Scarlet Angel (21 page)

“
We’re not cops.”

“
Wow, you guys really like yer
coffee, huh? I can’t drink that much coffee. I mean, I just had
some a little while ago, even though I know I shouldn’t. It totally
gets me wired.”

The passenger coughed and shifted in his seat again.
A glint of metal peeked out from inside his coat.

“
I’m sorry...” The driver
struggled to keep his eyes on Scarlett’s face. “You should probably
get going. My, ah... friend’s girlfriend will be coming out any
second. Wouldn’t want her to see you chatting us up,
right?”

Scarlett’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah. I totally get
that. I mean, like... I had this one boyfriend, he wasn’t a cop or
anything like you, and he totally talked to every girl he could.
And I thought that after three weeks we were kinda serious. I mean,
what a jerk, right?”

The passenger nodded. “Yeah, he was a jerk.”

“
Look, we’re not cops, okay?”
Irritation trickled into the driver’s voice.

Scarlett gave an exaggerated wink. “Oh, okay. I
totally get it. Right? Like, wouldn’t want anyone around here
knowing you got a witness, right? I even knew this one guy, and
after we, um... ya know, did it? He totally tried to tell me he was
going into the Witness Protection Program. That was another jerk. I
mean, like they’d ever let him tell anyone. But that totally taught
me to never do it before the first date, ya know?”

The passenger’s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull.
The driver just pinched his brow. “Miss...”

“
Yeah?”

“
I must insist that you keep
walking.” The driver’s voice was stern.

Scarlett pouted again. “Aw, but you guys are such
good listeners. I mean—”

“
Fine!” he yelled.

She leaned back and tried to look surprised.

“
Fine. Look, we’re FBI and we’re
just keeping an eye on someone, okay? It might be dangerous, so I
really
need you to leave now.”

“
Oh... Okay.” Scarlett turned to
leave but then leaned back over. “Wow, like, really FBI? That’s
totally cool!”

“
MA’AM!”

“
Oh, yeah. Right. Bye
boys!”

The man in the passenger seat waved.

Scarlett walked past the car and crossed the street.
Men.
When she turned the corner and was out of their line of
sight, she stopped. A few feet ahead, she found a brick wall and
scaled it. She climbed a garden trellis in the small yard and
climbed through an open window into an unoccupied apartment.

On the third floor, she found the door with Dax’s
number and knocked. His door jamb looked as if it had been repaired
at least once.

She knocked two more times before she started to
question if Dax had given her the right address. Scarlett turned on
one heel and started to leave when a metal click came from the
door. She turned to see Dax’s face appear.

“
Sorry it took so long.” He pulled
open the door.

Scarlett stepped from the dimly lit hallway into
Dax’s even darker apartment. “No problem.”

Inside, Scarlett could see why it had taken Dax so
long to get to the door. He led her through a maze of old fast food
containers, beer cans, and dirty laundry. She stepped over a plate
with several half-eaten pizza crusts.

“
I should probably let you know
that there are a couple FBI agents watching you.”

Dax froze and spun around. “What? Holy shit! Feds?
Ohshit. Ohshit. I can’t go to prison.” He raked his fingers through
his hair.

Scarlett rolled her eyes. “It’s alright, I don’t
think they’re after you.”

“
I know.” He relaxed and smiled.
“Just kidding. I knew they were there. They’ve been watching for
Zinchenko. Guess you kinda put a crimp in that plan,
huh?”

“
You’re a dumbass.”

Dax led her into a bedroom at the back of the
apartment. She looked around and was at a loss for words. Besides
the massive desk covered with computer screens, three keyboards and
a few computer devices she’d never seen before, there was the room
itself.

Scarlett ran her hand along the wall, feeling its
steel surface. She looked back to see the door made of heavy gauge
steel as well. “Dax, what the hell is this? It’s like a damn
fortress.”

He spun around and opened his arms wide. “I know,
right? It’s a saferoom. I call it my Fortress of Solitude. The
walls are quarter-inch steel.”

Dax pointed to a vent near the ceiling. “I’ve got my
own ventilation system and food stock. There’s landline data with
redundant high-band wireless backup.”

Scarlett took in the whole room. She was impressed,
but by his paranoia. “So, what’s all this for?”

He plopped down into a ratty office chair and leaned
back. “Welp, while in the employ of one family or another, I’ve had
at least three attempts on my life. After the first one, I had this
installed. The door stays locked unless I want to come in or
out.”

“
You realize that’s a little
obsessive, right?”

“
Oh, totally. But doesn’t my
genius allow for a little eccentricity?”

She laughed. “I guess so.”

Dax spun in his chair and pulled a keyboard closer.
“So, what’re we doing, sexy?”

Scarlett pulled the cell from her pocket and set it
on the desk. She smacked the back of his head. “Don’t call me that.
Here’s the phone.”

“
Ow. Sure thing, boss.” He picked
up the phone and started taking it apart.

“
That’s better. So, how long can
you stay cooped up in here?”

Dax slid a small card out from a port on the
cellphone. “Well, a few days, at least. Like I said, I’ve got a
pretty good food stash.”

Scarlett looked around. “A few days, huh?”

“
Yep.”

“
So, ah... where do you go to the
bathroom?”

Chapter 33
Delete

The most heinous crime is not just killing a man. It
is erasing him from history.

* * *

Dax froze. “Where do I go to the bathroom?”

Scarlett scanned her friend’s ‘Fortress of
Solitude.’ The large metal box in his apartment was an amazing
structure. With its own air, food, power and data connections, it
was almost the perfect safe room. Almost. “That is what I
asked.”

He pushed the small cellphone data card into his
computer and paused. His head tilted to one side. He turned and
looked at Scarlett with a scrunched face.

Dax shook his head and went back to the computer.
“You know, dat’s exactly why I don’t let other people in. Always go
poking around and putting holes in my perfectly good, if flawed,
plans.”

She giggled.

“
Whatever.” His fingers blurred
over his keyboard. “As for what’s on this card... Let’s see, your
mystery man is Frank Grendini.” Dax opened a search window on his
computer. “Wow... Not sure yer mommy and daddy would approve of you
seeing a lad such as this. Fired from UDI for sexual assault, a
warrant for his arrest in three states... two for rape and one for
assault with a deadly weapon.”

An image of Frank’s pock-marked face flashed through
Scarlett’s mind. Her stomach twisted. She reached over Dax’s
shoulder and closed the search window.

Dax batted her hand away. “HEY!”

Her jaw was clenched. She had to force her mouth to
open. “That’s enough. Just make the son of a bitch disappear.”

“
Yes Ma’am.”

Another small window appeared and quickly filled
with code. Scarlett recognized some of the program Dax was writing
as a search protocol.

She paced back and forth across the metal room,
trying to keep the memories of Frank Grendini away. Frank had
destroyed her life, killed her, for all intents and purposes. But
as much loathing as she had for Frank, she had even more for the
man who hired him, Derrick Martins.

Dax’s voice brought her back to reality. “So, ah...
this guy. He the one?”

“
I don’t want to talk about
it.”

“
Don’t suppose one of those
warrants relates to you...”

Scarlett lowered her voice and hissed through
clenched teeth. “Dax.”

“
Alright, alright. I got it.
Anyway, here you go.”

Scarlett stood next to her friend and stared at his
screen with her brows scrunched. “What exactly am I looking at,
besides four hundred and twenty seven lines of code?”

Dax smirked. “This is a worm. You do remember what
that is, right? Or have you been out of it that long?”

She glared at him from the corner of her eye.

“
Okay, fine. Anyway, this virus’ll
crawl d’ net, public and private, in search of anything on our
friend here. Any finds get deleted.”

“
What about high-security
networks, banks and such? How does it get in those?”

Dax smiled and put his hands behind his head.
“Ahh... that’s the beauty of it. It’s what I call a smart-worm.
This little beauty changes its signature to look like a simple
transaction, a net cookie or whatever, so most networks are not a
problem. But, for those that it still can’t get in? It sends back a
request for assistance. I’ll hack through and let the little bugger
in.”

“
Good, kick it.”

He rolled his chair back and looked up at her.
“Jil... I mean, Scarlett. You sure you want to do this?”

Scarlett leaned over, putting her face a couple
inches from Dax’s. “This launches it?”

Dax’s eyes shifted from her face to her arm, then
down to her finger hovering over the enter key. “Yes.”

She pushed the button.

Scarlett stood and headed for the door. “Thank you,
Dax. I’ll be in touch.”

“
Alright then.”

She left the apartment and slammed the door. A small
part of her fumed that Dax questioned her resolve.
How dare he?
I mean, did he think I was hiring him to just pretend to do
it?

Scarlett stormed down the hall. She ignored the door
at the far end of the hall as it cracked open. She turned and
bounded down the stairs.

At the ground floor, she shoved open the glass door
to the building and stepped into the sunlight. The bright light
made her stop and shield her eyes. By the time her eyes adjusted,
two FBI agents stood in front of her.

“
Shit.”

Her shoulders sagged. She focused on changing her
mood as she looked the two men over. The man on her left held up
his wallet with his FBI identification naming him as Agent Malory
Barnes. His coat bulged from his gun holster. Scarlett glanced down
to see another small bump from Barnes’s backup ankle holster.

The other man, Agent James Cortega according to the
ID he held, was like a cat ready to pounce. The slightest wrong
move from Scarlett, and she suspected he’d reach for his gun.

Agent Barnes looked her up and down. “Hello
again.”

Scarlett rolled her eyes. “I didn’t touch him. He’s
up there, alive and well.”

Both men stared at her for a moment. Agent Barnes
opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t seem to find the words.

“
Look, guys. I’m not after your
witness and I don’t work for Zinchenko. Can I go now?”

Agent Barnes blinked. “Uh... no! I’ve got a few
questions for you.

Scarlett shifted from one foot to the other and put
a hand on her hip. “Fine.”

“
Let’s start with who you are and
how you know
Mr. Lewis?
”

Despite her irritation, she struggled not to laugh.
“Mr. Lewis? Dax is an old college friend. He’s doing a little
programming work for me.”

Cortega pulled out a small commpad. “Nice try.
Daniel Lewis didn’t go to college.”

Scarlett’s amusement broke through. She chuckled.
“That little punk. Yes, he did. He just didn’t finish. He probably
went back and erased that he was ever there.”

Barnes rolled his eyes. “Where?”

“
U.C.”

“
Maybe, but that still doesn’t
answer my question. Who are you? And let’s have some
ID.”

She sighed and put her driver’s license in Cortega’s
outstretched hand. “Alright. My name is Scarlett Angel. I’m a
corporate security consultant. Mr. Lewis... is developing a
prototype virus to test my client’s anti-intrusion systems.”

“
And your client is?”

“
I’d rather not say.”

Cortega swiped her card against his own commpad.
Scarlett hoped the ID forger she’d hired was as good as he
claimed.

The second agent held up his screen for Barnes to
see. “Alright then. You seem to check out. Sorry for the
intrusion.”

Cortega handed her back her ID.

“
Nice to meet you gentlemen. Can I
go now?” Scarlett tried to give a genuine smile. She doubted she
was pulling it off.

Barnes held up his hand. “Uh, not just yet. You seem
in an awful hurry.”

“
I have a meeting on the other
side of town.”

“
With your
client?
”

Scarlett smiled. “Actually, no. I’m meeting a friend
for coffee. Would you like to join us? She’s single and has a
great
personality.”

Barnes’s eyes narrowed. “Ah, no. No thank you. Just
um, why all the games? And what made you mention Zinchenko?”

“
It’s my business to know these
things. At first, I didn’t know who you were. So I had to find out.
You know, protect my
asset
and all.”

“
Alright. I s’pose that’s good for
now.” Agent Barnes held out his business card. “Call me if anything
pops up you think we should know.”

Scarlett took the card handed the man her own.
“Don’t worry, I will. Though, knowing what I know about Dax and
Zinchenko, I don’t think they’ll be interacting very much any time
soon.”