Chapter 161: One Last Job

Zane furrowed his brow, immediately realizing he should have predicted this. Just as he did, his father came from a long line of practitioners. With that logic, it made sense that William would inherit some magical talents.

"Is he a shaman?"

"Yes."

Zane sighed. He didn’t know whether this was a blessing or curse. "What exactly do you want me to do?"

"I just want you to look out for him. After all, he’s your brother."

"Half-brother, and he’s in a different department. I’m a Mage."

"I know that, but I saw Ziyad’s name in the West Africa List. That’s your cousin, right? Maybe you can say something to him for me."

"Fine."

"You agreed?"

"The tower is dangerous, and if I can do something to help him survive, I’ll do it. However, I can’t guarantee anything. Ziyad doesn’t owe me anything; if he says no, there is nothing I can do about it."

"No, no, I understand. As long as you try."

"Alright. I have a lot of things to do. See you, well, when I see you."

"Wait, wait —"

Zane hung up the phone and immediately blocked him. Lying on the bed, his mind wandered as childhood memories flashed through it. He couldn’t fathom how they got here, how the man who spent hours playing chess with him, taught him to fix cars, and encouraged all his passions, had become this.

Ring! Ring!

Zane checked his phone; it was Alisha, followed by his mother. They all wanted to ask him the same question: was he the one on the list? Eventually, even Juan called him.

"I need to move," Zane thought as he hung up. By now, he could imagine how many people were trying to find his location, so staying in this small place wasn’t ideal—for security or presentation.

"The dark web payment will be exactly 30,850$, which is not enough to buy a house, but I can rent a decent apartment." Zane wanted to wait until hunting season to move, but now it felt imperative to do so as soon as possible. So, without wasting a moment, he hopped online to search for a new apartment. Soon, he found a 3-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in a complex on W110th Street.

It came fully furnished, was pet-friendly—which was necessary since Zane would soon have a familiar—and included a public gym. It was near the park in case Zane wanted to run, and more importantly, it had a sub-zero refrigerator in the kitchen, perfect for an amateur cook like Zane.

"A 20,000$ downpayment and 7,600$ a month — it’s not bad at all." He immediately called the company and set up a meeting for tomorrow. The money should arrive tomorrow at the latest, which will be just in time for him to finish the paperwork and move in right away.

"Hmm? Speaking of the devil." Just as he finished his call about the apartment, a notification from his Swiss bank account alerted him to a transfer. Zane sighed in relief; the money made him feel calmer.

Ring! Ring!

Zane’s brow furrowed. His phone wasn’t the one ringing, which could only mean one thing: the burner phone. "Hello."

"Someone will drop a destroyed laptop to you. Your task is to retrieve the content inside it. Do it as soon as possible, preferably within a 24-hour window."

"Hold on: how destroyed are we speaking? What level of encryption am I dealing with? I need more info."

"...The laptop has been shot five times, and you can consider the encryption the highest level."

"In that case, there is no way I can get it done in 24 hours with my current setup. I’d need better equipment."

"Um, let me call you back."

"One more thing," Zane continued. "For this job, I want 50K transferred directly into my account. And I want to speak with Mike. He should be in New York, right?"

"You have no right to negotiate."

"It’s either that or I don’t work." Zane hung up, calmly waiting. About twenty minutes later, the phone rang again.

"We have agreed to your terms. Head to the Maribel Hotel; a man wearing a red handkerchief will wait for you."

"What about Mike?"

"He’ll arrive later."

"Hope so," Zane said, hanging up. With the Oracle’s article, fame was about to hit Zane whether he wanted to or not, so now was the best time to cut off his shady past and prepare for the new future awaiting him. Without wasting a moment, he destroyed the burner phone, then turned off his smartphone and put it, along with his external drive, in a Faraday bag.

One of Zane’s favorite dark web sites is called invisibledrive. net, and it offers the best route to any place with the least amount of camera presence. In some cases, the website even offers a means to drive to a place completely undetected by any cameras. Unfortunately, there are so many cameras now that it’s not possible everywhere.

[AN; Not a real website]

The Maribel Hotel was only 45 minutes from his place, but he had to park a few miles away and walk the rest of the way. As soon as he arrived, he noticed a middle-aged man holding a document and a red handkerchief in his shirt pocket. Zane approached him.

"Are you Zane?"

"That’s me."

"If anyone asks, you’re the IT guy hired to solve a security issue," the handkerchief man said, handing Zane a document with a badge and security clearance. Then, Zane followed him to the hotel’s IT department.

"Five midrange servers — that’s decent firepower," Zane thought. With that level of computational power, he could do a lot.

The handkerchief man led Zane to a closed office. "The item is inside. I don’t think I need to mention the level of discretion required for this job, right?"

"I know."

"Call me on the extension line if you need something."

"Will do."

Zane sat on the desk and immediately began checking the bullet-riddled laptop. "Good news," he thought. Only the screen, battery, and a few other unimportant parts were destroyed. More importantly, the USB port was intact, which saved him a lot of trouble. Zane connected the damaged laptop to the hotel’s server and ran a preliminary diagnostic.

"Hmm, this is government-grade level of encryption. What exactly is the Lion Pride doing?" Zane thought as he looked at the screen. "Hold on, why does this encryption feel familiar?" After a quick channeling, he jolted his memory. A dark-web hacker was selling services on how to deal with a special encryption created by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency).

Zane furrowed his brow. He wasn’t surprised that the Lion Pride had acquired a DEA computer. Their old modus operandi involved overwhelming a neighborhood with drugs and violence, forcing people to relocate; they then bought the houses at dirt-cheap prices before turning them into prime real estate.

Zane checked on the dark web for that previous post, but found nothing. He figured the hacker had either shut down his services or been caught. Regardless, he still called the handkerchief man.

"What is it?"

"I need 75 grand."

Handkerchief man immediately frowned. "What for?"

"You said you wanted this as soon as possible, right? It will take too long to build the software I need to deal with this encryption, so the best approach is to buy a few existing ones and modify them, lowering the required time."

Handkerchief man frowned for a few seconds. "Let me make a call." A few minutes later, he returned and transferred the money directly to Zane, who bought software on the dark web for less than 3 grand and pocketed the rest. He probably could have found it for free on some open-source website if he searched hard enough, but that would take too long. Plus, he also needed to "show" these people that he had used the money.

The software didn’t handle the encryption; it only identified which keys were used most on the DEA laptop. Then he ran his own algorithm, using those keys to deduce the laptop’s password, which would let him access the content without breaking through the firewall of such an advanced security system. The only downside is that, even with all that computational power, it would still take 4 hours to deduce and test the correct password without forcing the laptop to shut down and erase its contents.

Meanwhile, Zane began to snoop in the Lion Pride’s business. They made the worst mistake by letting a hacker of his caliber into their servers. Although they had their own security system and hadn’t given Zane access, it was a joke for him to get access now that he was here.

At first, he ran into a wall: the handkerchief man had set up a decent detection system. So if Zane even tried to enter their system, the latter would notice immediately. A direct approach was not feasible, so he needed an indirect one. As usual, Zane focused on the human side of hacking—where the flaws usually are. His target was clearly Handkerchief Man, and he started with his email.

Anyone working in a professional setting—especially one that requires high secrecy—usually has two emails: work and personal. In those jobs, keeping them separate is crucial, but people make mistakes; sometimes they take the easier route when it’s available, even if it’s risky. And that’s what Zane is betting on.

Breaking into Handkerchief Man’s email was easy; he ran the same program he had bought to find which keys the latter typed most often. Then, after searching online, Zane found Handkerchief Man’s birthdate, family, and a list of common email passwords. He ran them through his algorithm, which swiftly deduced the email password.

"Well, at least he used more than a dozen digits." Handkerchief Man’s password combined his birthday, his children’s and wife’s birthdays, and their marriage date. Then, as expected, he found dozens of emails that could implicate the upper echelon of the Lion Pride. Handkerchief Man did not follow protocol and used his personal email for Lion Pride activities.

"That’s not enough," Zane thought. These emails were not enough proof; he needed more. After a moment, he concocted another plan. First, he called Handkerchief Man into the office and asked him to keep watch over his work while he ran to the bathroom. Handkerchief Man was annoyed, but he did it anyway. Meanwhile, as soon as Zane entered the bathroom, he used Handkerchief Man’s email to contact another hacker in the Lion Pride payroll, asking for access to their internal server; he claimed he had forgotten his password and that resetting it would take too long.

The hacker refused. After all, they had rules and protocols for that. But after "Handkerchief Man" explained the urgency and even threatened to fire him, the latter succumbed to the power dynamic and agreed. "Bingo," Zane said, smiling. Controlling his emotions, he returned to the room as if nothing had happened. Handkerchief Man didn’t suspect a thing, and as soon as he left, Zane used the access to check the situation.

"Over the years, the Lion Pride’s drug business seemed to have drastically increased," Zane said, frowning. He remembered the second task he did for them: drive an unknown car to North Carolina. At that time, he had an inkling of what was on it, but he chose to ignore it.

"I’m guessing that at that time, the DEA was already on their tail, and they needed someone new to move their product."

Zane’s deduction was proven true as soon as his program finished. The laptop contained files on a DEA operation to bust Lion Pride’s business in North Carolina, New Mexico, Virginia, and Florida, which would have cost more than 80 million dollars in product.

"Are these people a real estate empire or a drug empire? Forget it. From today on, I will never have anything to do with them." Zane put all the incriminating information he found on the hotel’s secret server on his drive before calling Handkerchief Man.

"What is it now?"

"I’m done."

"Oh?" Zane showed him the content for a few seconds, then reactivated the encryption. "What’s the meaning of this?"

"Pay me my money, and I’ll give you the password."

The handkerchief man groaned, but he still called someone to transfer the 50K.

"Excellent," Zane said, smiling as he checked his bank account. "Now, where is Mike?"

"He’s waiting for you in Suite 367. Here is the key."