The Gambit by Allen Longstreet Page B

lightly.
    “We’ll see, I guess. I have faith in you, though. Any luck with the banks?”
    He nodded.
    “Since it was daytime there, I managed to find a Chinese bank willing to do the exchange into Bitcoin. They emailed me over the paperwork, and I signed it and sent it back. The account and routing numbers to the bank are embedded in the script. So the moment the money is taken from the VP’s accounts, it is immediately diverted into the Chinese bank. I have instructed them to send me an encrypted file with the Bitcoin. If everything goes smooth with the script, the last few steps will be an easy ride.”
    “ Then you can get some sleep.”
    “Exactly,” Grey said with a smile.
    “So, you’re sure there are no undercover officers at your bank?”
    “I’m sure. We have paid security that comes to check the property in the evenings, and the only time they come in the daytime is to bring the biggest deposits. That’s why you need to leave soon—in the early morning activity is minimal.”
    “Okay,” I answered, and took the final sip of my coffee.
    He stood up and went upstairs. I looked at the empty mug in my hand and wished I didn’t have to leave at all…didn’t have to face my reality.
    When Grey returned, I noticed he had something clenched in his fist. He walked around the dining room and went into the garage. He flicked on the light.
    “Are you ready?” he asked.
    “Hardly,” I replied.
    I followed him into the garage. In the dim, yellow lighting, the exhaustion on Grey’s face was even more pronounced. I sat on my street bike and he stood beside me.
    “Here you go, Owen,” Grey said as he opened my hand. He placed a flash drive in my palm, and I shoved it in my jacket pocket. “That is a ghost drive. If anyone were to stick that in a computer and tried to see what was on it, it appears as if it is empty.”
    “Badass,” I said.
    “Indeed, it is. You need to put the flash drive in the tower, or laptop, while the computer is still off. Once it turns on, in around two seconds press F2. On some machines, it may be F12. When it gives you the option of how to boot up, choose USB. It will prompt you to put in a password. This ghost drive essentially is an operating system you can plug in and use when you need to. It is how we’re going to communicate with each other.”
    “So, how do we communicate? It’s not like I can login to Facebook and send you a message.”
    He laughed loudly at my statement.
    “No, that is the last thing you would want to do. There is a Bitmessage account already set up and accessible through this drive. Use the same password you used to get into the ghost drive to get into Bitmessage. It’s encrypted email, it circumvents the normal pathways on the web to avoid being monitored. It’s actually what Snowden used to leak some of his information.”
    “No shit. What is the password?” I asked.
    “It’s thirty characters long.”
    “What the fuck, Grey! You better write that down for me.”
    “Already have. Here,” he said, handing me a folded up paper. “It’s a random pattern of characters. It would take the fastest computer in the world over a million years to decode it.”
    “Damn, talk about secure.”
    “Right?” he said, grinning.
    “So, Grey, where are you going after today?”
    He glanced to the ground momentarily in thought.
    “I have a friend in Virginia Beach I might go see…but mainly, I’m going to wait until you contact me through Bitmessage and tell me where to head next.”
    I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him.
    “Grey, I have no words for you deciding to do this, to help me.”
    He shook his head. “There’s no need to thank me. The way I see it is we have two options. We let them win, or , we put up the best damn fight we’ve got.”
    “Damn right, my friend!”
    Grey paused and looked me up and down. “Did you forget something?” he asked.
    I returned his question with a confused stare. He walked back into the house, and a