Exploited
Page 29

Multiple chat windows were utilized during the hours prior to the attack. Proxies were used and chat rooms involved a layer of encryption we haven’t seen before.
I’ve attached the list of chat rooms, highlighting the repeated uses of a name we both recognize.
At least we now know what to look for.
Regards,
Tim
I opened the attachment and saw the list of IRC chat rooms. Most run-of-the-mill.
But for one.
**bike for sale**—2 chatting.
It was time-stamped the night of the Ryan Law DDoS attack at 21:00.
It could be a coincidence. But something told me it wasn’t. The cyber team spent their days filtering through Internet traffic. They perused IRC chat rooms, looking for a digital footprint.
This could be it.
There was a pattern here that Tim had picked up on. It could mean nothing.
Or it could mean a break in the case. Finally.
My stomach clenched. I scrolled through the rest of the attachments and found this same chat room coinciding with a previous brute-force attack on Smacktown, a sketchy online porn operation that had also delved into more criminal ventures, including possible murder. Authorities had never been able to pin anything on it, no matter how much they had tried. Smacktown had been hacked. Its database destroyed.
**bike for sale**
What did it mean?
I rubbed at my temple, willing the pounding to subside.
I realized Hannah was talking and I tried to focus on what she was saying.
“So I shouldn’t ask if you have plans for Friday, then?” Hannah asked.
I closed the email that had my attention and returned it to the woman on the other end of the phone.
Or tried to.
My head was now full of the cracker making my life a living hell.
“Uh…”
I balanced the phone between my cheek and shoulder and opened my IRC client, searching the channels. Looking for something. Anything.
Nothing.
I knew that Freedom Overdrive wouldn’t make it that easy.
“I’m getting the feeling this is a bad time.” Hannah sounded strained and I instantly felt like a dick. I didn’t want to be that guy.
“Sorry. It’s just work—”
“No need to explain. How about you call me when things ease up for you?” Shit, I didn’t want her to think I was blowing her off.
I wouldn’t blow her off.
“I’ll call you this evening. We can make plans.” I cast a quick look around the busy office and dropped my voice so that only she could hear me. “I want to see you again. Soon.” I hoped she could hear how much I wanted that.
“Good,” she murmured in my ear. I liked the sound of her voice. It excited me. It soothed me. Then I wasn’t thinking about the hacker or what I needed to do to catch him. I wasn’t thinking about the possible break in the case that had been emailed to me this morning.
I closed my mind to everything but the woman I was talking to.
And it felt good.
Work had always dominated my life to the detriment of everything else.
I thought of Dillon.
Of how I had promised to visit him that last weekend. I was going to take him outside, whether his doctors wanted him to or not. I was going to put a basketball in his hands, maybe for the last time.
We were going to be brothers like we used to be.
Only I never made it. I was stuck on a case. Buried in codes and data. I didn’t make the twenty-minute drive to the hospital to see my dying brother, even though I had told him I would.
Dillon slipped into a coma a day later.
He died being disappointed in me.
But talking to Hannah, even for a few minutes, took me away from Freedom Overdrive. It took me away from the very things that had consumed me.
This “distraction” might prove to be exactly what I hadn’t realized I needed.
“I’ll talk to you later,” I said softly, hesitating before hanging up the phone.
“Bye.” Then she was gone.
“Do you think Freedom Overdrive could be one of us?”
I startled, not realizing that Perry was standing behind me. How long had he been there? Crazy, intrusive fucker.
I narrowed my eyes and willed myself not to throttle my partner so early in the morning. The momentary good mood I had felt from my conversation with Hannah was all but obliterated.
I got to my feet, needing more coffee. Caffeine was the only thing that could sustain me.
“Don’t sneak up on people. It’s a good way to get yourself decked,” I warned. Perry scurried behind me, his short legs trying to keep up with my longer strides.
I walked into the break room and grumbled in disgust at the sight of the empty coffeemaker. I grabbed the pot and filled it with water.
“Sorry. I wasn’t eavesdropping. I was just trying to be polite, waiting for you to finish your phone call. Who were you talking to? Was it a woman? I heard you making plans. Does Madison know?”
Shit. It seemed my dalliance with Madison was common knowledge. Even to my normally oblivious partner. Apparently even FBI agents gossiped like old ladies.
I gave Perry a hard look. “My personal life is just that, my personal life. I’m not in the habit of making it public knowledge. So I’d appreciate it if you kept your questions and comments to yourself.”
Perry’s cheeks flushed bright red. “I just wondered. I thought, you know, since we’re partners on this case, that we could get to know each other better.”
I clenched my teeth in frustration. “It’s better we didn’t.”
Perry looked away, clearly disappointed and maybe a little hurt. I saw the way the other agents treated him. He was dismissed. Maligned. At times openly mocked. Sure, he didn’t do much to make the situation better, but I didn’t have to be like everyone else.
Perry might be an idiot, but he was a harmless idiot.
“What were you saying about Freedom Overdrive?” I asked, trying to give him a smile, though it was a sorry excuse for one.
“It’s nothing. I don’t know why I even brought it up,” Perry muttered, clearly still smarting from my rebuke.
The coffee had finally finished brewing and I poured myself a cup. “You want some?” I asked, trying for friendliness.
Perry nodded. “Sure. Thanks.”
I grabbed one of the clean mugs from the drying rack by the sink and poured Perry a cup, handing it to him.