“We need to have a chat,” said Tanner.He pushed the man into the house and he stumbled back, suddenly terrified.
“Hey!Hey, I told that bitch that we’d have everything she needed soon, she just needs to be more patient.”
“Well, the bitch isn’t patient,” said AJ feeding the guy what he wanted.“Where is it?”
“We told her!It takes time.Some of these firewalls are really good and not all kids are using their own cards.Some are stupid enough to use their parents cards and that means additional security protocols.Plus, we tried again to use the phone pay system and something has blocked it now.”
“Interesting,” frowned Ben, “because we fucking blocked it.”
The young man’s eyes grew wide and he stared at the two.
“She didn’t send you,” he whispered.
“No.Shedidn’t,” said AJ.“Who the fuck is she?”
“I-I don’t know.I honestly don’t know.We were given this townhouse to set up shop and do the work.That’s all I know.”
“Bullshit,” said Ben pushing his way inside.
He stormed up the stairs and they heard shuffling, then five young men coming down the steps.Kiel hit the basement and discovered another three.A total of thirteen young men in one small townhouse.
“Look, all we’re supposed to do is get into the games, draw the kids in to spend more money and disrupt the transaction, taking the banking information.”
“How?” asked Hiro.“It’s not that easy.”
“Of course it is,” smirked one of the young men.
“Fucking how?” growled Kiel.
“Uh, well, when we’re playing the game, we make sure the kid loses.He has to buy more weapons or coins or whatever is in the game.The trick is that we have an overlay on the button for purchases.He clicks on it, it gives us access to the screen, the bank account, the credit card, and everything on the phone if they’re using their phone.”
Ben gripped the young man’s t-shirt, slamming him against the wall.His face was so pale, Ben thought he might pass out.
“You little asshole.You’re fucking with people’s lives, stealing from them,” he sneered.
“It’s-it’s not us!The lady, she wants it.She wants whatever information we can find.It’s only certain people,” he yelled.
“What people?” asked Tanner.
“The people on the list.Anyone who has an e-mail address ending in whatever is on the list, or a last name.There are hundreds but we were able to incorporate it into the algorithm search.”
“So, if you’re looking for someone with the last name, say Robicheaux, if that’s in their e-mail name, you target them?” asked Ben.
“Uh, yeah.But we can also see their real name.The game makes them enter a real name, not just their e-mail address.”
Tanner scanned the room then took a seat at the computer where there were five screens attached.
“Hey!Don’t touch that.That’s mine!” yelled the young man.
“Fuck off,” said Tanner.His fingers flew across the keys and he heard the sounds of firewalls coming down and being penetrated.
“No!No!How are you doing that?Don’t!Please, I worked years on that program and she’ll kill me if it doesn’t deliver.”
“Good news, she’ll have to kill you in jail,” said AJ.There was a knock on the door and the Baltimore PD and FBI were standing there waiting.Luke had obviously heard everything and called in the cavalry.
“We-we didn’t know!We didn’t know it was illegal,” said one young man.“Please don’t arrest me.My old man will be seriously pissed.”
“Sorry kid, but it will be more than your old man pissed.These fellas are gonna want to have a long chat with you and it’s not going to end well,” said Tanner.“Confiscate all of the computers.I’ve run a virus on the machines to stop the automatic program but I’ve copied it to this drive for you.”He handed it off to the FBI agent who raised his brows.
