“Fine,” Young said. “Just get a message to her for me, will ya?”
“Sure. What do you want me to tell her?”
“Let her know that I can’t wait for her to get back so we can catch up. I’ve got a surprise for her.”
“Absolutely, sir.”
Young hung up and paced around the room. He didn’t worry about his daughter as much when she was away at school, but when she was staying with him, he couldn’t help wringing his hands when she was out late.
He glanced at his watch. I should’ve heard something by now.
CHAPTER 19
THE PHOENIX FOUNDATION offices hummed that evening with activity as the team attempted to sort through intel it had gathered to find the group responsible for the slaughter of the Texas lawmen. With Mia relocating to Washington, Blunt felt confident they’d be able to find the perpetrators quickly. And that was imperative given President Young’s brash new video. Despite his rising confidence, he was more concerned than ever about the nature of the attack.
Alex assumed the role of operations director, handing out assignments to Hawk and Mia as well as Titus Black’s handler, Christina Shields, to help with data analytics. Not that Alex craved to run point, but someone who knew how to conduct an investigation was required to head up the task. With Blunt bowing out to attend to other matters, she happily filled the void.
“The first thing I need you to do, Mia, is find out who was behind the hack of the Texas DOT cameras,” Alex said. “There’s no way that was just some random coincidence. I’ve given you access to their system, so you can sort through them and figure out what went wrong.”
“Just point me to a terminal,” Mia said.
“I’ve got an extra computer and desk for you,” Alex said. “I’ll take you to it when we’re done here.”
Alex asked Hawk to work with Christina Shields to see what they could find in the information gleaned on all of Nicolo’s customers and anything else the duo could unearth about the company’s employees. They also went over the details of Black’s special mission scheduled for the next morning. Once Alex finished, she led Mia to her office.
“So, this is what it’s like to work for the government,” Mia said as she scanned the Phoenix Foundation headquarters.
Alex chuckled. “Far from it. This is an outlier, an unprecedented anomaly. And I know that’s pretty much saying the same thing, but this is so drastically different, it’s worth underscoring like that.”
“What’s so different? You’ve got plenty of resources, state-of-the-art equipment, anything you could want at your disposal.”
“That’s exactly what most government agencies don’t have. They operate on strict budgets, which are subject to the whims of Congress. And in the intelligence sector, they have vastly overqualified and underpaid professionals. I can’t speak for other agencies, of course. But that’s the reality for most of the people out there battling crime.”
“That’s why it’s so easy to pull off what I pull—used to pull off.”
The two women entered Alex’s office.
“Don’t worry,” she said, gesturing toward the extra desk and computer. “You won’t get any judgment from me about your past, even if that was just a few weeks ago. When you helped us, you made up for anything you’ve ever done, at least in my book.”
“Let’s hope I can keep helping you because something strange is going on with all these hackers suddenly missing. And I’m very uneasy about it.”
“And those Texas DOT cameras? What do you think happened there?
Mia sat down at the desk and cracked her knuckles. “Let’s find out.”
Two hours later, Mia walked over to Alex’s desk. “I’ve found something.”
“What is it?”
“I know what caused the outage,” Mia said. “Or to be more specific, I think I know who caused the outage.”
“So, you’re sure this was sabotage?”
“As sure as I’m standing here. Come here, and I’ll show you.”
Mia returned to her desk and started typing, her fingers flying across the keyboard. After a few seconds, she leaned back in her chair and pointed at the screen.
“There was a command given to shut down the system right there,” Mia said. “Now, what’s crazy is that this is a type of sleeper virus that was planted in the system only a few minutes before it was activated.”
“Meaning what?”
“This wasn’t something that was planned. The creator inserted this into the system and turned it on almost immediately, gaining backdoor access to control the cameras in the area.”
“If someone was trying to turn the cameras off, why would they care how it was done?”
Mia shrugged. “There are other ways to turn it off, some that might arguably be easier. But I know who inserted this code into the Texas DOT computer system.”
“How can you be certain?” Alex asked.
“She left her calling card in the code. It’s her unique signature, mostly for other computer geeks to admire and verify that she’s done what she said she did.”
“But why would she do that on a job like this?”
“Normally, she wouldn’t on this type of job, which makes me think this was all hastily done.”
“From where?”
Mia shook her head. "Your guess is as good as mine. Inside the truck, maybe."
“The truck was cleaned out when we found it. I find it hard to believe they had mobile hackers inside with the equipment necessary to pull off something like this.”
“We hackers are a resourceful bunch.”
“But you know the identity of this person?”
Mia nodded. “It’s Rogue-87.”
“Her real name?”
“Charity Tucker. She’s from New York but moved to Poland several years ago to score better hacking gigs. Most clients prefer to hire someone in a more favorable country when it comes to evading cybersecurity stings. That’s not exactly high on the list of places where the Polish government wants to concentrate its law enforcement efforts. They’ve got far more pressing matters.”
“And you’ve met her?”
Mia nodded. “My brother begged me to meet her one night at a rave. So, I agreed. But she didn’t
