Exploited (Zero Day #1) Read online

  I had to admit it was a nice voice. Husky and strangely soothing.

  “Excuse me?” I asked, sitting up, squinting in the dim lighting. I sometimes wondered whether Rose was a vampire. She seemed to have an aversion to natural light.

  “Your meeting with your adviser. How did it go?”

  I frowned. “How did you know—? Forget it. Never mind. It was fine,” I muttered, letting out a sigh.

  “Really? You’re flunking out of school. I don’t think it was fine.”

  I glared at Rose. “What the hell are you talking about? How do you know anything about me? It’s not like you do anything but stare at your computer all day long,” I seethed. How did this weirdo know that I was flunking out of school? It wasn’t a fact I broadcast around.

  I sure hadn’t talked about it in earshot of my roommate.

  It disturbed me.

  It made me feel ashamed.

  Rose shrugged, her lank hair falling in front of her face. “You can change that if you want.”

  The room was quiet. Too quiet. I felt a strange prickling at the back of my neck.

  “Change what? What are you going on about?” I snapped. I shouldn’t have been taking out my bad mood on my roommate, but her comments bothered me.

  She bothered me.

  “Your grades. It’s easy if you know how.” Rose turned back to her computer and started clicking away at her keyboard again as if she hadn’t said anything.

  “I’m already doing extra credit to try and bring my grades up. I guess I could get a tutor—”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about,” Rose interrupted.

  I was losing what little patience I had. “Then what are you talking about? I’m not up for guessing games.”

  Rose pushed her hair back and for the first time I really looked at her. She was pretty, but the dark circles beneath her eyes seemed to swallow her face. “You don’t need a tutor. You’re probably smarter than the dumb-asses the department would assign you anyway. Your problem isn’t that you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  I should have been flattered at my roommate’s assessment, but I was too numb to care.

  “Yeah, well, the school’s sympathy is running a little thin, I guess. Maybe I should just save everyone the effort and drop out already.” As I said the words, I knew that I would never do that. I wouldn’t disrespect all my father had sacrificed to get me here like that.

  Rose didn’t believe me either.

  “It sounds like you need a pick-me-up. Something just to get you back on your feet.”

  I frowned. “Look, I’m not into drugs, if that’s what you’re talking about.”

  Rose laughed. It was a nice laugh and didn’t seem to fit her overall persona. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”

  I was getting a headache and was beyond done with this conversation. I lay back down, covering my eyes with my arm, wishing I could block out Rose’s presence.

  “Yeah, well, I’m tired. I think I’m going to try and nap—”

  “You can change your grades. I can show you how. It’s easy. Just a couple of keystrokes and you won’t be flunking anymore.”

  I sat up again, not sure I’d heard her correctly.

  “What?”

  Rose shrugged. “If the school won’t help you, I will.”

  I knew what she was talking about. There were rumors in the IT department of student hackers who liked to poke around the school’s system, sometimes for nefarious reasons.

  It turned out my weirdo roommate was one of those students.

  “That’s crazy,” I exclaimed, instantly dismissing her statement.

  But then I paused.

  And I thought about what would happen if I didn’t turn things around quickly.

  The idea of going back home chilled me.

  So I found myself doing something that would change my life.

  I leaned forward and stared across the room at Rose, who looked up at me, her eyebrows raised.

  I took a deep breath and spoke. “Show me.”

  —

  It was late when I finally got home. I had exactly fifteen minutes to get myself ready.

  I usually had a ritual that involved a glass of wine, my favorite faded Dandy Warhols T-shirt, and a fuzzy pair of slippers.

  Not the typical uniform of a prolific cracker, but it worked for me.

  I didn’t have time for any of that this time.

  I kicked off my shoes, grabbed a soda from the fridge, and sat down at the kitchen table. I powered up my laptop without bothering to turn on the lights.

  I quickly opened my IRC client and found the chat I was looking for.

  21:10 You’re late. Now 2110. Servers set to go down in ten.

  My blood started pumping wildly. My ears started to buzz and my mouth was dry. My body went into hyperalert, ready and waiting.

  I was ready.

  So ready.

  My fingers twitched uncontrollably and I had to take a deep breath before typing out my reply.

  21:11 Botnets in place. Infected file ready.

  Not for the first time I wished I knew who my mysterious partner was. Most would find it odd that I trusted someone I had no plans to ever meet. He was simply a means to an end.

  Our partnership was new. I had spent years working solo. Preferring to hack as a solitary venture. I had been doing a pretty good job too.

  Better than good.

  I had made a name for myself in the hacker community. I had become respected.

  Admired.

  Feared.

  My attacks were few but well executed.

  My plans were faultless and without fail.

  I knew I was on a lot of radars but I covered my tracks.

  I was invisible.

  Untraceable.

  Until Toxicwrath contacted me.

  It was out of the blue. At first I had been suspicious and rightly so. I worried that the person on the other end was an undercover cop trying to entrap me. I knew how the authorities operated. Trolling the deep Web looking for crackers and reaching out to make contact was a normal practice.

  So I was cautious. Aloof.

  Until he proved himself in the biggest way possible.

  Toxicwrath had breached the firewalls of Smacktown, the largest distributor of online snuff films in the world. Everyone knew about Smacktown’s questionable reputation. There was a common belief that it orchestrated actual murders to increase its video content. It had been under investigation at one point or another for over three years. But no one could stop it. It kept doing what it was doing.

  Until Toxicwrath decided to take it down.

  The able hacker not only barreled straight through its security but also deleted all its movies, including its backups. Obliterating Smacktown’s business in one click of the mouse.

  And every time the shady company tried to reestablish itself, my deft cracker friend took it down. He made it his mission to keep that particular scum off the Internet.

  After that I trusted Toxicwrath. I might not know his face, his gender—though it was just easier to ascribe a pronoun—but I knew his morals. And they were completely in line with my own.

  He became my shadow partner. Anonymous yet integral to everything.

  So we had formed a hesitant partnership. I stopped being the lone gunman and I let myself rely on someone else to deliver our preferred brand of justice. Taking down only those who deserved it.

  We had been planning this attack for three months.

  We carefully chose our target.

  It was one that was important to me.

  Personal.

  I had been biding my time, waiting until things were just right.

  I set the groundwork. Using basic phishing scams I had been able to infect over two thousand computers so that now I could access them remotely whenever I needed to.

  They would be my army tonight.

  And Toxicwrath would be my eager soldier.

>   21:12 What about taking things one step further?

  I frowned. My stomach flipped.

  21:12 DDoS is the plan. We will make our point.

  We had decided to start small; I chose Ryan Law as our target. And it wasn’t by chance. Ryan Law was a notoriously corrupt law firm that used bribery, coercion, and threats as a means to win cases.

  But they were smart. They knew how to play the law and make it work for them. Dominic Ryan and his brother Jared were the lowest of the low. Choosing to represent the worst of society, they had made sure that child molesters and murderers got off with nothing more than a smile and a wave.

  They had also represented the city when the families affected by the faulty roads that had caused the death of my father had decided to sue. We had wanted a little compensation to pay for funeral costs and medical bills. It was the least they could do given how many lives they had destroyed through their laziness and greed.

  Dominic Ryan had ensured that we never saw a red cent.

  —

  “We’re dropping out of the lawsuit,” my mother announced on our way home from seeing Charlotte.

  It had been six months since losing Dad and putting Charlotte in the residential facility. Mom was depressed and I was angry. The sort of anger that spurred action.

  I had been the one to convince Mom to join the other families who were filing suit against the city. She had been resistant. Too overcome with the devastation that had befallen our tiny world.

  But I had told her that it would give us closure. It would ensure that we were able to financially take care of Charlotte and her needs.

  Mom had agreed—after a lot of arguing. And for the first time since that horrible accident I had felt something like hope.

  “What do you mean we’re dropping out?” I demanded, glancing at my mother, whose eyes were trained on the road ahead.

  It had been a particularly rough day for Charlotte. She had had two seizures in the last twelve hours and was now heavily sedated in order to prevent any more. I had been barely able to look at my little sister lying helplessly in that bed. The anger that always swirled just below the surface was rising dangerously. Higher and higher.

  “Just what I said, Han. We’re dropping our names from the lawsuit.” She said it sharply. Definitively. Leaving no room for arguing.

  But I was going to argue. She should have known better.

  “How can you say that?” I screeched. “After everything we’ve been through, this is our chance to make them pay!” I slammed my closed fists into my thighs, feeling ready to lose my shit.

  “Hannah—”

  “How can you do this? To Charlotte? To Dad?” I yelled.

  I remembered the look on my mother’s face so clearly. It was sad. And so, so desolate. Without hope.

  “Because if we don’t, then you and I won’t have anything left. We won’t be able to take care of Charlotte. We won’t be able to take care of ourselves.”

  I frowned, confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “Dominic Ryan, the attorney representing the city, called. He made it clear that this lawsuit isn’t in the best interest of our family.” Mom gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles were white.

  “What does he have to do with anything—”

  “Hannah!” My mother had shouted, silencing me instantly. “I made some bad choices many years ago. I fudged some numbers. I was trying to make things easier for us. I didn’t think it would ever be an issue.” She took a deep breath, letting it out in a long, drawn-out sigh. “We’d lose everything if it came out.”

  She was shaking, her teeth chattering.

  I felt sick. “He’s blackmailing you,” I rasped.

  “Drop it, Hannah. There’s nothing we can do. We just have to move on. Put all of this behind us.”

  “But Mom—”

  “No!” Mom cut me off. “I can’t do this. I can’t jeopardize what is left of our lives. Please, Hannah. For me. For your sister. Drop it.”

  —

  But I didn’t drop it.

  I bided my time.

  And now here I was, ready to take my revenge.

  I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I wouldn’t let my “partner” alter the course.

  21:13 How much time will we have?

  21:14 Long enough to wipe their files. To siphon their money. To take it all.

  No! That wasn’t the plan!

  I gritted my teeth together and tried to keep my breathing under control. The kitchen was dark, the only light coming from the computer screen.

  My heart thudded painfully in my chest. I was feeling a little light-headed.

  21:14 That’s not the plan. No money. No files. Just the attack.

  I watched the flickering tab line for several minutes, waiting for Toxicwrath’s response.

  I was starting to second-guess working with someone. I should have known better than to trust another person. Particularly someone I didn’t know.

  But it was too late now. I wouldn’t be able to do the attack on my own. I didn’t have all the pieces to this particular puzzle.

  Not having control was a problem for me. I didn’t relinquish it easily.

  So why had I allowed myself to become dependent on an anonymous hacker?

  21:17 Okay. Start time in fifteen. Get ready.

  I almost sagged with relief.

  As much as I wanted to make Ryan Law pay for its shady dealings, I didn’t want theft in the mix. I wasn’t prepared for that. It was a step I hadn’t taken into account.

  I watched the clock tick down.

  At 9:20 it was time.

  A few clicks on my computer.

  Lines of code.

  Numbers. Letters.

  My breath came shallow and fast.

  This was it.

  I started laughing hysterically.

  Ryan Law’s webpage was now a series of emails and photographs. Camera footage and audio of taped conversations.

  Each and every one implicating a pair of corrupt attorneys in some very serious crimes.

  21:45 Ready for stage 2.

  21:46 Sending you the rest of the files.

  I opened up my encrypted email account and found the rest of the incriminating files that Toxicwrath had uncovered. I quickly bundled up all of the information and sent it to every news outlet within three states.

  I posted the Ryan Law URL on over a hundred chat rooms and message boards.

  The traffic to the webpage went through the roof.

  I grinned widely as I posted my signature, a line of seemingly random letters in strange, convoluted patterns.

  12080512alwcaw.

  To the outside observer it would mean nothing.

  December 8, the day my father died and Charlotte’s life was lost forever.

  May 12, my sister’s birthday.

  Dad’s initials. Abraham Lee Whelan. And my sister’s. Charlotte Ann Whelan.

  My reminders of why I did this.

  My constants. Memories that fueled my desires. My motivations.

  A simple string of numbers and letters that, for me, meant everything.

  Another grouping of numbers appeared beside mine.

  06050900.

  Toxicwrath’s signature.

  I stared at it for a long time, trying to make sense of it. What did those numbers mean?

  I wouldn’t ask. A signature was personal. It didn’t require explanation.

  But I felt strange seeing it there beside mine.

  We were intertwined now.

  A partnership.

  A shadow ready to take on the world.

  Rowing a boat toward a far-off destination.

  Together.

  I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about that.

  Chapter 5

  Mason

  I had been up since two in the morning.

  I had got
ten called into the office after a DDoS attack on a local law firm was attributed to my favorite pain in the ass.

  Freedom Overdrive.

  The string of letters and numbers, the cracker’s signature embedded in the targeted website, taunted me the longer I stared at it.

  Just as he had every other time before, Freedom Overdrive had covered his tracks.

  We couldn’t trace IP addresses or pinpoint a location. Whoever he was had used at least a dozen proxy servers. The DDoS attack involved over a thousand computers owned by unsuspecting citizens who had no idea their systems had been compromised. Each of those computers had been used to overload Ryan Law’s website, crashing it momentarily. Then the hacker had brought it back up with very specific changes.

  The firm had scrubbed the website clean, but not before the information plastered all over the home page was broadcast for all the world to see.

  The allegations were serious.

  It seemed Dominic and Jared Ryan had been very, very bad boys.

  Freedom Overdrive wasn’t the only one who now had the FBI’s attention. A full-scale investigation would be launched against Ryan Law.

  Extortion. Witness tampering. Money laundering across state lines.

  It seemed my least favorite cracker had done the Bureau a favor by exposing some nasty people.

  That didn’t change the fact that his tactics were illegal. And dangerous. So as much as I wanted to pat Freedom Overdrive on the back, I also wanted to catch his ass and throw him in jail for a long, long time.

  If not just to get Agent Derek Sanders off my nut sack.

  By about seven this morning I had been ready to bang my head into the wall. Agent Sanders was breathing down my neck and making my eye twitch every time he looked my way. He had shown up around the same time I had, if for no other reason than to drive me insane.

  “I don’t need to tell you that if you can’t solve this case, Washington won’t be very happy. This is serious, Agent Kohler. Very serious. This has to be your priority.”

  I tried not to slam my hands down on my keyboard, though my nails dug into my palms, most likely drawing blood. I plastered a fake smile on my face. “Yep. I get it, Chief. Now I should get back to it. After all, this is my priority.”

  Perry, picking up on the I’d-like-to-murder-you vibe between Derek and me, watched us both with a morbid fascination.