Fatal by Arno Joubert

been looking forward to receiving a call from you.”
    Alexa frowned. “From me?”
    “Yes, I asked Neil to give you my number.”
    She didn't have time for this cloak and dagger shit. “Sorry, but who exactly am I talking to?”
    “Oh, excuse me for being rude. My name is Sal Frydman. Major Sal Frydman, Israeli Intelligence Services. By the way, how is Neil doing?”
    Alexa shrugged. “OK, I guess. He’s kind of hung up at the moment.”
    “Oh, all right,” the Major answered, hesitating for a second. “Send him my regards. I guess he told you about my unexpected discovery?”
    Alexa frowned. “Um, no. He didn’t mention anything. As I said, I dialed the number by mistake.”
    “Quite a coincidence, then. Well, Neil paid me a visit a couple of days ago. Told me about the Dalerian Institute.” He chuckled. “And about the bank account.”  
    Alexa stiffened in her seat. “OK, what else?”
    “I told him how I managed to recreate your father’s entire online profile. Your father told us about the grave danger that the Dalerians posed to you and how Bryden managed to get you a new identity. We then managed to infiltrate the Dalerian’s mainframe and establish contact with—”
    Alexa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She’d had about enough of this crap for an entire year. “What the hell, Mister? Is this one of Neil’s sick jokes? What are you on about?”
    “Tsk, tsk, Miss Guerra, you father would not approve of your foul language. I guess it would be better for Neil to brief you personally. I honestly thought he would have done so by now.”
    “OK then, good-bye!” she shouted, trying to disconnect the phone but struggling to push the disconnect button. It didn’t work. She could still hear him speak. Exasperated, she pulled the battery out and threw the phone on the back seat, then she jumped out of the car and jogged to the hangar.  
    Alexa flung the door open and ran to Neil, shouting questions at him as soon as she entered the hangar. “Neil, who the hell is this Frydman character and what is he on about? What the hell is my dad’s online profile?”
    Neil lifted his head from his chest. “So I guess you phoned the number?”  
    “No. Well, yes. Argh, it doesn’t matter. Please explain,” she said, stomping the floor with her foot.
    “Untie me first, I think better on my feet.”
    Alexa unlocked the cuffs and tossed Neil his clothes.
    He rubbed his wrists and scowled. “Shit, Alexa, that hurt. I thought you left me here for good.”
    “C’mon, Neil. Cut the baby boy routine and tell me what is going on.”
    Neil nodded. “OK, so about a week ago Bruce receives a call from a gentleman called Major Frydman from Israeli intelligence,” Neil said, pulling on his jeans. “Frydman says that he has somehow managed to find some information on the Dalerians and that your father is involved in it all.” He shrugged. “Bruce is busy so he asks me to fly over and chat with the major.”
    Alexa examined Neil intently, tapping her foot and biting her lower lip. “Uh-huh, OK. Go on.”  
    “So I visit the major, and he tells me that they recently upgraded their computer systems with the latest antivirus software. The software detected a program called Becky22 that was suspicious because it uses all of the computer’s CPU resources whenever a user is not using their computer.” Neil pulled his T-shirt over his head. “What further intrigued him was that this piece of software had replicated itself to all PCs in the Israeli Defense Force’s network and to the mainframe—”  
    Alexa closed her eyes and sighed. “Somebody’s boring me, and I think it’s you.”
    Neil touched her arm. “Just hear me out.”  
    Alexa slapped his hand away, giving him a hostile look.  
    Neil lifted his hands defensively. “Listen to me, please.”
    Alexa scrutinized him with narrowed eyes, cocking her head slightly to the side. “OK, but if you’re bullshitting, it’ll be me and your