Karla brightened, and I had to hide a smirk at the foul look Rita shot Karla. Vince didn’t know it, but he was being scouted by my former sub, although from the look Karla gave, I didn’t think Vince was on her radar. Karla nodded. “Good telly. Anyway, yeah, he’s got more than me and Alix on the hook, I’m sure.”
“But there’s a weakness,” Rita said, completing a thought that was already forming in my mind. “He’s got to contact the targets at some point.”
“Does he though?” Alix asked. “I mean, he could certainly threaten over a phone line or email just as effectively.”
“But then how does he get his money?” Karla asked.
Before Rita could answer, I spoke up. “There’s quite a few ways, Karla. Classically, he could do a bank wire transfer, or Western union money orders, or through quite a few Internet-based systems. But he’s still got the same challenge. At some point he needs to turn numbers in a bank account into real goods and services.”
“How can we track that?” Alix asked. I looked over at Rita, who grinned.
“That, my six-foot-tall sis, is where my skills and community come into play. While you three were out packing bags and seeing koalas and all that, I was able to use my connections. Uh, Vince, is the door locked?”
Vince went over and twisted the door handle, then shook his head. He looked around for a moment trying to figure it out, then muttered a curse under his breath and shut the door, leaning against the door to keep it shut. “Good enough. Go ahead, Rita.”
“In addition to data mining and coordination, I have in my past done some, well, let’s just say . . . clandestine data gathering.”
“Rita, pretend that there are two Sheilas in this room that didn’t go to uni. Not to get you up, but I’ve been a model ever since I left school. Not tryin’ to whinge, but I want to be wise to what you’re spewin’.”
“Maybe it’s just having you hang around, but I actually understood that,” Rita commented, and I did a double take as I saw the look Karla gave her. Very interesting. Rita, on the other hand, was oblivious, looking at her computer screen. “What I mean is, I did some hacking. A decent amount, in fact, and I still have friends in the hacker community. I reached out to some of them, and after they heard about what Sydney did to Kade and Alix, they’re chomping at the bit.”
“Really?” Alix asked, surprised. “Why?”
“Hardcore hackers are by and large very libertarian when it comes to their sexual mores, but are also, in their own strange way, very honorable,” Rita said. “In any case, if I can get that phone number from you, Karla, combined with what I already have, and Alix, if you can fill in anything, I can trace his phone, his ID, and more importantly, any form of email or electronic communication he has. If he tries to access Paypal or any of the other major online currency systems, he’s going to be tracked and traced.”
“What if he goes low-tech and does wire transfers?” Vince asked.
Rita grinned and shook her head. “Even easier. I’ll have a trace on his bank account. If he accesses it, even just to use an ATM, I’ll have his location within seconds. If he tries to use online banking to pay for things, I’ll not only have the IP address of where he accessed the account from, but the details of exactly what he orders, and where it’s going to be delivered. Don’t piss off the hacker collective. They don’t mess around.”
All eyes turned to me, and I knew that the weight was on my shoulders. Rita was more than willing to let slip the dogs of war, and Vince had his own connections. I wanted to hear what options he had, just because I knew that if Rita went through with her ideas, I’d be involved in a conspiracy to break so many Federal laws that my mind wanted to spin at the idea. “Vince, come over here and tell me what other options we have.”
Vince nodded and left the door, coming across to stand in between Rita and Karla, setting his hands on the edge of the bed. “You know I did short-haul trucking, which was connected to the Teamsters. They’ve got both above-board and below-board connections that could be useful. But the muscle can only be used if they know where he is.”
I thought about it and nodded. “Both. Vince, contact your guys and have them stand by. But I’d prefer to keep the cops in on this if we can. Rita, turn your friends loose.”
Rita grinned, growling as she started typing at a rapid pace on her computer. “Alix, Karla, come over here. I need as much information as you can give me on Sydney Hale. Actually, if you don’t mind, Kade, I’d like to take these two with me. I’ve got more security and speed on my home system. As good as this thing is, I’d need another day or two to download the required security programs and everything I’d really need to turn this baby into a sports car for the Web.”