direct link between the hack and the deaths."
"This kid did it? He hacked and killed the two women?"
"No. His girlfriend was in one of the shelters but he didn't know which one. So he started hacking them all to find her, and when he did, he leaked the information out. This forced her to leave the shelter when the two women were attacked in their homes and killed." Ivan looked upset. "I knew this bastard was responsible for the leak, even though some hacking group calling themselves Soul Machine took credit. So I looked for him, followed the path of his hack back to his computer."
I took a step toward Ivan; terrified he was going to tell me he had something to do with this kid's murder. "What did you do?"
"I dumped his hard drive. Copied it all to another server and threatened if he ever did anything like that again I'd send evidence to the FBI of what happened. I told him to leave his ex and everyone else alone. And don't look at me like that. What I do isn't traceable because there's no IP. I don't log in through anyone's account. I just access it. So he couldn't trace me if he wanted to."
"But you traced him."
"Because he didn't know what he was doing. He was only half educated in what he was. I could sense his Cyber signature but he still worked on the assumption he had to log in to hardware, and he didn't have to."
"Could he trace where you put the information?"
"He could trace the actual information. But I don't think he ever did. When I didn't hear anything else from him and his ex didn't either, I went back to his computer." He looked down and didn't say anything else.
"You found him dead."
"Yeah…it was the scariest thing I'd ever done. I mean, I could use his webcam and see he was dead. And he'd been dead a few days. So I scrubbed everything and backed out."
"But you didn't tell the police."
"Tell them what? Hey, I can put my mind into the web and take a look into people's computers and I saw this dead guy?" He made a face. "I checked in with his parent's itinerary and knew they'd be home with within twenty-four hours of my discovery."
"What you saw…that scared you, didn't it? That he'd gotten so involved that he died."
"Yes."
"And you guys saw Shadow People in his house?"
"That's what I don't understand. These things aren't ghosts, not like we define them. If they're showing up at the houses children were taken from by Dionysus to make the Changelings, why there? There wasn't a child missing from that house."
That was odd. No wait… everything in this was odd. All kinds of pieces and nothing fitting together.
"I hope your theory isn't right," Ivan said. "About the Shadow People being the children. Did you see what your Elementals were doing to that thing?"
I winced. Yeah I had. I remembered the little Gnome chopping the Shadow Person down to size. I also remembered the screams of pain.
He put his arm over my shoulder. "Things are getting bad, Sam."
"Yeah, they are." I wrapped my arm around his back. We both faced the Circle. "There's no way you can download that book again from memory?"
"No. I tossed every byte of that infernal thing the first chance I got. I don't have any of it stored in memory. Sorry, Sam."
"Oh. Well. I just don't know why a Shadow Person would take the book. Or how. I'd made it a physical book at that point."
"Oh it was physical, but probably not stable," Ivan offered. "I made it with an expander in mind, so it would convert back to the necklace. Any great amount of pressure on it would make it pop back into its smaller shape."
"And…it would have to digitize to do that?"
"Yeah," he pulled away and looked down at me. "What?"
I pulled my phone from my back pocket and did a quick inventory of where my guns were. In my car. Right. And Grey…I felt her still roaming the house. I held the phone out to him. "Look for Arcane."
"Oh I can see it. It's in the circuitry of your phone. But it's not real…"
"This kid did it? He hacked and killed the two women?"
"No. His girlfriend was in one of the shelters but he didn't know which one. So he started hacking them all to find her, and when he did, he leaked the information out. This forced her to leave the shelter when the two women were attacked in their homes and killed." Ivan looked upset. "I knew this bastard was responsible for the leak, even though some hacking group calling themselves Soul Machine took credit. So I looked for him, followed the path of his hack back to his computer."
I took a step toward Ivan; terrified he was going to tell me he had something to do with this kid's murder. "What did you do?"
"I dumped his hard drive. Copied it all to another server and threatened if he ever did anything like that again I'd send evidence to the FBI of what happened. I told him to leave his ex and everyone else alone. And don't look at me like that. What I do isn't traceable because there's no IP. I don't log in through anyone's account. I just access it. So he couldn't trace me if he wanted to."
"But you traced him."
"Because he didn't know what he was doing. He was only half educated in what he was. I could sense his Cyber signature but he still worked on the assumption he had to log in to hardware, and he didn't have to."
"Could he trace where you put the information?"
"He could trace the actual information. But I don't think he ever did. When I didn't hear anything else from him and his ex didn't either, I went back to his computer." He looked down and didn't say anything else.
"You found him dead."
"Yeah…it was the scariest thing I'd ever done. I mean, I could use his webcam and see he was dead. And he'd been dead a few days. So I scrubbed everything and backed out."
"But you didn't tell the police."
"Tell them what? Hey, I can put my mind into the web and take a look into people's computers and I saw this dead guy?" He made a face. "I checked in with his parent's itinerary and knew they'd be home with within twenty-four hours of my discovery."
"What you saw…that scared you, didn't it? That he'd gotten so involved that he died."
"Yes."
"And you guys saw Shadow People in his house?"
"That's what I don't understand. These things aren't ghosts, not like we define them. If they're showing up at the houses children were taken from by Dionysus to make the Changelings, why there? There wasn't a child missing from that house."
That was odd. No wait… everything in this was odd. All kinds of pieces and nothing fitting together.
"I hope your theory isn't right," Ivan said. "About the Shadow People being the children. Did you see what your Elementals were doing to that thing?"
I winced. Yeah I had. I remembered the little Gnome chopping the Shadow Person down to size. I also remembered the screams of pain.
He put his arm over my shoulder. "Things are getting bad, Sam."
"Yeah, they are." I wrapped my arm around his back. We both faced the Circle. "There's no way you can download that book again from memory?"
"No. I tossed every byte of that infernal thing the first chance I got. I don't have any of it stored in memory. Sorry, Sam."
"Oh. Well. I just don't know why a Shadow Person would take the book. Or how. I'd made it a physical book at that point."
"Oh it was physical, but probably not stable," Ivan offered. "I made it with an expander in mind, so it would convert back to the necklace. Any great amount of pressure on it would make it pop back into its smaller shape."
"And…it would have to digitize to do that?"
"Yeah," he pulled away and looked down at me. "What?"
I pulled my phone from my back pocket and did a quick inventory of where my guns were. In my car. Right. And Grey…I felt her still roaming the house. I held the phone out to him. "Look for Arcane."
"Oh I can see it. It's in the circuitry of your phone. But it's not real…"
Similar Books
