Mr. Dark 2 (Tamed #2)(13)

"You've got a better diet than I do," I admitted, swallowing another bite. "They say you can't out train a bad diet, but I've been giving it my best shot for quite a while."

"I've noticed your training," Sophie said, half smiling. "Trust me, I enjoy it." We ate in comfortable silence for a bit before she swallowed the last of her breakfast and set her hands down on the table top, waiting for me. "So, what's next?"

"Well," I said, taking a sip of my orange juice, "it kind of depends on what you want to do. If you want to just disappear, I can arrange that. I have a few alternate IDs already, and know who I can talk to that can get one for you. Financially we are set, and I can get access to all of my accounts without them knowing what to look for. If you want to go back, things will be a bit more hands on, but we can start plans for that too."

"How will you get access? Can't they track you somehow?" Sophie asked, curious.

I grinned and reached into the thigh pocket on my pants. "Only if they know what to look for. I left my desktop at my apartment, to throw them off the trail. Even if they did trace my IP, they'd never see a single visit to any financial website where I have real money stashed, just a small account and some poker websites I throw some cash away on as a distraction. Instead, I did all my work on this." I pulled out what I called my smartbox, something Sophie had never seen before. "I know, it's not what you've seen, and there's been a reason for that. This little thing has in it a processor and about a two hundred gigabytes of memory, all able to be powered with a simple universal AC adapter. I can plug it into anything with an HDMI port, and connect through USB a keyboard and mouse. I'm running an encrypted Linux on it, and can jack into just about any WiFi I can find with its onboard cracking systems."

Sophie took the black plastic box from my hand, turning it over, looking at it. "It looks like a deck of cards. I mean, it's smaller than most tablets I've seen."

"More secure, too," I added. "The tradeoff is that I need to physically connect it to a keyboard and monitor."

"But can you get Netflix on it?" Sophie joked, smirking. "But seriously, that's pretty cool. What about physically, where are you wanting to go?"

"We can go just about anywhere," I replied, "although staying away from the big cities or places with a strong organization presence would be safer. While I've done most of my work in this half of the USA, I've pulled a few contracts overseas. The networks are more intertwined than you would imagine, and the farther I can get away from that the better."

"Hmmmm, well, I have always wanted to go to Fiji," Sophie said, before cocking her eyebrow. When I gave her no reaction one way or another, her face gaped in wonder. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"As long as I can get a satellite Internet connection I am," I said, tucking my smartbox back in my pocket. "And before you ask, yes I have a backup to the smartbox. Without one of those however, nobody can get into my accounts. We're set for life if you want, Sophie."

Sophie thought it over for a bit, then looked at me. "Can I get in touch with my friends? I'm not saying permanently, but Tabby in particular has been my friend for years. I should at least tell her goodbye or something."

I thought about the safety risk. If the Confederation knew about Tabby, and if they had put a trace on her e-mail accounts, there was a chance that the mail could be traced back. This was especially true if Sophie's laptop had been hacked by Owen Lynch or the Confederation, and a tracer placed on it. Honestly, it was just one too many ifs to worry about. After all, they could already safely assume she was alive, and most likely with me, after the two men didn't report back successfully. I'd dumped their bodies in a river the night before, so they couldn't even be technically traced back to her place. "Not from just anywhere," I said, thinking quickly. "It'll need to be from a public place, few security cameras, public terminal, stuff like that. Is your e-mail accessible from a web browser?"

"Sure. Where then?"

About an hour later, we pulled up to a Best Buy, where Sophie gave me a suspicious look. "Keep your ball cap on, and we'll be fine," I said. "They sell prepaid phones here, I put it on my Mark Snow ID, and even if they trace it, they'll just know it was me. That's all."

We were in and out in a half hour, and the clerk, a somewhat pimply faced high school kid, didn't even ask to see my ID. I filled out the form with total lies, and we walked out with a little web capable phone. As soon as we got to my truck, we plugged in the charger to my USB port I had replaced the cigarette lighter with, and turned it on. Two minutes later, Sophie was on the web, loading her mail. "The service here really sucks," she said as we drove down the road. "I mean, this thing is loading slow."

"Well, what can you expect for a hundred dollars. Probably the phone's cheap as hell too. Glad you're good with a stylus."

Sophie nodded, her head stilling as she loaded her message. "Mark, pull over."

"What is it?" I asked, pulling into a dry cleaners and putting the truck in park. "What's wrong?"

Sophie handed me her phone, which had an e-mail message up. "They took Tabby."

Miss White,

If you're reading this, then you've decided not to disappear as completely as I'm sure Mr. Snow advised you to. Our benefit, your mistake. We have Miss Williams with us, staying as a guest of our organization. She would like to have you come visit her. Even though we keep telling her that it can't rain all the time, she insists that you are the best person to help her. We tend to agree. Just remember Sophie, this is the really real world, there ain't no coming back. If you wish to visit, give Tabby's cell phone a call, she'll be happy to pick it up. We know you must feel like a little worm on a big f*ckin' hook right now, but hey, are we having fun or what?