Murder at Waters Edge (Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery Book 6) Page 9

  Shredder wanted to speak to Zak about the hacks as well as the information he’d been able to dig up on the competition organizers and the event in general. Zak had been working hard since he got here but hadn’t said much about what he’d found outside the parameters of the competition. I had seen him speaking intently with Luke on several occasions and suddenly wondered whether they knew more than they were saying. I told Shredder that Zak and Luke had gone off looking for a nerd wearing a hard hat but that I’d have Zak call him as soon as he returned.

  Zoe walked up as I was finishing the call, offering to give Shredder Zak’s cell number so he could call him directly.

  Suddenly, I was feeling out of the loop, something I didn’t like one little bit, and decided that when the guys got back we were going to have a serious talk about everything, including the information Zak had found from investigating the people behind the competition. I wanted specifics, whether I understood them or not.

  “So the guy who wanted Zak’s number; he’s a friend?” Zoe asked after she hung up and we sat back down on the lanai.

  “Yeah. He lives in the same condominium complex I do. He calls himself Shredder, which obviously isn’t his real name. He has a mysterious past and I’m not privy to any of the details. At first I thought he might be on the run from the law, but he’s saved my life more than once and I’ve come to learn he can be trusted and relied on.”

  Zoe adjusted her position “And you no longer think he’s on the run?”

  “No. I think he might be the law, or maybe he was the law. I’m not entirely sure, but just before we left to visit Ashton Falls he was involved in taking down a rogue FBI agent who had been killing suspects. Shredder told me he wasn’t FBI or CIA, but he admitted he was something . My guess is that he might have worked for some sort of black ops team. He says he can’t tell me the truth, and while I’m curious, I’m now comfortable with not knowing the details. I trust him, which I guess is what really matters.”

  Zoe nodded. “I agree. Sometimes you have to trust your gut. Your friend sounds awesome. You’re lucky to have him in your life.”

  I chuckled. “Sometimes I want to strangle him with my bare hands, but yeah, at the end of the day, he’s a really good guy to have on your side.”

  By the time the guys returned the food had arrived. Luke told me that they hadn’t been able to track down Cracker but Shredder had called Zak while they’d been out, and after he’d explained what he’d found out, Shredder had decided to come over to Maui to help us out. He was coming in on a late flight but would be here before we turned in for the night. Zak had offered to rent a bungalow for him, but Shredder said he was fine sleeping on the sofa in the common area.

  “What exactly did you find out?” I asked when we sat down to eat.

  “My best guess,” Zak replied, “is that the endgame for the organizers is to identify the best hackers money can buy and then trick or perhaps bribe them into hacking into something big. Based on the hacks to this point, I think it must be something with a top-of-the-line security system.”

  I frowned. “Like what?”

  Zak shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Are we sure that’s the endgame?” Zoe asked.

  “As sure as I can be. I came across some encrypted emails in the main system not linked to the computers the contestants were given to use. The people who sent the emails were careful not to say anything too revealing, but what was there was enough for me to get the gist of things. I think the competition will change tomorrow. There are only four teams left, and I think all the hacks will be real. The organizers are going to be interested in a couple of different things. Of course they’re looking for someone with superior hacking skill, but they also want someone who seems willing to turn a blind eye to a legitimate hack in exchange for financial compensation. Shredder and I spoke briefly about the best strategy to use, but after a bit of back and forth he said he felt he needed to be here.”

  I hated to admit it, but I felt a lot better that Shredder was going to be here for the final phase of whatever was underway. Although I had no idea who he really was, my instinct told me he was not only one of the good guys but had connections in high places.

  After dinner I decided to go for a walk. Luke was busy with Zak and Zoe had a headache and went to bed, so I had no choice but to go alone. It was a warm night with a bright moon and no clouds, so there was enough light that I didn’t have to turn on my flashlight until I’d left the path running through the resort.

  I hadn’t intended to make another visit to the cliff where Cammy had lost her life, but somehow that’s where I ended up. I guess there was a part of me that needed to understand exactly what had happened that evening. I stood on the edge of the cliff and looked down to the rocks below. The tide had come in, so the beach and most of the rocks were covered with water.

  The area was completely deserted, which probably explained why there’d been no witnesses that night. If Cammy hadn’t just fallen to her death she must have met someone on the cliff for some reason; perhaps they’d argued. Or she’d been alone and someone had followed her and pushed her from behind. Had they struggled? We had good reasons for not wanting the police involved yet, but a peek at the ME’s report might provide us with information that could help us piece together exactly what happened.

  But at some point the reason for our participation in the competition had ceased to be just a murder investigation and turned into something more.

  I wrapped my arms around my waist and was about to turn around when I heard something. I paused to listen. The sound of the waves on the rocks was loud, but I was sure I’d heard something else. Something like branches breaking as someone walked on them.

  I took a step away from the edge of the cliff when I heard the sound again. “Is anyone there?”

  I waited, but there was no answer.

  I took several steps toward the dirt path leading away from the cliff, looking around all the while for a person or maybe an animal lurking in the shrubbery. “I’m armed and dangerous,” I called out as I walked slowly.

  I was almost to the dirt path when something ran through the dense foliage, heading straight toward me. I braced myself for impact, suppressing a scream. At least I was far enough away from the edge that a tumble to the ground wouldn’t result in a fall to the rocks below. Everything happened so fast I could hardly react, but somehow I managed to jump out of the way at the last minute and avoid the sharp tusks of the wild pig heading directly toward me.

  Chapter 11

  Thursday, May 4

  I fell asleep waiting for Shredder. Luke must have carried me to bed because I don’t remember waking up and walking into the bedroom. I reached for him, but the bed beside me was empty, so I pulled on some clothes and headed out into the common area. They were all sitting around the kitchen table, talking and drinking coffee.

  “There she is.” Luke smiled at me when I stumbled forth.

  “What time is it?” I mumbled as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. It was still pitch black out the window, so I knew I hadn’t slept in all that long.

  “Early,” Luke said as he got up and greeted me. He kissed me on the cheek, then led me to an empty chair. Then he got me a cup of coffee.

  “What time did you get here?” I asked Shredder.

  “Not until after midnight. I needed to contact some people before I headed over. I’m glad I managed to dig up the information I did, but I’m sorry I missed your showdown with the pig.”

  I glared at Shredder, who had a grin on his face. “I could have been killed.”

  His face softened and he flicked me on the nose with his forefinger. “I know. I’m glad you’re okay.”

  I took a sip of my coffee and let the discussion, which had to do with black hat and the dark web wash over me as I enjoyed the warmth traveling down my throat to my belly. The fact that the pig had been in the area must have been bugging me in my dreams all night. While wild pigs were common in the high country, it w
as rare to find one so close to a major resort. Granted, the cliff was at least a half mile down a dirt path away from the paved one servicing the resort, but it was still odd. It had occurred to me after the danger had passed and my heart had stopped pounding and I was able to breathe again, that if the pig had come after Cammy, startling her the way it had me, she may very well had jumped in reaction, falling off the cliff in the process. I really did need to get hold of the ME’s report.

  “Lani?” Luke asked, breaking into my thoughts.

  “Hmm?”

  “Zak asked you how you thought he should handle the hack today.”

  I looked up. “Sorry. I guess I’m not all the way awake. I’ll take a shower and we can discuss a strategy when I get back.”

  Luke accompanied me into the bedroom. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine. I was just thinking about Cammy. The pig charging out of the bushes scared the bejeebies out of me. When I saw it, I panicked. Without even taking time to think it through, I instinctively jumped out of the way. Thankfully, I had already walked away from the edge of the cliff, though I’d been looking at the water below only seconds earlier. It occurred to me that the same thing might have happened to Cammy, only she was standing closer to the edge and went over.”

  Luke furrowed his brow. “So you think her fall could have been an accident after all?”

  “Maybe. Before, I couldn’t picture a scenario in which she’d simply stumbled off the cliff, at least not after Bethany assured me Cammy didn’t drink, but an involuntary fall after being startled? It’s a theory that at least should be considered.”

  All this time we’d focused on Cammy noticing strange hacks. We’d assumed someone had killed her to keep her quiet. Maybe the organizers didn’t even realize she’d noticed something was up. Cammy’d mentioned the hacks to Stone, but we didn’t know if it went any further.

  “What do you want to do now?” Luke asked after a moment.

  I shrugged, feeling confused and uncertain. “I guess for now we should just continue with the competition and see where we end up. Maybe the truth about everything else will fall into place.”

  I took a quick shower and dressed in the clothes I planned to wear for the race, then rejoined the others in the common area. They seemed to be involved in an intense conversation regarding possible scenarios as to where the competition would take us next. Zak felt the messing-around portion had come to an end and the focus would shift from running around the island looking for clues to the hack he saw as the root of everything.

  “Do we know anything about the event organizers?” Shredder asked.

  Everyone looked at me. “Sort of. Actually, not really. As far as I can tell, there are three staff members who appear to be on the island to oversee things. None of them seem to be more than glorified babysitters and tour guides. They process paperwork, answer questions, and make sure everyone is as happy as possible. The posters scattered around the resort all indicate the contest is being sponsored by an online gaming magazine, but Zak already checked it out and the magazine is a front for a larger corporation called Blacker Enterprises. Luke checked into Blacker Enterprises and found out it deals with cybersecurity, but our guess is it’s a front for hackers for hire.”

  “And the purpose of the competition?” Shredder asked.

  Zak began, “The hacks all must be completed using the computer provided by the organizer. Someone is recording every keystroke and monitoring every successful as well as false move. In the elimination rounds the hacks were all fake. Since we’ve been here I’ve been monitoring everyone’s hacks, and some of them are real. They aren’t major, and someone with only limited experience might not even notice the real ones, but I’m sure the hackers left at this point are intelligent enough to tell the difference.”

  “So if I’m the event coordinator and I want to hack into a bank I use it in the game and once someone hacks in successfully I’ll be left with a map to get back to it.”

  “Sort of. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but yes, whoever is monitoring the computers is going to be left with a lot of valuable information after the game is over,” Zak confirmed.

  “Zak and I also discussed the fact that it may be the information we’re asked to provide each day to receive the first clue that the event organizers are after,” Luke added.

  “What sort of information is that?” Shredder asked.

  “Names, account numbers, addresses,” Zak answered.

  Shredder took a moment before he responded. Finally, he looked at us and posed a question: “If the people in the contest are talented enough to hack into a bank and retrieve account numbers why are the organizers even messing around with the competition? Why not just steal a million dollars?”

  “We think,” Luke said, “that most of the participants are law-abiding citizens who would welcome the chance to win a million dollars but would never steal it. Remember, most of the hacks really are just games and most of the contestants most likely just think the complicated hacks, like one that has them hacking into a bank, are just very sophisticated games that could be called Bank Hack. Although, as Zak said, the hackers who are still in the contest now will know the difference between a bank hack game and a real bank hack. I have to believe that those who continue will be making the decision to do so realizing full well what’s going on.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Zoe asked.

  “I guess we see what the event organizers ask us to do when we get today’s email and then decide,” I said.

  “It should be coming through in about ten minutes,” Zak told Shredder. “I’m going to run to the bathroom before what I expect to be a long and difficult hack begins.”

  After Zak retired to the room he shared with Zoe, I turned to Shredder. “I know you can’t tell me who you are or what you do or don’t do, but will you answer me one question honestly before we start?”

  “If I can.”

  “Do you have the connections and/or authority to advise us in any sort of official way as we progress? I know you have friends in high places. Is there someone you can contact so that whatever we end up doing is sanctioned by local law enforcement or even the US government? I really don’t want to see any of us arrested.”

  “I do have the connections you refer to and I’ve already alerted the ones I felt I should. My instructions were to continue to the endgame. And I’ll keep those people informed as to what happens as we progress. Does that make you feel better?”

  I let out a long sigh. “Much. I have a feeling whatever happens is going to be big. I don’t mind a little risk, but I need to know I’m working for the good guys, not providing the bad guys with exactly what they’re looking for.”

  Zak came back into the room a minute before the email was due to arrive. We all gathered around, knowing we’d need to work quickly when we found out where the day’s hack was going to take us. At exactly six a.m. the computer dinged. Zak looked at the screen for a couple of minutes before doing anything. Then he typed in a few commands and frowned.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Camp Pendleton.”

  “They want you to hack into Camp Pendleton?” I asked.

  Zak nodded.

  “And do what?”

  “Turn off the lights in one barracks, wait thirty seconds, and turn them back on.”

  “Do the barracks in question contain classified or sensitive information or maybe weapons?”

  Zak turned so that he could look at his own computer. He began typing frantically before he paused to answer. “No. At least not on the surface. It’s just a barracks that’s usually reserved for visitors to the base.”

  I looked at Shredder.

  “What about the other hacks?” Shredder asked. “You mentioned when we spoke that each team has a unique hack, that most were fake and only a few real.”

  Zak typed some additional commands into the computer. His brow furrowed while he worked. The people watching the keystrokes on the
game computer must have realized Zak wasn’t playing. We’d need to decide whether to continue in the next minute or so.

  Finally, Zak spoke. “Hulk and Cracker have been asked to hack into Edwards Airforce Base. They’re to access the security cameras and use them to check out the mess hall. They’re supposed to report back on the color of the walls.”

  “Weird,” I muttered.

  “Are they going for it?” Luke asked.

  “Yes. They never even paused. Hang on.” Zak went back to the game computer and spent the next minute typing.

  “Are you going in?” I asked.

  “Not yet, but I don’t want to pause too long either. If I try a few things out whoever’s watching will just figure I’m not sure how to proceed.” Then Zak turned back to his own computer. “Ivan and Irina have been asked to hack into Cannon Air Force Base and set off a fire alarm in the administration building. They too seem to be following the hack. And Trent and Hallie have been instructed to hack into Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada. They haven’t responded at all since the email was received. My gut tells me they won’t. Not that I blame them.” Zak looked at Shredder. “I think given the nature of the hack we should get some sort of permission to continue.”

  “I’ll make a phone call.” Shredder pulled out his phone and walked out onto the lanai.

  Zak looked at me. “How well do you know this guy? He seems legit, but I can’t say I’m up for hacking into a military base unless we have permission to do it.”

  How well did I know Shredder? Not all that well, really. I didn’t even know his real name.

  “I had a chance to work with the guy recently,” Luke spoke up. “He seemed to have connections in both the FBI and CIA and he worked closely with the local police to pull off a sting that had several moving parts. I think he’s the real deal, although I’m not sure exactly what his deal might be.”