“Pixie, good to see you, buddy. What brings you here? Is Andy with you?”
Jake wheeled over to Andy’s friend, who shook his proffered hand a bit timidly.
Something was up with this kid, Jake thought. Something had him unsettled.
“Hello, Mr. Dent, and no, to answer your question Andy’s not here. I came alone.”
“Please call me Jake. We’ve been through a lot together, so I think we can skip the formalities. What brings you to ‘The Pleasure Pit’?”
Pixie went silent, eyes to the floor, hands in his pocket, feet shuffling.
“Talk to me, Troy.” Most everyone called Troy by his nickname, but Jake wasn’t big on joining the crowd.
“I’ve been doing some work,” Pixie said, keeping his voice soft.
“Work?”
“Trying to figure out who stole the bitcoins from us.”
“Yeah? How’d it go?”
“I wasn’t getting anywhere. The public key was still there, but the amounts had changed, meaning somebody had transferred or sold some of the coins to a different public key that I didn’t know about.”
“How?”
“Well, that’s the thing. I figured the thief-well, the other thief, not us-might use Bitcoin Fog to try and hide the transaction.”
“ ‘Bitcoin fog’?” Jake needed clarification.
“It’s a bit complicated, Mr. Dent-Jake-but let’s say, you can use the service to sell the coins anonymously. Anyway, I had set up a monitor because I thought David was the thief, and I wrote a program that would alert me if he ever accessed that service from his school computer.”
“And?”
“And he didn’t,” Pixie said.
Jake contained his disappointment.
“But I realized something about my program. I was actually logging a lot more data than I was looking at. I was scanning the IP address of everyone at the school.”
Jake’s expression came alive. “Let me guess. You got a hit, right?”
“I did.”
“Whose computer was it?” Jake asked.
Pixie did something on his smartphone and held up the device so that Jake could see the display.
Jake’s mouth fell open wide. “Are you sure about this, Troy? Are you sure?”
“Only a thousand percent.”
CHAPTER 51
One month later
Jake and Ellie hovered by the closed door of the large conference room adjacent to Lance’s expansive office. In addition to Lance, six members of The Shire waited inside for Jake and Ellie’s arrival. Jake was dressed in a gray suit and no tie, and Ellie wore a cream-colored top accented by a silver necklace, dark pants, and no gun. She was on medical leave, which was fine by her. It gave her more time with Kibo and her other dogs.
Jake was still using his cane, an oak shaft with a brass-embossed collar and classic derby-style handle. While the surgery on his shoulder and hand had been a success, he’d never be the same again. The fingers didn’t move quite as dexterously, and the pain never completely went away.
Jake was about to step inside, but paused at the door to take Ellie in his arms. She was not in much better condition: hours of surgery followed by extensive rehab, which was still ongoing. But her hands were fine, and on one finger was the diamond ring Jake had put there while she was still in the hospital.
Jake touched her face with his injured hand. She reached up and clutched it to her cheek, unable to get him close enough.
“Are you ready for this?” Jake asked.
Ellie’s expression implied the concern was misplaced. “Are you?” she asked.
“What choice do I have?”
“We always have choices, Jake.”
Jake gave Ellie a gentle kiss. “Then I choose to love you,” he said.
He opened the conference room door. Ellie went inside and Jake followed.
Lance, dressed in a crisp blue suit and striking red tie, rose from his seat at the head of a long mahogany table and came over to give Jake and Ellie each a hug. He might not have endured the tunnels, but the experience had an aging effect on Lance as well.
The kids, wearing new school uniforms, remained seated. Andy and Hilary sat next to each other, holding hands. They were an official couple, though from the Facebook messages Beth MacDonald had been sending Andy, not everyone was pleased. David, Rafa, and Pixie were to the left of Andy and Hilary. Solomon was to the right. The six former members of The Shire sat glum-faced, deeply solemn, and quiet in an uncomfortable way.
Jake had just returned from a long meeting with Leo Haggar and the FBI, and he had news to share. To this day, nobody knew for certain the identities of who’d been held hostage inside the school. Everyone in The Shire denied they were involved and provided credible alibis for their whereabouts. It was intentional, given they could still be targets for retribution. Jake had been treated for his injuries, which he explained away as a camping accident-a knife to the hand followed by a tumble off a trail. Rumors swirled, of course; but like the tunnel maps that cropped up from time to time, some of those were close, while others were way off base.
From his hospital room, until today, Jake had functioned as the group’s ambassador, a spokesperson for leniency. It was a necessary role, too. The six students were technically criminals. They were computer hackers, and bank robbers, and while their actions might have been well-intentioned, their methods could hardly be condoned or go unpunished. There had been extensive conversations, with the threat of arrest hovering over the students’ heads, but so far no formal charges had been filed. No public records existed, which also helped safeguard the identities of the hostages.
The FBI still had their hands full. Bodies had long been removed, statements taken, forensics done, and evidence gathered. The FBI initially had been quite harsh with Jake, threatening to press charges, but it was all bark and no bite. For all their bravado, the FBI was profoundly grateful and pleased with the outcome. In total, fifteen murdering cartel operatives were dead, opening cracks into Arturo Soto’s seemingly impenetrable criminal empire. Still, the threat of retaliation from Soto remained a constant worry, a scar left behind that might never fade.
Consequences.
Now it was time for a different moment of truth. Had Jake and Ellie worked their magic with Haggar and the other higher-ups at the Bureau? Could an immunity deal be struck?
Lance returned to his seat, with Jake to his right and Ellie to his left.
Jake’s expression remained grim when he said, “We cut the deal. Nobody is getting charged.”
It was good news, what everyone wanted, but that didn’t make it cause for celebration. “I have the paperwork with me,” Jake said. “You’ll have to sign it with your attorneys and your parents present. Speaking of parents, the ones you stole from don’t want the money returned. In fact, many of them have given to the same organizations you donated to on their behalf. So that’s done.
“But here’s the thing. And I mean it, too. No more hacking. Not once. Not ever. You do it and get caught, you’re going to jail and they’ll charge you as adults. It’s in the paperwork, but I wanted you to hear it from me as well. No hacking. Is that understood?”
Heads nodded, but nobody spoke. The mood was too intense for words.
David broke the heavy silence. “What about school?”
Jake looked over at Lance. “Not my department,” he said.
Lance spoke up. “Business as usual,” he said. “We don’t want to draw any attention to your identities. Go about your lives. It’s the best for everyone involved. But know this-I’m deeply disappointed in your choices and your actions, but I’m far more grateful that you’re all here at this table.”