The Hacker

"In order to move forward, I need to know why," (4)

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The Hacker... that's what everyone calls me,"

Amira rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "This must be a joke,"

Kai put his gun back into its holster in his jacket before rounding the table and sitting down across from the stranger. "We're not calling you that. Give us something else to work with," Kai said to him.

"Oh come on, man. That's my edge," he leaned forward.

Amira observed him and thought maybe he was actually younger than twenty five...

Kai stared at him for a while before shrugging, "alright I guess, whatever floats your boat."

"You can't be serious?" Amira scoffed. "We have no idea who this man is or who he's working for,"

"I can assure you, it's not for Paul." He leaned back; now comfortable enough.

"Do you really expect me to believe that?"

"I'm sorry and you are?" He leaned on the table and challenged her.

"Alright, alright," Kai finally cut in, "enough with the games. What do you want from us?"

The Hacker leaned back once again, "I can help you to find Paul,"

"And what's in it for you?"

"The satisfaction of taking him down. That fucker skipped town without paying me and then tried to pin some cyber crimes on me. I want payback," his voice was less playful then. Amira sensed that it was a little bit more than just that...

"Alright then, tell us what you have,"

The patrons around them started to get louder and more drunk as the time went by. It was sort of the perfect place to discuss these matters as most of them were rowdy and minding their own business.

—or so Amira thought... because just behind them, with his back facing them, a man sat with his ears ready to take in any information he could get. He had been following them all day as they went from place to place asking for Paul and Tom.

He had never seen her before but he knew of Amira. He knew how much she had meant to Tom... and he knew how much her head would mean to his uncle, Samuel. He had to let someone know she was here.

Amira felt the chair bump into hers as the stranger behind her quickly left the pub without apologizing. She shook her head and retuned to the conversation.

"We already knew he wiped the accounts clean and we checked their house today... it's been sold for a few weeks now. No one in this town even recognizes them and if they did, their lips are sealed." Kai sighed as he relayed the information.

"So we're stuck then," Amira sighed; already feeling drowsy. She welcomed it. Needed it.

"No we're not. I have the list of the shareholders of the company. I'm going to the library tomorrow to check the archives and see if any of the names match anything. Someone from the company must have been helping him."

Amira leaned forward, contemplating what the hacker just said. "Tom said an old colleague of his father contacted him and helped him out. Maybe the colleague is the uncle and he's one of the shareholders,"

The hacker considered her words and made a mental note to double check both Tom and Paul's family tree. "I'll see what I can find,"

"It seems you're in need of our help and not the other way around, hacker," she smirked at him.

__________________________

Looking up at the tall building before her, Brynne started to wonder just how she was going to fix this. Her mind stopped her a few times before she decided to go against her own better judgement. This time around, she didn't need Kai to help her find anyone. She had learned enough from him to snoop in the right places.