Heartless Lover (Dark Syndicate 5)

“I have facial recognition bots too,” I cut in. “Mine are set up to hack and scan the net for everything with Robert's face. I should have found this.”

Dominic sighs. “When I couldn’t find Micah, I suspected he might have been using some tech or program that’s kept him hidden all this time. It’s the same thing Robert’s using. Given his background, I’m assuming he could have created it.”

“Dammit. I fucking knew he had to be using some shit like that.” That’s precisely how you hide from a guy like me. It’s like fighting fire with fire.

“You were right to think so. This recording we’re seeing is an example of what he’s been covering up. The recording was tampered with, so anyone looking before would have seen nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Yes, and I kept it that way for our purposes, so I recorded the footage and wiped it from the building's system. This code popped a few weeks ago, and it’s attached to the video like malware.” Dominic switches screens and brings up a binary code that looks like one hell of a powerful firewall. “I first discovered it in Micah’s personal files. When I checked it out, I realized it’s supposed to conceal and encrypt everything about a person then delete it from the system. Essentially it’s deleting your presence from anything electronic that captures your identity or information on you.”

That’s fucking amazing. All I can do is stare at Dominic. What he’s saying is a person could do all kinds of shit and be invisible while they are doing it.

Rob a bank or assassinate someone; take your pick. It’s just the kind of thing Robert and I would have dabbled with back in the day.

I give him credit. He wouldn’t have come up with that type of idea on his own, though. He was good but not that good. We both went to M.I.T., but I was offered a scholarship and a placement when I was sixteen. That is the level of difference between us.

Someone highly intelligent helped him come up with that, and he would have been heavily funded too. Probably from his Camorra friends.

“I created a sophisticated virus to break down the algorithms,” he adds. “That’s how I was able to get the recording. I also found over a thousand instances where the code has been used in various countries over the last two years.”

“Two years is exactly where my trail cuts off.” I’m sure when Robert found out I was rescued, he took comfort in his technology to keep him safe. Motherfucker.

“It makes sense then. I don’t think the device is working though, according to how it works, I shouldn’t have been able to see the code, much less hack in with any virus. I just tried it on a whim. When I analyzed it, I noticed it fragments over time and fades away. That’s why we can see it now and hack in. Whatever is wrong with the device is weakening the coding.”

“Are we able to use the virus again to track them?”

“No.” He shakes his head with dismay, and I feel a stab of disappointment. “Because it takes some time for the code to fragment, we can’t track them live. That means everything we get could be weeks late, just like this video. They could be long gone by the time the code shows up, and we get any footage.”

“So, we don’t know if they’re still in Monaco?” I check.

“We don’t. I will point out, though, that for me to see a record of it in use from fourteen days ago means it must be weakening and fragmenting at a faster rate than the records from before. We’re still roughly over two weeks behind, though. That’s still a lot of time.” He drags in a staggered breath. “Obviously, the best thing we can do is devise something that can locate the code while it’s being used. I’ve thought of everything I can, but it’s not working. I think this might be more in your lane of expertise.”

Fucking hell, if he’s admitting I might be able to do better than him, it means he’s tried everything. My expertise and skill are only slightly different from his. At Markov Tech, I design new-age weapons and anti-virus software.

I’ll figure out something though. This is an opportunity I can’t afford to miss out on.

“I’ll do it.” I sound more positive than I should, given the fact this is new to me. But I’m going off the basis that there’s nothing Robert can make that’s better than what I can do. “Isn’t it worth still going to Monaco?”

“Not just yet,” Aiden cuts in, and I snap my gaze to him.

“Why?” I can’t imagine having a location and not heading over there.

“That’s where the girl fits in,” Massimo says, speaking for the first time. “She might provide a quicker route to finding both Robert and Micah. I know you already have a personal stake in finding Robert, but now that Micah is involved and Alejandro is one of our allies, it’s Syndicate business, so I will need your help to find him too.”

“You have my help,” I assure him and I look at Alejandro at the same time. He dips his head, showing his gratitude. “How does the girl fit?”

“Go back to the recording, Dominic,” Massimo says. “Start from the

beginning.”

Dominic returns to the recording. This time he takes it back to a hysterical dark-haired woman in the room. It takes me a second to see it’s Summer. But there’s something different about her.

Suddenly Micah comes into view. Robert then rushes past him, and the recording picks up from what I previously saw.

“Please don’t hurt me,” she screams, but when Robert gets to Summer, he pulls out his gun.

“Sorry, Summer Reeves, there’s no point begging. You were dead the moment you saw and heard too much.”