Miranda Chase Books 1-3 by M. L. Buchman

Author:M. L. Buchman [Buchman, M. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Buchman Bookworks, Inc.

37

A phone in an Edinburgh, Scotland self-storage unit jangled sharply once.

A microphone—because it was always good to have a physical disconnect to block an electronic trace chain—picked up the sound and triggered a one-character text message on another phone to a number in Cabo San Lucas.

One that had never been answered.

It simply sat silently, on a small solar charger in an unoccupied hut in a resort that had not survived the American recession, with an auto-forward set for all incoming messages.

Nothing quite like low-tech.

The single letter, F, arrived on a phone in Oklahoma City.

Because nothing bad happened in Oklahoma City anymore.

The recipient smiled. Nothing except her.

Hello, Client F! And what are you wound up about today?

Because that was definitely what Client F seemed to enjoy doing, getting wound up. It wasn’t like this was a rocket science project, it was just jet science and she could totally handle that.

Daemon opened an app on an otherwise unused computer. She—her identity was female today—was almost always female in Oklahoma City. It was nice to actually just be herself here.

But as Mum always said, “Don’t get too complacent.”

Yes, it would be time to move on shortly.

Oslo had exceptional Internet connectivity, and in midwinter, it was easy to pass as a slightly androgynous male during the winters there. She did love those thick wooly sweaters.

And sex? Daemon mostly used the ultimate in safe sex…online avatars so she could play any role, or roles, she wanted at the moment. Haggador II in the Norse role play was particularly skilled in visual and audio online play—made her breathless every damn time.

He hadn’t just slung a massive schlong on his avatar, like most idiots. Haggador II had serious skills. Made her wonder if the person behind Haggador II self-identified as male, female, or something other. Didn’t matter as long as she/him/they didn’t stop.

The app completed loading.

The NSA and others had the Internet fully wired for tracking malefactors.

Something poor old Mum had found out the hard way. She’d started way back, long before the heavy shit ever came online and the security grew around her in ways she didn’t see or fully understand.

She’d never have survived today.

Now nothing happened along the electronic superhighway without them knowing. Anyone dumb enough to hack from the Internet totally deserved what they got.

The agencies were close to achieving that same level of scrutiny on the Dark Web. Would have already if they’d focused, but the FBI kept tripping over the NSA’s code, the Chinese weren’t cooperating, and the Russians thought it was still the Wild West. Mossad was actually doing better than they knew because it was a little personal vendetta of hers to always fuck with them. The CIA’s lame attempts were always such a muddle.

Though lately they’d been showing some actual craft in their coding that she really should look into.

However, the old ARPANET—the first harbinger of the Internet to come—had a node right here in OK City.

She glanced out the apartment window at Tinker Air Force Base. It had

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