Page 57 of The Devil's Ransom

We’d exfiltrated from the kill zone of the so-called Art Park, which had ended up being nothing but graffiti, and had left a dead body behind, along with another live one in the wind, but that couldn’t be helped. We had a clear mandate to determine the ransomware, but not one to become Batman, saving every shitbag from an early death. If the guy we’d rescued was involved inour problem set, then we’d done some good. If he wasn’t, then we’d just created problems by leaving a dead Turkish guy on the ground.

The team itself was wondering how it would bleed out, not the least because I’d given the call to interdict, but I wasn’t worried about their reaction. To a man—or woman—they would always err on the side of saving someone’s life. Even if it was a bad guy. But, like them, Iwasworried about my command. If what we’d done didn’t pan out as the right decision, I’d be in a world of hurt. The Taskforce didn’t take kindly to killing someone on foreign soil without justification.

It was easy being the hero when the bad guy was a known entity, like on an assault in Fallujah, but that wasn’t my reality. Sometimes the bad guy was just a normal person using a weapon that wasn’t a gun, but he was bad all the same. The problem was figuring that out, and up until Creed’s message, I wasn’t sure.

We’d linked up after the actions at the Art Park, ran back to our hotel, and then had spent the rest of the night transferring the computer data, shacking up a SITREP and conducting an after-action review. Ordinarily, the purpose of the AAR was to determine what we could do better. In this case, it was simply to try to find out what the hell was going on before I contacted higher.

We had a simple penetration target associated with computer crap—meaning he was an egghead and not a trained killer—and that penetration had led to some sort of shoot-out with guys from Turkey. It was crazy.

We’d batted about what we were dealing with, along with what we should be doing now, but truthfully, the computer would tell the tale. At least I hoped it would, or I’d be in for some serious explaining.

We’d kicked around going back to the apartment but had decided that was a dead end. There wouldn’t be anything new at that location after Knuckles and I had penetrated, so why go? Midway through the discussion, I’d messed with the phone I’d found, but it was locked. I’d tossed it onto the table, saying it was no help, and Veep said, “Send that to Creed as well.”

“What for? He’s got the computer. He can’t do anything with this. The phone is locked out. Nobody can crack an iPhone. The FBI can’t even do it.”

Veep smiled and said, “I think you’re wrong.”

He got behind the computer and began typing, saying, “You know your Israeli friends can crack an iPhone, right?”

I said, “Who are you contacting?”

“Creed. He’s hip-deep with them.” He typed,Youstill working that Israeli thing off the books? iPhone hacks?

He got back,Yeah, but why are you talking about it?

Because we have a phone. You’re working the computer?

Yeah. That’s easy. You have a phone?

Yes.

An iPhone?

Yes.

The target will wipe it. It’s going to be wiped. He can do that remotely.

Can you clone?

Maybe. Plug it in. Let me see.

Veep turned to me and I handed him the phone, saying, “What is this? You’ve never said anything about it.”

Veep said, “It’s just a project I was working on with Creed. Away to crack an iPhone using the Cloud. Aaron and Shoshana told me about it, and helped Creed along.”

A little miffed, I said, “Why wasn’t I told?”

Veep said, “Because it was just a little project that had nothing to do with operations. It might not work, but what he’s going to try to do is duplicate the phone through the cloud, then download that to a new iPhone. Which means we need an iPhone.”

“What about the passwords? Even if it downloads, it’ll still need a password.”

“Pike, I’m not an expert on the ins and outs, but the phone will go to a cloud account, and when it comes back to earth, it’ll just duplicate on our phone, but act like the phone is brand-new. There won’t be a password. Or maybe it’ll ask to set a password. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t, but it’s worth a shot.”

I nodded and said, “Plug it in,” then turned to Brett and said, “Go buy an iPhone. I figure you want out of this hotel room by now.”

He laughed and said, “No doubt. Any idea where?”

Jennifer said, “There’s a mall right next door, underneath the park, called the Importanne Center.”

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