Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Please answer the question, Ms. Roberts-Knight.”
Elle folded her arms and studied her opponent in this game of chess called interrogation. He was trying to force her to make a move before she was ready, but he had no idea who he was up against. She was Ellie Blue, queen of online gaming, cracker of codes, ferreter of secrets.
If this were a live-action role-playing game, she’d be a warrior queen, riding a dragon while dressed in leather combat gear. And Commander Fitzwater would be surrounded by goblins oozing slime. He had the perfect face to play a boil-covered sycophant who thought he had the ear of the king. But his perceived power wouldn’t matter to Elle. She’d run him through with her magic sword before her dragon fried that smug little smile off his face. Then all of her subjects would bow down, and there would be cheers of j?—
“Ms. Roberts-Knight.” The commander’s voice brought her back to reality with a thud. “I would like to remind you that perverting the course of justice is a very serious offense. Please answer the question.”
She leaned forward and said, very clearly, into the mic, “I do not recall.”
The young detective sitting beside the commander looked like he was struggling not to laugh.
The commander wasn’t amused. “This isn’t an American Senate hearing. That is not an appropriate response.”
“I don’t think it’s appropriate there either.” She glanced at her lawyer, Ms. Patel, to see if she agreed.
She just cocked an eyebrow at Elle as if to tell her to stop screwing around and get on with it. Apparently, years of dealing with Rachel enabled Elle to read the minds of all the shark-like women she knew.
“What was the question?” she asked the commander.
“Do you deny illegally accessing secure servers held by the British government to obtain information to undermine the rule and stability of this country?”
Elle leaned into the mic again. “Yes.”
His lips tightened, reminding her of the constipated look a bullfrog got just before eating its prey. It wasn’t reassuring. “Have you ever accessed a government database without permission?”
She leaned forward, her eyes still on him. Even though she knew the mic could pick her up perfectly well without her getting so close, it annoyed the commander enough to make her keep doing it.
“Yes,” she said.
He got the same “ah-ha!” look evil villains got just before revealing their dastardly plan to the poor, trapped heroine. “So, you don’t deny hacking into government servers?”
“No.” She sat back in her chair and folded her arms over Princess Leia’s face.
Ms. Patel reached for a folder in front of her, attracting the police officers’ attention. She produced a piece of paper and slid it across the table to the commander.
“You’ll find that while Ms. Roberts-Knight worked with Harry Boyle’s security company, she was often tasked with attacking UK government servers to help her employer better understand any gaps in security.” She smiled coldly. “As you’re aware, Mr. Boyle wrote the program the government now uses to secure its information.” She gestured almost negligently at Elle. “My client helped him to do that.”
Elle smiled and silently repeated Ryan’s Booya, bitches!
Fitzwater’s jaw clenched and unclenched a couple of times before he continued: “Have you ever hacked into secure servers without the knowledge or permission of any company tasked to do so by the British government?”
Ms. Patel shifted in her seat. “Do you have any proof that my client has done any illegal hacking of the UK government?”
Fitzwater nodded tersely to his subordinate, who quickly opened a folder in front of him.
He cleared his throat. “We’ve recorded several occasions in which Ms. Roberts-Knight was able to provide information to Benson Security staff or their business partners that she could not have unless she illegally accessed secure databases. We also have witness testimony that Ms. Roberts-Knight has bragged about her hacking ability, shared code with other hackers, and also maliciously attacked individuals online by rescinding their right to fly or blocking their bank account access.”
Elle snorted, making Ms. Patel put a hand on her arm to stop her from saying anything.
“Do you have any evidence that my client hacked into government databases?” she repeated.
“She had the information?—”
Ms. Patel held up a hand to stop the detective. “Do you have any evidence that specifically shows how my client got that information?”
The detective glanced at the commander, whose eyes were blazing. The junior cop cleared his throat again. “Benefiting from illegally obtained information is a crime,” he said weakly.
The lawyer’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Do you have any evidence that my client has illegally accessed government servers?” It seemed she intended to keep repeating herself until someone listened. Elle liked how she worked.
Commander Fitzwater slapped a hand on the table in front of him, making everyone but Ms. Patel jump. “That’s not the point. We have witnesses who will testify that your client has been in possession of classified information on several occasions. It doesn’t take a genius to make the connection between her having that information and her having the skills to get it.”
“But you’ve no evidence of her hacking.” It wasn’t a question. The lawyer leaned forward to read a page in front of her, although Elle suspected she already knew what it said. “The charges are cybercrimes in relation to accessing secure government files. Which means you’ve no evidence to support this inquiry. Would that be correct? And if you have no evidence that my client has hacked anything, you certainly don’t have evidence that she did it for terrorist reasons. Do you?” She arched an eyebrow at the detective, who squirmed before shaking his head.
Elle changed her mind. She didn’t want to be Rachel when she grew up; she wanted to be Ms. Patel.
Fitzwater drew back his shoulders. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of evidence once our cybercrime team has had a chance to go through the Benson Security computers.”
Elle leaned forward and spoke into the mic. “No, you won’t.”
Any incriminating stuff was offshore on a secure server far away from London, in a country that didn’t recognize UK warrants. Benson Security’s information was locked up tighter than Batman’s lair. She smiled. This was going so much better than she’d thought it would.
“Our tech team also has the Benson Security phones,” the detective reminded her.
Elle said nothing. Once those phones dried out and were powered on, it would trigger a piece of code she’d written, ordering them to wipe themselves clean. And even if the code didn’t work, there would be little evidence of anything on the phones. Benson Security staff were professionals, and she’d spent years drumming online security into all of them.
“There is still the matter of our witness.” The commander glared at Elle.
This time, she didn’t bother leaning into the microphone. “Let me guess, Freddy K? Calls himself The Nightmare On Line? Which is a very bad movie reference and not catchy at all.” She glanced at her lawyer. “And it’s grammatically incorrect.”
The commander’s jaw twitched, confirming Elle’s guess. She wasn’t surprised. Only that little weasel would agree to talk to the cops. Now that she thought about it, Freddy and Fitzwater had a lot in common—they were both petty grudge-holders.
“I’m not at liberty to say who our witness is,” he said stiffly. “But they have evidence of you giving them the code needed to hack into a private server. And proof that you’ve harassed people online.”
“Let me explain something.” Elle rested her forearms on the table. “There are white-hat hackers and black-hat hackers. The white hats hack for good and share their code to do it. They’re often employed by, say, governments or law enforcement and used to track down criminals or test internal security.
“As a white-hat hacker, I’ve shared lots of code with other good hackers. Now, Freddy K once belonged in the white-hat camp, and I passed some code on to him. When he moved to the dark side, I cut all connections with him. Which means any code he has is dated, and I can prove he got it for legitimate reasons and under legal circumstances.” She sat back in her seat. “And, FYI, Freddy knows that. He’s playing you. What does he want?” She grinned. “You caught him doing something naughty, and he thinks I’m his get-out-of-jail-free card.” That was hilarious. “Ms. Patel will wipe the floor with him in court. Won’t you?” She turned to her lawyer.
“I don’t think this will make it to court,” she said, her eyes on the commander.
“There’s still the matter of harassing people online,” he snapped, obviously upset that his case was slipping away in front of his eyes.
Elle leaned into the mic again. “Prove it.”
“We have witness testimony that you threatened to ruin their online life,” he said. “And then proceeded to do so.”
She batted her lashes. “I threaten that kind of stuff all the time. Ask my colleagues. They’re usually the ones I threaten.” She held her hands wide. “But I know you can’t prove that I’ve ever done anything more than threaten. Or joke about it.” Because she was too damn good to leave a trail.
The commander’s head turned red. “We have witnesses?—”
“Who can prove Elle threatened them. Nothing more. Anyone could have hacked their online presence, and without evidence, you can’t say either way that it was Ms. Roberts-Knight. In other words, you have nothing.” Ms. Patel gathered her paperwork.
“We know she spent years trying to track her now husband down on the dark web,” the commander blustered. “We know that searches for him set off alarms in more than one security agency, including our own MI6. And Ms. Roberts-Knight herself has admitted to trying to hunt him down—in front of my predecessor, I believe?” He glanced at the detective.
“Yes, sir. It was in her notes.”
The commander looked triumphant.
Elle sighed. “You’ve never played any kinky games with your wife, have you?”
The young detective coughed and reached for his water.
“What my client means,” Ms. Patel said, “is that the searches were a form of flirting between her and her husband at the start of their relationship. She had his consent to find him. He will testify that he gave her access to the areas she searched. At no point were any sensitive databases accessed. At most, the crown would reprimand my client and her husband for being careless in their play.”
The commander jabbed a finger at her. “You still broke into places you were never meant to go. That is the definition of cybercrime.”
“Do you have any evidence of this?” Ms. Patel asked.
The detective shifted in his seat. “We have taunts Ms. Roberts-Knight placed on dark web communication boards, saying she was hunting Mr. Knight down and would find him.”
“Yes,” Ms. Patel said. “But do you have evidence that she actually did it? Has any government agency come forward with proof she hacked them? Is there a trail of her doing so? A witness? Anything at all, gentlemen?”
There was silence. It wasn’t pleasant.
“In fact,” Ms. Patel continued, “on more than one occasion, my client has assisted this police department with their investigations. She handed over information her brother gave her, making it possible to bring down the James Gang. The crime organization her father ran, and whose exposure caused her brother to lose his life. This is just one example of the many occasions she’s helped law enforcement in this country and abroad. I’m sure that I, too, can find several witnesses to testify to Ms. Roberts-Knight’s upstanding citizenship. Witnesses will be easy to find, Commander, although it’s very clear from this conversation that evidence is in short supply. Now, if you have nothing else, I would like for you to release my client.”
The commander stood, fury etched into his brow. “We are legally entitled to hold Ms. Roberts-Knight for twelve hours, and I intend to keep her here for the duration. We may have more questions for her as other information comes to light.”
“That’s your prerogative.” Ms. Patel motioned for Elle to stand too.
“I will also seek permission to hold her for the fourteen days allowed to investigate terrorism charges.” The commander’s tone was pure spite.
“Again, that’s entirely your right,” Ms. Patel said evenly. “But I’m sure your superiors will be just as eager as I am to see what evidence you have to justify a terrorism charge. Are we finished?”
Elle smiled at her lawyer as the detective spoke into the microphone and ended the interview. All the while, her stomach roiled. Sure, she looked calm, and she believed they didn’t have a leg to stand on with their investigation. But that didn’t mean she was safe. There were plenty of innocent people in prison.
As the police officer waited for Elle to follow him back to her cell, she turned to face her lawyer.
Before she could speak, Ms. Patel held up a hand. “This is not a secure room.”
Elle nodded. “Just tell David I’m okay and that you’ve got this under control. You do, don’t you?”
“Yes,” was all she said.
As Elle was escorted down the corridor to her cell, she spotted one of the non-hacking triplets coming out of another interview room.
“Never give up! Never surrender!” she called to him.
“By Grabthar’s Hammer, by the Suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!” he shouted back.
Man, she loved geeks. They were her people. With a smile, she entered her cell.