“I may be able to help. I have a few thousand identities online, and I have bots that can control them as a group. You can pretend to be thousands of people. You decide on the messages and the targets, and I will control them like sock puppets.”
“Thousands of sock puppets? You can control that many? They’d look like a grass roots movement.”
“Sure, let me show you.” As soon as Vyper typed in a command, a warbling sound from her laptop interrupted them. She pounded her fingers on the keyboard in rapid bursts, glared at the laptop, and typed some more.
Niko peeked at the screen but couldn’t make sense of what she was doing. When she finally stopped, he shook his head. “What happened?”
She looked up from the keyboard. “Someone was on an Onion router I just used—a hacker. It accessed the routing tables. I had to stop it and delete all evidence of my communication. Then I scrambled the system.”
“You crashed it?”
“Actually, I bricked it. That router will not come back online any time soon.”
Niko smiled. “I just thought about the poor guy who owns the computer you killed. He probably installed TOR software to pirate some music. I’ll bet he doesn’t even realize he’s on the dark net. Then, unknown to him, two hackers sneak inside his computer and start a fight.”
“If he did not want to pirate music, he would not get caught up in this.”
“You’re right, but I picture him sitting in his bedroom, playing a game, when the computer suddenly shuts down. When he tries to start it up, it just sits there like a brick.”
“I am being cautious. Perhaps it is only a coincidence, but it makes me worry when I see a hacker rummaging through a router I am using.”
“You’re the expert.” Niko scooted closer to her and looked at her laptop. “You were about to show me those online identities I can use.”
Vyper typed a command, and the warbling sound interrupted them once more. “Not a coincidence,” she said, as she bricked another router. “Someone is searching through the dark net, and they bumped into me twice.”
“What can we do? Would it help to sign onto a different private network?”
“Yes. The person who is searching may be looking for Onion routers near the Los Angeles network I have been using. We should switch to Atlanta or Chicago. Better yet, use a different private network each time you go online.”
Niko rested his hand on hers. “If you hadn’t stopped them, could they have located you? Identified you?”
“It is possible. Depends upon who it is.”
“Who could do this?”
“This is beyond most hackers. It was probably someone working for a government.”
“Like Russia?”
Vyper’s smile faded. “Yes, and I believe Sokolov is searching for me.”
“He doesn’t even know who you are. Why do you think he’s looking for you?”
“Last night, a system administrator at the National Bank of Cyprus died. He slashed both his wrists.”
“We stole Sokolov’s money from that bank.”
Vyper nodded. “Two days before you stole it, I broke into the bank’s system and retrieved the passwords to his accounts. They were encrypted, but not difficult to decode.”
“You believe Sokolov sent someone to interrogate him?”
“It is possible. They may have thought he was in on it. If not, maybe they figured he knew something. I plan to search for employees of the Cayman banks and some of the other banks we used to move the money. Perhaps some of them suffered a similar fate.”
“It might be a coincidence,” said Niko. “It’s only one suicide.”
“It is not just one. I have been searching for hackers from my past—like we did with your past. I discovered that one of the better programmers from my Prixster days was a single woman in Boston. I learned her name and address.”
“What happened to her?”
“She jumped from the balcony of her apartment last week—nineteen stories up.”
“Wow. That takes some determination… it could be another coincidence.”
Vyper shook her head. “The police found her pet, a small Pekinese, dead in her apartment—neck broken. Someone must have tried to question her.”
“Did you ever communicate with her as Prixster?”
“All the time. We were celebrities of a sort. Other hackers followed our chat room conversations. Our online relationship was well-known.”
“Prixster’s been ‘dead’ for a couple years. It doesn’t make sense for anyone to search for you.” Niko took the empty coffee cups to the sink. “Unless they had reason to believe you were alive—something I recently told Zatan.”
Vyper walked to the living room and sat on the couch.
Niko followed her. Normally, he would take a seat on the far end, hugging the arm rest, but today he decided to sit closer to Vyper—just a foot or two closer. “You think Sokolov’s trying to follow the money to you, and Zatan’s trying to find Prixster.”
She looked up from the computer, her hazel eyes locked onto his. “We are pretty sure Zatan works for Sokolov. They may have concluded I am the same person.” Her hand started to flap. “If they do find me, you will be in danger, too.”
Niko leaned closer. “I love you.” He reached out and held her head in both hands. “We’ll stop them. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Vyper’s flapping stopped and she gave a weak smile. She wrapped her arms around his waist.
He pulled her close and pressed his lips against hers. Sensing no reaction, he nibbled her lips with his, and teased them with his tongue.
Her eyes closed, and her mouth opened a bit, enough for Niko to reach the tip of her tongue. That must have flipped a magical switch, transforming her into a wanton woman. Her mouth opened wide, and she probed him as much as he probed her.
He wrapped one arm around her back, leaving the other free to settle on her breast. Even through the velour top, her breast was firm. Vyper’s back arched when he caressed her nipple. She sank lower into the couch. Encouraged, he pulled on the zipper and slid it lower to expose more flesh.
Niko moved his mouth to her neck and ear, kissing and nibbling everywhere. He moved her top, exposing more skin. His thumb touched her nipple. She reached up, grasped his hair, and moaned.
He ravaged her breast with his mouth, lips, and tongue. One hand reached for the other breast, while his other hand reached down for her track suit slacks, where Vyper’s hand was waiting.
He tugged lightly at the waistband, but she held firm. He tugged once again.
She sat up. “I am sorry. I cannot do this.”
Niko released her. He was still aroused, and now he was frustrated—but he loved her. “Did I do something wrong?”
She zipped up her top. “No. I wanted to do this… I thought I could… but I am afraid.”
“I love you, Vyper. I’d never hurt you. Can we talk about it?”
“I am not sure how to talk about it.”
“You’re afraid.” Niko was sure he knew why. “Are you a virgin?”
Her eyes looked off into the distance. “No.”
That wasn’t the answer he expected. “Were you ever in love?”
Vyper’s eyes met his. “My feelings for you are… stronger… than I have ever felt before. Maybe that is love.”
He wanted to make love to her but didn’t want her to pull away. “When you first had sex… did you… have strong feelings for the man?”
“No.” Her hand began to flap. “I never wanted sex from any of those men.”
Anger filled Niko’s mind as he pictured a man—more than one man—forcing themselves on her. He rested his hand on hers. “Did someone rape you?”
Vyper’s head rocked back and forth with no sign of stopping.