Flint had offered to make the notification, but Wu wouldn’t weasel out of his responsibility. Vega had gone missing on his watch. He would take the brunt of whatever shitstorm was coming—from the Bureau and from the family.
He also hoped a preemptive strike would discourage the family from going to the media, giving him the opportunity to emphasize that their continued silence was the best way to keep Vega safe while they followed up on whatever Axel had to share.
The apartment door creaked open at Wu’s knock. A woman in her fifties stood at the threshold, eyeing them with a healthy dose of suspicion. Johnson had texted basic info from Vega’s personnel file to Wu on the drive over. The woman matched the photo of Vega’s aunt taken when the background investigators had come to interview the family for her top-secret security clearance.
He held up his creds. “Special Agent in Charge Steve Wu, FBI. Is Axel Vega here?”
Her gaze shifted to Flint, who showed her his gold shield. “Detective Mark Flint, NYPD.”
Her dark eyes narrowed. “What do you want with Axel?”
Before they could respond, a young face that resembled Vega’s appeared over the woman’s shoulder. “Did you say something about Axel, Aunt Manuela?” she asked, eyes widening when she saw their IDs.
“Can we come in?” Wu made a point of glancing up and down the narrow hallway. “We should talk in private.”
The young woman who had to be Vega’s younger sister, Erica, put a hand to her chest and rushed toward the back of the apartment. “I’ll go get Axel.”
Manuela blew out a sigh. “I don’t want any more questions from nosy neighbors. I had enough of that for a lifetime.” She stepped back from the door and motioned them inside.
Aware she was referring to the local scandal about her brother’s murder nine years earlier, Wu made no comment.
Manuela turned and strode through the cramped foyer into a tidy living room. Despite four adults living in such close quarters, the space was organized and uncluttered.
The young woman returned with a young man Wu also recognized from Vega’s file in tow.
“I’m Erica and this is Axel,” she said. “Why are you looking for him?”
Axel’s face flushed. “Because I asked them to come here.”
Axel hadn’t told his family he’d called the FBI. That meant he hadn’t shared whatever he’d learned about Vega.
Wu broke the awkward silence that followed. “Perhaps we should speak to Axel alone before we—”
“Not happening,” Erica said, turning to her brother. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“It’s okay if my family hears,” Axel said. “But before I explain, there’s something I need to know.” He hesitated before directing his gaze at Wu. “Where is Dani?”
Wu didn’t like where this was going, and it was just getting started.
“Why don’t we sit down?” he said, glancing at a grouping of mismatched furniture. “I’d like to—”
“I don’t want to sit,” Erica said. “I want you to tell us where Dani is. Now.”
Wu made an effort to keep his features neutral. “That’s the problem, Miss Vega. We aren’t sure where she is at the moment.” He gestured to Axel. “Your brother says he has information about—”
Erica cut him off. “You can lose car keys.” She gave him an incredulous look. “How the hell do you lose a person?”
“Dani told us she was doing an undercover assignment,” Axel said quietly. “But she wouldn’t say more. If you can at least confirm that much, I might be able to help you.”
Now that he’d shown his hand, Wu plowed ahead, spending the next several minutes providing a bare-bones overview of Vega’s disappearance. He kept the details generic, not sharing the nature of the case she was working on and specifically leaving out any mention of Senator Sledge, his chief of staff, or an asset she would be working with.
He watched their body language as he spoke. Their aunt Manuela wore a closed expression, while Axel studied his shoes. By the time he finished, Erica seemed close to the boiling point.
“That’s it?” Erica said. “That’s all you can tell us?”
“Her assignment is classified, Miss Vega.” He used his most soothing tone. “I can’t give you more information, but your brother has promised to share what he knows.”
All eyes turned to him.
“Have you heard from your sister?” Wu asked, curious to hear what had prompted such an obviously shy young man to speak up in front of strangers who were also authority figures.
“I was checking my social media last night,” he said, eyes still trained on the floor. “And someone DM’d me a link with malware.”
Wu was familiar with the tactics employed by both private and state-managed parties that disseminated viruses by tricking unsuspecting recipients into clicking a direct message link containing malicious code.
“What does that have to do with Agent Vega?” Flint asked, speaking for the first time since entering the apartment.
“It was spyware,” Axel said, finally looking up. “It was supposed to be a free download for a computer game, but it looked sketchy. I’m developing anti-hacking software for an extra-credit summer project.” He shrugged. “Figured I would test it out because whoever sent the link wouldn’t give up. I kept getting message requests on social media to friend or follow them and open the link.”
Wu shared Flint’s frustration but framed his question more gently than the detective had. “I’m not following. Can you explain the connection with your sister’s disappearance?”
“Might be better if I show you,” Axel said. “Be right back.”
Erica watched him leave the room before turning to Wu. “He’s on a full-ride scholarship to Columbia,” she said, as if the comment needed no explanation.
And it didn’t. Wu was a Columbia graduate himself, honoring his family by earning a degree from one of the finest universities in the nation. Anyone who gained admittance had to be an exceptional student. Scholarships were granted based on financial need, which meant Axel had managed to qualify without the advantages of private schools, tutors, or a family legacy of Ivy League education that had benefited many of his peers. Wu had done the same many years earlier.
Axel returned carrying an open laptop, set it down on the coffee table in the center of the room, and kneeled beside it. “My program is still in development, but it’s designed to be more than just anti-hacking software.”
“What else will it do?” Wu asked, intrigued despite the circumstances of their visit.
“Obviously there’s a firewall to block any virus from getting in,” Axel said. “But I’ve written code that will infect the malware with its own virus and travel back to its source.”
Wu resigned himself to the tech speak, trusting that Axel would not waste their time when his sister could be in danger.
“Last night I activated my program before clicking on the link,” Axel continued. “The filter immediately detected and contained the spyware, then latched onto the source code. I followed the breadcrumbs to the dark web through a series of proxy servers.” He glanced around at them, excitement animating his features. “Here’s what I found at the end of the trail.”
Wu and the others dragged chairs over to sit behind Axel, who angled the laptop to give them a better view. After an agonizing minute, a website appeared on the screen. The site looked unremarkable, a black background with the word NEMESIS in a bold font. Beneath the words were buttons labeled WATCH, VOTE, and PARTICIPATE.
“This is the portal to enter an online game that’s going viral across the dark web,” Axel said. “At first I just thought it was a scam to spread a virus, but I got curious and decided to check it out. It won’t let you past this page without joining, so I created a fake account. Once I got in, I saw that it looked like a virtual escape room game with multiple levels. Avatars of Greek gods were moving through the different rooms.”
Wu still wasn’t sure what was going on, but he started to get an unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Axel clicked on the WATCH button, followed by a username and password. A portal opened, and a seven-level structure appeared on the screen. Eight avatars moved around in different levels.
Axel swore under his breath.
“What’s wrong?” Wu asked.
Axel moved the cursor to one of the rooms. “Another player went down.” Reading their confusion, he elaborated. “There were originally thirteen avatars in separate cages. There was a clue they had to solve. Three of them didn’t get the answer fast enough and blew up. After that, one of them got mad and grabbed the bars of his cage. The instant he touched the metal, he was electrocuted. That’s when I saw the glitch.”
“What glitch?”
“When the guy was frying, there was an instant where the skin on the avatar fragged a bit. It looked like a real person. I screen-grabbed the image before it repaired itself.” He opened another window and typed in commands. “Look at this.”
Flint leaned in to study the freeze-frame closer. “That does look like a real person.”