James PATTERSON - The Big Bad Wolf

Farley shook his head. ‘Never heard of it.’

‘We have you on tape, asshole,’ Ned said. ‘You got a lot of ’splaining to do, Lucy.’

Farley looked confused. ‘Who the hell is Lucy ? What are you talking about, man? You mean, like, I Love Lucy ?’

Mahoney was good at keeping Farley off guard. I thought we were working okay together.

‘You’ve got her in the woods somewhere in Jersey. We have it on tape,’ Mahoney yelled, then stamped his foot hard.

‘Did you hurt her? Is she all right? Where is Audrey Meek?’

I picked up.

‘Take us to her, Farley!

‘You’re going back to prison. This time, you don’t get out again,’ I shouted in his face.

It was as if Farley were finally waking up. He squinted his eyes and stared hard at us. Lord, he smelled, especially now that he was scared.

‘Wait a fucking minute. Now I get it. That Internet place? I was just showin’ off.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Farley slumped down into himself as if we’d been beating him. ‘Favorite Four is for freaks to talk. Everybody makes shit up, man.’

‘But you didn’t make up the stuff about Audrey Meek. You know things about her. You got it all right,’ I said.

‘The bitch turns me on. She’s a fox. Hell, I collect catalogs from Meek, always have. All those skinny-ass models look like they need a good, unh, unh, uh !’

‘You knew things about the abduction, Farley,’ I said.

‘I read the newspapers, watch CNN. Who doesn’t? I told you, Audrey Meek turns me on. I wish I’d abducted her. You think I’d be sleeping with Cini if Audrey Meek was around here?’

I jabbed an index finger at Farley. ‘You knew things that weren’t in the newspapers.’

He shook his huge head from side to side. Then he said, ‘Got a scanner. Listen in on police radios and such. Shit, I didn’t kidnap Audrey Meek. I wouldn’t have the balls. I wouldn’t. I’m all talk, man.’

Mahoney cut in. ‘You had the balls to rape Carly Hope,’ he said.

Farley seemed to be shrinking inside himself again. ‘Nah, nah. It’s like I said in court. Carly was a girlfriend. I didn’t rape her none. I don’t have the balls. I didn’t do nothing to Audrey Meek. I’m nobody. I’m nothing .’

Rafe Farley stared at us for a long moment. His eyes were bloodshot, everything about him was pathetic. I didn’t want to, but I was starting to believe him. I’m nobody. I’m nothing . That was Rafe Farley, all right.

S terling .

Mr Potter .

The Art Director .

Sphinx .

Marvel .

The Wolf .

The cover names sounded harmless, but the men behind them weren’t. During one session, Potter had nicknamed the group Monsters Inc. as a joke, and that was an accurate description. They were monsters, all of them; they were freaks; they were deviates, and worse.

And then there was the Wolf, who was in a whole other class.

The meeting was on a secure website that was inaccessible to outsiders. All messages were encrypted and required a pair of keys: one key garbled the information; a second key was needed to recover it. More important, a hand scan was necessary to get on to the site. They were considering using a retinal scan, or possibly an anal probe.

The subject under discussion was the Couple, and what to do about them.

‘What the hell does that mean – what to do about them? ’ asked the Art Director, who was jokingly called Mr Softee because he could get very emotional, the only one of them who ever did.

‘It means just what it sounds like,’ answered Sterling. ‘There’s been a serious breach of security. Now we have to decide what to do about it. There’s been sloppiness, stupidity, and maybe worse than that. They were seen . It’s put us all in danger.’

‘What are our options?’ the Art Director continued. ‘I’m almost afraid to ask.’

Sterling responded instantly. ‘Have you read the newspapers lately? Do you have a TV? A team of two took a woman in a mall in Atlanta, Georgia. They were spotted. A team of two abducted a woman in Pennsylvania – and they were seen. Our options? Do absolutely nothing – or do something extreme. An object lesson is needed – for the other teams.’

‘So what are we doing about the problem?’ asked Marvel, who was usually spookily quiet, but who could be nasty and dangerous when he was aroused.

‘For one thing, I’ve shut down all deliveries for the moment,’ said Sterling.

‘Nobody told me about that!’ Sphinx erupted. ‘I’m expecting a delivery. As all of you know, I paid a price for it. Why wasn’t I informed before now?’

No one said anything to Sphinx for several seconds. No one liked him. Besides, each one of them was a sadist. They enjoyed torturing Sphinx, or anyone else in the group who showed weakness.

‘I expect my delivery!’ Sphinx insisted. ‘I deserve it. You bastards! Fuck you all.’ Then he went off-line. In a huff. Typical Sphinx. Laughable, really, except none of them was laughing right now.

‘The Sphinxter has left the building,’ Potter finally said.

Then Wolf took over. ‘I think that’s enough idle chat for tonight, enough fun and games. I’m concerned about the news stories. We need to deal with the Couple in some decisive manner that satisfies me. What I propose is that we have another team pay them a visit. Is there any disagreement?’

There was none, which wasn’t unusual when the Wolf had the floor. They were afraid of him; all of them were petrified of the Russian.

‘There is some good news, though,’ Potter said then. ‘This fuss and attention… it is exciting, isn’t it? Gets the blood boiling. It’s a hoot, right?’

The group shared a laugh. ‘You’re crazy, Potter. You’re mad.’

‘Don’t you just love it?’

The well-protected chat room was not protected enough.

Suddenly the Wolf said, ‘Don’t say another word. Not a word! I think someone else is on with us. Wait. They’re off now. Someone broke into the den, and now they’re gone. Who could have gotten in here? Who let them in? Whoever it is, they’re dead.’

Lili Lynch was fourteen and a half years old, going on twenty-four, and she honestly believed she’d heard everything, until she hacked into the Wolf’s Den .

The sick bastards in the well-protected-but-not-protected- enough chat room were all older men, and they were gross and despicable. They liked to talk incessantly about women’s private parts, and having vile sex with anyone and everything that moved – any age, any gender, human or animal. The men were beyond disgusting, and they made her want to puke. Only then it got a lot worse, and Lili wished she had never even heard of the Wolf’s Den , never hacked into the highly protected chat room. They might be murderers!

And then the leader, Wolf, actually discovered Lili was on the site with them, listening to everything they’d said.

So now Lili knew about the murders, and the kidnappings, everything they fantasized about, and possibly did. Only she didn’t know if any of what she heard was real or not .

Was it real? Or were they making it all up? Maybe they were just nasty, sicko bullshitters. Lili almost didn’t want to know the truth, and she didn’t know what to do about the stuff she’d already overheard. She had hacked on to their site and that was illegal. If she went to the police, she’d be turning herself in. So she couldn’t do that. Could she? Especially if the stuff on the site was just fantasies.