The 13: Fall (34 page)

A
LEXANDRA
S
OKOLOV
—
AKA
A
LEX
S
MITH
.

   CHAPTER 55   

A
lex Sokolov sat on the bed, staring at the laptop. She had been monitoring the feed now for nearly an hour. The bug she’d placed in Marianne’s system was turning out to be very helpful indeed. It’s not that she didn’t trust the woman, she just … didn’t trust the woman. She had wanted to make sure she kept tabs on everything she could. And that included the computer of her employer.

Whoever it was over at DHS going through Marianne’s files was good. She assumed it was that FBI agent she’d seen with Keene at the Capitol. She’d done a little checking and found out that Megan Taylor was quite special when it came to computers. Perhaps a little too special.

The bug was designed to monitor only the feed. It didn’t enable her to operate as a user on the system. However, it did allow her to send a signal to the machine, triggering a nasty little virus—a little something she’d picked up from an Egyptian friend at the University of Cairo—that would wipe out any and all computers connected to that particular server.

She was surprised, initially, when the little alarm had sounded, letting her know that someone was using the computer. She had been in the middle of finalizing details for her departure. The house had to go, as much as she hated the thought. She’d enjoyed the place for nearly a decade now. But with her assassination of the president—she was giving herself the full credit, even though the man was technically still alive—there could be no trace of her whatsoever. The house, her belongings, everything had to go. She had been meticulously wiping down the entire property. She was taking only what she could carry with her. But the little beeping made her stop to see what was happening.

Now here she was, watching and waiting to see what Marianne was stupid enough—no, that wasn’t it, narcissistic enough—to have kept on her computer. Everything was fine. Until it wasn’t. She should’ve known. How could she have been so careless? She’d believed Marianne wasn’t careless enough to have something like Alex’s dossier. That was enough. She should’ve triggered the virus as soon as she saw the computer come to life. She knew Marianne was gone already. There was no reason for her computer to be on.

Alex cursed herself for allowing this to happen. Maybe Marianne was a liability after all. No matter, that would have to wait. For now, she needed to stop this. She clicked a couple buttons and entered a code. She hit E
NTER
and watched as the screen began to pixelate. Then the screen began to rain with ones and zeros, and in a matter of seconds everything disappeared. And the screen went blank.

She shut the laptop and packed it in her backpack. Her flight left in less than two hours. She needed to set the charges on the house. If she hurried, she would have enough time to watch it burn to the ground before she left. She spent the next twenty minutes carefully going through the place, checking to make sure nothing was left that could connect to her, in case it miraculously survived the fire. She did one final sweep and closed the door behind her. She had just removed her latex gloves and stuffed them into her pocket when she felt her phone vibrate. She looked at the screen. She was a little surprised. Of all the people she never expected to hear from again, this one was at the top of her list.

“This is Ms. Smith,” she said politely.

“Ms. Smith, this is Mr. Chin. I would very much like to acquire your services.”

   CHAPTER 56   

T
aylor and Boz were looking at the photo when it happened. The screen just popped, and then everything began to pixelate. She immediately knew what it was.

“Wh–what’s happening?” Boz said. “It’s all going away. Do something!”

She already was.

The first rule of computers is to never detach a cable or device without properly ejecting it from the computer’s hard drive. This process usually consists of using the secondary click on the mouse and selecting the tab for ejecting the hardware
safely
, as the computer puts it. Not following this procedure could often lead to a corrupted, irretrievable drive. The second rule of computers is to never shut down the machine cold, unless it froze up and couldn’t be manipulated. Always, always, use the proper shut-down procedure. Not doing so could produce the same result as the mismanaged external hardware. Being a cautious computer nerd, Taylor never skipped the procedure.

Without even considering the downside, she yanked the Cat-5 cable out of Marianne’s computer and mashed the power button down on her laptop. Two seconds later, the machine whined to a stop. Ten seconds later, Marianne’s computer buzzed, made a couple popping sounds, and then the screen went completely crazy. Starbursts of color shot all over the monitor as the entire screen took on the likeness of a Picasso painting.

“What just happened?” Boz said when it was over.

Megan was furious. How could she not check for a worm like that before starting her search for the files? She had not followed her own procedure, and now this!

“What happened?” Boz repeated.

“That stupid hag had a worm installed!” she said. “I can’t believe I didn’t check it!”

“Calm down, Megan. You couldn’t have known.”

“Yes, Boz. I could have. I should have. Now we’ll never know what else was there.”

“Did you get any of it transferred onto yours?”

“Ha!” She threw up her hands. “I don’t even know if my computer was infected. For all I know, this thing is now a glorified paperweight!”

“Okay. Calm down. What do we need to do to find out?”

Taylor took a couple breaths and tried to calm herself. She thought for a moment. “I need to take this back to my office and start it up in safe mode. Our network is secure. And if the worm is operating via the net, it won’t be able to function there. If it got onto my computer, I’ll be able to quarantine it and remove it. But I have no idea what all it’s already destroyed.”

“Okay, then. Let’s get back to your office.”

The door to Marianne’s office opened up and Deputy Director Faigan stepped in. The title was extremely misleading, as the man was nothing more than a glorified assistant. He was currently acting as the liaison to Director Jennings. “Ah, excuse me,” he said, “but did either of you have anything to do with what’s going on out here?”

Megan gave the man a disgusted look. “It’s a server worm.”

“What’s that mean?” he asked.

“It means that anything connected to that server is blown. You can thank your former boss for that!”

The man gave her a quizzical look. “Former boss? What do you mean? I thought Director Levy had just taken personal time. Did something happen?”

“Oh, something happened, all right! You can tell everyone to just sit tight. Director Jennings will be calling to give you all an update. I wouldn’t count on seeing Director Levy again, though.”

The man’s eyes went wide. “Is she all right? Is everything okay?”

“Not if I find her,” Taylor snapped.

   CHAPTER 57   

K
eene had spent most of the rest of the day traversing the town and the surrounding areas looking for any trace of the Prophet. He had stopped and shown the picture to anyone who would look. Everyone had said the same thing.
Never seen him.

He’d tried to call in and see how Taylor and Boz were faring but got cut short both times. Apparently, Boz informed him, Taylor’s computer had been infected by something called a worm when she connected to Marianne’s office computer. He said they had news but couldn’t talk then, and he would call back. Keene had tossed the phone into the seat beside him, frustrated. He just wanted to get back on the plane and go home. But instead, he was here, in this dumpy little town, waiting to talk to a drug snitch about who knew what.

He went back to the roadside inn on the outside of town and got a room. It wasn’t the Ritz, but at least it was clean. He turned on the TV to see what was happening in the world outside of Hidalgo County. He fumbled with the remote until he found a news channel. The commentator was talking about the day’s events with the market. It seemed as if this whole market crisis wasn’t going away. There were a couple clips of President Walker giving a press announcement, asking the American public to be patient. He was asking the American people to set it aside for one day and try to enjoy the holiday. The government would be working round the clock to try to avoid a major financial catastrophe.