Chapter Eight

“So I think I’ve identified Vlad’s location.”

Keiji looked over at Rick to see if the man could hear him. The earbuds once again blasting away and Rick had that hyper-focused look in his eyes as he stared at the computer screen. Last night had shaken Keiji to his core. What they’d shared had been so much more than a blowjob. In his mother’s family, terms of endearment were rare, even among those most devoted to each other. They expressed their love through actions, and so when he’d stared into Rick’s eyes the only answer to his silent question had been to mold their bodies together and chase away the evils of the night together.

Rick’s eyes went wide, his head jerked up, and he quickly removed one earbud. “I think I’ve found Vlad.”

Keiji smiled. “That’s what he said.”

“Huh?”

“I literally just said that, but the mad hattery you’ve got going on over there engrossed you.”

“Sorry.” He stood and brought the laptop over to Keiji’s desk. He bent over and pressed a kiss to Keiji’s lips. Keiji drifted in a cloud of aching need as his tongue dueled with Rick’s.

“What do you have?”

“Now? A hard-on.”

“Sorry, not sorry. Vlad?”

He cleared his throat. “Right. So he has to get paid, right? So far as we’ve been able to determine he doesn’t deal in cryptocurrency. ACH transfers are the most likely suspect, and they have to land in a bank account that is associated with a physical address. I did some questionably ethical digging based on jobs Vlad, or Saber as he prefers to be called, has taken credit for in the past. I found an invoice from the governorship of the Kungurskaya Ledyanaya Peshchera. It’s this really cool series of ice caves in rural Russia. Talk about a rabbit hole of Google searching for a rainy day. Anyway, the invoice had a routing number and associated deposit account. Now the account is just a dummy depository, but I wielded my magic fingers and went down a rabbit hole of shell corporations until I found an address that looks plausible. How about you?”

“Huh? I may have done some snooping in Special Agent King’s AAR reports. His investigation into Battlehawk led him to the jacket of a pilot who recently received a bad conduct discharge because of multiple infractions of UA. The guy was ultimately found guilty of reporting for duty under the influence. Part of the investigation included a deep dive on his finances to look for an unexplained influx of cash that might indicate espionage on the project.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense.”

Rick said nothing, but he did smile and turn the laptop around.

“Yahtzee! Okay so we know who uploaded the malware to the drone and I can only imagine how the Army is going to come down on young former-Corporal Nims. But where is the link to Saber?”

“Somebody had to give Nims the malware, right? So I went back into Nims’s personal email because he was stupid, but slightly smarter than using his military account. I found an email from an account named judgement day is upon us, at cryptex dot net.”

“Seriously?”

“I can’t make this shit up. Anyway, after exploring a rabbit hole of proxy routers I found a sender IP address that is in….”

“Race you to see who finds it on a map first?”

Keiji woke up his system and found his favorite online map search. He glanced back at one of the other screens and copied and pasted the address he’d found but before he could even click Enter a little ding reached his ears from Rick’s laptop. Mister Fancy Pants Geospatial Engineer had entered latitude and longitude coordinates. Rick’s face looked a bit like the Grinch as he smiled his evil smile before stealing all the presents in Whoville. Keiji finished entering his data and clicked the Go button. His screen did the Hokey Pokey and turned itself around before landing in the same location as Rick’s coordinates.

“Gotcha,” Rick whispered.

“I am so turned on right now. So now we just infiltrate his evil lair, get him to confess the identity of the mastermind, take him out, and stop the production of Ascaris.”

“Oh, is that all?”

Keiji pretended to think about it for a few seconds. “Did I miss something?”

“How about the fact that he’s in Montenegro and we’re in Virginia. Montenegro has no extradition treaty with the United States. I have to report for duty in five days. We don’t have any official authority within the Department of Justice, and frankly you may be hotter than any action hero but even Ethan Hunt has the Impossible Mission Force for backup.”

“Buzzkill. So what do we do? Special Agent King told us to stand down.”

Rick closed the laptop screen, darkening the room to where only the light from the halide lamps in the parking lot seeped into the office. “He did from the official Army investigation. But as you said last night, he’s not looking into Blackraptor.”

“You know, now that I think about it, did he seem all that surprised when we name dropped Vlad, aka Saber, as the author of the malware code?”

“I didn’t really focus on it, but you’re right. Only one way to find out if he knows where Vlad is hiding out.”

“Time to phone a friend.”

Keiji took out the burner phone they’d picked up at a convenience store earlier and entered Evan’s number.

“Go for King.”

“Don’t you sound so authoritative.”

Evan sighed. “Hello Keiji. What can I do for you?”

“Rick and I have uncovered some information that we think might be valuable, and because we are concerned citizens thought we should share it with those in a position to do something about it.”

“I thought I told you to stand down.”

“You did, sir. And we have touched no part of your investigation into Oracle or Battlehawk.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire,” Keiji mouthed.

Rick glared at him, and Keiji couldn’t help but smile. God, he was coming to love those brief glares of indignation.

“We are, however, still investigating the situation at Blackraptor. Keiji’s reputation and the lives of civilian and military personnel may still be in jeopardy if Ascaris continues in its testing and ultimate production.”

“I am aware. Are you aware that I opened an investigation into Blackraptor this morning?”

Keiji felt his lunch gurgle in his stomach. He’d gotten on his moral high horse to Rick last night about how King wouldn’t care about Blackraptor and talked him into spending the entire day burning their retinas digging up information. “No, sir.”

“I’m not blind to the implications of your report, Keiji. As a civilian-run research facility who holds government contracts with a nexus to the U.S. Army I have jurisdiction over Blackraptor and its project coordinators. If there is a link to any active investigation or frankly probable cause for other potential criminal offenses within the contracted projects, then I have every intention of looking at them.”

He looked at Rick but couldn’t hold the man’s gaze. Rick gripped his chin and lifted his head. With a single touch, Rick could say more than a thousand words.

“I apologize. I’m the one who talked Rick into looking into Blackraptor further. Please don’t penalize him.”

“Let’s address that issue later. What did the two of you find?”

“We found a probable physical location for Vladimir Rybicki.”

“Well shit. Me and about every other investigative organization might give you gentlemen a commendation if that’s true. Do I want to know how you did this?”

He looked at Rick and got one of his new favorite smirks in return. “I’m going to say it’s in your best interest to have plausible deniability.”

“You’re killin’ me, Smalls. You realize I need actual evidence on the record to get a conviction, right?”“Hey, I thought I was a confidential informant! Can’t a CI give tips that the cops build a case around that don’t come from… let’s say the most respectable sources?”

“You watch too many movies. Okay, where am I going?”

“Do you have access to a fast jet?”

Keiji looked down at the crystalline blue waters of the Adriatic Sea. Visiting the Balkans had never appeared on his bucket list, but he could certainly appreciate the scenery. “I am in the wrong business.”

“Thinking of going to the dark side?” Rick asked as he came up behind Keiji and subtly rested his hand on Keiji’s lower back.

Montenegro may be one of the few countries in the Balkans that had legalized same-sex marriages, but there was still much dissent and inclusivity progress needed. While Keiji had never been ashamed of who he was, he also had enough self-preservation to read the room so to speak.

He leaned back against Rick’s touch while glancing over his shoulder and smiling. “Admit it, the compensation is clearly more lucrative than working for either the private sector or Uncle Sam.”

“Maybe, but there’s the whole enemy of the State part you’d have to justify.”

“Eh, if you’re a genuine believer then I doubt there’s much justification required.” He turned and propped himself against the stone wall of the balcony. “But I have this really annoying moral streak that would prevent me from effectively making a living off illegal activities.”

A light breeze came up from sea and lifted Rick’s hair away from his forehead. He had used no product to hold back the longer strands and Keiji found he liked the softer look. He still couldn’t believe that Special Agent King had cleared it so they joined the task force that had traveled halfway across the world to pursue Vlad.

“Actually real estate here isn’t nearly as exorbitant as you might suspect. We got a deal on this little apartment for only two hundred and eight thousand euros.”

Keiji rolled his eyes. “Says the spook with a black budget.”

Footsteps on the pavers came from Keiji’s left. Along with them, the scent of freshly brewed coffee. He almost whined as both he and Rick had been up for a solid thirty-eight hours. Well he had; Rick had sacked out on the plane faster than Keiji could say ‘pretzels please’. Then again, there hadn’t actually been much in the way of craft service on the C-17 they’d hitched a ride on. He’d never ridden on a cargo plane before and the seats, such as they were, weren’t exactly conducive to comfort. Since the center of the plane had been loaded with humanitarian supplies headed for Ukraine, they only had the jump seats that lined either side of the fuselage. On the plus side, he hadn’t been sardined between two strangers with no sense of personal space. They’d composed their little suicide squad of only six people. Four of which now stood on the balcony of their home away from home.

“Actually I’m the spook,” said the man to Keiji’s left. “BB over there is with SCS.”

“Ah, yes. My apologies, Officer Tate,” He looked over at the agent who only went by his moniker. “What exactly is SCS? I don’t know about you.”

“That means we’re doing our jobs.”

His deep voice held an accent that was this unique blend of French and something Keiji couldn’t place. It rolled off his tongue and over Keiji like a seductive sound wave. His dark skin absorbed the sun’s rays, but the obnoxiously printed button-down, short-sleeve shirt announced his presence. This seemed counterintuitive to a secret agent’s goals.

“Geez BB, you’re not a member of fight club. SCS is Special Collection Service. They are NSA’s field agents. I’ll give you that nobody really knows what you do, which makes for a great excuse to not do anything and still get paid, but if you need to plug into an embassy overseas, rig up an antenna or acquire some kind of clandestine signal, it’s probably this guy behind the curtain.”

Keiji looked over at BB for confirmation but saw nothing more than a man enjoying a cup of morning coffee.

Okay then.

Rick shifted enough to keep both men in his line of sight. “And you? I mean you all but confirmed that you’re CIA. What’s your role here?”

“Whatever I need to be.”

Keiji had noticed that Rick had definitely shifted mentally into operational readiness. Beside him stood Sergeant Major Davis. Granted Rick didn’t have a job where he was boots on the ground, but Keiji knew he’d seen action. He’d lost friends, and he’d never met a man or woman who served where that situational awareness completely left them.

“So where is our fearless leader?” Tate asked.

Rick gestured over his shoulder aiming for the oldest part of the city. “Sourcing out supplies. Should be back any minute along with Agent Linder. I assume they have read the two of you in on the situation.”

“Yes, although I am slightly flummoxed by your presence outside Fort Meade. I’m all for having more hands… assuming they prove to be an asset.”

Keiji put his hand on Rick’s arm, halting his lover as he was about to speak. “Sergeant Major Davis is the only one here with intimate knowledge of Oracle. We need his operational knowledge of the system to validate Saber’s interrogation.”

“Add that to the fact that the two of you stuck King between a rock and a hard place by withholding Saber’s exact location unless you got to come along, and I can see why I heard him grinding his teeth from across the aisle of the plane for the duration of the flight.”

Keiji took a page out of BB’s book by simply walking away to get that cup of coffee he so desperately wanted.

He closed his eyes and inhaled the life-sustaining brew as a tendril of steam rose to greet his olfactory center.

“You should have slept on the plane,” Rick said softly, then placed a soft kiss on Keiji’s neck. “You’re going to crash hard or be so jet-lagged that you can’t sleep and become a useless zombie.”

“I’m used to more than a backpack as a pillow and a metal floor as a mattress.”

“So bougie. Tonight I promise to sing you a lullaby and cradle you in my arms until you drift off into the land of nod.”

Keiji set his mug on the counter and spun around in Rick’s arms. “Or you could just fuck me unconscious.”

Rick groaned and pressed their foreheads together. “I would love nothing more. But our first time will not be a furtive fuck in an apartment with three straight guys and a chick sleeping ten feet away.”

He placed his cheek against Rick’s. How the man could still look and smell so good after the last two days was a mystery. “I’m not so sure that Tate is straight. I caught him checking out your ass while the plane was air refueling.”

Rick’s chuckle vibrated against Keijis chest. “Why are you laughing? It’s an ass worthy of thorough inspection. One I’m hoping to get intimately familiar with soon.”

“Maybe a furtive fuck isn’t such a bad idea after all. I can’t wait to experience your magnificent cock inside me. It’s going to fill me up and thrust me into a stratosphere of ecstasy. That is of course if I can forego getting my mouth on you again. Because you are a delicacy unlike any I’ve tasted before.”

Keiji arched against Rick and speared his fingers through the ginger strands. He kissed Rick as if he was the source to the nectar of gods. Rick wrapped his arms around Keiji. He hungered for the feel of skin against skin, running his hands over all of Rick, his back, his ass, around his rock-hard shoulders. He rolled his hips into Rick’s, but he hissed as his jeans rubbed against hardening flesh.

“Sorry,” he whispered. “This isn’t exactly the time or place.” Keiji shook as he rested his forehead against Rick’s shoulder.

“I heard every promise you just uttered, and I will move heaven and earth to experience the moment you make them come true.”

“Sorry to interrupt the show gentlemen, but King’s arrival is imminent, and I kinda figured you might like a little warning before clothes start flying.”

He glanced to his right and saw Tate standing just outside the kitchen. He leaned against the doorframe and a smirk that said he’d not only unabashedly been watching them but enjoyed the matinee.

“No fuckin’ privacy,” Rick mumbled.

Tate lifted his coffee mug in a salute. “Nope. But the two of you are fucking hot together, own it. I wouldn’t mind getting to watch the sequel later, after we’ve caught the bad guy.”

Rick’s growl and the way he moved just slightly as though to shield Keiji made a little place inside him do a happy dance.

“I don’t share,” Rick said while staring down Tate.

Keiji placed a little kiss on Rick’s neck. “Neither do I,” he whispered into Rick’s ear.

“Sorry spook boy, we’re exclusive.”

Tate shrugged. “My loss. How long have you been together?”

He looked at Rick, and the two of them started laughing. It was ridiculous how territorial they were, given the infancy of their relationship. Most of Keiji’s single friends were happy playing the field. Hookup app and bar crawling stories were the norm. Keiji had no issues with either, but he’d accepted the fact that he’d lost the appeal of discovering random partners that provided nothing but short-term physical gratification.

Rick put his arm around Keiji’s shoulders. “What are we at now? Four days?”

Tate started choking on a sip of coffee, and Keiji tried to hold back a smile. He caught a glimpse of BB passing behind Tate and the sound of feet running up the stairs outside the apartment door reached him just before the door was thrust open and King, along with one of his agents, made the already small kitchen more crowded. Keiji retrieved his coffee from the counter. A chef’s dream the tiny corner was not, but bare essentials ensured functionality.

“What’s going on here?” King asked.

“We were all debating the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow.”

“So glad to know the focus is on completing one of the most critical operations in worldwide cyber security. Now, can we run through the phases again before it’s time to go.”

King and Tate walked off into the living area and his agent hung back in the kitchen. “I’m going to grab a cup and we’ll be right there.” She looked at Keiji. “Don’t worry about him. He always gets a little cranky right before we initiate an operation. Especially when there are a lot of unknowns.”

Rick shrugged. “Enough drill sergeants and officers have yelled at me that I take nothing too personal anymore.” He looked at Agent Linder. “Is there something the two of you learned while you were out that we need to know?”

Coffee in hand Agent Linder tossed her black hair over her shoulder. “The fact that we didn’t learn anything while we were out is more telling. Nobody in the village could provide any information about Saber. I think King was really hoping the guy had left some kind of daily footprint. Are you sure he’s here?”

Keiji nodded. “He’s here. I swear.”

“You’d better hope so.”

“Quit gossiping and get in here!” King yelled from the other room.

The three of them quickly made their way over to where they’d created a mini operations center. A small dining table had been shoved closer to the wall that held three laptops, a portable smart board, and more cords than would probably be safe plugged into a single outlet with a multi-port adapter.

Keiji started to pull over a chair, but at the slight glare he got from King he let go of the offensive furniture. Maybe refusing to give up Saber’s exact location hadn’t been the best move, but Keiji just couldn’t let this go. He knew King and Linder were good at their jobs. He’d never met Tate or BB before yesterday, but he had to assume the two were equally effective. King seemed to know them both or was at least aware of their reputations as he’d specifically requested them for their little mission.

“Okay, Davis and Pacheo. You got us here. Time to get over the power trip and read the team in so we can plan an effective interdiction.”

“Evan, we didn’t intend to keep anyone in the dark.” Rick looked over at Keiji for a second. Keiji gave him a barely perceptible nod. “Saber has a luxury penthouse right on the eastern side of Budva, almost to Zavala.”

“We had an address but felt there needed to be confirmation. Kind of like a two-step authenticator for your email. I ran an EMF trace program for the vicinity around our suspect building and discovered that there was one property that came up black.”

“Completely?” King asked, sounding surprised.

“One hundred percent.”

Linder raised her hand. “Umm, what does that mean for those of us who don’t speak geek?”

Tate tsked. “Don’t be hating. Hacking is all the rage these days. You’ve got super sleuths like these two, but even little old grandmas and elementary school kids can have mad skills.”

“It means…” Keiji said, raising his voice slightly, “that there are absolutely no electromagnetic emissions coming from the penthouse. That is unheard of in today’s society unless it’s part of the design. The only reason somebody would live in such a place was if they really wanted to hide their presence.”

“Or they were some kind of conspiracy nut about cell phones causing brain tumors,” Tate said.

“The entire penthouse? Not just one room?” King asked.

Rick nodded.

“Shit, that certainly sounds like something Saber would do to help hide his tracks. So how are we going to get intel and access?”

“Do we have access to line of sight?” BB asked.

Rick used Keiji’s laptop to bring up an interactive 3D map on the smart board. “All the exterior walls on the south side of the penthouse are glass, offering views of the ocean.” Architectural plans of the penthouse seemed to float up from the board. Rick pointed out the top floor. “Here’s our best opportunity to sneak and peek.”

Tate walked around the table and Keiji didn’t have the heart to tell him he could spin the drawing any which way he wanted from one position.

“You get me line of sight and I can monitor his low-frequency magnetic radiation.”

“Using what?” King asked.

“Odini.”

Rick slapped his forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that? Faraday’s block electromagnetic signals, but LF radiation disseminates through the air, penetrating the metal shields.”

BB nodded. “I can use Odini to implant malware on an air-gapped device in his possession that once it’s taken into the penthouse will penetrate the shield. Then we activate a receiver from someplace nearby. By regulating the load of the infected CPU core we can download everything we want because it’s going to be transmitted on top of the magnetic emissions.”

Keiji touched the corner of his lip, “You’re drooling babe. If I wasn’t absolutely certain of my appeal, then I might think you’d toss me over for BB there. Not that I’ll deny the appeal. Brains, looks, and an orgasm-inducing voice will turn a boy’s head.”

Keiji suspected that blood was rushing to the surface of BB’s cheeks, but his dark skin hid the telltale sign of embarrassment.

“Keiji!” Rick exclaimed.

“Do I lie?”

“Nope,” Linder said.

“Sorry man, I’m with them.” Tate added.

“It’s like working with a bunch of horny high school students,” King groaned.

“I thought they have not used Odini outside of research at the Cybersecurity Research Center at BGU. How do you have access?” Rick said, no doubt trying to get them back on task.

BB pulled what apparently was his trademark silent answer that both amused and infuriated Keiji.

“The NSA gets all the cool toys. You don’t have any job openings, do you? Because I’m fairly certain I’m fired when this is all over.”

King paced the room, and the others remained silent, waiting for their leader’s verdict on how to move forward. “So we need to find out Saber’s routine and somehow intercept him outside the penthouse without him being aware, then wait for BB to work his magic. Once we have the intel on his machine we’ll be armed with enough intelligence to conduct an interrogation.”

Tate rubbed his hands together. “Stakeout time.”