"Pro hackers do everything within their power to fly under the radar," Booker added. "No player on the west coast would dare to throw in with their crew right now after we just ran them out of town, especially with the FBI involved. It would simply bring too much heat on them."
"Not unless their personal hatred of Hatch, and the Dogs, burned hot enough to get them to ignore all that," Crow said.
"Alright, so let’s say it is Kitty, how in the hell are we supposed to find him in less than three hours, let alone deal with him? This is Kitty we’re talking about here," I challenged to even more grunts and nods.
Finch chuckled. "What’s so scary about so computer geek?"
"Don’t let the na, or the computer science degree fool you," Crow said. "Kitty was Special Forces."
"Not to ntion he’s 6’11" and an as hell," Mack added.
"I’ve got soone working on locating him as we speak," Crow said. "And as soon as they confirm his location, they’ll be extracting and detaining him for us."
"Who the fuck was stupid enough to sign up for that job?" I asked, nervously laughing.
"The Burning Saints," he said.
I frowned. "Minus agreed to track down and capture Kitty?"
"Minus doesn’t have a fucking choice. He owes , and I’m calling in my chit. I’ve asked him to reach out to Kitty about a job. He’s going to tell Kitty that he knows he’s in town and that he wants to et, face-to-face. When he does, they’ll grab him and get what they need out of him."
"Which is what, exactly?" I asked.
"An encryption key," Booker said.
"Isn’t that your job? To break into places that need keys? Why don’t you just hack in?" I asked.
"I fuckin’ hate Hollywood. They’ve set such unrealistic expectations," Booker grumbled. "Hacking isn’t a matter of performing a couple of keystrokes and mouse clicks like you see in the movies. To access the ta-data, which contains the sub-coded information, we need to prove Hatch’s innocence, I need a unique key code. This is because whoever hacked into Hatch’s computer to plant that phony search history and various bomb schematics, covered their tracks with a scorched earth trojan."
"I thought you covered up with a trojan to prevent scorched earth," Mack said to zero laughs, although the attempt to lighten the mood was appreciated.
Booker continued, "If I try to access the ta-data with the wrong code, even once, all of the data will beco instantly and irreversibly corrupted. We have to get the code from Kitty himself, and we have to be one-hundred percent sure that it’s not a decoy, or else Hatch’s evidence is up in smoke."
"Jax, why can’t you and your fed crew deal?" I asked, then turned to Booker before Jaxon could answer. "Why aren’t we turning everything we’ve found over to the United States geek patrol and let them track down Kitty themselves?"
Booker glanced at Jaxon, then back to . "Because, if I know Kitty, the mont the FBI starts poking around too deep, he’s going to fry the data remotely. He wants them to see what he has right now, but should they begin to question the validity of the files, he’ll burn it all down."
"What about the video footage? How in the hell did Kitty, let alone any hacker, pull that shit off?" I pressed.
"I think Los Psychos handled that end of the job, and I think it was quite simple," Booker explained. "All they had to do was take soone with the sa height and build as Hatch and dress him up in a wig, a beard, and a cut. Once disguised, all he had to do was purchase the supplies, and make sure he was seen on cara. The sa goes for the red-light cam. If he was driving the sa model truck as Hatch, they could have easily put a fake license plate on it without getting pulled over, if they only had to drive long enough to run a red."
"Why take this big of a risk just to get back at Hatch?" Finch asked. "You said yourself that hackers don’t usually do things that will knowingly involve the feds. Not to ntion, either Kitty or Los Psychos could easily just kill Hatch if they really wanted revenge."
"Because they don’t want Hatch dead. They want to do to him what he did to them. To exile him. To banish him from Portland. Far away from his club. They know that in this day and age, framing soone for a bomb threat is the ultimate form of swatting. Except, he’ll be in Guantanamo Bay for six months before they even start figuring out what the fuck happened here."
Jaxon coughed. "Look, I’m on your side here, but I’d like to think that the FBI is better at our jobs than that—"
"Sorry Jax, no offense, but it’s like Booker said, we’re running out of ti before Kitty knows we’re onto him. He could fry the data or set up so new firewall before we have the chance to grab him," Crow said. "If the FBI gets to him first, there’s no telling how this thing goes for Hatch."
"What exactly are Minus and the Saints gonna do with Kitty if they do find him?" I asked. "We’re not about to Guantanamo on this guy ourselves, are we?"
Crow’s features beca more severe. "Our hands won’t have blood on them."
"But Minus’s will, at your behest? Jesus, Crow, is that what we’re about now? I thought Minus was trying to turn his club around and that you were supposed to be his President Miyagi or so shit," I said.
"Careful," Crow growled. "I’ll do what I have to do to protect Hatch, and you’ll stand by whatever the fuck I tell you to."
I looked at Jaxon. "I’m surprised you’re okay with this. Maybe the FBI really do get off on torturing people."
Crow walked to where I stood, and leaned in to whisper, "Take a knee," before hitting with a stiff shot to the solar plexus. The old man could hit, that’s for damned sure. I’d lost all my wind and dropped straight to the floor instantly.
"That’s enough fucking questions!" Crow shouted. "While I share Flea’s passion for upholding our club’s code of conduct and appreciate his willingness to bark at the big dog in the na of defending it, this move is not up for debate. The wheels are in motion and I’m awaiting an update from Minus. I don’t want blood on anyone’s hands, but I don’t see Kitty going down without one hell of a fight. The Burning Saints want out of the bone breaking business, and they know not to get carried away. I trust them. Hatch is Minus’s family after all."
I fuckin’ hoped he was right.
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