Author's Note:
Time to switch it up some, and leave Jack alone for a chapter or two. As this is the third part of a longer tale, I would recommend anyone not versed in Jack so far go back and check out the previous chapters, or you may get lost.
Now, let's meet the youngest member of the team...
o
THE HACKER
Sonya Sweet revved the gas on her CBR Fireblade as she coasted to a stop before the valet at the Kuahara Hotel. The engine of the crotch rocket fired a fearsome howl that ricocheted around the covered parking area like a sonic bullet.
The valet's name was Stewart. He wore the trademark blue vest of the Kuahara Hotel Parking Staff over dark slacks and black wingtips polished to a near mirror shine. His dark hair was slicked back Jerry Lewis style, and perched on his nose were a pair of prescription lenses set in the thickest black frames imaginable. Today his pimples were located on the nose, left side of the chin, and one, two, three on the forehead. Sonya knew him to be young, only eighteen, and he was just too cute.
And he was in loooooove with her.
She could see it plainly in his every aspect each time she stepped from her motorcycle. It's why she always pulled up to him, and why he always came running to her. Too much fun.
She cut the engine and tossed the key to Stewart. It caught him off-guard, and he fumbled it nervously in his attempt to lay claim to it, nearly dropping it twice. She stepped from astride the motorcycle silkily, unfastening her helmet as he approached, and when she pulled it off, she shook out her long blond tresses for his benefit. Stewart stood in stupefied silence, his eyes wide in what could be delight or shock, an unconscious grin curling his lip awkwardly.
"Good morning, Stewart," she cooed, probing his glazed orbs with her foxy glare.
His lips shakily formed the word 'good' followed by a hesitant 'morning', but only the last two words were lent voice:
"Miss Sweet."
Just the way he said it made her shiver. The promises suggested, the emotion and devotion displayed in merely two words... he adored her. How could she break his heart?
"Take care of her for me." She unzipped her jacket about halfway, revealing only a white bikini top beneath, and of course her ample cleavage. Ooh, she was so mean.
Stewart's eyes zeroed in, locked on, and his mouth dropped open like a bomb bay door. His struggle to produce language was both obvious and amusing. In the end, he once again could barely intone, after much gaping and gawping, only two words as he tore his glance from her bosom and nodded.
"Miss Sweet."
Sonya gave him her absolute cutest smile, then demurely averted her eyes and strode past him, up four steps and through the revolving doors. She could almost feel his unrequited adolescent love chasing her all the way to the elevators.
When she reached the top floor, which wasn't much more than a softly lit vestibule with the elevator doors to one side, two doors opposite, and one at each end, she headed left. Kiki's penthouse apartment had the door with no handle or knob, no card-key access or knocker, only a small black button in the centre of the door, about a foot below what looked like a simple peephole, just like the ones on the other three doors. But those doors had handles, and Sonya knew that this one was no peephole. She pressed the black button once, and after the briefest moment the door swung silently open, as if of its own volition.
Inside, Sonya was confronted with an opulent sea of blue and green, azure and turquoise. The entire apartment was an undersea motif if ever there was one, littered with earthy plants before water-coloured walls, furniture of flowing design set atop plush carpeting the colour of sand. From the entrance, Sonya could see four long fish tanks, teeming with life, and knew there were more.
"Come on in, Sweetness!" a voice called from beyond, somewhere down one of the two hallways exiting the massive room. Across from her, a wall of windows shone radiantly blue, displaying nothing but clear sky. In the middle of the spacious room were two sofas and two plush chairs surrounding a large round coffee table made of marble.
Sonya entered the penthouse and removed her boots on the small hardwood landing. She closed the door behind her before making her way down the four steps into the living room, at which time Kiki entered.
"What's up?"
Sonya's glance flicked up to her Japanese friend. Kiki was a petite little thing, standing no more than five-foot-two, with a build both lithe and lean. Simple black track pants hung from her narrow hips, and a white tank top covered her small, perky breasts while exposing her navel, where sparkled a piercing of silver and sapphire. Her short black hair was in disarray, as though she had only just woken up, but Sonya knew that could just as easily be how she was going to wear it today. Kiki's slim lips parted in a disarmingly innocent smile, her thin dark brows arching away from her almond eyes.
Kiki took note of Sonya's open jacket and smiled.
"Playing with the valet again, were we?"
Sonya looked down, and then unzipped her leather jacket the rest of the way. Holding one side open, displaying her skimpy white top, she glared right back into Kiki's accusing brown eyes and mischievous grin.
"I'm wearing a bikini," she explained. "It's not like I showed him my tits."
"No," Kiki replied, feigning innocent understanding. "Not today, at least."
Their laughter filled the room.
Kiki was the youngest member of A.I., at twenty-one, but that didn't mean she lacked in experience. She had been hacking secure databases at age twelve, developing her own cryptology software at fifteen, and though she never boasted or bragged, had once claimed simply that, 'If it's connected to the Web, it's connected to me. That means it's mine.' When it was information they sought, it was Kiki they brought.
"So... are you here on business or pleasure?"
"Jack sent me."
"Ah." Kiki's smile faded in mild disappointment. "Business then."
Kiki moved to one of the sofas and sat down daintily. She reached under the lip of the marble table and flicked a switch. Sonya sat in one of the adjacent chairs as the room was suddenly alive with faint sounds both mechanical and electrical. Screens flickered as what had appeared to be a wall of windows showing an azure sky suddenly became a wall of changing images and information: television channels, websites, streaming information screens, camera monitoring displays. The soft whir of computer systems waking up could be heard from beneath the table, and then two small panels, previously invisible to the naked eye, slid away on the surface: one before Kiki, where appeared a wireless keyboard and flying mouse, and one in the centre of the table itself, from beneath which rose a small pyramid of dark prismatic glass.
Kiki snatched up the mouse. Sonya watched in silence as the floor-to-ceiling screens began to clear up, the various feeds and displays shutting down at the click of a button.
"Ooh! Check this out," Kiki laughed as she clicked and dragged what appeared to be a camera display across one giant screen and onto the centre one directly before them. Another click, and the screen exploded in size, now some six feet across.
On the screen, in lifelike digital video, were a man and woman having sex. The woman was tall, blonde, and dressed in black lingerie and garters, fishnet stockings and spike heels of impossible height. She was on her back, on a bed, with her long legs spread for the short rotund man who was thrusting himself into her with everything he was worth. His dark hair was short, and not limited to covering only his head, but most of his body. His round buttocks, like his love handles, wiggled and warbled with every thrust, and he was sweating profusely.
"Ooh, ooh! We need sound."
With another quiet click, the picture was suddenly accompanied by booming digital sound, the voices of the two lovers blaring around Kiki's massive living-room-become-command-centre. The blonde on the screen didn't exactly sound highly aroused.
"Yeah, baby... Oh baby... Give it to me baby..."
In fact she sounded downright bored. She continued her lazy dirty talk with an utter lack of energy while the chubby fellow worked himself quickly in and out of her, his panting breaths punctuated by occasional grunts and short moans.
"What the hell is this?" Sonya asked.
