Effective immediately
Scowling, I break out a burner to call Kasimir. I’ve been running computer security for his dark web businesses for almost seven years.
“Have you been hacked?” I ask, because that’s more professional thanwhat the fuck?
“Lone Wolf’s services will no longer be needed.” His Russian accent is thick, which means he’s angry.
“Lone Wolf is the only thing standing between you and?—”
“I am broke,” he interrupts. Before I can return the favor, he adds, “Cleaned out. I cannot afford your Lone Wolf.”
This is Red Cap’s fault. The fuckers hit Kasimir last month. The Russian clicked first and called later. We’ve been fighting a difficult, expensive rearguard action for five weeks.
“You can’t afford to let me go,” I warn Kasimir.
“I cannot afford to keep you. You should have kept Red Cap out.”
“I—”
He terminates the call.
That thirty-second exchange just cost me twelve million dollars—Kasimir’s annual fees. Kasimir’s account isn’t the difference between my eating this month and not. My net worth is well north of a billion dollars. But money matters. Money is the way I measure my success.
Money is everything.
And the Red Cap Raiders have cost me too much. It’s time to track them down. To destroy them. To prove that I’m the best in the world at what I do.
2
KATE
“Katie!” Mam knows I hate the little-girl nickname. “Open your door this instant, young lady!”
Typing furiously on my laptop, I glare at the group chat that has been boiling over for the last hour, since the Swiss job collapsed. Six months of non-stop work… Of carefully coding exploits… Of gettingthisclose to breaking into Banque Wagner Privée…
I needed that money. Da is still paying back the loan he took from Mickey Reardon. He’ll owe an extra hundred grand in interest if he doesn’t make a payment before April 1. As much as my father hates taking my money, he hates owing another mob king more.
AndIhate Lone Feckin’ Wolf. This isn’t the first time we’ve gone up against the gobshite. But this is the first time his taunt has turned my team against me.
Back to coding school for you.
DarkMoney666: Whatever, Ghost.
DarkMoney666: If you can’t do the job, maybe we need someone new
DarkMoney’s a fucking eejit, easily the worst coder on our team. But he worked some cryptocurrency ransom deal just before Christmas, then spent his dosh on new computers for all us Red Cap Raiders. If push comes to shove, the guys might side with him over me.
Mam slaps at my door with the base of her palm. She could make more noise if she curled her fingers into a fist, but that might risk her manicure. Her voice is dangerously sharp as she shouts, “Don’t make me get your father involved, Katie.”
The Red Cap Raiders think I’m a thirty-year-old Indonesian man living alone in a penthouse apartment in Jakarta, working as a vice president in a Dutch bank by day and as a hacker by night.
I wish.
I’m a twenty-six-year-old woman, trapped in my parents’ home in Baltimore, the oldest of two daughters to a captain in the Irish mob.
And I’m about to be thrown out of the Raiders, the only club I ever wanted to be in.
Well, the best defense is a good offense. Time to be offensive.