Mark Pryor - Cyberian Affair

Vyper took his hand and pulled him back on the couch. “Marko always came over for Christmas Eve. He was my only family.”

“You and I can celebrate. I’ll buy a tree. We can decorate it.”

She shook her head. “No tree. I do not want one in the house.”

“They have artificial ones. No mess.”

“You do not understand. When I was a child, I had a different family almost every year. When they gathered around the tree, it was noisy—everyone talking at once. Each time I tried to get away, to be alone, they would force me to come back.”

“That must have been difficult for you.”

Vyper studied his face. “Do not pretend to be interested. I know what you are trying to do. I will not have sex with you.”

Niko didn’t know what to say. Although sex was often on his mind, certainly when near a pretty woman, this was one time when it wasn’t. He genuinely wanted to know her better. He wasn’t trying to get into her pants—not right now, anyway. “You’re a beautiful woman, Vyper, but I’m not attempting to seduce you. You once said you trusted me. Can you trust me now?”

Her eyes locked onto his. She seemed to be searching his inner thoughts. “People have warned me about men since I was a child. They trained me to be suspicious. I have also learned about men the hard way… But you have treated me well for two weeks. Marko trusted you… I will, too.”

Niko relaxed. “I’m glad we trust each other. I truly want to know about your life. Not everything… but I’d like to know about all those families you lived with. Were you an orphan?”

“My father left us when I was very young. I think it was my fault. Autistic children can be stressful for a family—for a single parent, too. When I was twelve, my mother took me to a day care center and did not return. I never saw her again.”

Niko wanted to reach out. To hold her. Stroke her hair. But he resisted his instincts, keeping his distance. “It must have been hard to understand at that age. Were you adopted?”

Vyper shook her head. “No one adopts autistic children, especially at that age. They placed me in one home, then another—and another. This was Salt Lake City, so the families were large. Lots of people. No privacy. And I knew nothing about their religion, which was important to them.”

“There’s one thing I know about you. If you want to learn something, you’ll study it. Did you learn how to be a Mormon?”

“I learned, but some things were confusing. When I asked questions, people became angry with me. I learned to keep quiet and study something I could understand—computers.”

“We can celebrate Christmas without a tree—and I promise not to be noisy.”

Vyper smiled. “How do you celebrate Christmas?”

“My mother never had a tree. Said it would bother her customers .” Niko made finger gestures to give air quotes around the word customers . “She was a prostitute and a grifter. I don’t know who my father was, and I don’t think she knew either.”

Vyper placed her free hand on Niko’s arm. “Did your friends celebrate Christmas?”

“Sure, but in the Ukraine, they celebrated it in January. And it was more about religion, less about gifts. They do trees, which they decorate with spiders and—”

A warbling sound drew Niko’s attention. A message flashed on his laptop:

Niko studied the screen on his laptop. “Denial of Service. With thousands of messages hammering Fairfax County’s systems, they won’t be able to respond to any emergencies.”

Vyper typed in a few commands and pulled up a lengthy list of IP addresses. “The bogus messages are coming from all over the map. A large network of bots. It looks like the same botnet that attacked the banks when you were taking Sokolov’s money.”

“Cybercade’s gotta be the target,” said Niko. “They’ll be preoccupied with stopping the cyber-attack on the county while the Russians come after them with drones. With County dispatch down, they can’t send out help.”

“There are many targets the Russians could attack in Fairfax County. I agree they are probably going after Cybercade, but we cannot be sure.”

Niko stood up. “Listen. We both believe the Russians are about to attack somewhere, and we both agree Cybercade is the logical target. If we’re right, we have to do our best to stop it.”

Vyper began typing. “I am warning Cybercade. Reston is twenty minutes away if we take the toll road.”

“I’m getting the jammer ready.”

“Are you sure it will work from the car?”

“Only one way to find out.” Niko ran to the spare bedroom and grabbed the jammer, along with its antenna and power pack. Then he raced to his room and grabbed the Glock, a magazine, and extra rounds of ammo. When he came back to the living room, Vyper was gone, and the door to the garage was open.

He carried the equipment to the Prius, where Vyper sat in the passenger seat, computer in her lap.

Niko placed the jammer carefully in the back seat, connecting the power pack and antenna.

“You drive,” said Vyper. “I will monitor everything from here.”

“You’ll lose cell phone and internet access when we turn on the jammer.”

She held up a phone, much bigger than her cell. “I will use satellite—phone and internet. The frequency is lower.”

Niko started the car, backed out, and headed south. “Did Cybercade get your message? What are they doing?”

“I do not know, their firewall blocks my access, but they should have received the message.”

They approached the highway to Dulles Airport, and Niko took it. “I didn’t think any firewall could stop you.”

“Cybercade’s security people are good. It would take me a few hours to break in, and we do not have the time.”

A chime rang on Vyper’s laptop. “Something happened… Active shooter at McLean Plaza Mall. A SWAT team is on its way. Maybe I can find out more.” She began typing furiously.

Niko knew the mall. “Why would the Russians go after them?” He hit the accelerator. “It’s Christmas Eve—full of shoppers. A couple of miles past Cybercade.”

“Slow down. You do not want to be stopped by the police.”

He eased off the gas. “We can’t go to the mall. The cops won’t let us anywhere near the place. Besides, we can’t help—it’s a shooter, not a bunch of drones.”

A video appeared on Vyper’s screen, then she switched to another and another. “I do not see anything unusual in any part of the mall. They must not know about the shooter… uh, never mind… now people are running.”

There were too many things going on at once. Niko tried to make sense of it all. “How did Fairfax County dispatch the SWAT team? Their computers are under attack.”

“Loudoun County responded. They must be assisting Fairfax while their computers are out of service.”

Niko thought about turning around at the next exit but changed his mind. “Any news of casualties? Anyone spot the shooter?”

“Nothing so far. Just people running away and police rushing to the scene.”

The toll road was directly ahead. Niko followed the ramp and took the EZ-Pass lane onto the highway. “What if this is a distraction? It’s a perfect time to launch an attack on Cybercade.”

“It started.” Vyper tapped away at the keyboard. “Someone rerouted the 9-1-1 calls. Just like they did with the Action Center attack. Calls are not going to the County, and I do not have time to fix it. I will send EMS Telecom a message.”

Niko stepped on the gas. No need to worry about being stopped. Any cops in the area would be speeding to the mall, lights flashing. “Is there any place in the Cybercade parking lot where cameras won’t see us?”