The Four Corners of the Earth

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Karin rode shotgun, watching Dino as he carefully weaved their Dodge Ram along the meandering snakes that made up Los Angeles’ highways and byways.

“Keep it steady,” she said as the young soldier overtook a red roadster. “You do remember we’re being hunted?”

Dino grinned over at her with immature glee. “Just happy to be outta the house, Mom. Any case, you gotta know I’m better than you. Better in every way.”

“So you keep saying.”

“The Army won’t let us go,” Wu said. “Every time we surface, we’re vulnerable.”

“Tone it down, Mr. Misery. Jeez, you two could be a double act.”

“We’ll see how happy you are when they have your nuts connected to a car battery.”

“Don’t be an ass, Wu. It’s the Army, not the CIA.”

Karin enjoyed the constant, rolling views to both sides of the car; Los Angeles sprawling in all its glory. A moment to relax and think about precisely nothing. Thick greenery and concrete behemoths fought for precedence, and beyond those the metal high-rises that sparkled underneath the blazing sun. A light smog hovered around cloud level, dimming the day, but it was barely noticeable. People came and went, barely visible along the sidewalks and shopping malls, zipping this way and that in their cars. The Hollywood Hills passed by slowly to the right, unnoticed because at that point Dino spotted a black-and-white cruiser easing its way along the fast lane and pulled in like the good boy he was, eyes on the road, focus dead ahead.

If you didn’t look at them they wouldn’t notice you.

Eventually the coast road opened up and they were on their way to San Francisco.

“Beats the desert.” Wu studied the glittering, rolling waves.

Karin reviewed the task ahead. Their time inside the HQ had been well spent. First, they had set up the computers, two top-of-the-line Macs with as many special toys as they could afford. The fiber cable was the hardest part, but once they’d sorted that and Karin installed a bevy of firewalls, they were ready to go. Even then, even with Karin at the keyboard and using her genius intellect, they did not have the capabilities for mad hacking. They were limited, forced to use ingenuity.

Karin was aware of Tyler Webb’s innumerable secret bank accounts. She’d monitored them when working for SPEAR. She was aware of what some called his legacy; the small amount of secrets he had on her old team. And she was aware of the immense secret stash; something the world’s most wealthy, avid stalker had amassed against hundreds of individuals, again including members of her old team.

Most thought, since Webb was dead, they could locate it at their leisure.

Trouble was, Karin had no such thoughts. Access to the secret stash would give her incalculable power — and at the end of everything power was where it was all at. The three of them could move forward from there; gaining money, anonymity, security and influence. Of course, if there were hundreds seeking Webb’s stash it might prove particularly hard to steal.

Right now, nobody knew where it was.

Except Karin Blake.

Or so she thought. The next few hours would tell. Insider knowledge had been most helpful. She knew all about Nicholas Bell, and how the whistleblower had been sitting inside a jail cell telling all — names, places, identities, the entire rotten shebang. She knew how Lauren Fox liked to visit. She knew the people that listened and talked to Lauren Fox.

Well, she knew them, they didn’t necessarily know her.

Maybe a little late to the party — Karin’s army training and subsequent departure had taken a while — but she made up for that with a little top-flight hacking flair. Bell’s conversations were monitored. Smyth, it seemed, had the juice to regularly receive a copy of those conversations—naughty boy—and treat them as he wished. Who knew what the irascible, easy-to-anger soldier did with them? Protected national security, obviously.

The point was, Karin could hack the line that went directly to Smyth’s network. For her, it was a relatively easy job. She took the time to glean the rich pickings. Tyler Webb had once owned countless offices, houses, penthouses, and even an island, around the world. Place names that resonated with her included Washington DC, Niagara and Monte Carlo. Bell had talked to Lauren, but he’d also talked to guards and lawyers, and Smyth’s recordings included snippets from all of them.

Smyth does not have the brightest future, she thought.

However you spun it, the Peru incident — or incidents — had placed the SPEAR team in a world of hurt.

Karin shifted her position as a sign flashed by, stating they were 130 miles away from San Francisco. Bell had become quite vocal with Lauren — stating facts again and again that might be right, naming names, places, bank accounts. At this point Karin didn’t dare tap any of the accounts for fear the authorities might be quietly monitoring them to see who popped up. They needed a foolproof action and escape plan in place first.

Hence the trip to San Francisco.

When pressed, Bell revealed how Webb used to occasionally boast about what he knew. The man had been a ritual stalker, a wealthy shadow with the resources to expose and hurt and own just about anyone in the world if he wanted to. Webb had always offered tidbits to Bell, stringing him along, but had hinted at what he called the mother lode.

This ‘mother lode’ had turned out to be a specific office where the deranged megalomaniac kept all the dirt he’d ever collected on anyone. Of course, he’d never told Bell where it was.

Karin considered it all though. She had the exclusive benefit of being able to view it all from the inside. And she remembered moments when Webb had stolen information from and made clandestine visits to most of the team. Her eidetic memory came into its own right there. Of course, it wasn’t easy, but Karin knew Webb had worked out of a known office in DC back then and had managed to backtrack on the communications that were now a matter of record.

Large files were sent to a particular address in San Francisco on half a dozen occasions. Further investigations showed other large files being received from other known offices. So whilst the authorities trawled and crawled through a thick sludge of data, Karin was able to pinpoint exactly what she needed.

Dino guided them through the traffic, over the Golden Gate and past Fisherman’s Wharf. Tourists thronged the area, cameras at the ready, stepping out into the road without much care for themselves. Dino blended in with the traffic, giving the cops no reason to notice them. A steep hill brought them further into the city and soon they were circling Union Square, passing by banks and pharmacies, ships and restaurants in the hardest quest yet — to find a good parking spot.

“Just leave it here.” Wu waved at a small space near a Walgreens. “The address is a five-minute walk away.”

“Five minutes?” Karin said. “Could be an age if Webb left any contingencies.”

“Plus,” Dino said as he inched closer to their destination, “this is a Dodge Ram. I’d be hard pressed to park my ass in that spot.”

“Want me to do it? I can drive.”

“Oh really? Well, sure, Toretto. Let’s see how you handle—”

“Kids,” Karin breathed. “Shut the fuck up. See over there?”

“We need good access for a fast getaway. We need quick access. We need…” Dino paused. “Shit, we’re gonna need a long-stay garage ain’t we?”

Karin nodded. “Right there. If we have to we go to ground for a while; we can always drive out of here another day when the dust settles.”

“Crap, I hope not,” Wu muttered. “Been spending enough time with you two these days.”

“Is that a problem?” Karin wondered as Dino guided the Ram into the underground parking structure.

“Well, the testosterone is a bit high. You two compete like siblings, all the time. Gets a bit tiresome at times.”

“Us? Compete?” Karin glared over at Dino. “Do we?”

The young soldier laughed loudly. “Only because you won’t admit I’m better than you.”

“I don’t see it.” Karin eyed him critically, then turned to Wu. “Do you see it?”

“Let me put it this way. If you two ever got blind drunk and decided to mate, you’d have to do it standing up because both of you would wanna be on top.”

Karin laughed raucously as Dino finally found a spot to his liking. “Blind drunk? Shit, there just isn’t enough alcohol in the world to make that happen, Wu.”

Dino removed the keys and cracked the door open. “Time to focus. All this mating crap isn’t helping.”

“Don’t like girls, Dino?” Karin joined the two men around the front. “San Francisco has a zoo. We can always take you there after we’re done.”

Dino ignored her, pulled out his cellphone and waited until the address they wanted had loaded up. “Three minutes,” he said. “We ready?”

Karin shrugged into a rucksack. “As fuck.”

It was an office building, a high rise, and Webb’s space was on the thirty-fifth floor. Karin thought it was unusual for him — the madman usually preferred to live at the highest levels so he could look down on everyone — but she thought he might have kept this address as unassuming and secret as possible — it was something he treasured and the elite storage facility of his entire life’s work.

Every precaution, she thought.

Which made what they were about to do all the more…

Stupid? Naïve? Clever? Smart?

She smiled grimly to herself as she realized the answer relied on the outcome.

The trio entered through a swing door on the ground floor, spied a bank of elevators and headed over. Men and women wearing dark suits wandered to and fro. An information desk sat in the far corner, manned by two black-haired secretaries. The noise level was low, everyone keeping it down. Karin saw one overweight guard in a corner, staring out at the passing traffic and three security cameras. She steered Dino to an information board.

“Thirty five.” She nodded. “One company owns the entire floor.”

“Makes sense.”

Wu stared at the name. “Minmac Systems?” he read. “Same old, same old.”

Faceless corporations that ran the world.

Karin pushed on, reaching the elevators and re-checking. Finding a blank 35 would not have surprised her — or the number missing all together — but there it was — white and shiny just like all the others. Various floors were pressed by the occupants and Karin waited until the very last, but only she pressed 35.

They didn’t wait long. She took her rucksack off, pretended to rummage inside for something. Dino and Wu also made ready. As the elevator dinged and the doors opened at 35, the trio waited just a few seconds to see what they faced.

A polished hallway ran away, doors and windows to either side. At the far end stood a wooden desk. Pictures adorned the walls, bland and boring. Karin guessed somebody was waiting from the very moment she’d pressed the button, but they were here now. They were ready, eager, young and capable.

She led the way, stepped into an odd world that somehow still belonged to a dead man. If anything, this was Webb’s legacy. His mother lode.

No CCTV. No guards. The first door she tried wobbled so crazily in its frame she walked away. It was all for show, just a front. She pulled out her gun and stuffed her pockets full of magazines. The vest she wore beneath her coat had felt bulky all the way here, but now it kept her secure. The team spread out as they approached the desk, wary.

Karin paused and looked both ways down two new hallways. She was surprised when a robotic voice spoke up.

“Can I help you?”

She noted the sensor attached to the front edge of the desk. Still, she saw no cameras.

“Hello? Is someone there?” Playing the fool.

All the while, she considered the blueprint inside her head. Not only had Webb’s large data stream led her to this address, she had been able to pinpoint the location of the exact terminal it arrived at by using a digital construct of the building’s frame. She knew they should head left and then to the right, but wondered what the robots might do…

“I think we’re lost.” She shrugged at Dino and Wu. “Just wait, Mr. Robot, whilst we try to find someone.”

It was worth a try. Karin headed left, the guys at her back. The first man-mountain appeared from the left, stepping out of an office, baseball bat held firmly in one hand, its head slapping the other. A second appeared up ahead, closely followed by a third, and then a fourth stepped up from the left, this one carrying a hammer.

Wu grunted. “Three behind.”

Karin waved her gun. “C’mon guys, what am I missing?”

The first mountain, a bald-headed individual, grinned. “There’s a radar, girl, and we stay under it.”

“I see. So, knowing Tyler Webb as I do — a man that relishes making noise at the right time and place — this is his garden of tranquility? Meditation? Well, we’re unlikely to disturb him now boys, are we?”

“A gunshot will have the cops here in ten minutes,” the man said. “SWAT in twenty.”

“And building security?”

The man laughed. “Whatever.”

“Thanks for the info.”

Karin shot him in the arm without warning, saw him stagger. She shot the next too, a round to the stomach, and waited for him to fall to the floor before leaping over his back and using his spine to push off.

A baseball bat swung close to her head, missed, and smashed through a door, shattering the glass and framework. She ignored it. Wu was behind her, with Dino dealing with the other direction. A third obesity blocked her way. She fired two shots into the general mass, ducked a hefty swing and then had no choice other than to hit the immovable bulk head on.

She bounced back, shaken.

She held on to the gun as she fell back on her spine. Looking up, she saw the enormous round face staring down at her — a numb, cruel giant with bullet holes he didn’t feel, blood flows he didn’t see, and the biggest razor-blade-spotted, wooden club she’d ever seen.

“Fuckin’ caveman.”

Karin fired upward as the club came down. Two bullets fired through the overhanging belly, striking the ceiling, but the club kept on coming down. Karin averted her skull. The club landed beside it, splintering the floor, drawing sparks from the glinting blades. For a second it lay there, then the arm holding it strained and it began to pull away from the floor.

Karin scooted back, saw the terrible face and fired straight at it. This time the owner felt it and staggered immediately, luckily falling to the right and straight through another colleague, trapping the lesser man beneath.

Wu jumped over her, firing into two more hefty bulks. These men fell to their knees. A club slapped Wu across the bicep, making him yelp. Karin turned to see the first man — the bald guy she’d shot through the leg — dragging himself alongside her, leaving a trail of blood.

“You just fucked it up real good, lady. For everyone.”

“Oh, so now that I’ve shot you I’m a lady, yea? I take it you know what we’re here for?”

He scrambled for his club, and a knife that hung at his belt.

“You kidding? There’s only the one thing here, you know that.”

Karin nodded. “Sure.”

“But you’ll never find it.”

She glanced quickly at the many, many rooms full of computer terminals, all no doubt working, running some kind of program, and all the same as their neighbors.

But she knew better. “Oh, I think I might.”

She also knew a man like Webb would never consider installing a kill switch. Not after all the hard work he’d put in to acquire such material, not when every sweet stalking he’d ever undertaken lived right here.

She dodged the bat, stopped the knife strike, and left the man with a second bullet hole. She jumped up and followed Wu, then glanced back to see how Dino was doing. All was well. The only problem they had now was the police.

Wu hesitated; the hallway was clear. “Where to?”

Karin ran past, the location seared into her memory. “To the lair of one of the worst monsters that ever lived,” she said. “So keep it frosty. This way, boys.”