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I was blinded, the brightness burning my retinas. I could almost feel the heat from the lamps even through the window. I closed my eyes against the onslaught and then turned my head, trying to look anywhere else but directly at it. Everything else I saw was shadows, such as the outline of Brandon on the couch.
“Corey Henshaw,” someone said from beyond the lights.
They thought he was Corey! I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. I tilted forward, the brick I was on teetering but I corrected my balance and focused. I kept the phone in my hands, ready to use it as a weapon, or possibly to call for the police if I needed to. I thought about calling for them now, but I didn’t want to if they had guns pointed at Brandon, and I couldn’t see at this point what they were holding.
I wanted to call Marc and the others, but I didn’t know their individual numbers by heart. I couldn’t think of who else to call.
“What do you want?” Brandon asked, keeping his head turned away.
My heart rocked against my ribs. If he was going to let them think he was Corey, if they somehow found out it wasn’t true, they might kill him and then try to go after the real Corey.
“Where’s your girlfriend?” one of the men asked.
Brandon shrugged. “Don’t know who you’re talking about. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
Fingers snapped somewhere beyond the bright white light. “She’s probably not far. Take the car and retrace the route. See where she ended up.”
“Did you want her or me?” Brandon asked. “Leave her alone and get to what you wanted.”
Car doors slammed and the car started as the garage door rolled up. I caught the movement as the car inched backward. With the bright light on, it was hard to tell who left and who didn’t. I was tempted to move to get a different angle, but I didn’t want to miss anything and I didn’t see other windows.
“Sorry it had to come to this,” the accented voice said. Was it familiar? I tried to think but couldn’t place the voice. The accent was making me think I’d heard it before. “You’re the only one who can help us.”
“You’ve got a funny way of asking for help.”
“We tried being nice about this,” the voice said. “We asked you to come work for us.”
I sucked in a breath. Some guy who spoke German had jumped from his car when I was on a walk with Corey, wanting to hire him. I was pretty sure this was the same person. Had it been the same car? In the heat of the moment, I didn’t recognize it, but now I tried to recall the shape, the color.
Brandon turned his head, facing the voice. “You’ve got my attention now.”
“We need your expertise. We’ve got a problem with a particular bit of code.”
“That’s it?” Brandon asked. “You’ve got a computer problem? Try tech support next time. There’s usually an eight-hundred number.”
“See, you’re not even listening,” the voice said. “Need I remind you of where you are, and that we’ll have your girlfriend again, soon.”
“Still don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“Then I guess after I catch her, I can just shoot her. No need for her running to the police about this.”
He wasn’t going to convince them I was a nobody he was next to in bed. Not after Corey pretty much said I was his girlfriend the first time the German had approached him. Brandon shook his head. “You don’t want her in the middle of this. Trust me. She’s a handful.”
I had to smile. I was almost proud of that.
“Enough,” the German said. “You do understand my meaning.”
“I’m not working with anyone I don’t know,” Brandon said. “Tell me who you are.”
“Oh no, Mr. Henshaw. You had your chance to play fairly. Now you have to do it our way.”
“Why don’t you get to the point?”
I surveyed the situation. I evaluated my chances of taking on who was left or sneaking in somehow to help him. Bright lights were useful for intimidation, a scare tactic; I’d learned that much from watching too much television.
Clever, careful. That was a problem—these guys were smart. The warehouse otherwise appeared empty. If they needed a computer fixed or a code looked at, they picked a really crappy place. Either they had a laptop with them, or their equipment wasn’t here, which meant this was a temporary holding place and Brandon would be moved to their headquarters. I hoped they’d stay. I didn’t know where I was, but I was sure if I could find Corey’s real number somehow, I’d be able to get him to track my location and get them to help. The only problem was, I didn’t know his number, or anyone else’s.
“We need Murdock’s Core,” the German said.
“Are you insane?” Brandon asked. “That’s impossible.”
“Since when was anything impossible for DepthCrawler? That was your signature, wasn’t it? You should be able to get it, you wrote the Guard Dog security packet they utilize to keep people out. Don’t you remember?”
Now they were talking over my level. What core? I could only guess it was something valuable. Maybe access to credit card information?
“Why don’t you ask the guy who owns the core if you need access so bad,” Brandon said. “That’d be the easiest.”
“Because he died, Mr. Henshaw, or else we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
“That’s too bad,” Brandon said. “Guess you’re out of luck.”
“No,” the German said. “There’s still you.”
“I’m telling you, I can’t get you access to the core. I’d need access to the building, and they’re not going to let me near the place long enough to fiddle with their server. Hacking it from elsewhere would be near impossible and could take years if I’m the only one working at it. And if I could access it, what would stop me from using it? Or selling it to someone else?”
A figure stepped forward, his shadow harsh against the onslaught of light. It was the German, from the shape of him.
“You’re going to figure out the key and deliver long distance to the core to me, so I can use it whenever I wish. You’re going to break down the security and find a way. You can break through your own security protocols, can’t you?”
“Why me?” Brandon asked. “There's a bunch of hackers who would love to give this a try.”
“We’re asking you,” the German said, “because we’re sure you can do it again.”
Brandon turned his head. I could almost feel his teeth grinding and his jaw clenching from the strain on his face.
I didn’t totally understand what was going on. What kind of hacking was Corey roped up in? Is that what he does?
How did these Germans find out?
“And if I do this, you’ll leave us alone?” Brandon asked.
“We’ll even give you a percentage.”
“I don’t want it,” Brandon said quickly.
The German shrugged and I got hit by a beam of light as he moved. I was going to go blind tonight.
“If you say so. If you don’t do what we ask, we’ve got you, and we’ll find your girlfriend and will make sure neither of you get back home. We’re really good at that.”
The car returned. A voice spoke, even though a car door didn’t open. “She’s not in the street from here until the Mark Clark. Either she’s dead from flying off the bride on the way here because she jumped early, or she’s already hitched a ride and is on her way back. Or maybe she called the police. It’ll take more than two of us to find her.
“Don’t worry about her. You can’t use her to get to me. It won’t work. This whole thing is pointless,” Brandon said, his voice rising. “How am I supposed to get anywhere close to the core?”
“We emailed you before. You should know. Or did you trash it without reading it? You really should pay attention to your email,” the German said.
“What do you want me to do? Sneeze on the fucking thing?” Brandon yelled at him. “I’ve got my hands tied, and the moment they’re free, I’ll be swinging. Because that's about as much as I’ll do f
