Page 12 of Ignite

In less than three minutes, she cleaned him out and then dropped the facade. “All done, Sparky. I’d find some other line of work. You really suck at this one.”

“Wha—”

She didn’t wait for the guy to get his muddled brain in order. She closed off the call and scrubbed everything.

A few moments later, a message popped up on her computer.

Copperpot100: I only took out three tonight. Pretty slim pickings. You?

Jazzyhands: Just one. I’ve been pretty busy lately with work and the coffee shop.

Copperpot100 was one of the original scam-shielders, perhaps even the one who started the online team. No one had a clue if Copper was a man or a woman, and the anonymity of the online IDs was critical to their cause. Still, it was sometimes easy to guess the person behind the handle. Jazz had no idea how many members had joined this group of computer vigilantes, but everybody had only one goal: take out as many scammers and sites as possible. Jazz loved the phone call schemes and had dealt with fake Amazon and bank pages. Glyndathegood did well with the romance catfishers, the ones who sent pics of sexy men to lonely women and convinced them to give up their life savings for love. Bomber123 favored the charity email scams. Muscleman2019 took out business fraud. Copperpot100 did them all.

Copperpot100: I wish I’d gotten online earlier. Too late for a woman in Ohio. Her credit card maxed out in seconds.

Jazz picked up her half-eaten hoagie and took a huge bite, grateful she didn’t have her webcam on. This time of night, she wore her most torn-up LuLaRoe leggings and a holey gray thermal. No bra as she was home and only wore one when she left it. The house was cool but not uncomfortably so. The proximity to the river and the winds from the moving waters kept it cool enough at night that she didn’t need air-conditioning most of the time, and the summer heat was still a long way off.

Jazzyhands: Jeez, that sucks donkey balls.

Copperpot100: LMFAO!

She grinned and shifted the food from one side of her cheek to the other. Freya jumped onto the desk and started sniffing at the Darth Vader-shaped plate. “Get off, ya freeloader.”

Copperpot100: I saw on the dark web about a hacker who took down an entire network and its partner networks. Know anything about that?

Jazz grinned around her full mouth and typed with one hand.

Jazzyhands: Not a thing, but I bet it was epic.

Copperpot100: Epic is one word. Dangerous is another. From the scuttlebutt out there, the network systems were linked to some transportation tracking systems. An entire airline got crippled by that virus, leaving planes unable to fly. It also crashed the navigation for train travel systems in three countries. No major accidents, but it stranded people for hours. Cost that company millions.

Jazz paused with the sandwich halfway to her open mouth. The thought hadn’t occurred to her that the trouble she caused might hurt the very people she wanted to protect. She took another bite and rapidly typed as she chewed.

Jazzyhands: If it’s the virus I’m thinking of, then it has special markers to protect legit code. Pretty tricky stuff, but if the scammers are connected to legit businesses, like for laundering the scammed funds, then there’s bound to be some crossover. I’m sure whoever let that virus loose didn’t mean anything bad.

Copperpot100: I have no doubts about the person who designed and released that virus. I hope they will be more careful in the future.

Why did she feel as if she’d been scolded by an older brother? She dug her bare toes into the thin rug at her feet and switched the subject.

Jazzyhands: Guess what?

Copperpot100: What?

Jazzyhands: Remember that biker guy I told you about? The one with the cool hair and great body?

Copperpot100: Yeah, what about him?

Jazzyhands: HE SPOKE TO ME AND EVEN CALLED ME BY NAME!!

Copperpot100: Slow down, cowgirl. You do know biker gangs are a pretty rough crowd. I wouldn’t want you to get involved with those kinds of criminals.

Jazzyhands: Biker CLUB, not GANG. Besides, he’s a good biker. Not a bad one.

Copperpot100: There’s a difference?

Jazzyhands: Of course!

A hard pounding on the door caught her attention. Only one person would dare come see her in the middle of the night.

---