Hellbent

Catching Orphan X and making him feel every ounce of pain that she lived with day and night.

She crawled through the window back into the toilet stall, walked out of the bathroom, turned left into the crowded gym, and mounted the StairMaster.

Beneath her shirt her ruined skin itched and burned, but she blocked out the pain. She’d keep at it for two hours, time enough for the cops to arrive and find Mr. Super PAC back-floating in a pool of his own blood.

So many residents could say precisely where the fetching divorcée had been since the moment she stepped out of her rented house this morning.

The gym was mirrored from wall to wall, and in the countless reflections, she could see every eye on her.

After all, Candy could work a StairMaster.

29

End-Stopped

As they barreled along the freeway, Joey reached into the backseat to retrieve the laptop that Evan had taken from the headquarters in Portland. She fired it up, then flexed her fingers like a gymnast about to tackle the uneven bars.

Evan glanced over from the driver’s seat. “Careful you don’t trip an autoerase—”

“Yeah,” she said. “I got it.”

He drove for a while as she clicked around. The late-morning sun beat down on the windshield, cooking the cracked dashboard. A pine-tree air freshener long past expiration spun in circles from the rearview. Above the speedometer a hula girl bobbed epileptically on a bent spring.

“Finding anything?”

Joey held up a wait-a-sec finger. “This is some heavy-ass encryption.”

“Can you break it?”

“I don’t know.”

“‘I don’t know’ isn’t an answer.”

“Thanks, Jack.” Her fingers skittered across the keyboard. It was like watching someone play an instrument. “I’ll tell you this, you certainly couldn’t.”

“Yes or no, Joey.”

“There are maybe a handful of people in the world who could hack this,” she finally said, “’n’ I’m one of them. But it’ll take some time. And a fast Internet connection.”

“Van Sciver knows you’re with me. So we have to assume he knows you can get to whatever information’s guarded in there. He trained you.”

“Please. I was better than him to begin with. It’s the only thing I had, growing up. We’re talking sixteen, eighteen hours a day online, checking out 2600, using the darknet and stuff. I put in lots of private IRC hacker chat-room time, too, like, browsing the chans, vulns, and sploit databases, fooling around with Scapy, Metasploit, all that. It was one of my selling points. Back when I was, you know, a wanted commodity. Before I was useless.” She grinned and closed the lid. “He knows I’m good but has no idea how good.”

“Once we hit L.A., I’ll set you up in a safe house. I want what’s in that laptop as quickly as possible.”

“I’m gonna require a crate of Red Bull and a Costco tub of Twizzlers.”

“You’ll have what you need.”

“And Zac Efron. I want Zac Efron.”

“Who’s Zac Efron?”

“God, you’re old.” She smiled, and it was like turning on a light, her face luminous. She observed him observing her. “What?”

“I haven’t seen you smile.”

She looked back at the road. “Don’t get used to it.”

* * *

As the Civic filled with gas, Evan scanned the parking lot and the freeway. Joey climbed out and stretched like a cat, slow and luxurious.

“Want any road food?” she asked.

“Road food?”

“Corn nuts, Slim Jims, Mountain Dew?”

“I’m good.”

She brushed past him, heading inside. “Don’t leave me here.”

He looked at her. “Why would I leave you here?”

She shrugged, not breaking stride.

They were heading south on the I-15, Idaho ten exits away. Borders were always tricky — choke points, easy to surveil. So far it had been smooth sailing, but so far hadn’t been long.

The gas pump clicked off, and Evan got back into the car to wait for Joey. Her rucksack tilted in the passenger-side foot well. Another greeting card had fallen out.

Evan leaned over and picked it up.

A cartoon of a nervous-looking turkey against a backdrop of orange and yellow leaves. Fresh concern pulled at Evan. He opened the card.

Sweet Girl,

I hope you have lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving of your 16th year! Know that even though we’re apart, I miss you and hold you in my heart.

Xoxo, M.

Again it seemed that Joey had read the card many times. Creases, wrinkled corners, a patch of ink worn off where she’d held it.

Thanksgiving. Your 16th year.

That was troubling.

He set the card on her seat and waited.

She approached, chewing gum, and opened the door. She spotted the card, hesitated, then picked it up and climbed in slowly. She stared straight through the windshield at the air pump. She smelled like Bubblicious.

“Why are you going through my stuff?”

“It fell out of your rucksack.”

“Answer my question.”

“There are more important questions. Like who is M and how did she have your address?”

“What do you mean ‘my address’?”