Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The Viper

The Viper couldn’t remember a time when he had enjoyed a shower more in his life. For nearly two weeks he had been in hiding recovering from several bullet wounds. When the word had reached his ears that he was supposedly dead he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. He worked out a deal with the small funeral home upstate so that he could complete the illusion. As he washed the weeks of grime and the funeral grave dirt from his body he brushed his fingers over the three holes in his chest that were sloppily stitched while he lay in some grimy boiler room.

When he was finally able to move out of there without any assistance he made his way to a pay phone and called the one person he knew who didn’t travel in any of the same circles as him and his associates, the Iceman. Julio Gonzales made the two hour trip from his estate upstate to the seedy neighborhood he was calling from in roughly forty five minutes. This was unusual for Julio, not because he doubled and even tripled some speed limits, but because he actually left his estate. The Iceman rarely left the security of his “compound” as there were a number of people looking for him, the police being but a small portion of those. It wasn’t so much that they were looking for Julio Gonzales, but they would have loved to get their hands on the Iceman. His life was so filled with secrecy and paranoia that he didn’t distinguish between the two.

Julio was something of a phenom in the hacking community. He was an extreme example of the good that computers in low income public schools can accomplish. The out of date Apple IIE’s that the government had seen fit to donate to the run down school that served the hood rats of the barrio he grew up in had simply sparked his interest. He quickly learned BASIC and at the age of thirteen stole the parts for a computer of his own from a pawn shop. This computer was far and away more powerful than the cruddy Apples he worked with at school and he quickly found the bulletin board community.

From there it was a small jump to the hacker BBs and he spent all of his time there. School became a concern for those others who didn’t have the mind for the exploits he went on daily. In the infancy of the internet he discovered how to access bank records and cleverly transferred money to his parents in small increments at first then by the hundreds and eventually thousands of dollars. The police didn’t have the personnel or expertise to track him down as his knowledge that surpassed that of the supposed police experts on virtual crime. They moved out of the area into a somewhat decent area.

Still he stayed out of school and simply thirsted for more and more knowledge. He found his niche at about the age of seventeen when a kid from down the street had heard rumors of his exploits and asked for a fake ID so he could buy some beer. Julio’s equipment had been upgraded significantly from the time of his first computer and with his mind for details he pieced the thing together perfectly. He had even altered the state records so that the person on the ID actually existed in case the store owner was able to scan the ID. He started making money hand over fist at this endeavor and soon was responsible for inflating the population of his neighborhood by several hundred people.

He soon moved out of his parents’ house and rented a small apartment in Manhattan. His reputation spread quickly and he took the alias Iceman. Most of his clientele didn’t pick up on the nuances of his name. In the hacking and cracking communities “ICe” stood for Intrusion Countermeasures, and he was incredible at bypassing them. He provided forged papers, information, and record altering for whoever could pay his prices. His clients ranged from street thugs to Wall Street bankers and the money came in by the truckload.

At the age of 21 he bought the estate he currently resides in upstate and bought top of the line equipment and materials. The Viper became one of his bigger clients and one the only ones that he trusted in knowing where his residence was. It was a shock when the Viper called to ask him for someone to lay low for a bit. He had reluctantly driven into the city and picked him up. He was taken back by the image of the bearded grimy hitman.
He had filled him in on the situation and Julio gladly let him stay for a bit.

The Viper took advantage of the time he had to gather the information he needed and to recuperate a bit more. Unfortunately that little weasel Jackson had taken his guns after he was clearly dead so he was weaponless. He couldn’t go home for a time because he knew that Shin Lao would go there eventually and if her grief didn’t appear genuine at his service then the whole thing would undoubtedly be blown. So he laid low until the time would be right to set up his fake funeral. The thought of climbing through the grave dirt gave him a shiver and he moved beyond that. The weight of the two Desert Eagles that Shin had laid in the casket was something reassuring and had taken an incredible effort of will not to move a single muscle. He hated doing this to her, but he hoped she would understand after the whole plan came to light.

And so after a quick ride back with Julio he noticed the wrecked guard rail and the glass fragments on the interstate and forced the Iceman to drive faster than he was currently. He had breathed a sigh of relief when he noted the beaten up Escalade parked in his garage.

He got out of the shower and shaved again despite the fact that he had shaved earlier that morning. The memory of the beard for some reason repulsed him and he needed to be clean shaven. He left the bathroom with a towel wrapped around him and nearly walked into Skinner on the way to his bedroom. The detective stared at the three bullet wounds in the man’s chest and gasped. He looked at the dozens of bruises along his abdomen and chest as well. “What the hell happened? By the looks of things the reports of your death were almost true.” The Viper glanced down at the wounds that he had tried hard to put out of his mind. “I’ll fill you guys in later. For the time being don’t tell Shin about them. She’ll find out in her own time, but we’ve got things to do before then and I’ve desperately got to get back into character.” Skinner let him go without a word and sat down in his desk chair, leaning back like he did in his own chair. He would have to get himself one of these chairs he thought to himself. The thing was much more comfortable than the one he sat in for hours a day in his own office.

A few minutes later the Viper emerged from his bedroom dressed much like he normally was. He had what looked like a black shirt in his hand and he showed it to Skinner. He noted the three holes that were present and smiled at him. “Kevlar eh? No wonder you’re so hard to kill.” “It’s the only thing that’s kept me alive I think. That bastard Jackson used hollowpoints though and a couple snuck through. It stopped the rest of them though so I must have done something right sometime. Where’s Shin?” “She’s out back. You might want to talk to her; she’s still a little upset. She loves you more than she lets on you know.” “I know. Things haven’t exactly gone our way though.” The Viper walked down the hallway towards the door to the garage without saying another word and walked out to the back field of his base.

He kept roughly three acres on all sides of his place clean cut so that people couldn’t sneak up on him and thankfully no one but who he let in had found his place yet. Shin Lao was indeed walking alone in the back field. Her back was to him with her arms crossed over themselves. Her head was looking down as if there was an interesting trail that she was following. He jogged up to her, the sting from his chest reminding him that he almost didn’t have this opportunity. “Hey” he said simply. He did indeed love her but people were something he hadn’t really had much of a connection to in years. He tended to come across as cold and emotionless to people he tried to be close to so he had given up after a time. Except Shin Lao was different and was essentially the warm little center of his world that reminded him that people were worth being close to.

“Hey” She returned, a sad and dejected tone to her voice that she didn’t try to hide. “I’m…sorry I didn’t try to get in touch with you. Things just seemed to work against me getting in touch with anyone, and then I heard that I was dead and used that to give us a little leeway. I’m going for the Big One.” Shin Lao turned around on him sharply with a look that could have cut through steel. “You’re determined to get yourself killed aren’t you?! I’ve already dealt with you dying once and I don’t like the feeling too much.” Her face softened a bit when she looked into his eyes and forgot her anger for a moment. It was true that you tended to hurt the ones you love, even if you don’t intend to. She could see the pain across his face for perhaps the first time in the length of their “relationship” “What’s wrong?” She asked. She didn’t need him to tell her that there was something not quite right. She did this too for a living and he couldn’t hide much in that regard from her.

“I almost did die Shin. The holes still aren’t completely healed. I did a pretty shoddy job stitching them up and didn’t exactly have medical facilities at my disposal.” “So, how was it? Was it one of Tanaka’s boys, an outsider…a professional?” “You’re somewhat right on all of those counts. It was a cop under Tanaka’s employment. I was doing a job for Shojuzaki and he came out of nowhere and plugged me. I still don’t know if it was an ambush or not on Shojuzaki’s part but either way everybody thought I was dead, and why wouldn’t they? Jackson put my guns up for auction and sent the link to everybody that mattered.” “How do you know all of this? We haven’t even come across that information except by accident.” “I stayed with Iceman for a couple of days. I had him look up a lot of things while I was there, and Jackson’s email was something that was quite easy to crack into.” Shin Lao had slipped into business mode without really realizing it and backtracked a bit. “So let me see it.” “Not it…them. Bastard clipped me a couple of times.” The Viper unbuttoned his shirt and showed her his chest. The three jagged wounds stood out like large blisters on his chest. She gasped sharply and put her hand to her face. She knew that by all rights he should have been dead. “And the Kevlar? Did you finally wear that shirt I got you a long time ago?” “Yeah, it was the only thing that saved my life. It took a lot of SMG fire before he resorted to his pistol with the cop killers in it.”

She sighed and looked up at his face again. She reached up and put her arms around his neck and smiled. He face drew close to his and she whispered “You need to be more careful, I’m not going to lose you again.” She kissed him softly and pulled back inches from his face. “Now let’s go relax for a bit before you decide to stir up the hornets nest.” The Viper smiled and buttoned his shirt back up. He reached around her waist and laid his head down on her shoulder. “I intend to Shin. This is going to be my last job.” He saw the look she gave him out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah I know I’ve said that before, but I mean it. I’m taking out Tanaka and whoever else I can before I’m done. I’m gonna go out with a bang.” “Whatever superman, let’s just go back inside.”