In Too Deep, Book 3, Part 8

 [image: VitalikRadko]

Sorry this is late! Especially for those in other hemispheres. Not much action here, but plenty of plot! As always, please leave comments below on what you think is going on. It's been fun to read some of the theories. We're getting close to the end now!

Chapter 30: The Rabbit Hole

I was tired as hell the next day. Sleep had come in fits, and whenever I woke up, I remembered that I was sleeping in my car. I got the all clear from Amanda sometime early the next morning, followed by another.

Muscle arm emoji.

Praying hands emoji.

Bed emoji.

The last wasn’t on our code list, but I got the hint. I headed home and tried to get a few hours of decent sleep before the work day.

Now I was locked in my office as a Zoom call resolved on my monitor. I forced a smile. The irony wasn’t lost on me that one of the most secure places to have a very NSFW conversation was on my business machine at work.

Javier Garcia’s image resolved on the screen, his home office behind him, and his smile as ready as I remembered it. He still had the scruff, flecked with gray in a way that made him look older than he was. His hair was a bit disheveled as well, like he’d just rolled out of bed, but gave him an old country charm.

“Hey, Javier,” I greeted.

“Hola, my friend. It’s good to see you again.”

We exchanged pleasantries when all I wanted to do was ask him about the video. At last, I couldn’t push it any longer. “So were you successful?”

Javier sat back in his chair, his hands in his lap, puffing up his cheeks as he blew air out through puckered lips. “Whoever is housing these links is good. Very good. They not only have it routing and redirecting all over the globe, they have set up so many traps and alarms that it’s made it very difficult.”

My heart sank.

“In truth, David, I have never encountered something like this outside of test simulations. It got me thinking about what could be hidden here, and that in turn got me very worried. You don’t put this kind of security in front of just anything.”

I nodded. “Thanks for trying, Javier. At the very least, it’s good to know what we’re up against.”

“Hold up, compadre. Who said anything about just trying? I told you our software was good.”

“You did it?”

“Full access. No one detected us. And best of all, we’ve installed a back door for easier access in the future.”

“What did you find there?”

“I didn’t open any files, but looking at the file types, there’s a lot of video in there. A chaotic amount.”

“Of what? Can you tell? Were they in folders or something?”

Javier chuckled. “Nothing like that, no. But I indexed the metadata. Lot of interesting things. A few names seemed to come up quite often.”

This was it. This was the dirt that Agent Mia had talked about—the way they were all being kept in line. “Which names?” I asked.

“Yours, for one. Along with another with your last name—’Amanda Harrington, aka Raven.’” He looked back at the camera and grinned. “Wasn’t that the stripper’s name?”

“Yes,” I felt hot and quickly moved us along. “What other names?”

“Time out… is she your wife or your sister?”

“Wife.”

“Interesting,” he said, his smile even wider.

“Javier, can we move on?”

“Sure, sure. Other names that came up quite a number of times include ‘Nikolai Kozlov…’”

“Sure, makes sense.”

“‘Mia Moore, aka Misty’. Someone named ‘Mike Aguilar’. No alias given.”

Aguilar, the agent who’d gone along with Mia and tried to murder Kozlov. “Okay, got it.”

I didn’t recognize many of the other names he read, but I sure as hell recognized the last. “This one came up quite a lot, and some of the files associated with it are the oldest,” he said. ‘Julia Monroe’. She has many aliases. ‘Gillian Downing’, ‘Ava Collins’, ‘Rachel Sinclair’...”

As Javier rattled off the names, I tried to process it all. Julia was in there? If that was the case, then she was as caught in this web as the rest of us. I’d been operating on the belief that she was in a partnership with the powers that be, but she was just a pawn.

“Could you back up, Javier? Could you read the other names, just after Aguilar?”

“Let me see…” He clicked around. “There’s a ‘Laura Bennett’, and… I’m not sure I can pronounce these two. ‘Rashid Makhmudov’ and ‘Dzhabrail Sokolov’? Something like that.”

“Hold on.” I pulled out a piece of paper and had him spell the names out. They seemed important. 

“Meta-data also has location stamps,” he went on. “Many are at the Gold Club, but there are some residences.”

I gave him my address, asking if any of the files shared it. “Oh, yes,” he said. “There are a few. All pretty recent, though. Audio files.”

It wasn't a surprise. Not with Julia showing up to taunt me with that video. Still, it was disconcerting to know that my house was bugged. I gave him Ty’s, holding my breath, only releasing it when there was nothing. “This is huge, Javier. Thank you so much.”

“What this is is scary as shit, my friend. You need to be careful. There are very few organizations with access to this level of cyber security, and many of them go by three letter acronyms.”

My blood went cold. “You think it’s—”

“I don’t even want you to say it over this Zoom, man. But you’d know better than me.”

“And you didn’t look at any of them?”

He chuckled. “I’m tempted, but I also don’t want to expose myself anymore. Although that Raven file…” He winced. “Sorry, forgot that she was your wife.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “If I’m honest, I’m curious about it, too. All of them.” I groaned, knowing what the right thing to do was. “Can you destroy them?”

“Easy enough.” He started clicking away. “I can burn them so bad that there would be no way to recover any of it.”

“Hold up! Don’t do it yet. They’ll know if you did it, right?”

“Oh, almost immediately. Alarms will be going off everywhere.”

I nodded, my heart pounding. “Okay, can’t have that. Not yet. Not until after Saturday.”

“Like I said, I have a backdoor into their system now. All you need to do is say the when, but—”

“Thanks.”

“But I’m going to need a little something from you, amigo. I like you, I appreciate you for getting me the contracts, but this is some freaky stuff man.”

“How about, next time you visit the states, I arrange a special lapdance with ‘Raven’?”

Javier processed what I was saying, then grinned and nodded. “In addition to those videos, there are references to offshore bank accounts in here that have quite a bit of money. I was just going to take that, but a lapdance with your wife works, too.”

“Bank accounts? Know who they belong to?”

“Not the US Government,” Javier said. “And that’s pretty much all I need to know.”

That, right there, was the financial backing of whoever was pulling all of these strings. I may not understand spycraft, but I understood bureaucracy enough to know that it all flows from money.

“Burn all of that, too. Or take it, I don’t care. That’s probably why there’s so much security around those servers.”

“You got it, boss. I’ll definitely ‘burn’ it all.”

“But wait until early Sunday morning, Pacific time.”

“Early Sunday morning. Of course.”

I ended the call, my heart pounding, nearly sick to my stomach. Just what were we dealing with here? How high up did this go? Suddenly, it seemed like our ragtag bunch was way out of our league—even if Ty brought in the backing of the LAPD.

I sighed. I had one other card that I could play, although I didn’t love it. Now, it was necessary. Picking up the phone, I made a call.

***

I left work a little early after my call with Javier. It was Thursday, and Ty and I met up at a bar in Venice. While everyone else was sitting outside in the gorgeous LA weather, we were alone inside, the shadows feeling right for this talk. “So you have access?” Ty asked.

“My guy came through.”

Ty did a fist pump. Then, turning to the bar, he called for a round of Maker’s shots. “Videos?”

“Apparently a lot of them. Of a lot of people.”

Ty licked his lips. “You watch any?”

For a voyeur like me, it was funny that it hadn’t occurred to me to do that until Ty suggested it. “No, I don’t actually have access. It seems wrong—”

“Fuck that, man. Remind me which part of any of this is right.” The drinks arrived.

He made a good point. It was like the time that I discovered Amanda was Raven. I went from blissful ignorance to all-consuming curiosity. Suddenly, I didn’t think of that server and all those files as bits and bytes to be destroyed—although they certainly needed to be destroyed. They also became a treasure trove of porn, and like a teen hiding stolen copies of Playboy under my bed, I knew that while I had to get rid of it soon, I also kept on looking.

“You ready for Saturday?” Ty asked. Apparently he’d moved on.

I forced myself to move past the possibilities of that server. “You mean do I think I’m ready for the ‘party to end all parties’? I guess I’m going to have to be, but not really?”

We still didn’t know what Saturday even entailed, other than some kind of debauchery, bred from Nikolai Kozlov’e coked out mind.

The thought of the man felt like a fist closing over my rapidly beating heart and squeezing. “Amanda spent the night with him last night,” I said.

Ty didn’t react, his face neutral. “And how do you feel about that?”

“Jealous,” I said honestly. “Worried.” I shifted in my seat. I lowered my voice, ashamed. “Turned on.”

“All healthy, reasonable emotions. Even that last one.” He lifted his whiskey. “Maybe even especially that last one.”

I raised my glass, too. “You know, I slept in the car outside the marina?” I stared at the amber liquid swirling in the small, faceted glass. “Not really sure what I was hoping to accomplish. If anything happened, it’s not like I’d be able to do much, let alone even know. Best case, she gets out of there and I’m her getaway driver.”

“I take it there weren’t any incidents?”

“None. Got a text early this morning to head home. That all was good.” Something cool and uncomfortable slithered through my gut. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to this, which as Ty would say was also a good thing. “I’m pretty sure she’s still with him.”

For all his bluster, Ty could be surprisingly empathetic. His face softened. He said, “You’re doing great, man. Not many guys would be able to.”

I nodded. “It’s not so much the… sex. I guess I’ve changed, but that’s now…” I searched for a word. Ty helped. 

“Hot as fuck?”

“It’s certainly a kink I didn’t know about. But it’s Nikolai Kozlov. She’s with him.“

“You’re still worried that she’s in love?”

“No. Fuck no. But the man is unpredictable. He’s crazy. And he’s on tilt as his life crumbles around him.”

Ty took it all in. “I’ve seen a few things in my years with the LAPD. Not all great. I’ve seen some pretty awful characters doing pretty fucked up things. You think crime is random, and a lot of times it is. But if you get to the heart of most things, the through line is pretty easy to follow.”

“What the fuck are you saying?” I asked.

“Just… you see Kozlov as unpredictable and wild. But he’s not. He’s acting on instinct now. This isn’t some strategic mastermind. This is a once-charismatic drug dealer who’s gotten high on his own supply and is lashing out. He’s actually very predictable, because he’s not thinking with this.” Ty tapped his temple. “See him as a dog, sure, but he’s collared by his own fear.”

“This is supposed to make me feel better about Amanda spending all night and all day with him?”

“In a way. Amanda knows him better than any of us. She’s the one holding the leash. He just doesn’t know it.”

It helped. Some, anyway. 

Ty raised his shot glass of Maker’s. “I was going to toast to that nerdy bullshit about the servers and whatever, but here’s to you, your wife, and your new pet dog.”

“Thanks.” I cracked a smile as we clacked our drinks together, tapped the table, and tipped the contents back. I coughed as the liquor hit the back of my throat like fire. Ty drank it down like water.

The burn receded into a comfortable warmth in my chest. “So you and Mia, huh?”

“She’s a great fuck,” he said with a chuckle. 

“You think we can trust her?”

“I think our paths are aligned right now. She doesn’t like the threat of those videos anymore than Amanda would.” He signaled for another round. “And we’re her best bet to neutralize that threat.”

“I don’t think I can do another round, man.”

Ty waved me off. “Dave the Muscle drinks.”

“And David the Husband has to drive.”

“Suit yourself.” Ty tossed back both shots. “Then David can drive me home.”

***

Amanda checked in with me with the burner phone through the day, letting me know that all was okay.

Muscle arm.

Didn’t help with my nerves as I dropped an inebriated Ty at his place and went home to an empty house.

She called as I was warming up dinner.

“Hey,” she said. Her voice sounded husky, but not like she was being intentionally sexy. It made me think about all the sex she may have been having, and that started stirring all those uncomfortable feelings again.

“Hey,” I said back to her. “You still…” I remembered the bugs that were listening—always listening. “...at your apartment?” I finished with a lie.

“Just leaving, actually,” she said. It was almost 9 at night. She’d been with Kozlov for the past 24 hours. That sat like a stone in my gut. “And I only talked my way out of leaving because I told him I had to work the closing shift at the club.”

I wanted to ask if she was okay, but was afraid that it would set off alarm bells for whoever was listening—if anyone was. I tried something different. “You’re okay? With working the closing shift, I mean.”

Amanda picked up on my real question. “Yeah, I am. He’s like a teenager who’s been sent to his room, all full of angst and grievance. Everything’s unfair. He’s mad at everyone. He’s needy, which is better than him not.”

It was only half of what I meant. I wanted to know if she had sex with him. I wanted to know if she enjoyed the sex with him. But I couldn’t ask.

“Did you hear back from Garcia?” she asked. At least she could speak her mind without worry.

“Yes. It’s good. I think that contract is secure.”

I heard her sigh of relief. A car door opened. She said, “Thank you,” to someone before the door shut. “Hey, I just arrived at the club. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I love you, honey. Always remember that.”

“I will.” That I couldn’t say it back to her, though, because we were supposed to be fighting, was tough. “See you when I see you.”

Amanda working the closing shift meant that she wasn’t going to be off until around four—way too late to stay up to wait. I wasn’t even sure if she’d come home after.

I was left with my imagination running wild about all the things that may have happened over the last day at the marina, and all the things that may happen that night at the strip club.

That’s when Ty’s suggestion wiggled its way into my thoughts—I had access to hours and hours of sexy video on that server. All I had to do was ask for it.

Which was a terrible idea.

I loaded up the one link that did have—the one with Brandon that I both loved and hated—only to find that the connection was broken once again.

I got ready for bed, telling myself that I’d just go to sleep and ignore any temptation to contact Javier. Then, when I did contact Javier, I figured he’d be asleep back in Spain.

Could you send me an export of the metadata from those videos?

It was a harmless request anyway, meant for research purposes alone. I could pore over time stamps and locations and subjects, all to keep myself prepared for what came next.

When I responded right away, I knew I was in trouble.

Sure thing, compadre.

The spreadsheet was extensive. There was a lot of data present, hundreds of clips of video, ranging from 30 seconds to close to an hour. The location stamps were all GPS coordinates, and I spent a lot of time on Google Maps transposing coordinates to the names of people onto a pad of paper. I learned where Kozlov lived—the house where Julia must have taken me—and a few other spots around the city that he frequented.

There were a few other locations in residential zones throughout the city. Based on the meta-data, I deduced where Julia lived. Amanda’s apartment as Raven was also present—most of the video tagged with her name and Kozlov’s, although I was in there as well.

I figured out where the Chechen guys must live, scribbling their addresses down on my notepad for future reference. They were also associated with a slip at the same marina where Kozlov was hiding out, although it was a different boat entirely.

Diving further, I started to put together a rough timeline of events. Mostly, I was drawn to Kozlov and Amanda, studying the times when they were present together. Many weren’t video files at all, but audio. That made sense. They didn’t have cameras everywhere—like Kozlov’s house. I could still remember when Julia had brought me to Kozlov’s house and we’d only listened.

There was one video from the club that predated all others. It was time-stamped at just after a month from when she’d begun—a month after what had to be the blowjob video Julia had sent. Was that the first ever encounter between the two of them? Was that the beginning of everything?

I needed to let this one lie. This close to the end, it was foolish to take risks. At the same time, in just a few days, these videos would be gone without a trace. The records would be wiped clean. How could I resist just a small peek?

What if I wanted to watch one of the videos? I wrote to Javier. For research purposes.

It was an excuse so thin that I didn’t bother dressing it up more than that. Again, the security consultant wrote back within minutes.

Now that’s trickier. There are risks.

That was exactly the response I needed. It kept me from doing what I really shouldn’t do. It kept me on the tracks. Then, of course, he wrote a followup email.

I can’t help myself, my friend. Tell me which file you want and give me a day. I love a good problem to solve.

And… I sent him the file name.

***

Somehow I got to sleep. I kept refreshing my messaging app, hoping that Javier was faster at securing the file. He was silent, and at some point, I started to panic that maybe he’d gotten caught. That maybe he’d tripped an alarm and my request had fucked everything up.

I fell into a fitful rest some time around 3am. Amanda was in bed when I woke up the next morning. I wasn’t expecting that, and nearly jumped out of bed when I rolled over and felt her warm body cuddling up there.

“You’re home,” I whispered. She didn’t wake up. She didn’t even stir. I couldn’t stop smiling as I crept out of the bedroom and went to make coffee. She was home. She was home.

Amanda emerged just as I was pouring the first cup out of our French press, looking rough around the edges. “Oh, yes please,” she said, smelling the coffee.

I handed her my cup of coffee along with a note that I’d scribbled on a Post-it. They are definitely listening. “I don’t remember you coming in,” I said.

“It was late. Didn’t want to wake you.” She kept her voice neutral as she took the cup from me, sniffing in the aroma. She didn’t sip it though. Not right away. Instead, she set it on the counter and quietly slipped up to me, touching my hip and nuzzling my nose. “And I had a long night.”

I could almost read her thoughts. I could almost hear the words that she really wanted to share. And if I did wake you, I’d probably jump your bones.

“Is it going to be like this forever?” I asked, trying to sound disapproving.

In response, Amanda delivered her own sharp question. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Only she was smiling as she asked it. It’s funny, this game we were playing—where she looked down on me as a cuckold and I looked down on her as a cheating whore.

“My coworker make another appearance?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She hadn’t moved from her spot beside me, and her smile only grew. She leaned close, nipping at my lips as I drew my head back.

“Nothing,” I muttered. If Julia was listening, I wondered how much it got under her skin that I didn’t challenge Amanda on how she “cheated” and “lied.”

“You’re hard,” she whispered, reaching between my legs. Now I wasn’t sure if this was entirely play acting. She studied my lips before flicking her gaze up to meet mine. She was just as aroused as I was, despite probably only a few hours of sleep.

“I should get going to work,” I stammered.

“Sure,” she said.

“Some of us have real jobs.”

Oh, good one, Amanda mouthed. “I’m actually meeting up with Julia later today. Trying to wrap this case up at last.”

“I’ve heard that one before. Tell my ‘wife’ hello for me.”

“In her dreams.” She gave me a kiss before letting me go. I wanted to fuck her so badly, but resisted. Amanda added, “Oh, and tomorrow, I’ve got this big event at the Gold Club.” This was the lie we’d discussed, that she’d feed me. “Some big VIPs are coming in. New management wants all the girls on staff.”

“I thought you were mostly doing this as a ruse?” All of this was a ruse, of course, but I needed to sound like the suspicious husband. “Why do you have to do anything special for these new guys?”

“Because if I don’t, they’ll know something is up. Just leave it alone, okay, David?” Inches from my face, she grinned, enjoying this.

I shook my head, kissed her quietly, and whispered, “I love you.”

She mouthed it back.

“Fine, whatever,” I said for the mics. “So I’ll see you tonight?”

“TBD,” she said, but nodded that I would.

When I got out of there, stepping into my own car, I was smiling. I couldn’t help it. All of these games were crazy. They were listening in. They were everywhere. It was dangerous. But I couldn’t help feeling giddy. I was doing this with Amanda again. I was part of it all.

My phone buzzed as I pulled the door of the car shut. At first, I figured it was Javier calling me back. Or maybe it was Amanda, calling to tell me more about whatever was really going on.

But it’s not the burner ringing, but my normal phone. And it was a number I didn’t recognize.

“Hello, David,” came a man’s voice, one that I’d heard plenty of times over the last few weeks, but always on television. “This is Bradley Hirsch. I work with your wife.”

Part 9 will be up Tuesday!