Free Wired by Douglas E. Richards

through his near empty refrigerator and found just enough leftover
food to cobble together a dinner. He then spent several hours re-familiarizing
himself with the contents of his laptop and the thousands of e-mails in his
log. He needed to know the full extent of the data to which Kira Miller now had
access.
    Finally,
he sat down in a comfortable chair in his living room and began reading the
dossier on his quarry yet again. He knew he would probably read it dozens of
times before this was over. And each time, as he learned more and more about
her, he would bring a slightly different perspective to the material and would
glean fresh insights.
    Desh's
cell phone began vibrating, an unwelcome intrusion. He reached into his pocket,
removed it, and examined the screen. It was a text message from Matt Griffin:
    key discovery 4u. visit me asap. don't call.
computers, walls, phones: all might have ears.
    The
message drove Desh to a heightened state of awareness within seconds. Griffin
had found something important and had reason to believe Kira had breached more
than just Desh's computer. Maybe Griffin was being overly cautious, maybe not,
but Desh approved. He had liked the friendly hacker from the start, and the man
had already demonstrated that his glowing reputation was well deserved.
    Now
it was time to find out if his computer expert had truly earned his pay.
    Desh
armed himself as usual, threw on an oxford shirt and windbreaker, and rushed to
Griffin’s apartment, his mind racing almost as fast as his armored Suburban. The
traffic was light, but even so the trip should have taken forty-five minutes. He
made it in just over thirty.
    Desh
felt butterflies in his stomach as he strode briskly through the short, musty
corridor of Griffin’s building, anxious to learn what the giant had uncovered. He
passed several doors until he came to number 14D. He rapped once on the door
and waited, staring at the peephole to help Griffin make a quick
identification.
    He
waited for Griffin to disengage the deadbolt and chain as he had done before,
but instead the handle began to turn. Years in the field had trained his subconscious
to set off alarms when it encountered anything unexpected, no matter how small,
even before his conscious mind could reason out why. He instantly became
hyper-alert, just as a woman emerged from behind the door with a gun aimed at
his chest.
    Already
moving forward in anticipation of trouble, Desh lashed out with his right arm
to knock the gun lose, and at the same time threw his body sideways to offer a
smaller target. But even as he lunged, he realized the woman had anticipated
this move, and had begun backpedaling rapidly. She fired as she moved
backwards, but despite her rapid retreat, she was forced to jerk her arm aside
to avoid Desh’s vicious blow.
    If
the gun had contained bullets, Desh would have won the day. Despite her quick
action and reflexes, he had interfered with her aim enough that the shot only
hit his leg, and even injured in this way he would have been on his attacker in
an instant, easily able to overpower her.
    But
she hadn’t fired bullets. She had fired electricity.
    With
a stun gun, a hit to the leg was just as effective as a hit to the chest. Instead
of bullets, two electrode darts had leapt from her gun and stuck like Velcro to
Desh’s pants, discharging their massive electric payload in an instant. The
electricity completely overwhelmed the tiny electrical signals his brain was
sending to control his muscles, causing him to convulse and collapse to the
floor, disoriented and paralyzed.
    From
the instant his assailant had emerged from behind the door, he had known she
could only be one person: Kira Miller.
    A
vague realization came across Desh’s addled mind that he was now sprawled on
the floor, completely and utterly helpless, while one of the most dangerous
women in the world stood calmly over him.

 
 
 
 
    PART TWO

 
Encounter

9

 
 
    Desh
vaguely felt his legs,