Collision Course Read Free

clothes and
personal items as he could fit, he tossed the bag into his car with his laptop.
Deliberately he left his cell phone on his nightstand, knowing if he turned it
on he could be easily tracked. He’d get a prepaid one first chance he had. He
also didn’t want to take too much with him. If Bennett came after him, which
Trey was positive would happen, he didn’t want the house to give the appearance
he’d run. Even though that’s what he was doing. Let them chase their tails
trying to locate him in the city.
    He took
one last look around before heading back to the garage.
    Backing
out and heading down the street, he gripped the steering wheel, tense as a high
wire. Logic told him Bennett hadn’t had time yet to find out what happened but
it didn’t soothe his nerves any. He made one stop as he drove through the city,
at an all-night Wal-Mart to buy a “burner” phone. For emergencies. He for sure
couldn’t call anyone he knew.
    He
didn’t draw a full breath until he found a motel way out on the east side of
the city and checked in. Apparently luck perched on his shoulder because they
had a room on the side away from the road where his car wouldn’t be seen. They
also had Internet, an unexpected bonus, which meant he could get to work right
away. Locking the door and putting the chain in place, he then closed the
drapes and opened his laptop. The light from the screen was the only
illumination in the room.
    He
opened the portal to the BGE system in no time, but when he tried to access the
Funda file, it locked him out again. He wondered for a moment why Bennett
hadn’t had the Eyes Only files set up on a separate server. Then it
occurred to him the man might be infusing the account with whatever money came
from illegal activities to increase the net worth of the conglomerate. Giving
himself sole access to the file, made it much easier for him to manipulate the
account.
    Okay,
time to see what he remembered after all these years.
    After
the better part of an hour, he was grinding his teeth in frustration when he
made it in. And then he got more than he bargained for. Funda appeared to be
just one of the files stored there. Whatever firewall he’d broken through,
behind it were ten folders, each with a separate name. When he tried to open
Funda, it kicked back at him. Encrypted.
    Shit!
    The same
thing came up when he tried each of the other folders.
    Okay, he
and Ned had worked on encrypted files, too. Some of the programs they’d used
had been available on the Internet, and Ned had shown him how to massage them.
How to do things even sophisticated hackers might not achieve. Trey did a
search for any programs he could download for free. Not the best solution but
it gave him a place to start. Besides, if he used his credit card to purchase
anything, it would show up. He had no doubt Bennett would put a tracking system
on everything in his name.
    He
narrowed his results down to the ones with the broadest capabilities and
installed them. One of the first things Ned had taught him when they were
hacking was every protected file had a basic key from which the internal codes
were constructed. Trey could crack them but that would take a long time. Each
code had a slight difference from the others, so first he needed to discover
the key. Couldn’t get into a file without it.
    He began
with the Funda folder, dreading what he’d find if he got it open. Loading it,
he set the program to run, pushed away from the table and made himself a pot of
coffee provided by the motel. This could take minutes or it could take hours,
and he needed the caffeine.
    He
turned on the television, volume low, to keep himself awake while he watched
strings of number scroll across the screen, one by one. He had poured his third
cup of coffee when the scrolling stopped and the file opened. Hot damn! He
hadn’t expected results so quickly.
    But his
jubilation was short-lived. He’d managed to open the master file, but within it
were at