The Unseen (15 page)

“Senior Vice President of Appropriations Trent Ellsworth.” Those were the first words out of David’s mouth when Kari called him.

“Already?” Kari said.

“What do you mean? I just saw the headlines. The story is breaking right now. I received the notification a few seconds ago . . .”

Kari checked the news and found he was right. She cursed mentally.
Now I can’t advertise that I know who the next target is!

“So let’s talk about it.”

“Talk about what?” Kari said defensively.
How does he know we have something to talk about?

“The case . . .”
Of course. Stupid.

“Right.”

“Is there something else we need to talk about?” David said.
Oh, just that the best hacker in the world has a beautiful mansion where we all live like kings, and he’s kissed me on several occasions, and I wasn’t totally opposed to it at first, but I’m over it now.

“No,” Kari said. “But I have some big news.”

“Yeah?” David smiled, his midafternoon bedhead made him look goofy, and Kari couldn’t help but smile back at him.
Maybe things aren’t as complicated as I feel like they are.

“I figured it out. It’s Donna Rosewood. She’s been orchestrating the whole thing so she could climb to a leadership position.”

“You did it? Of course you did it!”

“I did it. She’s keeping the war going so she can keep gaining more power. People don’t think twice about the assassinations during the war, but if the war were to end, her game would be up. She’s behind it, and we’re going to take her down.”

“You and me?”

“Um . . . yes.”
And the rest of the Unseen, but you don’t need to know about them.
David eyed her closely but he didn’t question her.

“How did you figure it out?”

“Found her in the CIA’s investigations database and then used that information to hack her personal account.”

“You’re too legit, Kari. Seriously, you make me feel like such a loser sometimes.”

“Don’t say that. It was all your idea, and you kept me going on it.” They both beamed.

“So what now?”

“Well, they caught me while I was reading her email, so my proof is gone. But I’ve been trying to build a case against her with the information that we do have.”

“Good!” David said. He was happier than she had seen him in a long time. “Can I help build the case?”

“Sure,” Kari said. She doubted he would be able to contribute anything that she wouldn’t be able to do herself in a much shorter time, but she wanted him to feel helpful. “What do we know about her latest victim?” Kari searched for Ellsworth online as David did the same.

“Looks like he’s been fighting with the board of directors,” David said, his voice implying that he found that highly interesting.

“I saw that, too,” Kari said.

“You don’t think there is anything there?”

“Not really. That won’t help us bring down Donna. If anything, that’s just her excuse as to why someone else would want to have him taken out.”

“Says here there was a disagreement about the money he wanted to spend on a new security system . . .” David said.

Kari scanned through a few more snippets, giving David a nod of her head to show him she was still paying at least a small amount of attention to him.

“Seems like he should have bought a better system—or at least he didn’t get his money’s worth out of the one he did buy . . .” David said.

“Seems like it,” Kari managed as she started new searches across her database, looking for connections from Ellsworth to Rosewood.

“And I thought Lantern Dynamics systems were supposed to be the real deal.”

“What did you say?” Kari pushed all her windows and searches to the side of her view and focused on David.

“Lantern Dynamics . . . aren’t they supposed to be good?”

“One of the best,” Kari said.

“Not good enough, though, they just had a new system put in a few weeks ago, looks like. One of those fancy ones with physical perimeter stuff and all that. Waste of money.” Kari’s spine tingled, and her heart started beating faster.

“Does it say what model?” Kari said.

“Alpaca 1215. Sounds like a PR nightmare for Lantern,” David said, but Kari didn’t need to hear it. She knew the model before he even told her.

“Oh my God.”

“What?”

Kari looked around the room for Lars and found him chewing a bone in his miniature Valhalla doghouse. She jumped off the bed and picked him up while connecting to the outside web to see how far away the closest public auto-auto was. There were none available for her location. Her heart beat faster with every passing second as she put things in place.

“Kari, what’s wrong?”

She heard some steps from outside her room, and they made her jump. She ran to her door and slammed it shut, an action she immediately regretted.
Way to not call attention to yourself.
She braced herself against the door, to make sure that no one could come in. It also gave her some much-needed support, as she was having a hard time breathing in enough air.

“You’re scaring me . . .”

Kari hadn’t heard that tone from David since the first time she had talked to him while at Valhalla, after she had been missing for days.

“David,” Kari whispered.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s them. It’s me. Oh no . . . David, I helped them! I didn’t know what I was doing, I swear!”

“Kari, breathe. You’re not making any sense.”

Kari forced herself to follow David’s advice. She breathed in deep and let it go slowly several times, until she no longer felt like she was going to pass out.
Throw up: probably. Pass out: not right now.

“David, the people I’ve been staying with. They call themselves the Unseen. It’s a group of hackers who work together off the grid. They brought me here after I was attacked at home, and I’ve been here ever since. They asked me for some hacking help to pay the bills.”

“And that makes them the killers?”

“I just hacked that system, David. I figured out how to hack the Alpaca 1215. That’s the system that was keeping Ellsworth safe. I hacked it, and then they used my work to get to him.”

“How?” David’s face was stern, but he spoke in a hushed voice now as well, as if he were scared about drawing attention to Kari despite the fact it was impossible for others at Valhalla to hear him. “I thought you said it was Rosewood?”

“He can hack printers and have them print nanobots. I can’t believe this. Joseth hacks the printers, prints tiny, untraceable nanobots, and has them kill the target. They’re so small that no one knows what they are looking at. It’s a perfect crime, and Joseth is the perfect killer.” The words hurt to say. Kari felt dizzy again, so she let herself sink to the floor.

“Who’s Joseth?”

“He’s Oedipus. He’s the guy that runs this place. He’s—” Kari had to breathe.

“Oh. So that’s the guy . . .”

“David, I need to go. I have to get out of here.”

“Did you say he has nanobots?”

“Yes.”

“Oh no . . . Kari, there were some reports about a couple of the victims having tiny holes in their bodies and scrambled brains. It was unconfirmed, but it sure fits.”

“He’s working with Rosewood. David, they are working together!”

“Where can I meet you?” David asked. His question made Kari realize how involved David now was because of this phone call.

“Nowhere. Forget everything I just told you. I have to go. Now.” Kari closed the call and spent a few minutes on the ground catching her breath.
He’s been making money from the assassinations and playing me like a fool.
Kari stepped out into the hall, leaving her room behind. All of the expensive fixtures and features of Valhalla made her feel sick.
All of this has been bought with blood money.

“Ahhh!” Kari let out a scream as she jumped backward.

“Whoa, Freebie, just me,” Motorcad said. Kari tried to laugh it off, but Motorcad eyed her skeptically.

“Sorry, I’m just a little on edge today.”

“Motormouth has that effect on lots of people,” SeptemberMist said as she ducked around the corner. Kari had been trying desperately to avoid anyone she knew while heading for the printers in the basement. She wanted to get out of here. No public auto-auto would pick her up here, and she didn’t know how to order one of Valhalla’s, so she had settled on printing an auto-cycle from the printers and using that to get away from Valhalla.
The last thing she had wanted to do was to try to explain herself on her way out.

“Only the people smart enough to know they should fear me,” Motorcad said with a wry smile. He lifted his arm and gave them both a flex, which caused SeptemberMist to roll her eyes and fake gag.

“You still need some help with hacking?” Motorcad said.

“No, all done. I was going to go on a run.”

“With your bag?” SeptemberMist said. Kari looked to her side, where she was carrying all the belongings she had brought along with her.
Great.

“Oh—that’s just some stuff to keep Lars busy after he gets tired.” It wasn’t a great excuse, but it would have to do. Kari didn’t wait for them to respond and just pushed forward instead, hoping they would leave her alone. They didn’t.

“Maybe I’ll go on a run with you—haven’t exercised yet today,” Motorcad said.

“No, thanks,” Kari said. “I’d like to clear my head. Besides, I don’t want to slow you down.” SeptemberMist shook her head slowly and nudged Motorcad to leave her alone. She then nodded knowingly to Kari.

“We’ll be here when you get back,”
SeptemberMist said.

Kari left them behind and headed outside, waiting until she was out of the view of her friends before looping back toward the basement. She checked the status of her auto-cycle and found that it had completed. The printers here were big enough to print whole auto-cycles without needing to assemble anything, a luxury that her factory had never been able to fit.

Each step down the stairs into the basement gave her another chance to think over things. She felt such a broad range of emotions about leaving the only place that had felt like home since she had actually lived at home with her parents.
My friends are here; my people are here.

Kari made it to the basement and turned a corner, walking directly to the largest printers on the opposite side of the room. Most of the printers were idle, waiting for projects, but a few of them were busy printing random items that Kari didn’t spend the time to examine.

“There you are,” Joseth said, and Kari jumped again, this time violently enough that she dropped Lars, who barely managed to land on his feet. Joseth was in front of her, sitting on top of the auto-cycle that she had just ordered.

“Yeah,” Kari said, unable to find any other words.

“Going somewhere?” Joseth said. Kari wasn’t sure if there was something hidden behind his words or not.

“I was going to go for a ride,” Kari said. “I need some space.”

“From me?” Joseth said. Kari looked at him while she contemplated what to say.

“Yes,” Kari said, finally deciding to play it straight. “If we’re being honest, I need a little space from you right now. So if you don’t mind . . .” Kari stepped forward, but Joseth didn’t move.

“I thought we were going to stop Rosewood together?” Joseth gave her half a smile.

“We are, just not right now,” Kari said. She wanted to say more, to accuse him of everything, but she stopped herself. Joseth looked like he expected to her to keep going, which led to an awkward silence. Kari shook her head, but Joseth didn’t budge from his spot on top of the auto-cycle.

“Are you going to tell me what is going on, or am I going to have to guess?” Joseth’s voice was condescending, and it made Kari’s blood boil.

“I don’t have to tell you anything. Please, just leave me alone.”

“No, I think you do have to tell me,” Joseth said. “You see, this is my house, and this auto-cycle technically belongs to me. So I don’t see why I should have to let you just drive away from my property.”

“I thought this was the home of the Unseen. I thought this belonged to everyone.”

“It does belong to the Unseen, but if you’re leaving, you’re not part of us anymore. So how about you act like an adult, and we talk this out.”

“How about you act like an adult and get out of my way.”

“I’ll guess, then,” Joseth said. His face was getting red now, too, even if he didn’t want to show it. “You’re upset about SVP Trent Ellsworth’s recent demise.” Kari took a step back now, instinctively trying to create more space between her and Joseth. Lars sensed that something was wrong, so he started to growl.

“Yeah, I am,” Kari said. “You used my hack to kill an innocent human being.”

“I did no such thing,” Joseth said, his voice lower now. A small smile made its way across his lips, but the face she had once found attractive now scared her. Joseth got off the auto-cycle and took a step toward Kari, which caused her to take another step back. “I didn’t kill an innocent. But I did kill an incompetent fool who is destroying this country.”

Joseth stepped forward
with every word, and Kari backed away.
This isn’t happening. This isn’t real.
Kari stepped back again and ran into something hard that hadn’t been there before. She turned around to see that it was one of Joseth’s stylized cheetahs, which caused her to stumble forward, away from it.

Joseth caught her with two hands and squeezed her shoulders.

“You see, we’re called the Unseen for a reason. That’s because people who have seen us don’t run away and tell everyone else about us. Now, let’s go somewhere where we can continue this conversation like adults.”

“That’s insane,” Kari said. “Do you not know how crazy you sound?”

“And why is it so crazy? What right do those people have to be in charge? Look at what they’ve done with the place. They’ve blown this country to hell.”

“They were elected, for one.” Kari closed her eyes as she said it. She couldn’t stand looking at Joseth any longer. He had marched her from the basement to one of the glass-walled gazebos outside with the escort of a pair of cheetahs. The grounds were deserted, except for a pair of human workers who walked by without making eye contact.