Alex O'Donnell and the 40 CyberThieves (The Fairy Tale Novels)

  “Laundry coming through!” he called.

  “Alex! Let me out! Alex!!!”

  Ignoring the guests who looked askance at his mad dash down the hall, Alex threw open the door to Kateri’s room, pushed the cart inside, then shut the doorand locked it with the purple key. “And stay in there until your day off is over!” he intoned through the keyhole. “Get some rest!”

  Ignoring her shouts, he strode to the phone and dialed the maid service.

  While it rang, he addressed the guests who were standing or sitting around the lobby, staring at him. “Here at the Twilight Hills Hotel, we always strive to give you our best. Sometimes our staff gets a little carried away in our enthusiasm to help you, but know that we always mean well.” He nodded to Kateri’s door, which shook from her pounding on the other side. “We don’t even like to take a day off.”

  Most of the guests laughed, and he nodded and returned to the phone.

  After he had arranged for the Maids In Time to come, he called Kateri on her cell phone.

  She was furious. “How dare you! I have never been so embarrassed! How dare you imprison me like this, after what happened…Only trying to do my job…”

  “Kateri. I am not letting you out until you’ve taken a shower and a nap, and changed into non-work clothes.”

  “I should just climb out the window… if you ever … I will flay…”

  “Sleep well, darling.” He hung up on her. Part of him was enjoying her fury, but part of him hoped that he wasn’t pushing her too far.

  He was somewhat reassured when the pounding stopped and he heard the faint whoosh of water from the pipes leading to her room.

  His cell phone rang just as the Maids arrived. He waved at them and picked up. “Alex O’Donnell speaking.”

  “Alex. This is Agent Furlow from the FBI. We’ve had a bit of a breakthrough in our investigation.”

  “That’s great! I mean, that’s good, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, from our end at least. I’d like to discuss it with your family. When would be a good time for me to come by? I know you’re running a hotel there, and I want to find a time when I can speak to all of you at once.”

  “Hmm, that might be tricky,” Alex flipped open his reservation book but was greeted by a blank column. “Tell you what. Wednesday tends to be our slow day. Why don’t you come by tonight? Dinnertime? We’ll feed you.”

  “That’s really kind of you. Actually, since I’ll be coming down from DC, what about this? I can come and spend the night at your hotel. If you have a room, that is.”

  “Absolutely. We’d be glad to have you. We’ll have the hotel to ourselves tonight anyhow. Everyone’s checking out. So yeah, come and stay. It’ll be on the house.”

  “No, no, I insist. Let the government pay for it,” Agent Furlow laughed.

  “Our tax dollars at work,” Alex quipped. “However you want to work it is fine. We’ll look forward to seeing you and Agent Randolph.”

  “Oh, it’ll just be me this time. Carter’s taking a personal day.”

  “Oh. Okay. See you then.” Alex deleted the second reservation he had automatically made.

  When he got off the phone, he listened at Kateri’s door. The water had stopped, and there was silence. Either she had climbed out the window, or she was sleeping. Quietly, he unlocked her door and returned to the desk.

  By lunchtime, he had checked out the last guest. Well after one o’clock, he looked up to find Kateri glowering down at him. But she had showered and was dressed in a pale blue peasant blouse and cropped jeans.

  “Ah. Don’t you feel so much better?” he asked.

  “Let’s talk.”

  He made way for her to sit down as she came around the desk, pulled out a chair, and sat down next to him.

  “I don’t think I like working for you,” she stated.

  “I don’t think I like the way you’re working for me, either,” he responded equitably.

  She ignored him. “Alex, I just think this whole idea was a mistake.”

  “What was a mistake?”

  “Working for the hotel. You. Me. Us. I just don’t see it’s going to work. We just frustrate each other.”

  “Kateri, I think you’re overreacting here. You need some time off. I was just trying to get you to see that.”

  “But you—Alex O’Donnell, what do you expect me to do when you do something like dump me into a laundry cart and lock me in my room?”

  Alex pulled the lid off of his pen, put it back on again, and then pulled it off before he answered. “You could laugh,” he offered.

  “Laugh?”

  “Yes, laugh! Kateri, do you have any idea how many things I do just to get you to laugh? And you just insist on taking me so seriously! I don’t want to offend you. I don’t want to get a rise out of you. Most of the time, all I want you to do is… laugh at me.”

  She stared at him. “Laugh. At you.” Her question hung in the air.

  “Yes.” He threw his pen in the trash can. “Just a simple request. Quit analyzing me. I might look complicated, Kat, but my needs are very simple.”

  “Simple.” Kateri blew out her breath.

  “I’m easier than you think.”

  “So—that would solve all our problems?”

  “Maybe forty percent of them.” He stood up. “So what about that movie tonight? Let Sam and David do the sheets, or towels, or whatever.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Okay, scoot.” The phone was ringing. “I’ve got to focus on work here.”

  Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly. With a groan, Kateri shook her head as she sat down at the computer and took a handful of shelled pistachios out of the bag by her bed. Having missed lunch, she was ravenously hungry. And she had to respond to her parents’ e-mail. Explaining the entire Attack of the Cyberthieves to her parents had been one heck of a job. They now seemed to think that she had fallen into another dimension where she was living in some sort of video game. Not that I don’t feel like that too, she thought to herself.

  So what’s up with you and Alex? her mom had written. How long are you going to stay there?

  As Kateri munched and stared at the bootup screen of her computer (“Loading your personal settings”) she felt the last of the morning’s anger dying away. Alex is right, she realized. I have been working too hard. And why?

  Have you been trying to evade something? Her inner self prodded. Have you been using work as an excuse to not deal with Alex?

  Yes. But what was it that she was trying to evade? That she wanted to break up with Alex, or because she didn’t want to admit that she wanted to marry him?

  She wasn’t the only one who had been evading the issue.

  Taking another handful of pistachios, she glanced at the clock. Two thirty.

  Four and a half hours before Alex got off work. She could talk to him then.

  Her computer was taking a long time to boot up. A really long time. Since she was growing paranoid about anything that had to do with computers, she pushed the ‘control panel’ button. Show hidden files. Just as Mr. O’Donnell had demonstrated, she began to look for suspicious icons. According to her notes, she should have 173 files in this folder.

  There were 174.

  Something had been installed. She located the extra file. It had an “x” icon.

  When she clicked it, praying it wasn’t a virus, something opened up into a window. A desktop. Someone else’s desktop. On the background of the desktop was a huge anime cat in a red jacket holding a samurai sword.

  She recognized it. Mr. O’Donnell’s desktop. She saw the mouse flicking around, and guessed that Alex’s dad had woken up from his sleep and was clicking around as usual.

  Why would this be on my computer?

  Somehow, the answer came to her. So someone could reach Mr. O’Donnell’s computer from my laptop.

  But who would want to do that? Who could possibly be using her computer to control Mr. O’Donnell’s comput
er?

  Mr. O’Donnell could.

  Bits of information began to rain down through Kateri’s consciousness as she stared at the computer-within-a-computer. Mr. O’Donnell had been a hacker.

  He knew how to get onto other people’s computers. He knew how to steal databases. He knew how to get into cyberthieves’ banks…

  He could steal money from cyberthieves, and then set up a scheme to trap all the rest of the cyberthieves, so that he went free, while they sat in jail.

  He could be the fortieth hacker.

  Her hands shaking, Kateri closed her laptop, not wanting to see what so clearly fit together. She tried to conjure up Mr. O’Donnell before her eyes: Alan O’Donnell. Father. Husband. Catholic. Provider. Kitty’s husband. Alex’s dad.

  She thought she knew him, but he spent so much time behind that computer, how much had she really gotten to know him? Somehow, the man that she thought she knew wasn’t holding together. The virtual reality of the computer had superseded all that.

  All she could think was: there’s such a thing as an anonymous witness, isn’t there? I can call the FBI. They can find out the truth. Right? The O’Donnells never needed to know.

  If Mr. O’Donnell could use my computer to fool his entire family, then I can use my cell phone to fool them.

  She pulled out the card Agent Furlow had given her and dialed the number.

  “Agent Furlow?”

  “Speaking.” She recognized the agent’s friendly voice.

  “It’s Kateri. Kateri Kovach. From the Twilight Hills Hotel.”

  “Yes, Kateri. I’m on my way over there right now.”

  “Uh, I have some information. Or a question. I wanted to give it anonymously. I mean, ask a question anonymously.”

  “You can do that. Shoot.”

  Her throat constricted as she tried to speak quietly. “I was wondering—remember our conversation the other day?”

  “I do.”

  “Do you think it’s possible—you think that maybe—Mr. O’Donnell could be the fortieth hacker?”

  There was silence.

  Kateri waited.

  “What makes you think that?”

  Kateri felt wretched, deceived, and treacherous. “I found some of his software on my computer. It looks like he’s been using it to do things to his own computer. Like, maybe look like he was hacking into his own computer to fool us. I don’t know, all I know is that it’s his software.”

  After a silence, Agent Furlow said, “Does he know you—found this?”

  “No.” She fought to speak. “This isn’t a surprise to you, is it?”

  “I don’t know what I’m allowed to tell you, but—well, it’s not completely a surprise. Our conversation was helpful to me.”

  “Great.” She quivered down onto the bed. “What should I do?”

  “Well, I’m on my way over there now. I’d already arranged with Alex to see you all at dinner tonight. Just hang tight. I’ll be there soon.”

  “I will. Goodbye then,” she said weakly, and hung up the phone.

  Her world was spinning around her, and she set her head down on the pillow. It seemed a moment later that a knock at her door made her jump.

  “Hey, Kateri! It’s me!”

  It was Alex, vaulting over the laundry cart, which was still parked in her room, and looking pretty happy. “Hey. I’m off early.”

  She struggled to sit up. He was still swimming in her vision. She hadn’t thought at all about Alex. How it would affect her relationship. With him. Did he know?

  “Dad said he needed to do some more work on the front desk computer, so he told me to go find you. He’ll cover the desk for me now, and I’ll do a few hours after we get back from the movie.” He sat down on the bed next to her.

  “So—what about this? I’ll take you up north to this winery, and we’ll get some dinner. We might even be able to do some hiking first, if we want to check out the national forest out there. Then we’ll go catch that movie you wanted to see.

  So we’re emancipated from the Twilight Hills for a few hours at least. What do you say, hey?”

  He was so focused on his plans that he apparently hadn’t caught onto her mood. Did he know about his dad? Could he know? And Kitty? Did she know? What about Sam and David? The prospect of being collectively deceived by the entire O’Donnell family was too much for Kateri to handle, and her mind rejected it.

  No, they can’t know. I know Alex. I know Mrs. O’Donnell. They couldn’t, wouldn't trick me like this.

  So they must be deceived too. It’s so easy for a father to hide his true colors from his family. Shaking, she got to her feet.

  “Kateri. You’re not listening to a word I’m saying.”

  “Alex, I’m leaving.”

  “What?”

  The words had spilled from her mouth without thinking. Now she tried to brace herself. “I’m sorry. I’ve just got to leave. I’m sorry.”

  He was open-mouthed, agog. “Kateri. What has gotten into you?”

  She couldn’t explain. It was too painful. She didn’t want to see the look on his face. “Alex. Please. Just let me go.”

  “Now wait a second,” he blocked her way, took her by the shoulders. “What happened? Tell me.”

  She tried to raise the barrier of inscrutable detachment that she had practiced for years. “Nothing’s wrong. I just need to go home. I need to see my parents. Get some perspective.”

  “Kateri, hold on. Stop. What are you upset about?”

  She pushed his hands away woodenly. “I’m not upset.”

  “I’m sorry I threw you in the laundry cart.”

  “It’s not that. It’s nothing you’ve done.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t believe it. Come on, tell me!”

  “No, it’s nothing you’ve done.” She held her face in her hands and he quickly put his arms around her. “It’s just that you were raised to be loyal, that’s all!” He stiffened. “Loyal? What do you mean?”

  She knelt down to grab her suitcase out from under the bed. “It doesn’t matter. Please, just let me go.”

  “Kateri!”

  His voice sounded so plaintive that she broke down, sat on the bed, and cried. His arms were around her, and she could tell, even as she sobbed, how utterly confused and bewildered he was. He doesn’t know, she realized. He doesn’t.

  His dad’s deceived him too. This only made her cry harder. With ferocity she pulled herself away from him, wiped her eyes, and grabbed her suitcase.

  Alex kept talking. “Look, I’m sorry, Kat. It’s probably my fault. All this summer, I’ve been dodging you. I haven’t let you talk about our relationship. If that’s what you want to do now, that’s fine.” He seemed to draw himself up, as if saying, hit me. Hit me where it hurts.

  She paused, and looked at him, on the verge of saying something. The words almost flew out of her again. I don’t want to break up with you. She could picture the exhilaration and exasperation on his face if she were to say that. But she didn’t say it.

  An evil voice said, break up with him. You’ve been wanting to do it al summer anyhow. Distance yourself from him. It’ll stop you from being hurt. Save your own skin. But she couldn’t do that either.

  The only thing she could do was pack her suitcase, while Alex watched, in an agony of frustration, unable to stop her, unable to get her to say anything else. “Can you drive me to the bus station?” she said at last. She was casting about for some way to get there without involving him, but couldn’t figure out how to do it.

  “You really want to leave, don’t you?”

  She didn’t want to leave. She had to. It was a completely different thing. But she couldn’t explain.

  I never should have come here. I never should have gotten mixed up with this crazy family and their computers and their hotel. I should have stayed far away from all of this, been sensible, gotten a regular job, stayed in Jersey.

  “Kateri. Please tell me something.”

  She looked at
him, and her lips began to shake. “I’m sorry,” she said at last.

  Alex turned away from her, went to the wall, and, looking down, pressed his hands against it, as though he were trying to push it over.

  “Okay,” he said at last. “I’ll drive you to the station. Just give me a little bit to pull myself together, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ll let you finish in here.”

  He edged around the laundry cart and walked out of the door.

  In the empty lobby, Alex blinked hard in the bright sunlight streaming in from the door. His dad was not at the desk. Big surprise. The lure of the office computer must have proved too much for him. What’s he always doing on there anyhow?

  He heard voices and glanced around to see that the maids were coming downstairs, loads of sheets and towels in their hands.

  “We’re all done now, Mr. Alex,” the one older Hispanic woman said, looking a bit bothered. She indicated the sheets. “We will bring them to the basement before we go.”

  “We could not find the laundry cart!” one of them called out as they passed him.

  “Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” He rubbed his eyes. They walked away from him, chattering in Spanish. He paced up to the desk, looking for something to do.

  Where was Dad?

  That’s okay. Kateri and I can just leave. I can drive her to the bus station, and then stay out. Maybe go to a bar or something. No one has to know that she left until tomorrow.

  The shame of it hit him then, of having to tell his parents that Kateri was gone. She was done with him, done with his family.

  He rubbed his face as a car pulled into the empty lot. A dark green car, slightly familiar. The door opened, and Agent Furlow got out.

  Alex met him at the door, anxious for something to do. “Hey. How was the traffic?”

  “Much better out here,” the agent said, lugging a duffle bag and his briefcase.

  “Let me get that for you,” Alex said.

  “I’m fine. Where do you want to put me?”

  Alex got behind the desk and hit the bar on his computer. “Well, let’s see.

  Everything from 101 through 310 is empty. You’ve got the pick of the house.