Extreme Measures (A Brady Hawk Novel Book 20)

long breath. “I guess anything is possible. I have a hard time believing all those egos could work together, especially since some of them have been employed by Goldman Sachs before to test out their systems.”
“Maybe they weren’t getting paid enough.”
“No,” Mia said. “Goldman Sachs pays the best of anybody. I mean, it’s just ridiculous the amount of money you could make working for them on a project. It dwarfs what you’d make on a month’s worth of jobs. Any of them would be foolish to abandon such a cash cow.”
“But it’s not out of the realm of possibility, is it?”
“No, I guess not,” she said. “I’d just find that hard to believe.”
“Well, we are talking about billions and billions of dollars,” Blunt said.
“Maybe that’s how it looks like to you on the outside, but that’s not how hackers think. I mean, there are some people who fancy their skillset as being otherworldly, but those are the ones who are in prison. Intelligent hackers are smart about their targets, even the ones who do it to make a statement.”
“So, Goldman and Sachs wouldn’t be a likely target?”
“Absolutely not. They have their own justice team who will obliterate you, doing to you what you did to them. You’ll lose not only the money you stole, but every other dime you ever made—and that’s only after they’ve piled so much debt on your account that it’d take an army of lawyers to free you from the phony charges against your account. If you get greedy and don’t heed the warnings of others who serve as cautionary tales, you’re going to pay a steep price.”
“But what if they did it together, covering their tracks?”
“Like I said, it’s possible. I just don’t think any of them would do that.”
Blunt clipped off the end of a cigar and sighed. “Okay, so what about the traffic fiasco last week in Paris?”
“You think these people would waste their time on disrupting an entire city’s transportation? Why? What would be the point?”
“Because they can.”
“These are serious hackers. They wouldn’t turn an entire metropolitan area into a parking lot for fun.”
Blunt drummed his fingers on the table. “So, what would they do?”
“Depends on what cause they’re united around. It’d likely be something they’d all believe in and advocate for.”
“If they’re disappearing on their own volition. What if someone is kidnapping them?”
“That’s possible, but also unlikely. If you think there are difficult firewalls to penetrate when trying to crash a computer system, just finding out the identity of these people, much less where they live, is a monumental task.”
Blunt grunted. “Either way, someone has done it.”
“It’d have to be someone with a lot of resources or someone who has been planning this for a long time.”
“Or maybe a charismatic leader in the underground community. Any of those come to mind?”
“A few,” Mia said. “Let me keep doing some digging, and I’ll get back with you. I’m sure the answer is there somewhere, but I’m mystified by it all.”
Blunt put the unlit cigar in his mouth and bit down on it before continuing. “Give me a report tomorrow morning on what you find. We need to move on this quickly so we can stop whatever they’re planning in case it’s going to endanger people.”
“I’ll do my best,” she said before hanging up.
Blunt scanned his notes before he stood and starting circling his room.
What the hell is happening here? Who’s behind all this?
He had a million questions, all accompanied by his own theories. But until he knew the what, he couldn’t know the who. And he was being driven mad just thinking about it.

CHAPTER 11
San Francisco, California
HAWK AND ALEX returned to the San Francisco Port Authority to discuss another pressing matter with Jim Nelson. Since the director hadn’t returned any of their phone calls, they would have to deal with the stubborn deputy again. Alex leaned on the counter while the administrative assistant at the front desk asked about the nature of their return visit.
“We’re here to see Mr. Nelson,” Alex said with a smile.
“As I recall, he wasn’t interested in complying with your demands,” the woman said.
“This time we brought a warrant,” Hawk said, holding up a document Blunt sent them from one of his judges.
The assistant rolled her eyes. “Let me see if I can get him out here.”
Alex waited until the woman turned her back before slipping Nelson’s key card into a stack of papers on the desk. When the lady hung up, she spun around in her chair to face Alex and Hawk.
“He said you can see yourselves back.”
“Thank you,” Alex said.
Hawk nodded his appreciation as well before catching the woman sneering.
“Delightful personality,” Hawk said in a whisper as he and Alex meandered down the hall.
“I’ll say.”
When they reached the room they met Nelson in a day earlier, he was poring over several documents and didn’t look up when they entered.
“Do either of you know about an incident that happened here last night?” Nelson asked.
“An incident?” Hawk asked as they sat down across from Nelson. “What kind of incident?”
“I think you know exactly the kind I’m talking about,” the port authority’s deputy said. “The kind where you assaulted a guard and plundered a business illegally.”
Hawk looked at Alex and shook his head before shrugging. “I haven’t the foggiest clue what he’s talking about.”
“Me either.”
"There was a security agent who said that a man and a woman approached him last night claiming to be with Homeland Security. Then the next thing he remembered was waking up on the floor of the Nicolo guardhouse."
“Strange,” Alex said.
“Was anything taken?” Hawk asked. “Maybe some rival company wanted to look at a secret patent design they were transporting.”
“And how would you know Nicolo was handling such a project?” Nelson said, eyeing Hawk carefully.
"Just spitballing here since you wouldn't let us approach them yesterday," Hawk said before digging into his coat pocket and producing the warrant. "But today, we're back with a document that orders you to allow