Read Online Constant Fear by Daniel Palmer - Free Book Online Page A

computer nut himself and he had all sorts of firewalls and protections, things I don’t understand. Eventually he managed to get in, and that’s when he showed me messages between David and his friends about the theft.”
    “Friends?”
    “They call themselves The Shire.”
    Fausto creased his brow. “The Shire? What’s that?”
    “It’s the name of their club,” Javier said. “These kids are a group, a cartel of sorts. They’re like cyber bank robbers or something. They steal from rich parents of kids who go to Pepperell Academy and give the money anonymously to different charities. My guy, he figured how to decrypt the group’s charter and I read it. It details their methods. They use key loggers, different ways of getting pass codes to bank accounts, and then they transfer out small sums of cash.”
    “So they hacked into your computer here at your home. Is that it?” Fausto looked aggrieved.
    “It’s the only way they could have emptied my bitcoin wallet.”
    “And they took two hundred million dollars’ worth of these coins?”
    Javier nodded grimly.
    “You kept that much money in one stupid wallet?” Fausto looked to his accomplice. “Efren, how much money do you have in your wallet?” he asked.
    The stocky man reached into his back pocket, took out his brown leather wallet, and counted the bills within. “About six hundred pesos and a few hundred in dollars,” he said.
    Fausto, animated, pointed to Efren. “You see? That’s a normal amount of money to have in a wallet. A few hundred dollars. Not two hundred million, cabrón. ”
    “It’s different with bitcoins,” Javier said.
    A shadow crossed Fausto’s face. He crouched to get eye level with Javier. “They emptied your big, fat wallet. It’s no different,” he said. “So we go find this David person and we get the money back. End of problem.”
    Javier shook his head. It wasn’t the end of anything. “I’ve read the e-mails and text messages the kids have been sending to each other. They don’t have the money. At least they say they don’t.”
    This captured Fausto’s attention.
    “Or one of them is lying about not knowing,” Fausto said. “Maybe they picked each other’s pockets. Two hundred million dollars is a lot of reasons to betray a friend.”
    “What do you suggest we do, Fausto?” Efren asked.
    “How many are in this group, this Shire?” Fausto asked.
    Javier thought. “There are six,” he said. “Five boys and one girl.”
    “Then we go door-to-door and take them,” said Efren. “We make them talk.”
    Fausto frowned and gave Efren a cold, irritated look. “That’s going to be a problem,” he said. “We need to take them all at once. Do all these kids sleep at the school?”
    Javier shook his head. He didn’t know.
    “Maybe they do, maybe they don’t,” said Fausto. “Either way, home or at school, we have too many doors to break down. Too many witnesses. Too much could go wrong and could bring a lot of police before we get back the money. We need to go in and get out without anybody knowing we’re there. We need time to interrogate these kids all together, like the police would do. Get them to turn on each other until one gives up the money. We must make them talk. That’s what we must do.”
    “The school is filled with kids,” Efren said. “How do we do it?”
    “I want to see a map of the area,” said Fausto. His sphinxlike smile pricked goose bumps on Javier’s skin.
    “What are you thinking, Fausto?” Efren asked.
    “A friend of ours works for BVC Environmental, a chemical trucking company. He’s the reason we got this burro working for us in the first place.” Fausto pointed to Javier. “I guess they are cousins or something.”
    “So?” Efren looked confused.
    “I think with our friend’s help we can empty out the school of every single student and teacher, but leave our friends from this so-called Shire behind.”
    The grin was back in full. Fausto’s golden mouth