Renegade World: Future Past (26 page)

Raul grinned at Naami. “Shaw’s going down.”

She handed Raul the case with the Buck Mark. “No question.
Go get him.”

The director called Raul’s name. His mom and uncle both
wished him good luck. As Raul walked up and uncased the pistol and rifle,
Camila asked Naami, “Does he have a chance.”

“A very very good chance.” She walked closer. Raul looked
calm and focused as the director said, “Shooter ready.” He nodded, the timer
beeped, and he fired five times.

“Shooter, unload and show clear.”  After Raul dropped his
mag and ejected one round, the director looked at the timer. He did a double
take. He grinned and shouted, “New low time for a pistol on stage one.” He
scanned his audience until he found Kent Shaw.  “Mr. Martinez’ time is 10.85 seconds.”
The crowd applauded, all except Shaw.

“Good shooting, Raul.” He beckoned Raul over to the rifle
box. “How are you with a rifle?”

Raul shrugged. “Not bad.”

Shaw elbowed his way forward as Raul set himself.  “Shooter
ready?” Raul nodded, the timer beeped, and he fired five times.

“Shooter, unload and show clear.”  After Raul took out the
mag and ejected one round, the director looked at the timer and grinned. “Mr.
Martinez’ time is 11.01 seconds.” The crowd applauded.

After the applause died down, the director called up Naami.
She rubbed the feed ramp of the Buck Mark with a small piece of cotton, stepped
into the pistol box, inserted the mag, racked the slide, and pointed the Buck
Mark at the stake, never looking at the targets. “Shooter ready.” She nodded,
the timer beeped, and she fired five times.

“Shooter, unload and show clear.”  After Naami dropped her
mag and ejected one round, the director looked at the timer and shook his head.
“Ms. Schmidt’s time is 9.77 seconds.” The crowd applauded, and one of the
teenage girls yelled, “That was really kick ass.”

Naami’s time for the rifle portion of stage one was 11.03
seconds, giving her a combined score about one second faster than Raul, who was
almost three seconds ahead of Shaw.

Naami cased the guns and walked back toward Joe, Camila,
and Raul. Shaw stopped her halfway there. “Good shooting kid, but you’ve got
two more stages that you can screw up on.”

“Oh, no!” She opened her eye wide and put her hand over her
mouth in mock fright. She blinked and then she giggled. “Oh, Mr. Shaw. Don’t be
silly! There’s no pressure on me or Raul. No one expected us to beat you, and
everyone expected you to win.  You know what Mr. Shaw?” She beckoned him to
lean down. She batted her eyes as she stared into his. “You are going to mess
up in stage three. You really are.”

After she walked away, Shaw blinked and shook his head.
“Damn kids.”

Naami won the pistol portion of stage two by a second over
Raul and lost to him by a hundredth of a second in the rifle. Raul was now
ahead of Shaw by five seconds, and Shaw was four and a half seconds ahead of Charlie
Means.

Naami and Raul ate while stage three continued. Raul ate a
sandwich while Naami chewed on venison jerky. Raul watched her chewing. “Uncle
Joe, did you tell her your jerky is made from bear meat?”

Joe nodded.

She swallowed and took a sip of water. “I think it’s good,
especially the thin pieces.” She took another sip of water and waved. “Hi, Mr.
Means.”

The lean, fortyish man with high cheekbones and
black hair tipped his hat. “Call me Charlie. If someone says Mr. Means, I look
around for my father.” He smiled. That was nice shooting by both of you. Good
luck on stage three.

Naami nodded. “Tókhi wániphika ní!”

Charlie stared at her.

“Did I mispronounce it?”

“It wasn’t bad. I was just surprised.” He tipped his hat
again. Tókhi wániphika ní!

“What was that all about?” asked Joe.

Naami shrugged. “I figured out that Charlie is a Lakota. I
tried to tell him good luck in Lakota.”

Naami ate two more pieces of jerky, some almonds, and some
yogurt while Raul ate a second sandwich. She got up from the picnic table.
“Let’s go watch. Charlie is up next.”

Charlie had good scores on stage three. As they watched
Shaw ready himself, Raul elbowed Naami. “You were trying to get into his head,
weren’t you?”

She just nodded.
More than you know, Raul.

On his third target, Shaw had to clear a jam, costing him
almost two seconds. As he walked to the rifle box, he turned to Naami and
stared daggers. She giggled and gave him a meek wave. Shaw tried to make up
time on the rifle, but he missed the third plate and had to come back to it
after he shot the fourth plate. He missed the fifth plate and had to shoot it
again before he shot the stop plate.

Raul and Naami both shot well on stage three, Naami beating
Raul by two seconds on the pistol and tying him on the rifle. Shortly after
Naami finished, she heard tires throwing gravel. She turned in time to see Shaw
drive off.

Charlie Means walked up as she watched Shaw’s car
disappear. He smiled at her. “Kent won’t be able to live this down.” He shook Naami’s
hand. “This is the first time I’ve ever beaten him.” He shook Raul’s hand. “I
don’t think I could have done it without you two. Taŋyáŋ ománi” He
tipped his hat and walked off.

J
ack Bear rapped on
his boss’ door.

“Come in.”

“Got a few minutes,
Rhett?”

“Sure. Is this about the Connolly/Martinez/Schmidt case?”

“Yes.”

“I read the message
from El Gato Renegado. According to the FBI, whoever El Gato Renegado is, his
tips have been remarkably good.” He paused. “I think the FBI and maybe the DEA
have got this one.”

Jack nodded. “I
thought maybe we could roust Olinsky and get him to crack. We never were able
to press charges against Mary Connolly.”

“I’ll clear it with
the FBI.”

“Thanks, Rhett.”

As Jack got up to
leave, Rhett asked, “What’s your impression of Naami Schmidt? You interviewed
her, right?”

Jack laughed. “At
five, she was scary smart. It was more like she interviewed me. Have you met
her?”

“I have. I let Joe
Martinez bring his nephew Raul and Naami out to shoot at my place.”

“Are they any good?”

“To use your
phrasing, they’re scary good.”

“Really?”

“Really. If they
were of age, the Marines could train ‘em as snipers in no time.”

As Jack returned to
his desk, he wondered if Rhett was exaggerating. If not, it was high praise
coming from the former Marine Major.

N
aami?

Yes, Abraham.

All data from the sleeper programs that you activated at
the police department has been routed to us.

Good. I was getting impatient. It’s been two weeks.

Any faster and we would have tripped their security
software. Big Brother hasn’t finished analyzing all of the data yet, but Jack
Bear has reopened the investigation of Mary Connolly.

Great.

There is something unexpected that came out of the
analysis.

What?

The police department’s main servers were already
infected, and we have traced the destination IP addresses used by the
infection.

And?

More analysis is required, but one of those IP address
is one that matches an existing IP address of interest.

Which one?

The one that seems to be correlated with the timing of
messages between Children of Abel and the Chihuahua Next Generation Drug Cartel.

Have we got everything we need from the police department?

Yes, but we could capture more of the traffic that is
sent to the IP addresses. It will take Big Brother a while to decrypt that
data, but a larger sample of the encrypted data may be beneficial.

OK. In twenty-four hours, delete all of our code
segments from the servers, internal routers, and other police devices. After
that’s done, send a message to Karl Hunter explaining that the police
department’s security has been compromised. Suggest that he get the police
department to call in Miguel as a consultant. We don’t know who infected the
police department. It could be someone in the police department. It could even
be someone in the FBI.

K
arl?

“Yes?”

You have another message from El Gato Renegado.

“Display it.”

He read the message.
To: Karl Hunter. From: El Gato
Renegado. Subject: Mandan Police Department Security Compromised. Body: The
Mandan Police Department’s servers, routers, and other devices are infected.
You are the only recipient of this message. You were chosen because it is not
known who may have introduced the infection. It may be someone in the police
department. It could even be someone in the FBI. You have the connections and
relationships to decide who to trust with this information. It is humbly
suggested that you offer Miguel Garcia’s services to determine what police
department information is being sent to whom. Speculation, based on limited
data, is that the information theft involves the Connolly/Martinez/Schmidt
case. As always, your public servant.

“I’ll be damned. Implant, connect me with Miguel Garcia.”

Hi, Karl. To what do I owe the pleasure?

“An infection.”

Pardon me?

“It has been suggested to me that you are my go to guy to
help the Mandan Police Department figure out who hacked them and what they were
after.”

Who referred me?

“El Gato Renegado.”

Aah. The renegade cat. The unknown source. Has the
department been informed?

“No. El Gato Renegado doesn’t know who to trust to handle
this within the police department.”

It’s a small department.

“I know Rhett Johnstone personally, and I trust him. Do you
have time to take this on?”

Sure. I’ll load my magic software onto a computer. Just
get Rhett to plug the computer into the department network. The software should
handle almost all of the work. At most, I’d guess I’ll spend four or five hours
on it. I’m thinking that we should leave the infection in place until my
software figures out what’s going on.

“So it’s going to do what? Infect a virus with another
virus?”

Something like that, among other things.

 “Great. I’ll let you know after I speak with Rhett.”

OK. Bye.

“Implant, call Rhett Johnstone.”

Hey, Karl. It’s been a while. How’s your daughter?

“She’s fine. I don’t get to see her much. My ex has
custody.”

That’s too bad. My ex has my kids too. I get to see them
once a month, though.

What’s up, Karl?

“Can you stop over to my office today? I can’t tell you why
until you get here.”

Once a spook always a spook. Eh, Karl.

Karl smiled.
“
Something like that.”

You’ve piqued my interest. I’ll come over at three if
that works for you.

“Implant, show schedule.”

“That works, Rhett. See you at three. Thanks. Bye.”

See you.

K
arl?

“Yes.”

Karl, Rhett Johnstone is waiting for you downstairs. His
glasses have been cased.

He started walking to the elevator. “Let him know that I’m
on my way.”
He called an elevator as he walked, and one was waiting when
he got there. The elevator took him from the third sublevel up to the ground
floor. He waved Rhett over, and as Rhett came closer, he put his finger to his
lips, asking Rhett to stay silent.

They rode in silence down to the fourth sublevel. A technician
was waiting for them when then walked into the small IT lab. The tech motioned
Rhett to give him the box. Rhett gave Karl a concerned look as he handed
over the box. The tech took out the glasses and plugged a thin cable into its
port, and then took a second cable and plugged it into the port behind Rhett’s
right ear. The tech nodded to Karl.

“Sorry for the cloak and dagger stuff, but I was informed
that your implant and glasses didn’t have the latest security updates.”

“Were they infected?”

The tech nodded as he unplugged the two cables.

Rhett put on his glasses. “I’ve got a military-grade
implant.”

Karl waved to the tech and motioned Rhett to follow
him. When they got to his office, he closed the door. “I know you’ve got a
military-grade implant. We made it.”

“How did it get infected?”

“Good question. Your department doesn’t have our security
software, and it’s likely that other people’s implants are infected as well. I
received a message that your servers and routers are infected.”

“A message from whom?”

“El Gato Renegado.”

Rhett shook his head. “The renegade cat gets around. What
did the message say?”

“It said that your department was infected and that I
should try to get Miguel Garcia, our guy who wrote the core of our security
suite, involved. I talked to Miguel, and he’s prepping a computer for you to
plug into your network.”

“On the sly?”

“I think that would be best.”

Rhett nodded.  “When can I get Miguel’s computer.”

“Hang on. I’ll check.”

“Implant, connect me to Miguel Garcia.”

Hi, Karl. Is it a go?

“Yes. When can we get the computer?”

 I’ll bring it over in thirty minutes give or take.

“Great. Bring it to my office. Thanks.”

A little over a half hour later, Miguel carried a brown,
hard-sided briefcase into Karl’s office.

“Thanks for taking the time to bring this over, Miguel.”

“I was coming over for a meeting anyway.”

“Miguel, this is Rhett Johnstone.” As Miguel shook hands
with Rhett, Karl continued. “Rhett is in charge of the Mandan Police
Department's Criminal Investigation Division.”