13

Sitting at a small four-top table crammed into what looked originally to be a tool-storage area in the age of sails, Jennifer placed her back to the rough wall and inventoried the target table. Including Ivan, there were five men, all Caucasian.

When he’d approached, the four had stood up and introduced themselves, so she knew it was an initial meeting. Ivan was dressed in slacks and a jacket, looking like a businessman. The four he met looked more like adventure travelers, with loose-fitting shirts, cargo pants, and hiking boots. Given Ivan’s position in ParaBellum, she was sure they were military contractors. But from where? And why were they here in Israel? Was Tyler brokering a deal with the Israelis for some type of armament? If so, why was Ivan just now meeting them? If they were here at the behest of ParaBellum, wouldn’t he have brought known employees? And the biggest question: What did the diamond exchange have to do with anything?

She was brought out of her thoughts by Pike sliding onto the bench next to her, breathing slightly heavily. She said, “Need some more gym time?”

He said, “I went the wrong way down one of those damn alleys. I had to make up ground. That place is a maze, and dead reckoning using your GPS beacon wasn’t the best idea.”

He pulled his knapsack to his lap and opened it, saying, “What do we have?”

She told him what she knew, and he said, “Penetration options?”

“Haven’t seen anything specific, but I’m sure they all have phones.”

She watched him pull out what looked like a typical smartphone, but with a small antenna jutting out of the side. He booted up the device, saw a myriad of different apps, then set it on the table. He began dialing his real smartphone, saying, “Creed’s going to have to walk me through this. I’ll waste the entire meeting trying to get it to work.”

She stopped him and said, “Let me talk to Creed. You scare him.”

He passed across his phone with a grin, saying, “You mean he has a crush on you.”

Bartholomew Creedwater was a computer network operations guy, which—like saying a loan shark was an alternative financing expert—was a polite title for what he really did. He was a hacker, and he was good at his trade. He’d worked with their team on a number of occasions, aggravating Pike with his clear attraction to Jennifer, but Pike recognized talent when he saw it, and Creed always seemed to work extra hard when Jennifer asked. He’d been dedicated to their team for this mission, acting as standby reach-back access for any technical capability that was required.

Jennifer put in a Bluetooth earpiece so it wouldn’t look like she was talking on two different cell phones and waited for the call to be answered. She eventually heard a tentative voice: “Hello? Pike?”

She said, “It’s Jennifer. We’re on a target and need some help with penetration.”

The voice turned almost giddy. “Hi, Jennifer! Tell me what you have. I’ll get in. Can you access a USB port? Plug in one of my thumb drives?”

“It’s not a computer. We’re looking at a table, five guys having a meeting, all probably with cell phones.”

“That’s it? Do you have a number?”

Pike snapped his fingers and pointed. She said, “Stand by,” and watched another man approach the table. An Orthodox Jew wearing a yarmulke and sporting payot curls. One of the contractors stood up and shook his hand, pointing at an empty seat.

This just got interesting.

Pike rotated his finger, telling her to speed things up. She nodded, and into the phone said, “I don’t have a number, but I have the Pwnie phone out and operational. You said this thing could penetrate everything, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular. Everything.”

She heard tapping on a keyboard, then, “It can, but I have to have a root. I can’t just magically make shit happen. That’s Hollywood.” There was a pause, then, “Okay, I have you on the network. And you have a bazillion phones, wherever you are. I need to neck it down, and I can’t do that here. It’s why you guys go inside. If I could do it, we wouldn’t need you. Give me something.”

Pike said, “The damn meeting’s going to end. Jesus. Can’t Creed get us something?”

Jennifer shook her head, saying into the earpiece, “What phones do you see? Is there a block of them? One with a Bulgarian country code? Something like that?”

More tapping, then, “No Bulgarian country codes, but strangely, a few from South Africa. A smattering of Americans, some German, but most from Israel.”

Jennifer saw Pike lean forward and knew he’d seen something. She waited, hearing, “You still there?”

“Yeah. Hang on.” She looked at Pike and said, “What do you have?”

“One of those wannabe commandos is wearing an Apple watch. Ask if that’s any help.”

She said, “We have a target with an Apple watch. Is that any help?”

“No. Come on. You think I can type in ‘Apple watch’ and then get access to whoever you’re looking at?”

Now aggravated, Jennifer snapped, “No, but doesn’t that access a cell phone? Can’t that neck things down? It’s not like there are fifty of them in here.”

She heard him come back sounding like a whimpering puppy. “Jennifer, I’m trying to help, but . . . wait, you might be onto something.” Jennifer winked at Pike. Creed continued. “Can you get within thirty meters of the guy? If you can, I can use the Pwnie phone for a man-in-the-middle attack. Nobody wears an Apple watch as a timepiece. His Bluetooth will be tethered. That’s the whole point.”

Pike said, “Apple is leaving. Heading to the men’s room.”

Jennifer nodded at Pike, then said into the earpiece, “Creed, he’s going to the bathroom. The women’s room is right next door. Can you get a read through the wall?”

“Yeah, if it’s only a single wall, the Pwnie will access it.”

“Stand by.”

She stood, and off the phone said, “Creed thinks he can penetrate with that guy’s watch, but I have to get within thirty meters. I’m going to the bathroom.”

Pike nodded and said, “Don’t get burned. Let him in first. This isn’t ending today.”

She placed her hands on the table and leaned over, getting face-to-face, saying, “You told me I was a Jedi last mission. You can’t keep giving me instructions. It’s unseemly.”

She waited to see if he would take the bait, and he did. Just like she knew he would. He leaned forward and kissed her, then, because he was Pike, didn’t let it go. He said, “There are many more levels of Jedi to get to mine.”

She stood up and said, “He-man woman-hater crap.”

He laughed, and she sauntered off. It was a little bit of fun, but the point of the exchange was to solidify to anyone watching that they were, in fact, a couple. If something happened in the next few minutes, she didn’t want the analysis later to report that a couple had entered and then spent the entire time staring at a table of five.

She threaded her way through the restaurant, keeping Apple in front of her. When he disappeared into the men’s room, she accessed the ladies’ room, finding it empty. She whispered, “I’m in. What do you have?”

Creed said, “I have a thread. A Bluetooth stream. You sure it’s his?”

“Hell no, but we’re in the back of the restaurant, and my room is empty. Do you have more than one?”

“No.”

“It’s his. Get your man-in-the-middle jihad on.”

She heard the keyboard tapping and him saying, “You’re a little more forceful today. You don’t usually talk to me like that.”

She said, “It’s the stress. Sorry.” What she thought was, Pike is rubbing off on me. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

He said, “I got it. I’m in. What do you want? His contacts, email, what?”

“We want to turn that watch into a microphone. We want to hear what happens when he returns.”

“Easy breezy.”

She said, “You’re still the best, Creed.”

She could almost feel the blush through the phone line. He said, “Anything for you guys. You’re my favorite team.”

Meaning she was his favorite. She grinned, thinking about the time Pike almost cracked Creed’s head open in the Bahamas. Favorite team. Yeah, right.

She went back to the table, saying, “Can we get real-time?”

“No. The Pwnie just gets access. The feed will come to me, but I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.”

She sat down, winked at Pike, and said, “Sounds good. Thanks for the help.”

She disconnected and told Pike the state of play. He said, “Well then, I guess we can get a couple of real drinks, since we’re not going to be able to react to anything that’s said.”

They watched Apple sit back down, hoping the watch microphone was good enough to pick up what was being discussed. Three minutes later, their optimism plummeted, and not because of the technology. The meeting broke up. Pike watched them paying the bill and said, “I hope they laid out their evil plan at the last moment. What a waste.”

She saw him bring out his phone, and he said, “Brett.” He called and found that Tyler had left the diamond exchange and gone straight back to the hotel. She watched the party leave and said, “You want to stay on him?”

The waitress brought over their Bacardi and Cokes, and he said, “No. Our heat state is bad enough. He’s headed back to the hotel.”

She grinned and said, “Never waste a drink. Taskforce motto.”

He raised his glass and said, “There’s a reason for that. You might not get another one.”