[Steven Lyle Jordan]

8: Chase

We were pretty far back behind the other car, but I could tell it was something low and speedy.

“Is that a Vette?” Gail wondered aloud. “If that’s a Vette, and they know how to drive it, we’ll never keep up!”

“Get close enough to see the license plate!” I shouted, rummaging through my gear bag. I pulled out two things: A digital camera; and a makeshift-style zoom lens I bought online. The lens strapped over the camera, some home fabricator’s idea of a telephoto lens for any camera. It was a kludgy setup, but it more-or-less worked. Trying to hold the camera still, I trained it on the car ahead. It was a Vette, I noticed right off… and I could see the license plate clearly. I took three shots, to compensate for blur, then did a quick check on the monitor. One shot was blurred, but the other two were readable. “Got it!” I confirmed.

“We’re gaining,” Gail said. I guess whoever was behind the wheel wasn’t that good a driver. Gail continued to close the distance, and when we were just two blocks away from the highway exit, Gail planted her foot, and the Eclipse shot forward. She slalomed the car aside the Vette, effectively putting us between the Vette and the exit. I looked hard to see the driver, but the windows were blacked out… no wonder police hate those things.

Blocked from the highway exit, the Vette abruptly swerved away and back into the industrial park. Gail swung her car around to avoid losing them, and I was thrown against the seatbelts. Now I wished there was some police around!

Now the Vette seemed to be doing much better against us… possibly the driver hadn’t realized before that we were chasing them, until Gail blocked them at the exit. An Eclipse has some peppy power, it’s true, but it’s no Corvette. However, the industrial park roads were short, blind corners were everywhere, and it made it pretty much suicidal to be running around like a bat out of hell around here. This allowed Gail to keep up, by the skin of her teeth.

“Got your phone?” I demanded. “Does it have Lou’s number?”

“In my purse,” Gail replied, and I grabbed at the bag and hustled the phone out. After a few seconds in the address book, I said, “I don’t see—”

“It’s ‘Wiley’,” Gail said.

“Right.” I found it, and dialed.

“Gail! Wassup, Wonder Woman?”

Wonder Woman? “Lou, it’s me, Mike! Does—” Wonder Woman!? “—Uh, does one of your employees drive a Vette?”

“Mike? Oh! Uh, yeah… Barry does,” Lou replied, obviously taking a few seconds to shift gears away from… Wonder Woman?!?!!! “Why, what’s going on?”

“Well, he’s leading us on a merry chase from your office, after he downloaded the Trojan Horse,” I said to her.

“Barry? That’s crazy,” Lou said. “He couldn’t possibly… I know he doesn’t know enough to hack our system!”

“He doesn’t need to,” I pointed out. “He has access through your office-wide servers… and I’ll bet, as your receptionist, he probably knows some of your admin passwords too, doesn’t he?”

“Well… yeah… but—”

“No ‘buts’,” I said as Gail threw us around a sharp corner, “he’s rabbitting right now!”

“Dammit,” Lou muttered. I think she was finally getting what was going on. But her next words left me unsure of that: “I’m gonna kill Fern!”

“Kill… Fern? What?”

“Fern recommended him for the job, after she was promoted,” Lou said. “And after I did her a favor… she said he was reliable!”

“Waitaminit! Fern is… real? You mean Phil wasn’t just kidding when he said—”

“Of course Fern’s real, though sometimes I’d rather have a plant,” Lou said. “You passed her in the office… the mousy girl with glasses.” I did remember a girl with glasses, now that she mentioned it. The girl that looked noticeably plainer and mousier than the rest of the guys and girls in that place. Who looked out of place in the midst of all those beautiful people. The kind of girl you never notice—

Oh, no. Could it be that simple?

I looked ahead at the Vette, straining to see through the windows, but it was useless. “Can you catch up to him?”

Gail didn’t bother to look at me. “Maybe.”

“Try to run him off the road!” I snapped. Gail obligingly found a convenient moment to take a shortcut through a parking lot, as the Vette took a right turn, and she floored it. For a second, I thought she was going to broadside the Vette… but it swerved left, bounced up the curb violently, and came to a stop on the sidewalk. It happened so quick, it made me wonder whether Gail could have done that at any time, instead of driving behind him like a maniac for so long.

When the Eclipse came to a stop, I threw the door open and ran around to the driver’s side of the Vette. The door was unlocked, and I yanked it open. Barry sat there in the driver’s seat, which had apparently been modified somewhat to accommodate his small stature.

He glared back at me, with a strange expression in his eye. “If you’ve done any damage to this car, you will never be through paying for it, buddy.”

I ignored Barry’s bluster, and looked around inside the car. It was a small enough cockpit to verify that there were no other occupants, and no computer in there. Barry watched me as I peered inside, and when I brought my eyes back to him, he sat still so as not to give anything away.

“Nice diversion,” I muttered. “Hope she was worth it.”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Barry stated calmly. “I was the one hacking into the servers.”

“To get what?”

“A new file encryption… system…”

I smiled. “Almost convincing. Doesn’t matter though. You and Fern are boned.” Barry tried not to react, but I could see by his eyes that he didn’t want that. He started to close the door, but I reacted by grabbing his arm. “Going somewhere?”