Fascination Read online

  “I’m sorry, I was lost in thought.”

  EJ just smiled, and she looked into his handsome face, wondering why she had never been attracted to men like him.

  “I was wondering if you had any clue as to what might be on that disk?”

  She shook her head. “It’s an old zip disk, obviously. Knowing Locke, though, I wouldn’t try to open it on a machine you don’t want to self-destruct.”

  “A virus then. That was your specialty?”

  She nodded and glanced Ian’s way. “A long time ago. It’s been a while.”

  “I looked over some of your files when you were arrested—Ian dropped them by for me, as I sometimes help him out a little with these kinds of things, you understand. There was some nice work there.”

  Sage couldn’t help but grin when Ian’s eyes looked as though they would pop right out of his head at EJ’s statement.

  “Thanks. But that code wasn’t mine—most of it, in fact, was Locke’s. I never set my bugs loose, I just liked to create them. I was only the delivery girl for that one.”

  EJ looked at her, clearly astonished. “You did time for a virus you didn’t even create?”

  Sage nodded, shrugging, looking squarely at Ian. “I figured who would believe that even if I told them? It didn’t matter, I set it loose and my fingerprints were all over it.”

  “Locke set you up then?”

  Sage nodded, and Ian leaned in a little, his voice low.

  “I hate to break into this happy little hacker circle, but EJ, while I know as a programmer you might have some technical admiration for the programs Sage created, they were very destructive.”

  EJ nodded, his eyes just a little amused as they met Ian’s intense gaze. “Sorry, Ian. It’s just rare you come across that kind of finesse in programming.”

  Grimacing, Ian sat back. “And you expect me to believe, after all this time, that you were just set up? That this guy Locke was really responsible for that virus?”

  Sage shook her head, no self-pity in her voice. “No, I didn’t expect anyone to believe that, which is why I never said anything. What would have been the point? Locke had seen my code, he knew my style and he’s a much better programmer than I am, so there was no way for me to prove it wasn’t mine. But it’s the truth.”

  EJ stepped in before Ian spoke again. “A lot of hackers create viruses just for the fun of it, Ian—it’s not so far-fetched. You can get virus-writing programs right off the Internet, it’s not a secret. I’ve written many in my spare time. The code Sage had was very…mature. I was surprised to find it came from the mind of a twenty-year-old, but now it makes a little more sense.”

  Ian interrupted him, still focused on Sage. “You expect me to believe you were completely innocent in all of this?”

  “No.” Her voice was quiet. “I wasn’t innocent—I was stupid to get involved with him and I knew there was a virus on that disk. I just didn’t know how bad it would be. Sending it out was like an initiation in the group, proof I would carry through. At the time I liked the idea of being a hacktivist, of making a difference in the world. In a way I still do, though I obviously don’t agree with their methods anymore. But Locke said it was just going to mess up some Web pages in corporate offices—”

  “Webjacking?” EJ asked and Sage nodded, continuing.

  “It wasn’t supposed to do more than bug up office computers with some politically targeted messages—generally harmless stuff in the scheme of things. At least, that’s what he told me. It’s one of the many reasons I would not be involved with him right now. He lied, he used me and he’s the reason I was arrested.”

  “He doesn’t seem to think you minded, according to your note. Does he really think you were so devoted to his cause that you would be willing to take that kind of fall and then he can just catch up with you years later, as if nothing has happened?”

  She shrugged and remained silent.

  Ian stared at her for another long minute, not saying anything before he dropped back in his chair. The silence at the table remained stultifying for a long moment. When he spoke, he didn’t address her but EJ.

  “So you can take a look at this for me?”

  Sage frowned. He obviously didn’t trust her to check out the disk and tell him what was on it.

  “Sure. I have some victim machines upstairs.”

  Ian stood, obviously ready to get to work, and Sage admitted she was impressed. EJ must do some serious programming to have victims—computers that you could use to test programs that might crash them—lying around the house. In her teenage years she’d tested her programs on her own machine and had learned a lot by crashing it, then putting it back together again. She shifted in her chair, uncertain of what her role in all this was.

  “Let’s get at it then.” EJ turned to Sage. “You want to help? I imagine you might recognize what’s on there faster than I will.”

  Sage stuttered, unsure of how to answer. Technically she was still under her sentence—she wasn’t supposed to touch a computer. She looked at Ian, waiting for his call. He nodded.

  “She can watch what comes up. But I want you at the keyboard.”

  EJ murmured a quiet assent, and they filed out of the kitchen. Sage trailed along last, feeling unsure and yet eager to know what was on the disk. It was obvious Ian thought she might still be in cahoots with Locke—he wasn’t going to let her anywhere near the computer. Ironically whatever it was that they found, she just hoped it was serious enough to keep her out of jail.

  5

  IAN PACED THE ROOM, making phone calls and trying to dig up information on Locke while EJ and Sage huddled together in front of the computer. He didn’t want to go through official channels just yet, considering his own indiscretions of late, so he called Sarah. She was good at digging and this might be a nice test run for her.

  “Sarah? This is Ian Chandler.”

  “Oh. Yes?” Cool as a cucumber, as usual.

  “How are you?”

  There was silence for a moment on the other side of the line—Sarah wasn’t much for formalities and never hit him as chatty. She was probably up to her eyeballs in some computer search. Predictably her reply was vague and distracted. He liked that she didn’t just drop everything and kiss up to him just because he’d interviewed her for a job.

  “Uh, fine. You?”

  “Good. I’m working on a project that I thought you might be able to help out on. Consider it kind of a trial run for the team. I can get to see you work in the field.”

  “What do you need?” Her attention was razor-sharp now; he heard it in her voice. To the point, no runaround. He respected that.

  “I’m trying to dig up information on a hacker named Locke—”

  “Locke? Really?”

  Ian cocked an eyebrow at her impressed tone of voice and her interruption. “You know him?”

  “I know of him, yes. He’s into heavy stuff. He’s about corporate sabotage, big money, that kind of thing. I’ve only seen some of his code, but it’s wildly advanced. Way over my head.”

  “Do you know where he is now, what he’s up to?”

  She sighed into the phone. “He stays to himself. He’s only seen when he wants to be. I’ve heard some people chatting about some new code on some message boards, so he’s still in the game. I heard a rumor he was being approached by the corporations themselves to attack competitors. Kind of a computer special-forces guy. He’s the real thing. Elite.”

  There was almost a sense of awe in her voice, and Ian cleared his throat. Hackers were a weird bunch.

  “That’s good to know. We have a line that he may be up to something big right now, but I could use some underground info. There isn’t much about him—next to nothing—in the files. I’d like to know what he’s been up to for the last five years.”

  “I’ll do what I can, but I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to find.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “He’s slick, the original invisible man. I don�
��t know anyone who even knows him personally. I’ve never even heard or seen his real name. He doesn’t hang out in the regular circles. Never gets caught. Usually uses his groupies to do his dirty work. They get busted, he gets lost. And they remain stupidly loyal to him. I think he could be a pretty ruthless guy, if the chatter about him is anywhere near true.”

  Ian blinked, looking at Sage, his mind absorbing what Sarah said.

  “Ian?”

  He returned his attention to the phone. “Yes. Okay—can you send anything you find to me by tomorrow?”

  “You got it.”

  Ian murmured thanks and hung up. It was effortless working with Sarah. He trusted her already and knew she would deliver. He also liked that she was all business. No flirting, no complications. The bit about a trial run was a stall—he wanted her for the team, but he had to do the background check before he could make it official. The results on that would be in within a couple of days; he was doing an exhaustive check. She’d need security clearance to access government databases, and he wanted to know the people he was working with inside and out.

  Sage’s laugh rang suddenly, and Ian’s attention snapped back to the room. Had he ever heard her really laugh? Sure, she had used that sexy chuckle on him, a sarcastic snicker, but he’d never heard the amazingly clear, lighthearted laughter she was sharing now—though not with him. Watching her lean closer in front of EJ, she pointed to something on the screen, and Ian felt a clutch of something nasty in his chest.

  He walked over and stood behind them. “What’s happening?”

  Sage sat back in her seat, the laughter stopping. EJ nodded and kept staring at the screen, hitting keys as he spoke.

  “Yeah, I think we have it mostly figured out.” He spared a glance in Ian’s direction. “Sage recognized it immediately—it’s her code—but we’ve done a little extra digging.”

  “And you found something funny?”

  Sage looked up at him sharply. “No, not funny at all. I wasn’t laughing about that, it was—”

  “It’s not important.” He directed his questions to EJ. “How could this be her code? I thought it was from Locke.”

  Ian didn’t respond as the hot color that infused Sage’s cheeks told him she wasn’t happy about being cut off, but he trained his eyes on the screen, calming the intense agitation that had overcome him when he’d watched Sage sitting there laughing with EJ as if they were old friends.

  Line after line of code swam before him on the monitor. He could make some sense of it, but programming wasn’t his strong suit.

  “So what does it mean? Is this our virus?”

  EJ seemed a little struck by Ian’s harshness, as well, and looked up, narrowing his eyes at his friend. “Since it’s her code, Sage can fill you in.”

  “So what does it mean?”

  “I have a name, you know. It wouldn’t kill you to use it and to be even slightly aware that I am a human being, not some dog you can just kick when you feel like it.” She rose, whirling on him.

  Ian took in the high color in her cheeks, the furious breathing that caused her breasts to swell against the thin material of her shirt. He felt a small curl of admiration. He liked that she would stand up for herself, and it made him want her even more. Though he wasn’t about to give much ground, he gave some.

  “Sage. Tell me about your code.”

  “Figure it out yourself, you jerk.” She spun, still angry, ready to leave the room, and he crossed to her in a second, grabbing her arm none too gently.

  “And just where do you think you’re going?”

  She blinked but didn’t waver. “Away from you.”

  “We have a deal, Sage.” He said her name with more inflection this time, filling it with intention that was clear, and he saw the understanding in her eyes. “You help me, I don’t arrest you.”

  Because of EJ’s presence, he left out the other terms of their “deal,” but he knew she understood when he dragged his thumb along the sensitive inner skin of her arm and saw her catch a breath. Pulling her arm away, she rubbed the spot, though he knew he hadn’t been holding her hard enough to hurt her. He would never do that, no matter how much she pissed him off. And there was more in her eyes than anger now.

  “Okay. Fine. Jeez.”

  Ian turned back to find EJ watching them speculatively before he discreetly turned back to the monitor and cleared his throat.

  “Ian, this is an old piece of code, something Sage wrote long ago. Though it has some new notations in it.”

  “Notations?”

  “Programmers keep notes in their source code—it reminds them of problems, keeps their place. Some of Sage’s old programming notes are here, but there are new ones, things Locke wrote—to her, ostensibly, anyway.”

  Ian fixed his gaze on Sage again, directing his questions toward her. “What kind of notes?”

  “He fixed bugs, closed a back door I had built in—he thought that was funny. He kind of graded it, like a teacher would, showing me all my mistakes.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “For fun. To show me how much better he is at this than I am, to assert his superiority. He always was kind of like a teacher.”

  Ian didn’t say anything, but a tight feeling took over his chest again as he blocked ideas of what Locke must have taught Sage—and not about computer code. Even though it was years ago, the knowledge chafed him.

  “So what is it?”

  “It’s an old bot.”

  “A bot is a small program that carries out some specific kind of function it’s told to do,” EJ explained.

  “Yeah, it’s distributed out on the Net and it finds a computer to hide away in and waits for instructions.”

  “What did your bot do, Sage?”

  She smirked. “Nothing. I couldn’t get it to work. But in theory it could do most anything you would want it to do—crash a computer, gather information—”

  “What information?”

  She shrugged. “Whatever you want. Credit card numbers, accounts, names and addresses, whatever payload you wanted.”

  “But the bot is only part of the program, right?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, you have the worm or the virus that delivers it and then the payload—what it is supposed to get, or do.”

  “So why would Locke have sent you this now?”

  Sage took a deep breath, meeting his eyes. “I’m not sure, but I guess it’s a clue. He said he’d finished the program, and he can’t just mean the bot. But he and I used to talk….” She drifted off, looking away, and Ian honed in, wondering what made her so uncomfortable all of a sudden.

  “Talk about what?”

  “I had this idea. You know, just a crazy idea, mostly. Most viruses attack computers—they mess up the networks, but they hit fast and hard, like the distributed denial-of-service attacks that hobbled major online companies in 2000. That makes them easy to detect and deal with within a few days. They do damage, cost money, but they are more or less controllable.”

  “And? What was your idea?”

  “I just thought that wasn’t enough. We were supposed to be trying to disable the companies we were objecting to—those who abuse third-world workers, who pollute the environment and deceive their workforces and their customers.”

  “Your ‘cause.’”

  She nodded. “But I couldn’t see how individual attacks were doing all that much damage. A lot of hacking is social—you know, engineering relationships so they will work for you, allow you to get access or information. That’s the basis of the markets, as well—people have to trust the seller to keep the markets going.”

  EJ had turned, paying close attention to Sage as she spoke. She was caught up in explaining now, her eyes bright with excitement.

  “So I thought instead of these massive attacks that were debilitating but only temporarily, how could we really disable these corporations? We had to do it by disrupting the relationship they have with the consumer.”

  “So you ne
eded to infect the consumer as well as the company,” EJ said.

  Sage sat back in her seat. “Yes, but not just their computers, their minds—affect how they think about online commerce. So I came up with this idea that you could send out millions of these bots. They would collect information as people made online purchases and send it back to a central database. Until they were supposed to do something, they would just sit quietly, unnoticed. They work very slowly, very stealthily, to avoid detection.”

  “Then what? What do they do?” Ian couldn’t help being drawn in, as well, though he tried to maintain an objective attitude. Her story was like a good murder mystery.

  “At a certain point a program would be executed that would start employing the information gathered by bots and infecting the transactions people made were making with online companies. For example, if they bought a pound of coffee, they would be charged for ten—things that seemed like normal errors, on individual accounts everywhere. Little at a time, though, and not all in one place.”

  “Bogging down the companies with fixing bad transactions,” Ian chimed in.

  “Right. But scale was the key—small bugs but so widely distributed that it made a real mess. It ends up discrediting the online commerce system, ruining the public trust in making online purchases. The program could be implemented over weeks, maybe even months, and eventually it would crash the trust people have in e-commerce. Vendors could fix it, but it’s so small and slow, and companies would be in deep before they realized what was even there. People would be very hesitant to buy anything online anymore.”

  “Christ.” EJ’s exclamation was a whisper. Ian just stared at Sage.

  “And you actually wrote this thing?”

  She shook her head, balking a little now. “No, I could barely write this little bot and get it to work. This was just brainstorming, you know, kicking around big ideas. But to actually be able to pull something like this off would take much more talent than I had. And a lot of time. It’s a pretty enormous project.”

  “But maybe Locke did it? He finished it?”