The Master Hacker

Chapter Two

As he was admiring the recently erected split-rail zigzag fence lining both sides of a grassy portion of the lane leading to his cabin, he was glad he transplanted it from an old plantation rather than waiting 100 years for it to acquire the patina of age and weather. The new look reminded him of the wooden boundaries in and around many Civil War battlefields.

The view he was enjoying was suddenly interrupted by a crouching figure moving near the base of the railings, and he reached for the pair of binoculars lying nearby. After adjusting the focus, he was able to identify the source of the activity, and began to smile.

Following the movement with the binoculars, John Darque, the man with the field glasses, watched as the movement materialized as a large, male, black and tan German shepherd with a bad attitude that allowed Darque to be its master. Darque had acquired the dog, which he named Bill, from a police department that was going to have it euthanized after it ripped the throat out of a suspect it chased and caught. It turned out the suspect had shot and killed a man, and then shot Bill when the dog located him in a sewer pipe. Darque admired the dog’s sense of justice.

While Darque watched, Bill disappeared into a clump of tall weeds between the fence and Darque’s partially hidden cabin in the woods, and if the wind had been blowing, he wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

Viewing the scene through the kitchen window in the cabin, Darque occasionally took a drink of coffee from a mug he hadn’t cleaned in over three years, a point of pride with him, while trying to determine what had attracted Bill’s attention. When he spotted his partner, Penny Miller, exercising in the yard, he had his answer.

Penny had almost been killed in a ‘planned’ accident, but had just about completely recovered from her injuries. Darque was amazed as he watched her bend to touch her toes then continue on down until the palms of her hands were flat on the ground. He tried to do that once, at Penny’s urging, and the tips of his fingers came to a stop about half way between his knees and his feet.

As she finished stretching, Penny started going through some martial arts movements intended to help her regain the high degree of skill she had possessed in several disciplines before the accident. He also suspected she endured the sometimes painful and stringent regimen to help her deal with the death of a friend who was in the car ‘accident’ with her.

It was not her first traumatic experience. She had been married once, and the situation turned violent when her husband and a friend of his once r***d and beat her until she was unconscious, and then dumped her in the driveway of a hospital before trying to disappear. It took her a while, but she finally located the two men and removed their genitals with a straight razor after killing both of them by breaking their necks. The grisly remnants were stored in separate bottles of grain alcohol located on the bottom shelf of a cabinet in her house in Virginia. She didn’t see the items as trophies, but as reminders of the power she had to control her own life, and the length she was willing to go to in that endeavor. She had discussed the matter with Darque before they exchanged house keys, which they decided would be their marriage license, and neither had brought up the subject since. She never mentioned where the rest of the remains of the two were located, and he had never asked. Everyone has secrets, and this was one of hers.

The incident did, however, have a lasting effect on her life. Whenever she and Darque were apart, she slept with a straight razor under her pillow, and if he entered her house unannounced, he made sure to make enough noise to awaken her before ever considering approaching her. Once awake, the razor magically disappeared.

Their relationship was based on mutual respect, trust and understanding, but they kept their shows of affection and personal feelings private. Their work was difficult enough without bringing personal problems into the equation.

As he continued watching, a movement in the grass caught Darque’s eye. He could tell Bill was closing in on his target while selecting the best angle of attack that would allow him to pounce from ambush to surprise and overwhelm his prey.

It was at this point that Penny turned to face Bill, and instead of waiting for him to spring his trap, she charged into the weeds and sent him scurrying around the yard with her in hot pursuit.

Foiled again.

The activity caused Darque to smile, which was something he seemed to do more often at the cabin than when working at his agency’s headquarters, referred to by members of his organization as ‘the Cave’.

Since no armed conflicts were the primary focus of the news media, there seemed to be a feeling of peace in much of the world, but Darque knew peace was an illusion; a dream that could never be achieved in a world as divided as the one in which he lived.

Peace implied that everyone was happy with his or her position in life among a population of more than 7 billion people, and that wasn’t, and never would be, the case. When looking at some of the governments and despots who ran them, dissention could be a good thing. Unfortunately, like most things in life, change involved a trade-off; cherry pie for increased weight, or freedom for the loss of human lives. Sacrificing one’s life for change is usually an individual choice, and not one willingly undertaken by most people.

One more thing he knew was the absence of war was not peace; it was a time of relative calm between periods of conflict during which countries rearmed and prepared for the next armed engagement. Still, the illusion of peace was far better than the reality of war filled with thoughts of doom and apprehension.

He considered the future to be his next breath, and knew it wasn’t a guarantee. He had seen people take a breath who were dead before they could exhale. Life was a precious gift, and each day was a reward, but like most rewards, some people earned and used them wisely and some didn’t. It was his job to eliminate the ones who didn’t.

Darque’s thoughts were interrupted when Penny and Bill entered the cabin after chasing each other around the yard, and both of them seemed close to the point of exhaustion.

“He seems to be getting better at stalking, but he still has a way to go before he’ll be able to sneak up on me,” Penny announced triumphantly.

“Are you sure he wasn’t just taking it easy on you because you’re a cute blond?” Darque asked.

“Quite,” she said as she punched him on the arm hard enough for him to know he would have a bruise.

“I’m going to take a shower,” she said. “Do you want a little ice for that arm?”

“I’ll be just fine,” he said with a grimace.

“Suit yourself,” she said with a little chuckle as she walked away.

Out of habit, Darque usually kept the TV on for background noise to help make electronic eavesdropping more difficult, but on this occasion, he heard something that caught his attention, and began to listen more closely while rubbing his arm to lessen some of the pain.

Apparently, a Chinese aircraft had crashed while attempting to land at a military air field in North Korea. There were no survivors.

The announcer droned on about the incident, and stated more information would be forthcoming when the North Korean Government released it, which meant whatever was released in the future would probably be questionable at best as far as being factual.

When Penny reentered the room, Darque was busy wearing out a path in the rug and displaying creases in his forehead. It was a mannerism he often exhibited when deep in thought or worried about something.

“What’s going on?” Penny asked.

Darque just pointed to the TV and kept pacing.

After watching the news broadcast for a while, she turned to him again.

“This kind of thing takes place on a pretty regular basis somewhere in the world. Why does this one bother you?”

“I don’t know,” he said, “something doesn’t feel right.”

He continued to pace, but was interrupted by a strange noise. It had been awhile since he last heard it, but he knew exactly what it was. Someone in the Cave was trying to reach him on his secure phone.

“Are you watching TV?” a voice asked as he picked up the receiver.

He recognized the caller as one of his team chiefs, Dave Bartow.

“If you mean the item about the plane crash in North Korea, yes.”

“That’s the one,” said Dave.

“What about it?” asked Darque.

“North Korea has blamed the incident on South Korea, and an escalation to a war-time posture is rapidly developing in both countries. Fortunately, China had a few words with the leadership in North Korea, and things are calming down a bit. As of right now, the border between the two countries has pretty much returned to normal with soldiers on both sides glaring at one another and occasionally flipping each other off, but the buildup away from the border is continuing to grow. I think China will keep a lid on the North … at least until a cause for the incident can be determined.”

“I want you to start collecting everything you can find on the incident”, said Darque. “If the South didn’t bring down the plane, which I don’t think it did, and the cause wasn’t due to pilot error or mechanical failure, there has to be a reason why it was brought down. If we can figure out ‘why’, it may lead us to ‘who’. Dissent in North Korea is seldom acknowledged, but if something is going on there, we need to find out. Maybe we can become part of the problem.”

“Anything else?” Bartow asked.

“That should keep you busy until we get there,” Darque said as he ended the conversation.

He quietly looked at the pastoral scene outside the kitchen window, and sighed audibly as he lowered his gaze to the kitchen sink before turning to face Penny.

“I wish we had more information about what’s going on over there. So far all we know is that a plane went down, and that leads to a lot of speculation. I seem to be pretty good at posing questions, but waiting for answers has never been one of my strong points, and jumping to conclusions is never a good idea.”

“You need to learn to be a little more patient,” Penny said. “Some of the most highly trained intelligence personnel in the world work at the Cave, and you know they do their best work when you just give them a challenge and leave them alone so they can do their jobs. Give it a chance. The picture may change by the time we get there.”

He knew she was right, but he couldn’t help but wonder about all the possibilities.