A Dangerous Arrangement (21 page)

She sighed and concentrated on deepening her breathing. Breathing was something she'd been doing a lot of lately, both in and out of the water.

A phone rang like a shriek in the night.

Marina's eyes flew open.

She came to her feet as the two men jumped up from their backgammon game.

‘It's mine.' Rask reached for the phone and swiped his thumb across the screen. ‘Hello?'

Marina stood, hands clenched at her sides as Dean came over and put his arm around her waist.

Rask was moving about the room, phone to his ear.

‘Yes. Could you hold on a minute? I have Mr Logan here.'

‘Interpol.' Rask mouthed the word as he switched the phone to loudspeaker. ‘Yes, go ahead.'

‘
Bon après-midi
.'

‘
Bon après-midi, monsieur
,' replied Dean.

‘French,
Anglais
?'

‘
Anglais s'il vous plaît.'

‘It's Detective Delon.' The man switched to English without hesitation.

‘I'm Dean Logan, the owner of the company affected by the crime.'

‘My condolences, Mr Logan. I'm calling from Interpol headquarters in Lyon. Your representative, Mr Rask, sent through some information earlier today.'

‘That's correct.'

There was a rustle of paper, a halt in the conversation.

Dean waved them towards the lounge and they sat down, leaning forward and staring at Rask's phone.

‘That particular cyber group is well known to us.'

Cyber group?

Marina glanced at Dean, struggling to understand the man's heavily accented English.

‘We got a match on the photograph, as well. Chinese citizen, Li Chen.'

Detective Delon spelt the name out.

Rask wrote it down.

Dean's gaze was fixed to a spot on the wall somewhere. ‘My security is working closely with the Australian Police and the Italian Police. We believe Li Chen is currently somewhere on the Italian Riviera.'

‘So I understand from Mr Rask.'

‘What can you tell us about him?'

The Frenchman paused.

Marina took a breath.

‘Li Chen was a founding member of “Chaos Bomb”. If you haven't heard of Chaos Bomb, they were an anonymous online hacking group who operated throughout the world. We know they disbanded a few years ago.'

Another rustle of paper.

Rask took a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped at his brow.

‘The image of the worm and the guns is from a banner that depicted the group at the time.'

‘Were they mainly into file encryption?' asked Rask.

‘They were into anything and everything. I understand from Detective Mooney in Sydney he's been working at your office under the name of Victor Yu.'

Dean leaned towards the phone. ‘That's correct. He flew out of Melbourne on that passport.'

‘Hmm. We know of other identities he's used, but not that one.'

Marina shook her head. It was unbelievable to think this man had been living under her roof for six months.

‘We've never known a member of Chaos Bomb to show their face before. I have that on good authority. Many of these people end up working for institutions such as ours.'

Shocked, Marina stared at her two companions. Rask was shaking his head, while Dean's forehead was creased in a worried frown.

‘Detective Delon. Are you saying there are currently members of Chaos Bomb employed by Interpol?'

There was a momentary silence.

‘I'm not at liberty to divulge confidential information of that kind. Suffice to say many of these former cybercriminals hold down some of the biggest jobs in IT in world security. And we need them. They know how to best protect vital government systems from people like themselves. They may have served time in the past, sometimes prison, other times home detention. But they're working on the right side of the law now, and that's where we want them.'

Marina watched as Dean raked a hand through his hair.

‘I can forward you a printout of the current world trends in the area of computer crime,' Detective Delon went on to say. ‘Often, they'll hit a certain kind of business, or one particular country, and then move on. I also have a printout of Li Chen's movements through the international airports. The ones we've been able to track, that is.'

‘That could be of interest, and thank you, you've been very helpful. We're hoping the Italian Police will arrest—Li Chen—in the next few days.'

‘I wish you luck, Monsieur Logan, and I look forward to meeting Mr Chen if the Italian Police are successful.'

‘Merci.'

The two men bade one another ‘bonsoir', and then Rask took the phone and spoke to Delon, reciting the appropriate email addresses and fax machine numbers so the information could be sent through.

When the call finally ended, Rask was the first to speak, an expression of disbelief on his face. ‘What do you make of that? He sounds like he wants to
recruit
the guy.'

Marina nodded. ‘I thought so too. It makes sense though, when you think about it.'

Rask turned away with a frustrated shake of his head. ‘I'm getting too old for this technology caper.'

Hit by a sudden wave of sympathy for the former detective, Marina went over to him and put her hand on his arm. ‘It's foreign to me too, Hektor. You've made great progress with this. My greatest worry is whether the Italian Police are up to the job.'

Rask went red, as if a show of support from her was the last thing he expected. Or maybe it was because she'd used his first name.

He gave her an awkward pat on the hand, then retreated behind the safety of the desk.

Dean looked up from where he was still seated on the lounge. ‘She's right, Hektor. No-one else would have been able to pull together what you have in the last five days. Don't be hard on yourself.'

Marina checked her watch and glanced at her silent phone. ‘We have one hour to go.'

The cruise liner was only in port for six hours, and she prayed Victor, or Li, would leave their meeting to another day.

‘Rask, get onto the local police. Clue them in that he goes by the name of Li Chen as well as Victor Yu.'

‘Yes, boss.'

‘Do you really think he'll call now?' Marina asked. Some of the passengers would already be returning to the ship.

Dean sighed. ‘I would have said no, but after hearing that, God only knows what's driving him.'

Marina went and sat beside him again. ‘I assumed it would be money.'

‘Oh, money's a big part of it. But what if there's more to it than that?'

She frowned. ‘I'm not following you.'

‘Something Delon said. That he has it on good authority that no member of Chaos Bomb has shown their face before.'

Rask returned to stand at the side of the lounge. ‘No doubt he ran it by the former members he has working there.'

‘Exactly! Li spent six months working in the office.
Why
? Why risk putting his face out there, when he could have made millions anonymously?'

‘It's obvious, isn't it?' Marina looked at each man in turn. ‘He wants to be the best. I mean, I got RSI from overpractising because I wanted to be the best.'

Strange how it was the first time she'd actually admitted it to herself. ‘It's what you do, isn't it? Take risks? Go one better than the next person?'

Five seconds of silence followed.

Marina swallowed.

It made sense to her.

Then Dean reached over and picked up her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed it. ‘I believe you're right, Marina.'

‘Now hang on.' Rask huffed out a breath. ‘You're losing me. Okay, he's a man with a big ego. He wants to be the best. But why risk showing his face, getting on security cameras at airports, contacting Marina and telling her about the USB when he could have just fronted up at Rome airport on the day she was to fly out and demanded it. She would have been caught unawares, and probably handed it right over. Li could have disappeared without a trace. So, doing it this way—it doesn't make sense. What's he get out of it?'

Dean's face broke into a knowing smile. ‘I'm pretty sure I know.'

Eyes shining, he pushed off the lounge and began pacing the floor. ‘Think about it. Yu, or Li, came to Australia, he worked among people—he became social.'

Marina made a face. ‘Well, that's debatable.'

‘You know what I mean though. Most of these hackers live in the shadows. But not him. He was on our team, and he stole the designs right out from under our nose. My guess is he'll shop them around on Europe's black market. He's moving around the globe, making money, proving he's the best.'

He walked up to Rask, index finger raised, pointing at the ceiling. ‘And you know what, I don't think he's cares if he gets caught. He may even
want
to get caught.'

Rask's eyebrows shot up. ‘Now you're scaring me.'

‘No. That could be it.' Dean swung away and raked a hand through his hair. ‘He's doing exactly what Marina says. He's risking everything, the way she risked her arm. He's out to prove he's the best hacker Chaos Bomb ever had.'

Marina watched, enthralled to find out where he was going with this. Even disguised as a tourist, Dean Logan was impressive—the biggest life force she'd ever known.

He put his hands on his hips and shook his head as if berating himself for not seeing it all sooner.

‘Want to know my theory? Li Chen doesn't care if he gets caught. He's too busy adding to his resume. He's living the dream, doing the internship of a lifetime.'

‘Li Chen wants a job.'

Chapter Twenty-Five

‘Time's up!' Rask put his phone on the desk. ‘Ship's departing.'

‘Yes!'
Marina's legs went weak with relief and she held up an open palm towards Rask.

He frowned and looked at her hand. Then suddenly it dawned on him. With a roll of his eyes he high-fived her.

Dean smiled and reached for the ship's phone. ‘Alain, winch up the anchor and get us under way. I've already charted the course back to Livorno. Cruising speed should keep us well ahead of the ship at all times.'

He hung up and heaved a sigh of relief. ‘I think this calls for a drink. Marina, what will you have?'

‘Champagne, please.' What the hell? If ever there was a time to ‘live it up' it was now.

‘One champagne.' He moved behind the bar. ‘Rask?'

‘Scotch for me.'

‘Coming right up.'

Dean looked at her and nodded in Rask's direction. ‘Wait until he gets a few Scotches under his belt. He'll start singing about trolls and fairies.'

‘They exist.' Rask didn't bother raising his head, just went back to perusing the email attachments Delon had sent through twenty minutes ago.

‘I love Icelandic folk songs.'

‘Now there's a girl with taste.'

‘I know.' Dean's smile widened as he dumped a handful of ice into a crystal tumbler. ‘She likes me.'

Marina scowled, but couldn't hold it, and ended up smiling. With the release of tension came a desire to play, so it didn't even faze her when the engines hummed to life and a slight vibration began in her feet.

It was only when she looked out the port side window and realised their little beach was growing further away that she gave a cry and ran for her phone. With a sense of loss, she raced over to the window, held the phone up to the glass and took a photograph.

‘I thought you didn't like to look back.'

She turned to find Dean watching her.

‘It's … where I had my first swimming lesson.'

Where I began falling in love with you.

‘Keep it up when you go home.' He tilted a glass and began pouring her champagne. ‘Keep swimming, I mean.'

His words were like a punch to her stomach, a stark reminder that her time with him was running out fast.

‘A fish said that.' It was a random comment, but she refused to get morose. The cruise ship didn't dock in Livorno until seven in the morning. They only had one night, two at the most.

Dean came around from behind the bar, a drink in each hand. ‘A fish said
what
?'

‘Keep swimming.' She took the glass of champagne he offered and lifted it in a toast. ‘Another Disney movie you're clearly not familiar with.'

‘Which one?'

Marina shook her head, remembering their
Pocahontas
conversation. ‘I'll leave it up to you to find out, Mr Logan.'

‘That sounded sexy, very
teacherish
.' They clinked glasses and he growled low in his throat, sending a delicious shiver down Marina's spine.

She loved it when they were like this, all fun and flirty. She took a sip of champagne and closed her eyes as the fresh, fruity bubbles slid down her throat. She envied Julia Montgomery's relationship with him. When you were excited by the prospect of one or two nights, eight months seemed like forever.

‘This is interesting,' said Rask.

They went to see what he was looking at.

Rask pointed a stubby finger at the screen. ‘There was a lot of activity around the Baltic States a few years back, and then later on, a spat of hits in Germany, Japan and America.'

‘They probably hack into a huge database and access the accounts of millions of people,' Dean said. ‘That's why it tends to be concentrated around a certain demographic. I still think Li's after a top job in cyber warfare. From what Delon said, these guys must be paid a bomb to protect the classified data in these world institutions. And why wouldn't these guys want a legit job? Maybe some of Li's former associates are even trying to bring him on board.'

Marina stilled, the champagne glass halfway to her mouth. A cold shiver ran down her spine and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.