Page 38 of Devil's Hour
Sawyer tapped out a quick text and then tucked his phone away. “I told her dinner was a go, but we’d need to get back to her later about the date and time.”
Speaking of time, Royce glanced at the clock on the dashboard. T minus ten minutes and counting.
Chief Rigby asked Royce, Sawyer, and Kelsey to join her in her office moments before noon. She had the website up on her screen, and Royce had a hard time looking away from the ticking tock.
“Is it me, or have the flames grown brighter and bigger?” Sawyer asked. Royce agreed the flames looked more intense than they had earlier, and the tallest ones were licking along the bottom edge of the digital clock.
“It’s not you,” Kelsey confirmed.
“Have you had any luck tracing the origin, Ms. Hightower?” Chief asked.
“Not yet, Chief. I’d hoped we were dealing with an amateur here, but our hacker slash web designer knows their sh…stuff.”
“It’s perfectly fine to cuss in front of me,” Rigby said. “Bullshit times call for strong language.”
“What kind of preventative measures has the hacker taken, Kels?” Sawyer asked. “I think those are clues Jonah should feed to Stella to see what she comes up with. We think we’re looking for more than one individual, and it’s unlikely the person assembling the letters is the same as the person setting the fires. What if there’s another person in charge of the cyberattack?”
“Excellent idea,” Chief said. “I’m putting you in charge of that when we’re done.”
“A few hours seems like a lot of time to give you the full picture, but it isn’t when you’re dealing with someone this skilled. I’ll give you what I know about hacking in general and what I’ve specifically learned about this particular hacker so far. The first thing to keep in mind is our hacker doesn’t just pull out a MacBook Pro and start terrorizing the internet. They start by using Linux machines and then build layers of infrastructure as a buffer between them and us. There are huge networks of hackers out there navigating through these virtual machines hosted in countries that make it difficult for us to track or trace them. And because the machines are constantly switched out, it’s easy for the hackers to cover their tracks. They don’t just use the standard browsers as we do; they use Tor, which was engineered for hacking. You’ve heard of the dark web, right?” Everyone nodded. “Tor is one of the key tools that makes it possible. A talented hacker can also spoof IP addresses, sending us to false locations.”
“What can you tell us specifically about this website?”
Kelsey cringed. “While I can’t say they’re equal to the infamous group Anonymous, this is the best hacking I’ve personally seen. The IP address keeps changing almost as quickly as the countdown clock, bouncing between the virtual machines I mentioned. Thanks to Tor, no legitimate domain has been used, so there’s no one for us to contact to shut it down.”
“Christ,” Rigby said, rubbing her eyes. “You’re saying we’re good and fucked.”
Kelsey grimaced. “Possibly, but I am still working on it. If they make the tiniest mistake, I will catch them.”
Royce loved her confidence. “Has the mayor been made aware of this site?”
Rigby nodded. “Yes, I did call her. She adamantly denied it could have anything to do with her and said it changed nothing. She refuses to let bullies pressure her into resigning.”
When the clock struck noon, the digital clock showed four zeros. The hungry flames overtook the page for a few seconds before it turned solid black.
“That was anticlimactic,” Royce said.
“It’s the calm before the storm,” Kelsey whispered.
Though the screen remained black, a soundtrack began to play, and it wasn’t what Royce would’ve predicted. The unmistakable sounds of a man and woman having sex came through Rigby’s built-in computer speakers.
“Christ,” Rigby said again. “Could that be any louder? It sounds like we’re engaging in an orgy in here.”
Kelsey started tapping keys to lower the volume. “Um, what’s happening here?” she asked about the time the woman hit her climax.
“Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Fuck, don’t you dare stop!” the mystery woman begged.
“No way, baby. Never,” the guy replied.
Royce was tempted to answer Kelsey’s questions with a joke to shatter the awkward tension in the room, but then recognition hit him. He turned widened eyes to the chief, who looked shell-shocked.
“Christ,” she squeaked. Royce had never known her to be at a loss for words until now.
The black screen changed to an out-of-focus video of a hallway. The sex sounds got louder as the images came into sharper focus. Whoever was filming was doing so while moving, making the footage a bit bouncy.
“Harder!” the woman demanded.
“Like this?” The man’s question was followed by the sounds of bodies slapping together faster and harder on the other side of the door with the placard that read: Lynette Goodwin, The Honorable Mayor.