Going back to Kelex after so long being away felt strange. Since I was driving Lex's car, I got to park in his designated spot in the parking lot, which made me feel opulent. It would allow me to save some time since I didn't have to wait for the bus.
Somehow, my light and optimistic mood wasn't fading off. I had a great feeling about all this, and something in me was convinced Lex would be out soon.
Maybe it was some sort of coping mechanism, and my mind was fooling itself to protect me from further harm by being convinced we were out of the woods. But it didn't matter. I needed to feel like a winner, like everything was attainable, like we got this.
There was no one I knew in the elevator, but as soon as I stepped onto the Kelex floor, familiar faces greeted me. Given the situation, it wasn't hard for people to imagine why I'd been gone so long, and their supportive smiles full of kindness made me feel conflicted about the lie. Yes, I'd been in a bad place mentally, but I was so far from it now, I didn't feel worthy of their compassion.
But it made sense why they would show so much of it. In exactly a week, Lex would be on trial in front of the Grand Jury, all the way to Washington, DC. It was only normal they'd worry about me and want to be supportive. Kelex was very attentive when it came to their employee's wellness, and that spirit was everywhere.
On my way to the Lair, I was stopped a few times by people who wanted to check on me, and hoped I was doing better. Although I really was, I forced myself to remain grave. No matter how good I felt about the outcome of my enterprise, others couldn't see it. Now wasn't the time to raise suspicions.
When I entered the Troll's Lair, all the eyes converged on me. Everyone but Mason was here, and they stared at me in utter silence, unsure what to say. My gaze met Oli's, and he gave me a slight shrug, as lost as I was about what to do.
"I'm doing better, guys," I eventually said. "I just want to work to take my mind off it." They all nodded, ready to respect my wishes. "At this point, it's all out of my hands, and I'm just praying everything goes well once the trial starts. But working will distract me in the meantime."
I'd just finished when Mason entered the room. He spotted me, his eyes instantly locking on mine, and he rushed his way to me. Before I could say anything, his arms wrapped themselves around me, and he gave me a tight and intense hug.
"My curly little baby girl, I missed you so much," he let out, squishing me harder. He energetically moved away from me, holding my shoulders firmly, his gaze scanning mine. "Are you okay? Do you want tea? More hug? Food? To talk?"
His involvement in my mental health was touching, and I offered him an indulging smile. "As I was telling everyone when you got in, I'm doing better. I don't want to talk about it, I just want to work."
He gave me some sassy pout but didn't argue. "If you wanna talk, I'm here boo." I nodded, meaning it, and he released me so we could head to our desks.
I hadn't done anything for my sign language app in ages, and I was relatively excited to return to it. In my month-long absence, the guys had done so much. It was incredible. The feature wasn't perfect yet, but it worked for video calls as well now, which was particularly handy. A new beta 0.2 version was scheduled to come out in a few weeks, so our testers could experience the changes and give us any further pointers on how we could improve it further.
By all appearances, I was doing my Kelex work. And I was, to some extent. But internally, I was organizing my thoughts, thinking of what I'd have to do once I'd get back to Lex's apartment, preparing my post-work work. I still hadn't decided on a proper day for the heist, but Oli, Death, and I agreed that Thursday would be the best date. It would give enough time to the concerned parties to act accordingly and release Lex before the weekend. If we did it any later, we might risk them maintaining the trial in D.C. and flying Lex all the way to the other side of the country.
When the lunch break came, I'd done little for my app, but at least I had my entire evening organized in my head, as well as a few solutions I'd come up with, for issues that had been bugging me. In the break room, I found Tammy, who I'd barely seen this past month. For an hour, I caught up with a few people, and it made me realize just how much I'd missed being social. The intense work had kept me too distracted to notice, but I was now seeing how much being around people was good for me. It was as though I was recharging batteries I didn't know I had. By the time the break ended, I felt as though I had so much energy it was pouring out of me.
During the afternoon, my attention was more focused on my app, and it turned out that a break from my hacking project would be beneficial too. Taking a few steps back and letting things simmer for a moment was allowing me to see things more clearly, which would benefit me.
The question of when we should strike kept coming back, until a solution fell right onto my lap, a little before 5 PM. My phone vibrated next to me, and I eyed the unknown number on it for a moment, wondering if I should answer. Journalists had stopped calling me a while ago, so I wasn't worried about taking calls anymore. Because of the overall situation, I decided it was safer to pick it up and see who it was.
Taking the phone with me, I quickly walked out of the Troll's Lair. After I'd pushed on the green button, I pressed it onto my ear and kept walking to a quieter location. "Yes?"
"Is this Miss Andrea Walker?" a woman's voice asked on the other side of the line.
"Yes, it's me."
"Ah, good afternoon, Miss Walker. I'm Special Agent Lewis. My partner and I are in charge of the investigation regarding Alexander Coleman. It's come to our attention that you were never properly interrogated, nor did you give a deposition. Would you mind coming to meet us, so we can ask you a few questions?"
Her request surprised me, and I didn't answer at first, both nervous and a little shocked. It made sense that I'd be interrogated, but at this point, I'd thought they wouldn't. So long had passed since the arrest, I'd convinced myself they didn't care about whatever I'd have to say. But maybe the investigation wasn't going well, and they were trying to find something, anything, to help build a stronger case.
"Miss?" she insisted after a few seconds had passed, reminding me I needed to answer.
"Sorry, I'm just surprised. I didn't think you would ask me to come in. It's been so long."
"Well, my partner and I have just been assigned the case, and I couldn't help but notice you were never brought in. The team before us didn't think it necessary, apparently, but I'd love to ask you a few questions. Would Thursday afternoon be okay with you? At two-thirty?"
The idea of refusing crossed my mind, for fear that I might mess something up and give them information they could use against Lex - just like I had done during the preliminary trial. But at the same time, Special Agent Lewis was giving me a golden opportunity, one I wouldn't have again.
"Hm, sure," I eventually agreed. "Two-thirty on Thursday.'
"Great. We're currently based in Portland. I'll send you the details."
We exchanged a few more words before hanging up, and I remained standing there for a moment afterward, thinking intently. That was when we needed to hit. If I was being interrogated while the cyber strike happened, they wouldn't suspect me. Something of that magnitude would require whoever did it to be in front of a computer while it happened.
But because it was a blitz heist, I'd prepared everything so it would unfold on its own. Thousands of transactions would happen in the span of a few minutes, and it was humanly impossible to handle it live. No, I had come up with a state-of-the-art process that would manage it all on its own, which meant that barely any human intervention was required. This meant I could be into an interrogating room, in a building filled with feds, when my highly illegal, spend-the-rest-of-your-life-in-prison heist would unfold.
The audacity of it had me smiling to myself. It was so fucking bold, I simply had to do it. Although barely anyone would ever know the truth, it would surely boost my confidence for years to come.
Now, all I needed was to make absolutely certain everything was ready by Thursday morning, before I had to leave for Portland. And then, the rest would be history. The biggest money heist that had ever happened.
• • •
Three days later, I was shaking slightly as I made my way up the steps in front of Portland's FBI headquarters. Between the stress of being there, the anguish that things might go wrong, and the lack of sleep of these past few days, I was positively jittery.
My body was fifty percent Red Bull and coffee, which was the only explanation as to why I was still standing. But it didn't help with the way my hands were shaking. All I hoped for was that it would read like stress, and not like guilt.
After countless tests and trials, I was confident the strike would work flawlessly. But just in case it didn't, Death was on watch duty, with the mission to make sure the complex ramifications of the process didn't run into an issue. Normally, it shouldn't, but this was a preemptive measure, just in case.
As I pushed the door and entered, my feet stopped working for a moment, the sight of all these law-enforcement officers making me hesitate. Suddenly, the bold idea I'd had didn't look like such a great idea. The ovaries of steel I thought I owned were turning into mush, and I considered changing tactics. If something went wrong, anything, I wouldn't know it from here, and they wouldn't even have to arrest me. If my plan backfired, all they'd have to do would be keeping me in that interrogation room but switch questions.
For maybe ten seconds, I stayed frozen in my tracks, reconsidering everything. Me being caught would also mean Lex's doom. There would be no way to come back from it. If something went wrong, I'd go to prison for decades, and so would he. Fuck, all of this was so nerve-wracking.
"Excuse me, Miss," someone called behind me. Jumping like a clown in a box, I turned around. Ah, fuck, I was in the middle of the way.
"Sorry," I mumbled with a wince, walking further into the hall.
Once I'd passed the metal detector, I gathered my things, keeping my phone with me. With my hands nervously fumbling with it in front of me, I made my way to the reception. Once I'd told the man who I was here to see, he asked me to wait in the designated area, and I complied. Sitting on the relatively comfortable armchair, I looked at the surrounding people, still holding my phone.
All I needed was to send one command, and all hell would break loose. From the Samsung in my hand, I would start a chain reaction that would shake the world of finance and justice, and hopefully free the man I loved. As I sat there in silence, I dwelled on all this. Now that it was so close, the realization of what I was about to do hit me hard. I was minutes from entering the hall of fame of hackers. One of the boldest, most impressive cyber hacks that had ever happened was about to happen, and I was its mastermind. Although, apart from a small handful of people, no one would ever know it was me. And I was perfectly okay with that. The goal was never glory and fame.
"Miss Walker?" a feminine voice asked to my left. I recognized it from the phone call a few days ago and turned to meet its owner.
Special Agent Lewis was wearing a light grey power suit, and her hair was buzz-cut so short it almost looked shaven. Given the perfect shape of her skull, it suited her amazingly. She was somewhere in her forties, if I had to guess, but was barely showing any sign of age. Her skin was a warm tone of dark brown, and her silhouette was both slender and athletic. As she came closer to me, I noted the assertiveness of her walk and the confidence of her posture.
Everything about her attitude showed she was a seasoned agent, and it somehow worried me. Surely, a woman with her experience was used to pry things out of the people she interrogated. She'd even been the one thinking I might be a good person to question when the others had wrongfully dismissed me.
Shaking myself out of my bewilderment, I stood from my seat. She extended her hand toward me, and I shook it, my body on autopilot.
"I'm Special Agent Lewis. We spoke on the phone on Monday." I nodded, forcing a smile onto my lips. "Thank you for coming all the way here, Miss Walker."
"Call me Andrea, please. 'Miss Walker' stresses me out."
"Alright, Andrea. If you'll follow me, my partner and I have a few questions prepared for you."
Moving to the side, she showed the way with her hand before heading in that direction. I followed, discreetly unlocking my phone. My heart raced into my chest so hard, I actually wondered if it could break a rib from its intensity. It took six taps of my thumbs to open the inconspicuous app I'd created, enter the pin, and launch the strike. As programmed, the app self-destroyed right after, erasing all traces of its existence from my phone.
In a little under seventeen minutes, the countdown I'd programmed would reach its end, and the cyber heist would begin. A few minutes after that, it would be all done. If everything went well, at least.
Everything will go well, I reminded myself internally.
Lewis guided me further into the building, and with each special agent we passed, my confidence took a dent. Holy shit, I was in the heart of it. Right in the enemy's den. The fuck was I doing here already? Saving Lex. I was here to save Lex.
We finally reached our destination, and she opened a door for me, which led to a room that looked more like a conference room than an interrogation one. This would make me more comfortable, but it was probably why we were here, so I'd feel at ease and let my guard down a little.
A man was already here, in his late fifties, with a balding scalp. He also had a mustache that must have been there to either divert the eye from the balding situation or compensate for it, given how huge it was. There was also a camera on a tripod, and this revelation sent a shiver up my back. If they taped this, I'd have to deliver an Oscar-worthy performance.
"Andrea, this is Special Agent Powell," Lewis introduced. I shook the man's hand, my eyes drawn by his absurdly large mustache.
After offering me some water - which I refused - they invited me to sit down. Lewis took the seat in front of me, while her partner turned the camera on before joining her. He announced the date, place, and our names, stating I had come of my own will, without a lawyer despite being offered one, which I had to confirm verbally. Shit, this all sounded so rigidly official. Fifteen minutes. I had to hold for about Fifteen minutes.
"Thank you again for coming, Andrea," Special Agent Lewis told me.
"No problem. Like I told you on the phone, I find it odd I'm only here now, when Lex's prelim was two months ago."
"It seems the team who was in charge of the file before us was misled where you're concerned. From the transcript I've read, Mr. Coleman made it clear you were just an employee he was casually seeing. But since you have moved into his apartment, and are one of the two people on his list in the state penitentiary, I believe you're more than that, aren't you, Andrea?"
There was no point in lying, to I nodded with a faint yes. "I mean... I'd like to think we were more than that. But I must say I also moved to his place because my roommate's boyfriend was there more, and I wanted to give them some privacy. The home cinema at Lex's place was also a nice perk."
A few basic questions about our affair followed, when it had started, and other details... I answered these as truthfully as I could too. It was clear that Agent Lewis was the one in charge of the interrogation, as Mustachio barely spoke, sitting there with his arms folded in front of him. The few times he opened his mouth was usually to ask something hardly relevant, and I couldn't help but notice it annoyed his very efficient partner.
Time passed, and I lost track of it slightly. Because they couldn't see I was occupied by the exact hour, I never once checked on my phone or glimpsed at the watch I was wearing for the occasion. I'd know soon enough if the strike had unfolded, well or not.
"During our examination of Mr. Coleman's belongings, our team found a suspicious application on his phone," Lewis told me at some point, taking out a piece of paper from one of the folders before her. "Does this look familiar?"
She settled the printed picture in front of me, and the screenshot on it had my eyes widen. It was the secret and secure messaging app Lex had come up with. It was disguised as some stupid time-killing game, but what laid inside was of a very inappropriate nature.
"I take it you do know it," Lewis let out, not hiding her suspicious tone. "We couldn't get into it, but maybe you can tell us what it does?"
"It's... a messaging app," I explained. It was rather embarrassing, but it didn't put Lex in any sort of danger.
"And why is it so heavily encrypted? Were you and Mr. Coleman ever exchanging on it? What sort of messages need that much protection, Andrea?"
"It's for... sexting," I admitted, mortified to feel my face warm up at the admission. This seemed to somehow interest Mr. Mustache, who sat up in his chair. Pig...
"You'll forgive me if I find it hard to believe, Andrea," Lewis insisted. "The cyber team can't even crack it, so it seems rather extreme he'd go to such lengths for something so trivial."
"Lex didn't trust the internet, so he came up with this. We used to send each other photos and... short clips." She still didn't seem convinced, and I winced in embarrassment. It made sense that they'd find the app suspicious. It was indeed a lot just to hide some sexting. Deciding it was better to protect Lex than to keep my dignity intact, I reached for my phone.
"I can't access his because I don't know his password, but I have a similar one on my phone. If you allow me, I can prove I'm not lying," I offered. She hesitated for an instant and then agreed with a nod. "I'd rather if only you could see it," I felt compelled to add, glimpsing at her partner. There was no way I'd let that man seen my nudes and homemade porn-like videos.
She agreed again and made her way around the table. With a heavy ball sitting over my stomach, making me almost sick, I unlocked my screen, which allowed me to glimpse at the time. Shit, two minutes. In two minutes, the heist would start.
Holding the phone up so she could see it, I slid to the app to show her it was indeed the same as Lex's. I opened it, went to the hidden identification panel, and unlocked the security check. Once it was done, I handed her the phone, my face crimson. There was only one conversation in there, so she quickly found it. Staring at the table in front of me, I waited as she scrolled through it, reminding myself again this was better than them thinking Lex and I had some secret discussions about his Nammota identity.
At some point, she must have clicked on a video clip, because the otherwise silent room was suddenly filled with one of my heated moans. Lewis quickly went back or turned the sound down, so it lasted less than two seconds, but still, we were all aware it had been me, in sexual bliss, voicing my pleasure.
Oh shit, that's the most embarrassing thing I've ever been through...
Looking up, I glimpsed at Agent Powell, who cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at me. Alright, maybe it would have been better for them to assume Lex was indeed Nammota, and we'd talked about it in length through a secret chat app.
After a few more seconds of this excruciating silence, Lewis must have reached the top of the conversation, because she handed me my phone again. When she sat on her chair again, she was as professional as ever, and it made me feel better about what had just happened.
"Sorry for the invasion of privacy, but thank you for being so candid with us," she declared, ready to move on to the next point.
We returned to more basic questions, and little by little, the tension this mortifying moment had caused wore off. In all truth, I wasn't thinking about it anymore, because as we spoke, the computer back at Lex's place was working its hardest to bring this whole mess to an end. With each passing second, the ongoing cyber heist was bringing Lex closer and closer to freedom.
It was hard to determine an exact time, but about five minutes after it had supposedly ended, someone gave two quick knocks on the door. The handle turned before the agents could invite the newcomer in, and a man who looked important appeared behind it.
"Powell, Lewis, a quick word," he ordered, requesting them to step out with a hand gesture. Perplexed, they exchanged a look before standing and following their superior's order.
Once alone in the room, I stayed in character, quenching the urge I had to check my phone and see if any news outlet had already reported the massive cyber attack. There was a camera here with me, and I wasn't giving them any excuse to bring me back here.
From where I sat, I couldn't make out what they were saying. The muffled bribes of their conversation outside in the hallway reached me, but aside from a word here and there, I didn't understand any of it. It got animated though, and I recognized the feminine pitch of Agent Lewis. It had worked; I was certain of it. My plan had unfolded to perfection, and now the case was taking an entirely different route. Lex couldn't have done it, and I couldn't have either. This changed everything for them, and they had to reassess their strategy, find a new suspect.
Eventually, it became silent outside, and I waited with batted breath to see what would come next. There was nothing for a moment, only a few footsteps coming and going, and then the door opened again. It was Agent Lewis, with a young and blonde woman I hadn't seen before.
"Andrea, thank you for coming," she said, coming into the room. "We'll contact you again if we need to ask you more questions."
"Are we done?" I asked, fainting incomprehension.
"Yes, something came up, and we have to look into it. We're not keeping you any longer, but as I've said, we might contact you again in the future." There was something slightly frustrated in her tone, as if she was letting me go against her better judgment. It was as though she knew I was supposed to be here, but she wasn't allowed to make me stay. "Agent Davis will escort you back to the main hall," she continued, gesturing to her colleague.
I nodded, grabbing my phone and bag. Once I was up, I offered Lewis a parting smile and nod, before following the blonde out. Once I reached the car, it was so incredibly hard not to check my phone, either. Alone in there, all I wanted to do was see if everything had gone well, and if the world was already talking about Nammota's new, unexpected, and monumental hit.
No, for that, I needed to be in a safe place. The closest one was fifteen minutes away, had free cookies, and comforting motherly hugs. Starting the engine, I drove toward the parking's exit, determined to get to my parents' house as fast as I could.
I needed to know as soon as possible. I had to make sure Lex would be freed, that his name was cleared, that the charges against him would be lifted.
I had to see if I'd succeeded.