“No, sorry. It’s fun. I was just having a fight with a kid on the game I’m playing.”
“You and those games. Don’t you get tired of battling someone you don’t know?”
“Anonymity is always better than knowing your opponent.”
“I’m not sure that’s correct. There are a lot of predators out there pretending to be someone they’re not. You never know if the person behind the keyboard is truly who they say they are.”
Boy, did Kyle know that. He’d presented himself as some expert hacker. He shouldn’t have accepted a job that others had obviously backed off of. Why had he let his ego get him into the situation? He was worried his client wouldn’t believe him when he told him he’d been hacked… most likely by Byte herself. He’d been too careless. The client was pressuring him, making Kyle make stupid mistakes. He wanted Byte, and Kyle had promised he could find her. Just the fact that he hadn’t known she was a girl should’ve been warning enough. His client knew… What else did he know that he wasn’t sharing with Kyle?
“I know, Hunter. It’s just a game. And I’m safe. I installed all types of security at home and at your place. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Hunter didn’t believe Kyle for a minute, but he let the subject rest. He’d sworn to have fun the week Kyle was there. He wanted to get to know his brother as a teen. Their parents were older now, in their fifties, and were slowing down. That was obvious when they hadn’t pushed Kyle to play extracurricular sports. Hunter had played peewee ball, baseball, and had even golfed with his father. Kyle, on the other hand, played video games. His sports were battling zombies, playing war games, and speeding through virtual cities. They’d definitely been raised by two different types of parents.
He wasn’t implying his parents didn’t love Kyle, because it was obvious they did. He was the ‘oops’ baby, the one they never imagined they’d have. He was raised wanting for nothing, which was why his room was overrun with video consoles and computer monitors. Each year—when new models came out—Kyle got it for Christmas or his birthday.
When Hunter had mentioned this to his father one day, he’d only smirked. “Just because your brother likes to play video games, doesn’t mean he’s a nerd. You’re a bigger nerd than he is.”
“That’s not what I’m saying. And yes, I know I’m a huge nerd. It’s just that Kyle has no friends. He’s always on the gaming system, talking to who-knows-who. That can’t be healthy.”
“Son, it’s a different generation from when you were young. Kids don’t gather around a ballpark; they sit in the basement playing video games. They don’t want to go to the mall; they want to be left alone. Face it… you’re getting old.”
Hunter scoffed at his father’s statement. He was in his twenties, albeit late ones, but he was in the prime of his adult life. However, he wasn’t exaggerating when he said kids had changed, and maybe Hunter just needed to let Kyle be Kyle. According to his father, he wasn’t unique, nor was he doing anything to worry about.
But he did. Hunter had been the other parent to Kyle. He’d watched him when his parents weren’t there. He watched him when it wasn’t even necessary. Even when he was fifteen, he knew he’d watch over his little brother forever.
Only there was a difference between watching and micromanaging. Realizing this, he closed the bedroom door and decided to go downstairs to kill time by doing a practice run-through on the novel next in line.
* * *
Kyle wasn’tsure if his brother would ever leave. He needed to get his stuff together and quickly. Whoever screwed him possibly didn’t know how badly. He wondered if it had been Byte herself. Of course, he couldn’t prove it, but he also wasn’t stupid enough to think he could bypass her own searches. She’d done exactly what he did to fellow gamers… erase, disable, and retreat.
He was on a time crunch and he didn’t think his client would care about why there was a setback… just that there was.
He jumped when his direct messages app popped up. He was even more agitated when he read the message.
BLNT… GB
Would he havebetter luck next time? Not if GigaByte was able to find him so easily.
Y? U scared what I’ll find?
YBS, YottaByte. NIMBY… hunt somewhere else. UBW… GB
“Why did she say I’d be sorry, and not to hunt in her backyard? Worse, what was she warning me of?” he asked himself.
Kyle kept playing her warning in his head. She wanted him to back off… stop hunting for her. She obviously had something to hide. He had a decision to make—keep on the job or tell his client he was unable to find Byte.
Would the client believe him? Worse, would he let Kyle off the hook for wasting his time?
Doubtful.
If it meant ticking off the hacker or the client, he’d choose the hacker. He had a feeling the client was more deadly.
* * *
Byte hopedher warning would scare off the kid. But based on his quick responses, she doubted it would, which meant she needed to find out everything she could about Kyle Higgins. She needed to know his family, his friends, and his digital footprint, because she had a feeling she and Kyle would be meeting up sometime in the future.
CHAPTERFOUR