I ground my teeth, watching the screen, waiting for the response. I didn’t like having to explain myself. I wasn’t used to it. Being solitary, it wasn’t something I had a lot of practice in.

The problem with having a partnership.

00:32 <T0x1cwrath> We are a team. I need the details.

I clenched and unclenched my fingers.

We were a team. But only so far.

Mason was mine. He had nothing to do with Toxicwrath.

I wouldn’t share him.

I wouldn’t share us.

00:33 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> Why the rush on Virtuant?

I changed the subject, giving Toxicwrath nothing.

00:34 <T0x1cwrath> There’s a program we want. No time like the present.

I didn’t like the vagueness. Not when it came to an attack. I needed more details.

00:35 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> I need more than this. Why Virtuant? What have they done?

The response was immediate.

00:35 <T0x1cwrath> I trusted you about Ryan. Trust me about Virtuant. We each have a cause. They coexist. I need your help with this. Just as I helped you with Ryan Law.

Did I trust Toxicwrath?

Yes.

As much as I was capable of trusting someone I didn’t know.

My secret hacker friend had proven himself a capable partner. Relying on someone else was difficult, but it helped to share the burden of my mission.

Toxicwrath was clearly talented. His cracking was top notch. Clean.

I had other targets. I could go back to doing things solo.

Or I could accept the help he offered.

00:36 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> What’s the plan for Virtuant?

I had made my decision. I’d trust Toxicwrath. He hadn’t led me astray yet.

00:37 <T0x1cwrath> Great. Glad you’re on board. Need your help with hashing attack. And then an SQL integration.

Hashing attack? Toxicwrath wanted the passwords. But why? And an SQL integration was a little old school. I was confused.

00:38 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> What’s the hashing at Virtuant?

Hashing was the encryption of passwords. My guess was a tech company like Virtuant would have heavy-duty encryption to prevent data breaches.

I felt a ping of alarm.

00:39 <T0x1cwrath> Bcrypt.

Bcrypt? Seriously? Decrypting those passwords would take years!

00:40 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> How is this possible then? And what is the point of taking the passwords?

00:41 <T0x1cwrath> Virtuant has over 5 million passwords stored on the company server that uses SHA1. Easy.

“Easy” was probably a bit of an overstatement, but I trusted in Toxicwrath’s abilities.

00:42 <Freed0m0verdr1v3> What will we do with the passwords?

00:42 <T0xicwrath> We sell them.

Wait. What?

Sell them?

00:44 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> I’m not sure about that. It’s not about money.

00:44 <T0x1cwrath> It’s always about money.

For me it wasn’t.

I didn’t like this as a motivation.

Before I could express any further concerns, Toxicwrath allayed my fears.

00:45 <T0x1cwrath> Money siphoned into a nonprofit account. You pick the receiver. I’ll take care of the details.

I thought about Mason’s checks to the cancer foundation in his brother’s name.

I laughed. It would be kind of perfect.

I sent Toxicwrath the details.

There was no going back now.

Chapter 10

Mason

“I had a good time last night.”

I took a long drink of the coffee I had gotten earlier from Nan’s Coffee Shop. I was sitting at my desk, my email open, not able to concentrate on any of it.

Because of the woman I couldn’t stop myself from calling.

“Me too,” she said softly.

I could hear the sound of people talking in the background.

“You at work?” I asked.

“Yeah. You?”

I took another drink of coffee. “Yeah. Early morning. No rest for the wicked and all that.”

Hannah chuckled. “Me too. Including the wicked part.”

“When can I see you again?” I found myself asking.

Too eager, Mason, I chastised myself.

I didn’t care. I wasn’t playing games. I wasn’t going to pull some macho bullshit where I pretended to be aloof when all I wanted was to be around her some more.

Life was too short for that crap. And somehow I knew Hannah wouldn’t appreciate the pretense.

I thought about that moment when I had found her in my bedroom last night. There had been something in her eyes that had bothered me.

It had looked like fear.

It had confused me.

I had felt my own fear when I realized my work briefcase was on the chair. The agent in me had become instantly suspicious.

Had she looked inside?

Why was she in here?

What did she want?

I shouldn’t have brought hard copies of my case files home. It was a rookie move. Despite my cyber job, I liked paper in my hands. I needed to go over details in black and white and not on a screen. It helped focus me. Sometimes it provided insight I couldn’t get from staring at a computer.

And I hadn’t expected Hannah to find her way into my bedroom.

I had hoped, for obvious reasons, but certainly not expected it.

The questions had been forgotten when I kissed her. Maybe that was stupid, but I couldn’t let my innate paranoia ruin what was building with Hannah.

I had wanted only a distraction.

Hannah was proving to be more than that.

I just wasn’t entirely sure what yet.

“I’d say this weekend, but that probably makes me sound a little too eager,” she answered lightly, and I grinned.

“Maybe a little,” I teased.

My email pinged and I noticed a new message from Agent Garson in cyberforensics. He had been compiling a list of IPs to try to find the source of the botnet attack on Ryan Law. We knew it could take weeks to filter through the thousands of routers used in the attack.

I anticipated another run-of-the-mill email letting me know that he was getting nowhere fast.

But when I clicked on the email, I felt a pang of excitement.

From: Garson, Timothy <Timothy.Garsonic.fbi.gov>

Subject: IRC monitoring

Date: March 7, 2016 09:45

To: Kohler, Mason <Mason.Kohleric.fbi.gov>

The IP source is untraceable due to the use of hijacked IP addresses. However, monitoring of IRC chats has yielded possible clues to origins of attack.