Big Data: A Startup Thriller Novel

Chapter 28

Alex thought about his predicament as the brisk morning air warmed with the sun. He sat in the empty parking lot of the abandoned Kmart. Luna was a bright woman; she had handed him her cell phone. Alex remembered that she'd received a phone call from a concerned colleague before the battery died. Apparently, she wanted Alex to get in touch with her friend. The phone was charged, but the big problem now was that it was locked.

Alex had been trying four-digit passcodes for about an hour. Guessing was his only hope. He had to find Luna fast. His instincts told him that this was the kind of situation where a kidnapped woman doesn't have very long to live.

Two, one, one, one.

Two, one, one, two.

Two, one, one, three.

He had already tried all the obvious combinations. Four of a kind. One, two, three, four. Zero, one, two, three. Every combination starting with a nineteen or twenty—any of which could be a birth year or a year of special meaning. Clearly Luna knew how to make a proper passcode—one that wasn't based on anything meaningful. So now he was attempting brute force.

As he pressed different combinations, he thought about his other options. He could go home. Nobody knew he was out here. He could just turn around and go home and never look back.

But then he would never know, and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't know.

He could storm Ancien on his own. With the tricks he'd learned as a detective, he could almost certainly get past security and look for Luna and Taye in the building. But maybe they weren't keeping them at headquarters. If they were smart, they wouldn't risk it. They would be keeping them in some unmarked building or storage facility. It would leave less evidence if their headquarters were ever investigated.

Plus, if he left, he would be giving up their trump card: Alex wasn't on anybody's radar. He still had the element of surprise. He decided to keep trying passcodes.

Two, two, one, five.

Two, two, one, six.

A BMW careened into the Kmart parking lot. Alex wondered if they'd changed their mind about him. Maybe the cabbie had told them about him when they got to wherever it was he had taken Luna. Maybe they thought he was too big a risk and were here to finish him off. He reflexively reached for his pistol, but he'd left it back in New York. Flying across the country with a gun would have drawn too much attention.

The car braked fast, and a tall, well-dressed man stepped out. He strode up to Alex, who was gripping a slab of broken concrete.

"Can I help you?" Alex asked.

The man seemed to be mumbling to himself. "Um, weird," he said, staring at his phone. "She's supposed to be right here."

"Who are you looking for?"

"A client."

Alex dropped the concrete slab and showed the man Luna's phone. "You looking for this?" he asked.

"What dumpster did you find that in?"

"What?"

All at once, Alex realized what this looked like. Here he was, an old black man sitting alone in an abandoned Kmart parking lot. No car. Nobody else in sight.

"Oh, no," explained Alex. "She gave it to me."

"Luna gave you her phone?"

"Yes. Who are you?"

"Heath Lemming. Her lawyer. Who are you?"

"Alex Sonne. I've been working with Luna."

"You've seen her? How long ago? It's incredibly important that I get in touch with her. She's in big trouble, but if I can just talk to her, we'll probably still be able to straighten all this out."

"So why didn't you find her earlier?"

"Her phone was off until just recently. I'm guessing you're the one who turned it on, then?"

"Yes. She gave me the phone an hour ago, right before she was abducted."

"Okay, hold on. Apparently I'm missing a big part of the picture. Back up and start at the beginning. And don't hold anything back."