As Jones typed away, trying to get a trace on who hacked into the system, Recker and Haley paced around the room.
“There’s nothing else you can do here,” Jones said. “Go home. Mia’s waiting.”
“Mia is fine,” Recker replied. “Right now, this is the most important thing we’ve got going on.”
“Any luck yet?” Haley asked.
Jones hesitated for a second, embarrassed and unhappy that his skills seemed to have been matched, if not surpassed by whoever the hacker was. It was a source of pride for him, knowing that he was the best at what he did. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Somebody out there at least had skills to match him. And since Jones couldn’t figure out who it was, he figured he was losing the battle so far.
“Not yet. Whoever it is, is doing a good job at disguising themselves.”
“Everyone leaves a trace, don’t they?” Recker asked.
“It’s not so simple. The trace you can leave can be falsely planted, leading to places or people not even remotely involved.”
“What about what they said? ‘Your days are numbered, David’. Does that have any significance for you?”
Jones shook his head. “No.”
“He put David in quotes,” Haley said. “That’s gotta mean something.”
“The only thing I can think of is that they know that’s not my real name.”
“Well that’s a start to unraveling this thing. Who would know that?”
Jones put his hand on his chin and rubbed it. “The only thing I can come up with is that it goes back to my time at the NSA.”
“And that would make sense,” Recker said. “Good with computers, and knows your name isn’t David. This is the starting point. Make a list of everyone you knew or worked with at the NSA and we can start whittling it down.”
“Michael, there’s over forty thousand people employed by the NSA.”
“But you didn’t work with all of them, did you? Look, whoever’s doing this has a vendetta against you for some reason. It’s not someone who just heard your name somewhere and thought it’d be a good idea to look you up and send you a few messages. This is someone, for whatever reason, has it out for you specifically. That means it’s personal. Someone you know, someone you worked with, did business with, something along those lines. Whether you yelled at them, informed on them, or just didn’t get along with them, it’s someone you know. That’s a guarantee. Someone doesn’t like you for whatever reason. Think about it.”
Jones leaned back in his chair. “It was a long time ago.”
“It wasn’t that long. We’re not talking fifty years ago here.”
“We could be talking about hundreds of people,” Jones said.
“Then we better get started on chopping that list down, shouldn’t we?”
Haley also had some thoughts on the matter. “Not that I’m saying I don’t agree with that, but couldn’t there be another answer?”
“Such as?”
“The way you got the money to start this operation. Wasn’t it borrowed from some less than reputable sources?”
Jones smirked. “And still is.”
“Is it possible one of them has detected the issue and found you?”
Jones shook his head. “No, I continually monitor those situations, and quite honestly, some of those fools that have detected an issue have their heads spinning in so many different ways about what’s going on, it’s quite comical.”
“But is it possible?”
“Theoretically, maybe, but I don’t think there’s much of a chance. I’d put it at less than one percent.”
“Plus, how would they know his name was David?” Recker asked.
“Couldn’t they see that when they got into the system?” Haley said.
“No,” Jones replied. “I was able to see exactly what they looked at. And this second time they didn’t look at anything.”
“What do you mean?” Recker asked. “They got in and just… left?”
“I didn’t say that. I just said they didn’t look at anything.”
“Then what was the point?”
“This message was the point,” Jones answered.
“You mean their entire purpose of getting in was just to leave you that message?”
Jones nodded. “It would appear so. He didn’t try to look at any other information that I can see.”
“You need to start making that list of names,” Recker said.
“I’ve actually already started. I began putting it together while you were out and about.”
Recker took out his phone. “While we’re waiting for that, I’m pulling out all the stops.”
Jones looked over and saw his friend putting the phone to his ear. “Meaning?”
“Meaning it’s all hands on deck right now.”
Recker started talking into the phone, and it soon became clear who he was in conversation with. He hoped that maybe Michelle Lawson had heard some inkling of what was going on. Even though the CIA was a different agency, sometimes they heard things. Recker then explained the situation, hoping that Lawson had something.
“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about it.”
“Haven’t heard anything?” Recker asked.
“Sorry. I haven’t.”
“Well, it was just a shot. Figured I’d ask.”
“I mean, I can check around, see if I can find out anything if you want.”
“I dunno. He’s not being tracked or anything by them, right?”
“Not as far as I know,” Lawson answered. “We made that deal a while ago, and as far as I know, they’ve lived up to it. I don’t believe whatever’s going on is in an official capacity through them. Maybe a former employee or something.”
“Yeah, that’s what we figured. I just wanted to make sure we covered all the bases on this thing.”
“I can float a few things in the air if you want? See what I can come up with.”
“I don’t know. If he’s still in the clear with them, I don’t wanna take a chance and have his name pop up. Sometimes that leads to people asking why someone’s being checked on, and puts them back in the spotlight.”
“I understand,” Lawson said. “I’ll keep my ears open. If I hear anything, I can let you know.”
“I appreciate that. Thanks.”
After he got off the phone, Recker looked at the others and shook his head.
“Hasn’t heard anything, huh?” Haley said.
“No.”
“I have a feeling that is going to be a recurring theme,” Jones said.
“How so?” Haley asked.
“Lawson, and probably Tyrell, and Malloy. I doubt any of them will report back that they have heard or know anything.”
“Can always get lucky.”
“I don’t think luck will play much of a part with whoever we’re dealing with. I think they are much too intelligent for that.”
“Maybe. We just need one small piece of information, though. Just one thing.”
Recker closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Well, guess we better get started.”
Jones looked perplexed. “On what?”
“This list of yours.”
“Mike, it’s already late.”
“Since when did we ever concern ourselves with time when a case was concerned?”
“We’re not on a case.”
“Sure we are,” Recker replied. “And you’re it.”
“I’ve got a few checks to do, just to make sure none of my software has been corrupted. That might take some time. Go home, get some rest, and we can get started in the morning on it.”
“You know, you keep trying to push us away, like you don’t actually want to get to the bottom of this.”
“Nonsense,” Jones said. “I just know this might take a while. I’d rather have you get started bright and early in the morning when we’re all fresh. And you’ve got Mia waiting, so you need to take time for her, too.”
“She’ll understand.”
“Maybe. But don’t tell her about any of this. I don’t want her to worry.”
“Too late,” Recker said. “I’ve already told her. And she is worried.”
“I appreciate the concern. Let me finish my security checks. As you can imagine, with the complexity of the system, they can be lengthy. Everything will be finished by the morning. We’ll get started then, work all day, into the night if necessary.”
Recker sighed, still not wanting to leave without getting some type of insight into what they were dealing with. But if Jones thought that was the best plan, he was willing to go along with it.
“OK. We’ll try it your way first.”
“Believe me, nobody wants to get this wrapped up more than I do,” Jones said.
Recker and Haley left the office, conversing in the parking lot before they went to their respective apartments.
“You’re really worried about this, aren’t you?” Haley asked. “It’s written all over your face.”
Recker nodded. “I’m always worried about enemies that I can’t see.”
“Or even know who they are.”
“Yeah. I’m just hoping we can get to the bottom of this quickly. The more this lingers, it’s gonna take some of the focus and attention off other things. There’s no way it won’t.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Haley said. “We always do.”
“Hopefully we can do that before whoever this is takes this to another level. And we both know, nobody starts something like this just to send a couple messages. This hacker’s got another level to go to. That’s the part that worries me.”