Page 37 of Royal Hacker

The silence on the phone was deafening. I didn’t want to rush her, so I sat and waited and waited.

“I think I got it. Now what?”

“Take the pin and insert it in the upper cutout of the lock, pointed toward the cuff’s direction. Once you have the pin inserted and tension, press the pick toward the cuff’s direction.”

“This isn’t working. Nothing is happening.” I could hear the strain in Patty’s voice, and she was starting to cry again.

Neal spoke up. “Patty, stop and breathe. Clear your thoughts, and keep trying. We need you to do this so we can get you out of there.”

Everyone was staring at the phone, waiting for her to crack into the cuffs. It took her about forty minutes before we heard a cheer come from the other end.

“Fuck yeah. Take that, you piece-of-shit handcuffs.”

20

Patty

Okay, handcuffs off. Now how do I break out of the room?

Brett seemed to always hang around Neal and me, so we would include him every so often. When he became creepy, I tended not to invite him along, though.

One weekend, while Neal was in Shialia with Jessica, Brett had showed up at my door with takeout, asking to have dinner with me. Not thinking anything about it, I invited him in. Halfway through dinner, he’d come up with a plan that threw me for a loop.

“Patty, look at this contact I have on the dark web. They need hackers. We can do this together, you and me.” Brett’s face was light with joy, as though he’d found the holy grail of jobs.

I might have done some borderline unethical hacking jobs, but one thing was for sure, I would not work for hire on the dark web. Those jobs entailed working for human traffickers, drug dealers, arms dealers, or the worst of the worst—child pornographers. “Um… I don’t think that is the line of work I want to get into.”

“You don’t understand—we can become incredibly wealthy.” His voice was becoming hostile.

I looked around my penthouse, where we were having lunch, before replying. “Does it look like I need money?” I waved my hands around my seven-thousand-square-foot penthouse that overlooked the ocean. Brett’s face was becoming redder by the minute. I could tell I was making him annoyed, but I couldn’t stop myself. The words flew out, and I didn’t have a net to catch them.

Brett strode up and pounded his fists on the table. “We could be rich together and not have to live on your dad’s money. Let’s start our own hacker business, and we can do so much.”

“Um… no. I think it’s time you leave. I don’t know where you ever got the idea I was into black-market dealings. Please leave.” I was holding my breath, hoping he would just walk to toward the door.

Instead, he walked toward me, grabbed both of my shoulders, and yelled at me: “You don’t have an option!”

I was a split second from dropping the guy like a bad hair color when my front door opened. Neal walked in, which relieved me. “Hey, Patty, where are you?”

Brett half-heartedly dropped his hands and stepped back. “We were talking about a joint venture.”

Ha, this guy must have taken some crack before coming over.“Brett was leaving. See you.”

“I will be in contact.”

He was never in touch with me again because later that day when Neal left, I called a contact at the FBI. They found enough black-market dealings on his computer to lock him away for life. So I didn’t understand what was going on.

The loud yelling on the other side of the phone brought me back to the present. It took me a second to figure out who it was.

“Where is my daughter? I expect answers this second. Do you know who I am?” my father yelled. I assumed he’d waltzed right into Sam’s building and used force to get what he wanted.This got a little interesting. Too bad I don’t have some popcorn to eat while Sam and my dad spar.

“I know who you are, and right now, I don’t give a shit. I have more important things to do—” Sam was cut off by Jessica’s scream.

Jessica must have been in another room when Dad arrived. “Daddy, you’re here. We need to get Patty back. The guy is good, and we can’t find where they have her.”

I could hear Dad grumble in the background. He was arguing with one of his men. I could only guess it was his advisor. “Fine,” he huffed.

“George, pull up the website. Since these men can’t find my daughter, I guess I have to step in and do their job. From what I have on you, Sam, you’re supposed to be one of the best,” my father stated with a little pride in his voice.

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