Dark reckoning, p.20
Dark Reckoning, page 20
The woman shifted her gaze to the Italian. “Why did you bring them here?”
“Just get Dragan out here,” Lucca said. “He’s expecting us.”
“I listened in on the call,” Dasha snapped. “He was expecting you.”
Drenna couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Lucca hadn’t told the couple that all three of them would be coming?
“I had to bring them with me.” Lucca nodded at Mei. “She’s the one who owns the USB drive. She wasn’t going to let me just bring it out here.”
Before Dasha could respond, a male voice called out. “Stand down.”
Everyone turned to their right. A dark-haired man with a goatee stood at the corner of the cabin. He held a pistol with both hands, but the muzzle was pointed at the ground in a non-threatening pose.
Drenna assumed he was Dragan Petrovic. He and his girlfriend seemed to have been lying in wait. They probably had security cameras set up along the road.
“Dasha, please,” the man said.
After a quick glare at Drenna, she lowered the shotgun.
The man came over to them. He was young and thin, and his hair was matted as though it hadn’t been washed in weeks.
“Dragan, I can explain,” Lucca said.
The Croatian responded in heavily accented English. “Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing the others?”
“I did,” Lucca said. “I mean, I told you the defector might come.”
Dragan gestured at Drenna with his pistol. “Who is this?”
“My partner in crime. We’ve spoken about her before. In fact, you told me you’d like to meet her at some point.”
Dragan stared at Drenna but said nothing.
Lucca held his palms out in a submissive gesture. “I’m very sorry. I honestly didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
Dragan shifted his gaze to Lucca. “Don’t do it again.”
Dasha pointed her shotgun at Lucca’s waist. “Your pistol.”
Drenna frowned. The woman knew they were armed, and she also knew where their weapons were hidden. One or more cameras must have been set up in the clearing where they parked. Or perhaps they had watched via a drone. That would explain the distant buzz Drenna had heard when they got out of the vehicle.
Lucca surrendered his weapon without complaint. Dasha took it from him and slipped it into a bag hanging from her belt. She then came over to Drenna and held out a hand.
“They’ll return our weapons when we leave,” Lucca whispered, anticipating that she might resist. “Just do as she says.”
Drenna glared at him then removed her pistol. “We’ll talk about this later.”
After putting the second pistol away, Dasha spoke to Dragan in Croatian then walked off and disappeared around the side of the cabin.
Dragan turned back toward the group, his expression softer than before. “Let’s go inside, shall we?”
After tucking the pistol behind his belt, the Croatian went up the steps and held the door open for them to enter. Once they were inside, he led them down a hall and into a cavernous room at the rear. An open kitchen was on the right. A hearth and furnishings stood on the left. The furnishings were rustic with a few modern touches.
As Drenna noted their surroundings, she realized almost no items were sitting out in view. Either Dragan and his girlfriend were extremely neat, or they had put everything away, knowing that a guest was coming over.
“I’ll get us something to drink,” Dragan said as he walked into the kitchen.
As the others followed, Drenna turned and whispered to Lucca through clenched teeth, “I don’t like this one bit.”
“It’s the only way I could pull it off,” he replied in a low voice. “Trust me, I know Dragan. With him, it’s always better to act then ask for forgiveness later.”
“You could’ve at least given me a heads-up,” Drenna said.
“We’ll be fine.”
“You’ll have to forgive me. I was only expecting one guest.” Dragan nodded at a table near the back window. On it were a bottle of amber-colored liquor and two tiny brandy glasses. “I was only expecting one guest. Fortunately, we have plenty of rakija.”
Mei frowned. “Rakija?”
“It’s our national drink,” Dragan said as he retrieved two more glasses from the cabinet. “I hope you like it.”
“I call it fruit brandy,” Lucca said. “It’s on the sweeter side.”
Dragan set the glasses on the table.
Mei held up a hand. “None for me, thank you.”
“Please, I insist,” Dragan replied as he picked up the bottle. “It’s an honored tradition in our country.”
Mei hesitated then said, “I guess a small glass won’t hurt.”
In light of their rocky start, Drenna figured it wouldn’t hurt to accept the small act of hospitality. Dragan’s demeanor suggested he had put the little incident behind him. Still, both he and the woman seemed a little crazy. That was probably why Lucca had mentioned the hacker’s eccentric personality several times.
Dragan poured everyone a glass. “Živjeli!” He picked up his glass and held it in the air. “A toast to our new business relationship.”
They all clinked glasses.
Lucca tilted his head back and finished his drink in one gulp.
Drenna took a sip and let the brandy slide down her throat. She wasn’t usually a fan of sweet drinks, but this one wasn’t bad. She took another sip.
“I want to apologize for what happened outside,” Dragan said. “Dasha is a little paranoid about having strangers come to our home. I call her my head of security.”
Drenna nodded at Lucca. “I had no idea he brought us here without telling you. I would never have come had I known that.”
“All is well that ends well.” Lucca poured himself another glass of the rakija. “Dragan trusts me.”
“You two must have a hell of a security system,” Drenna said. “You and Dasha seemed to be waiting for us when we arrived.”
Dragan twirled his glass between two fingers. “We’ve never once had a physical breach at any of our properties.”
“And the drone coverage is a nice touch,” Drenna replied.
Dragan stopped twirling his glass. “How did you know we use drones?”
“I heard the one that was following us,” she replied.
Dragan frowned. “We weren’t using any of the drones today.”
“Are you sure?” Drenna asked.
“Of course. I’m the one who flies them.”
Drenna shrugged. “I heard the distant buzz of a small motor when we got out of the car. I guess it was something else.”
“I heard it too,” Mei said.
“Our drones are small, so you probably wouldn’t hear them unless they got within fifty meters or so.”
“This was much farther away,” Drenna said. “I’d say a quarter mile or more.”
Dragan frowned as he took another sip of rakija. “Maybe you heard one of our neighbors. One of them is always working on something. I think he’s a carpenter of some kind.”
“Lucca told us the nearest neighbor was a couple of miles away,” Drenna said.
“He is, but you can still hear him at times.”
Dragan looked at Mei, his expression more serious. “I’m anxious to get a look at your USB drive. Do you have it with you?”
She nodded. “I do.”
“I’d like to perform a basic scan to see the level of encryption we’re dealing with. It may be something I can solve right away.”
Drenna hoped the work wouldn’t take long. She was ready to get the information they needed and head back to Genoa. She didn’t completely trust Dragan, and she certainly didn’t trust his girlfriend.
Dragan set down his glass. “Let’s go downstairs.”
Downstairs? Drenna assumed he meant a basement.
The Croatian led them to a door at the far end of the room. He opened it, revealing a set of steps that ran down into the darkness. “Be careful. It’s quite steep.”
As Dragan entered the stairwell, the first in a series of motion-sensor lights came on. Lucca and Mei followed him, with Drenna bringing up the rear. When they arrived at the bottom, Dragan flicked a switch on the wall. Several overhead panel lights flickered for a moment then came on.
Drenna looked around. They were standing in what appeared to be a sophisticated computer center. A table lined the left side of the space. On it were hard drives, monitors, and other devices she didn’t recognize. Wires protruded from every gap above and below the table.
Drenna turned to the right side of the room. It was mostly bare, save for a cubicle that stood against the wall. Although she couldn’t see inside the cubicle, she guessed it was some sort of workstation. Maybe it was where they monitored the cameras outside.
“Welcome to my lair,” Dragan said as he walked toward the wall of monitors on the left side of the room.
As they followed him over, Drenna noticed a large metal door set into the wall on the far end of the space. The size and sturdiness of it made Drenna wonder what it led to. Servers? A bathroom?
Dragan took a seat in the room’s only chair as the others gathered around him. “I’m sorry I don’t have more seats. Usually, it’s just me. This shouldn’t take long.”
He touched a mouse, and the large monitor in front of him flared to life. A log-in screen appeared seconds later. Dragan signed in, his fingers dancing across the keyboard at lightning speed. The password had at least twenty characters, and he had entered them in the blink of an eye.
Once the home screen was up, Dragan turned to Mei and held out his hand. “The drive, please.”
She pulled it out of her pocket and gave it to him.
Dragan snapped the drive into a port on the tower unit to his left. Within seconds, the drive’s files appeared. Each was labeled in what appeared to be Chinese script.
Dragan looked at Mei again. “Lucca told me that only one of the files is encrypted. Which one is it?”
She pointed at the one on the far right.
Dragan right-clicked on the file, producing several options. He selected one then sat back in his chair. After a brief pause, the screen went dark. Seconds later, lines of script began scrolling down the screen like movie credits, only much faster.
“My software is trying to determine the level of sophistication we’re dealing with.” Dragan looked at Mei. “Your country typically has some pretty strong firewalls.”
A half minute later, the scrolling stopped, and a box popped up with a message. The words were too tiny for Drenna to see from where she stood.
“Let’s see what we have.” Dragan leaned forward, his eyes moving back and forth as he read each line. “That’s interesting.”
He frowned, which Drenna hoped wasn’t a harbinger of bad news.
“Is something wrong?” Mei asked.
“No.” Dragan let out a sigh then looked back at them. “But I hope you brought something to sleep in. This may take a while.”
Chapter 32
Before leaving the basement, Dragan initiated the program that would eventually punch through the encrypted file’s firewalls. He said he would come back to check on its progress throughout the evening. The estimated completion time was six hours, although that could change depending on the strength of the security features in place.
Since they would likely be spending the night, the three guests went out to the car to retrieve their bags. Drenna didn’t hear the distant buzz she had heard before. She was relatively certain it wasn’t a power tool from an adjoining house, but since Dragan didn’t seem too alarmed, she decided to set her concerns aside.
After returning to the cabin, Lucca went to the kitchen to open another bottle of rakija while Dragan escorted the women to the room where they would be sleeping. It had two twin beds, so at least they wouldn’t be bumping into each other during the night. There was no mention of where Lucca would sleep. Drenna guessed he would probably stay up for most of the night.
“Is everything okay?” Mei asked once Dragan had left them to unpack.
“I can’t complain,” Drenna replied. “At least we get our own beds.”
“No, not the room. Are you okay?”
Drenna tossed her bag onto the bed closest to the window. “Yes, why?”
Mei shrugged. “You seem distracted. You’re always serious, but your face just looks a little more serious than usual.”
“I didn’t realize I looked that way. I’m probably just ready to get what we need and head back.”
“I’m with you on that.”
Drenna knew there was some truth to Mei’s assessment. She did have a tendency to get tunnel vision during an operation. “I’m not always like this. You may never get to see it, but there is a real human being under this shell.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply—”
Drenna held up a hand. “No, it’s fine. You’re not the first person to tell me that. I usually take it as a compliment because extreme focus is necessary when I’m working.” She looked at Mei and smiled. “Believe it or not, I’ve even been known to have fun once every ten years or so.”
Mei smiled. “Maybe I’ll get to see that side of you sometime.” She set her backpack on the other bed. “By the way, what do you think about our hosts? Honestly, they give me the creeps.”
“We’ll be fine. I don’t know about the ones in China, but hackers in the West tend to be a little odd.”
Drenna’s answer wasn’t entirely truthful. She did believe they would be fine, but her instincts also told her that Dragan couldn’t be trusted completely. The Croatian had calmed down considerably since the initial incident, but the transformation had come so quickly that it seemed a little phony.
“I don’t really know any hackers,” Mei said, “but the people in my field are certainly introverted. You might even say some are antisocial.”
“And if our hosts are any example, then a lot of them are paranoid.”
Mei sat on the bed. “Dasha is definitely paranoid.”
Drenna knew there was no way to sugarcoat her feelings about Dragan’s girlfriend. “She does seem a bit unhinged. But in her defense, they probably deal with some shady characters. Better to keep them all at arm’s length.”
“Speaking of Dasha, I wonder where she ran off to.”
“She’s probably just trying to stay away from us. And to be honest, I’m not going to argue.”
Mei unzipped her backpack. “I’d be happy if we didn’t see her again.”
Drenna was about to open her bag when she heard muffled voices coming from outside the cabin. She stepped over to the window and parted the blinds with a finger. The glare from the light in their room made it almost impossible to see out, but she could hear Lucca and Dragan. They seemed to be in a heated discussion about something, although it was impossible to hear what they were saying.
“Something wrong?” Mei asked.
“No.” Drenna let the blind fall back into place. “Hey, I need to hit the bathroom real quick, unless you need to go first.”
Mei shook her head. “No, I’m fine. Just going to put a few things out.”
After exiting the room, Drenna moved quickly down the hall. Her real purpose in leaving was to get closer to Lucca and Dragan. Her instincts told her they were arguing about something, and she wanted to know why. Lucca had already consumed too much of the rakija, which meant things could get out of hand.
She entered the bathroom but didn’t turn on the light. She went to the window and peered through the open blinds. The two men stood about twenty yards away, smoking cigarettes near the periphery of light coming out of the cabin. As Drenna watched, Lucca leaned forward and pointed at Dragan’s chest as he spoke loudly.
Drenna frowned. What is he so upset about? She leaned closer to the glass but still couldn’t make out any of the individual words. They were too far away, which was probably by design. When it was Dragan’s turn to speak, he turned and pointed toward the cabin. Strangely, he seemed to indicate the bedroom Drenna and Mei had been assigned. What was he talking about? She guessed he was still sore about strangers spending the night.
Suddenly, the two men turned in unison, their eyes focused away from the cabin. Drenna frowned. Did they hear something in the woods? Seconds later, Dasha emerged from the darkness. Earlier, Drenna had seen a small storage structure behind the cabin. She guessed that was where Dragan’s girlfriend had been holed up for the last hour.
When Dasha reached the men, she held out her phone so they could see the screen. Dragan’s eyes widened. He said something to Lucca, who nodded. The three then walked briskly toward the back door of the cabin.
Drenna’s pulse quickened. Something was going on, and she needed to find out what it was.
She exited the bathroom and almost ran into Mei, who was coming down the hall.
Mei frowned when she saw the look on Drenna’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure,” Drenna said as she turned and hurried toward the living room.
She and Mei arrived as the other three came through the back door. Lucca’s face was etched with concern. Dragan grabbed a laptop off the kitchen island and carried it to the table.
“What’s going on?” Drenna asked.
Dasha glared at her. “You brought trouble to our home.”
Drenna looked at Lucca. “What’s she talking about?”
“Some remote sensors went off several minutes ago,” he replied. “It could be wildlife, or it could be—”
“I told you before, it’s not animals,” Dasha snapped, cutting him off. “Unless of course there are several bears standing on their hind legs.”
“She’s right.” Dragan sat down and opened the laptop. “We set the sensors high enough to filter out deer and the other animals that frequent the area.”
They all gathered behind his chair. Drenna hoped for an innocent explanation, but her gut told her otherwise.
Using the laptop’s touchpad, Dragan double-clicked on an icon that looked like some sort of security file. A satellite view of the area appeared on the screen. The cabin was in the center of the image, as was the road they had come in on. As Dragan zoomed out, five pulsating dots appeared at the bottom of the screen. Based on her knowledge of the area, Drenna knew the dots were positioned about a half mile south of the cabin.
