Paradise Hacked (First Circle Club Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

murder."
    Mei sighed. "And I haven't had any coffee. Let's go."
    The three of them walked back down the wooden stairs to the store room. She went to a circuit breaker panel and flipped a few of the switches in a specific pattern. A secret door in a blank wall popped open. Lights came on in the room beyond.
    Mei went first into her workshop. Virgil went second and had to turn sideways to get through the narrow opening.
    Mei sometimes claimed she knew the location of everything in the room, but he didn't see how that was possible. Hundreds of small tools hung from hooks on a pegboard. Clear plastic drawers held wires of every size and color. Phones in various states of disassembly covered a work table. She had all kinds of computers and computer parts.
    Her pride and joy was a workstation in the corner. Four giant computer monitors were hung in front of a reclining ergonomic chair. Cables connected peripherals to three sexy black computers. She sat down and turned everything on.
    "OK," she said. "What am I doing here?"
    Haymaker had also entered the room. He walked over and explained the situation to Mei. Her eyes widened when he related the conversation with Barachiel and Mammon.
    "A cooked body," she said, "a secret government agency, a misplaced soul, a confused angel, and a pissed off demon prince. Quite a way to start a day. What was that website?"
    She brought up the page on her computer screen. It had black text on a white background with an American flag as a watermark. Except for the phone number, Virgil saw no identifying information.
    Mei pressed a few keys, and window switched to show a bunch of gibberish. The text from the website was mixed in with a lot of computer codes.
    "What's that?" Virgil said.
    "Source code," she replied.
    He had no idea what she meant, but he didn't want to reveal his ignorance by asking questions. He had been stuck in Limbo for thirty years, and he had missed most of the computer revolution. He was still catching up, but it was a slow process for a man who was technically ninety years-old even though he looked more like thirty.
    "See anything interesting?" Haymaker said.
    "No." Mei shook her head. "Somebody scrubbed the site thoroughly. No electronic fingerprints. There aren't even tags showing what software was used. This HTML is as plain as it gets. Let me check the IP address."
    She typed some more.
    Virgil watched her instead of the computer screen. He loved the shape of her face and the creamy texture of her skin. The two of them had a very friendly relationship which wandered into romantic territory occasionally. He always did his best to put her at ease, but she just couldn't get past the fact he wasn't alive. He also could never be the husband she deserved. He would never be able to give her a family, and his stay on Earth could end at any time.
    "Strange," Mei said.
    "What is?" Virgil said.
    "The site is hosted by a commercial datacenter in Dallas. Government agencies usually use government servers."
    Haymaker grunted. "Sounds like the Office of Experimental Aero-Physics isn't a real government agency."
    "It's certainly something," Mei said. "Those agents you met today were real people."
    "Speaking of which, I copied down a name and an ID number."
    He gave her his notepad, and she entered the information into her computer. Virgil watched as windows full of codes popped up on her screen. Maybe I should ask Mei for computer lessons.
    "I'm not getting any hits," she said, "and I'm afraid to keep digging. The government might trace the queries back to me."
    "But this is our only lead," Virgil said.
    "You want guys with guns kicking down my door? Secret federal agencies don't like hackers prying into their business. I don't want to end up in jail."
    "Can you hide your electronic trail?"
    "Probably," Mei said, "but I need to do it right. I don't want to rush."
    "That's my cue to go home," Haymaker said. "I'm falling asleep. Thank you for your help, Mei."
    He smiled at her and then left