Zero Day, стр. 15
She began to realize now that Kelvin was a scapegoat. True, he had worked for the wrong people and gotten paid for it. He was going to get jail time for aiding and abetting terrorists. His reprieve was that he had tried to fix it once he found out who paid his bills.
He had tried to redeem himself.
Only God can redeem us.
Yona tried to pay attention to Reuel, but her eyes were sleepy. Under the black hood, it felt like nighttime. She could fall asleep right now. However, she had to stay awake to listen to what Reuel had to say.
Something about compensation?
Her wrists hurt from the tight cable ties. “Can you loosen the plastic just a little? I think the circulation on my wrists is getting cut off.”
Reuel didn’t answer her request. He continued chattering away about something.
Yona lost track of the lecture just as the Royce stopped on some gravel road. She could hear the loud gravel crushed by the tires.
“We’re here,” Reuel said.
“Where?”
Once again, he ignored Yona. “He’ll be so pleased to see you.”
“Who?”
No answer.
Her door opened.
“Get out.” Someone grabbed her arm.
Slowly, Yona stepped out of the vehicle and followed the lead. There was no way to see through the thick black hood. The fabric was too dense, too tightly-woven.
Her shoes crunched gravel. Yona suspected they were walking on some driveway or at least a porch where they could park the vehicle.
“Steps,” Reuel warned her.
Yona lifted her foot slowly to feel what she was stepping on. She took another step.
She heard a giant door open. It sounded heavy.
Her handler led her in. She almost tripped over what felt like a raised threshold.
She heard the door shut behind her.
All was quiet. No footfalls. No one spoke.
Then someone lifted off her hood. Yona blinked a couple of times to adjust to the light.
When she opened her eyes again, there he was.
The once-dead.
Chapter 12
Yona’s knees went weak. To think that she had prepared to kill Kelvin Gallagher for being instrumental in the death of her mentor—
Standing right here in front of her in flesh and blood.
He looked a bit older. His face was covered with a heavy beard and mustache. However, Yona recognized the old scar on his left eyebrow and the row of crowded teeth when he smiled.
“Issachar?” Yona barely got the name out. “You’re still alive.”
Who was buried in his grave in his hometown of Haifa back in Israel? He had wanted to face the top of Mount Carmel and all that.
Suddenly the quick cremation without any autopsy made sense.
“What about your children?” Yona asked. “What are they going to say if they find out they’re grieving for nothing?”
“Not for nothing,” Issachar answered. “They have my life insurance. They can go on. They’ll be fine.”
“And you? Are you fine?” Yona’s voice cracked.
“I will be when we get our billion dollars.”
“We?” Yona glanced at Reuel.
Issachar laughed. “You think Reuel and I had a falling-out? He’s still my best buddy. We’re doing this for our families.”
Families?
Yona’s eyes stung.
Issachar’s sons were about Yona’s age. Would they be happy that their father was still alive so soon after they buried him in their family mausoleum?
“Like what families?” Yona needed clarification.
The events of the last two days had been nothing but bizarre.
“My girlfriend,” Issachar replied. “We’re going to have kids soon.”
Yona’s eyes widened. She was sure now that his grown children would be devastated, not to mention his wife back in Israel, who was still wearing all black.
“You don’t believe that an eighty-year-old man can have children?”
He seemed to have forgotten about his family in Israel.
“Genetics is not my field,” Yona defended herself.
“Technology these days…” Issachar waved his hands about.
Yep. This was Issachar.
Reuel chuckled.
Strange twinning, these two. One called himself a Christian and the other an atheist. They had banded together like blood brothers before, but this time it was different. This time they seemed to be caught up in something more sinister.
“What are you two up to?” Yona asked. “Is Ulysses involved in this?”
Reuel and Issachar looked at each other.
“Do we care about Ulysses?” Reuel asked.
“Only about his computer system,” Issachar replied.
“What do you mean?” Yona tried to put two and two together.
“With the help of overpriced computer consultants, such as Kelvin, Ulysses has rebuilt MedusaNet to be world class.” Issachar walked about. “Unfortunately, he’s not sharing the system.”
“You’re going to make him share.”
“Not really.” Reuel motioned for Yona’s guards to escort her.
She limped, slowing down the procession.
They walked down the hallway to what looked like an operations center. There, on a screen nearest Yona, she saw every room in the last CIA safe house.
There seemed to be a camera in every room.
The CIA has been compromised.
Reuel led Yona past the row of monitors to a wall of more screens. He showed her several screens and one of them had a man in it, eating lunch. “Did you know that Ulysses wears a wig?”
“Is that real time?” Yona asked.
Reuel nodded.
“Is this room a replica of that one?”
“Yes. We will take over MedusaNet from here,” Issachar replied.
“But you’re not a computer specialist,” Yona said. “And neither is Reuel.”
“Not to worry. We hire hackers and computer people to do our bidding.”
Yona could guess what would happen to those hired hands once they were not needed anymore. The same thing that happened to Binary Systems employees—except for Cayson Yang and Kelvin Gallagher, probably.
“Where is Ulysses now?” She asked.
“A chateau outside France.”
“And you don’t have a problem telling me that because?” Yona glanced at the other surrounding screens. They showed various parts of the chateau. Mostly empty rooms.
Why couldn’t Aspasia find Ulysses when Reuel and Issachar could?
“You’re going to help us hack into Ulysses’s inner sanctum.” Reuel pointed to another screen.
The scene looked like an operations center, like this one she was standing in. Yona looked around her, and then back at the screen.
She leaned against a table to give relief to her ankle. “I’m not a hacker.”
“Kelvin is.” Issachar pointed to Reuel. “I bet him that Kelvin will do