Max. I’ll be right back to hear your answer.” Vic pointed at the screen then grabbed his mask and hurried away, leaving one of his Cylon guards behind to watch Max.