20

Toronto, Canada

With lips parted, ready to continue his explanations, Kinkaid is interrupted by his cell phone's ring.

He draws it from the inside pocket of his jacket, identifies the caller, and signals to Jay and Sarah that he's stepping out to have this conversation privately.

Once he has left the living room, Sarah turns to Jeremy.

"Jay?"

Pulled from his thoughts by the sound of his name, he jumps slightly and puts his gaze to her.

"Would you tell me if something serious was going on between RoTP and Phoenix?" she continues.

Jeremy immediately relaxes.

"Of course, Sarah, you know I wouldn't hide anything from you. The thing is ... honestly, there are no dark secrets buried in RoTP's past."

She raises an accusatory eyebrow.

"Yes, okay, we penetrated many systems, shook up quite a bit of protection and security back then. But nothing fundamentally 'illegal' in the significant sense of the term."

"That's not what that guy seems to be telling," she notes, nodding towards the door.

"That Phoenix took advantage of placing bugs in some systems, that's one thing. I can assure you the rest of the team wasn't aware."

"If you say so..."

"Promise! We were young, it was exciting, we felt like we were the masters of the networks. Every 'hit' was a new challenge and we competed with other hacker teams through BBS, and later on the Internet. But you know me... I always warned the companies concerned about their vulnerabilities so they could fix them before someone with bad intentions exploited them."

"I can't understand, she resumes in a trembling voice."

She scrutinizes him with a deep expression where sadness turns the green of her irises to khaki gray. Jay tries to smile, but it rather looks like a nervous tic contracts his lips.

"Why?" asks Sarah. "Twenty years later, if Phoenix needs a cryptographer, why specifically search for KryptBoy? Why Mosquito, when the world of computing is teeming with graphic designers these days? Why Brian..."

She can't finish her sentence, and Jeremy, not wanting to let her drown, resumes the conversation. "I know... You're right. I fear that Phoenix's motivations might be entirely different. He used the guys because he had them at hand, okay. But I don't think he specifically sought them out for that."

Major Kinkaid then returns to the living room, waving his phone before putting it back in his inside pocket. "News," he announces. "It was one of my men. He just found Vaughan."

"Ante?" asks Jeremy, more familiar with the nicknames.

"In person."

"So, it's official, I'm the last member of our team," Jeremy declares gravely.

"Not exactly," continues Kinkaid.

Jeremy suppresses his thoughts about Doc, trying to appear incredulous.

The Cajun settles back into the armchair and lets drop: "I told you we found Vaughan ... not his corpse... He's very much alive. 'In the flesh,' to quote my agent."

Neither Sarah nor Jay react to this information, prompting the major to clarify: "It seems, Vaughan has a more serious obesity problem than the photos we had led us to believe. We had to book two seats for him on the plane bringing him back with Agent Waterson."

"But, how?"

Kinkaid cuts off Jeremy's question with a gesture to explain: "He was indeed contacted by Phoenix, who forced him to reveal certain emergency transmission protocols as we suspected. I don't have all the details, but apparently Phoenix left him for dead. When Vaughan came to, he didn't stick around, took his savings, and went into hiding in Europe."

"In Europe?"

"We found him in France to be exact, under a false identity. Phoenix really ... 'scared the wits out of him,' he said to my agent. We'll know more tomorrow, I suggested to my agent to come directly here with Vaughan upon their flight's arrival."

He turns to Sarah to ask: "If you agree, of course, Miss Wessler..."

She responds with a simple gesture of approval.

"Vaughan hasn't particularly led as clean a life as yours, Baltac. That's why he was able to disappear from our radar, and fortunately for him, from Phoenix's as well."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just say Vaughan has a certain penchant for gambling, poker mainly. He's already had run-ins with some local mob sharks in Chicago to whom he had to offer his services to wipe his debts. He's flagged, never officially arrested but suspected of providing communication equipment for some heists orchestrated in the 'Windy City.' He had enough connections to obtain fake papers and fly away with his loot in cash."

"Well, he can probably teach us a lot."

"Yes," agrees the major, "and we'll subject him to a rigorous medical examination after his debriefing. He's the only person still alive who has been in contact with Phoenix's nanobots, we might be able to discover something valuable. But let's put Vaughan aside for now, let's get back to Phoenix and RoTP."

"We were just talking about that when you arrived," says Sarah.

She feels Jeremy gently squeezing her hand and can't help but send him an inquisitive look. Kinkaid doesn't seem to notice, he continues.

"So, it also sounds a bit far-fetched to you that Phoenix would go through complicated lengths to identify his former comrades-in-arms. Just to have them execute tasks, which these days almost any geek living in their parents' basement should be able to fulfill?"

Jeremy feels a small drop of sweat trickle down his spine and turns cold. "Obviously, Phoenix isn't the most stable of man," he throws out. "In a corner of his mind, he might have kept some animosity towards the RoTP members and saw this as a way to satisfy an old vendetta."

Kinkaid makes a somewhat unconvinced grimace, while Sarah, understanding that Jay is trying to hide something—and she's starting to suspect what—remains silent.

"Yes, that's a possibility..." begins the major. "But it doesn't actually fit Phoenix's psychological profile. If he had a real grudge against your group, he would have acted much earlier."

Kinkaid thinks to add that with his sadistic tendencies, Phoenix would have likely made them suffer just as much, but he refrains from saying so not to upset the Wessler widow further.

"No," he continues. "It seems more like Phoenix is looking for something. Something that your little band must be able to provide for him."

Jay registers this "something" as good news. The major suspects that the search for "something" motivates Phoenix, not "someone." It's music to his ears, and he takes advantage.

"You're thinking of a particular hack that we did together with RoTP? A specific piece of information, maybe?"

"We wondered about it, yes. But our analysts haven't found anything that could really be of great value after twenty years. Your activities, your methods from back then ... no offense ... have been obsolete for a long time."

"Oh! You'd be surprised at what you can do with a good old phone and some social engineering," Jeremy retorts, sounding offended.

The major smiles, seemingly pleased to have pierced Jeremy's veneer of impassivity.

"Honestly, Mr. Baltac, we even went back through all your finances. Hoping to find traces of fraudulent money. We had a theory for a while that RoTP had actually collected a lot of funds, leaving Phoenix out. He could have cracked your identity and recently discovered the success of your company, got upset, then decided to include you in the execution of his plan to satisfy his ego."

Even though he can easily dismiss these accusations, Jeremy doesn't respond.

"But your finances are impeccable, Baltac. Managed masterfully by your right-hand man."

"Alexandre has been able to prosper my interests, yes. All our big contracts come from him."

"Anyway, that theory was a bit far-fetched," admits Kinkaid.

"No harm, major. You were doing your job. But in the end, despite the detailed profile you undoubtedly didn't fail to make, who really knows what's going on in Phoenix's head?"

With slumped shoulders, beaten, the major nods tiredly. "Yeah ... who knows?"

A silence falls for a few seconds, then the Cajun straightens, picking up his train of thought as if the last exchange had never happened.

"Mind you, it's not any more far-fetched than imagining there would be an additional member of RoTP... A secret member..."

Jeremy freezes, his mouth suddenly dry, and the sweat droplet that has made its way to the small of his back turns icy.

"Because, of course, that could give another theory," continues the major, looking at Jay. He pauses, scrutinizing Jeremy as if attempting to read his thoughts, then proceeds without taking his eyes off the Frenchman. "A theory according to which Phoenix would need this secret member, or on the contrary, would fear that he could foil his plan. What could be more natural than to contact his former comrades to try to identify this mysterious character?"

Jeremy remains stiff, wanting to throw out a sharp retort, to sweep away this dangerous hypothesis, but his mind slips. Sarah's voice, firm and biting, surprises him as much as it does the major.

"Sir, you are being ridiculous! Listen to yourself... 'A secret member.' It sounds like a cheap suspense novel!" She mimed quotation marks around the major's quote, and she resumes vehemently: "I already knew the boys at that time, I knew their activities, their team. I married one of them..." Her voice becomes less certain, but she continues. "Eighteen years, major! Eighteen years with Brian! Do you really think if there were an additional member in RoTP, I wouldn't know?!"

Her lips pinched, visibly holding back from bursting into tears, she shoots the agent an outraged glare.

He ends up looking away, muttering to himself: "OK, OK, let's not talk about the mysterious Doctor anymore..."

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