Rhea tapped her lips. “The next time Veil hires you to perform a Denial of Service attack, I want you to run a trace on his IP.”
DragonHunter stared at her incredulously. “Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
“I heard,” she said. “Trust me, I don’t ask this of you lightly. I promise you; Veil will be dealt with before he can make you disappear.”
The hacker met her eyes for a moment, but then dropped his gaze immediately.
“Your Warden is asking you to do this for her as a personal favor…” Rhea pressed.
“It won’t work,” DragonHunter said. “His connection is obfuscated. He bounces it across the world, past hundreds of encrypted nodes to hide his tracks. All the big crime lords do it. They have enough money to hire in-house cybersecurity staffs that dwarf those of major corporations, even governments. With the credits Veil rakes in, they’ll be the best in the business.”
Rhea smiled patiently. “But surely a renowned hacker such as yourself has a means to get around such obfuscation… a way to outsmart even the best cybersecurity operation in the business.”
He looked up once more, and she saw a strange, eager flicker within those eyes. She had suspected he wouldn’t be able to resist the chance to show off his hacking prowess: he wouldn’t be the first man who wanted to impress the Warden.
“There are ways,” he admitted. “It won’t be easy, but yes, there’s a chance I can track his connection when next he makes contact.” When DragonHunter realized he was still looking at her, he quickly dropped his eyes.
Rhea nodded. “Good. I want you to find out everything you can about him. Where he’s connecting from, what kind of AR system he’s using, his public profile… everything. Bonus points if you can plant a trojan in his goggles.”
DragonHunter shook his head and smiled. “I might be good, but I’m not that good. The most you can hope for, given my expectations regarding his staff and equipment, is his physical connection point. And I might not get even that. You have to understand, if I fail, he’s going to know.” He licked his lips apprehensively. “I’m going to have to be paid. Handsomely.”
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Ten thousand creds,” DragonHunter said without hesitation.
Rhea smiled patiently. “You know that I’m trying to restore Rust Town’s water?”
“I heard this, yes,” he admitted. “But I’m not a charity.”
“Sadly, I don’t have ten thousand creds,” Rhea said. “But if you succeeded, you would have the Warden’s eternal gratitude.”
The hacker didn’t answer. Rhea had the feeling she was losing him.
“You once lived in Aradne,” she said. “Am I correct in assuming you can’t go back?”
He nodded reluctantly.
“Then it’s in your best interest to help me,” she said. “You’re going to need water if you plan to stay here. Even if you spend your days in VR, the subdermal packs you use to hydrate your body will only hold out for so long. If you don’t help me, the water you carry in them is probably the last you’ll ever own.”
Still no answer.
“Veil tried to have me assassinated this morning,” Rhea said out of desperation.
His eyes widened. “What?”
“Yes,” she said. “On this very bed the attempt was made.”
DragonHunter’s eyes shifted to the bed. “This changes everything.”
Rhea nodded. “I hoped you’d say that.”
“You didn’t get any useful information out of the assassin, I assume…” the hacker said.
“Sadly, the attacker succumbed before I could interrogate him,” she told DragonHunter. “He did shout ‘for Veil’ before he went down. This Veil will try again at some point, no doubt. If he succeeds, all the plans I’ve set forth to restore Rust Town’s water supply will fail. That means you’ll have to leave the settlement behind and brave the Outlands. Or hope Aradne takes you back.”
“I’m never going back,” DragonHunter said. “I can’t.”
“Then I guess you’re helping me,” she said, smiling sweetly.
5
When DragonHunter and the others left, Rhea reviewed the remaining messages she’d received since last night. These were filtered and forwarded to her by the Wardenites, who handled most of the mail sent to the email address she had associated with her underground social media accounts.
She received a call from Will shortly after finishing the final message.
His hologram appeared at the foot of her bed.
“So, what are your thoughts on that guy?” Will said. “Think he’s the real deal?”
“I don’t know about his hacking prowess,” she said, “but I’ve received some messages from my SubverseTube subscribers that essentially corroborate everything he told us.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Will said. “I almost forgot you were going to post to your channel. So, you asked your followers to send you anything they had on Veil, and…”
“Well, he’s definitely some kind of big-time crime lord based in Aradne,” she replied. “Has a chokehold on the black market augmentation trade. It doesn’t surprise me he’s trying to branch out into other businesses such as banditry.”
“What is surprising, though, is why he’d have any interest in you,” Will said. “Maybe he doesn’t like your face.”
“Really, and what about all the fans you say are in love with this face?” she mocked.
Will shrugged. “It’s not for everyone.”
She scowled at him.
“Hey, you’ll only ever get the truth from me,” he said.
“And is my face for you?” she asked.
His hologram regarded her uncertainly. “While I’m not really big on faces with exaggerated, obviously cyborg features, yours works on you.”
“I guess that’s a compliment,” she said.
“It is,” he agreed.
“Anyway, getting back on to the topic of Veil, and his interest in me…” Rhea said. “It could be that I’m simply bad for business.”
“How so?” Will asked.
“Well, he’s been starting to ship bottled water to the settlement through
