Now, he used some of those skills getting into and out of government offices. Kirill had cautioned him, letting him know he would one day get caught, but then Kirill always congratulated him on his scoops as well.
Anna had gotten him to teach her because he had been interesting and handsome. Unfortunately, he was also unable to commit to anything more than a deadline. Thankfully, she had found that out early in the relationship.
She knelt and worked on the lock to the general’s study, smiling in triumph when she heard the tumblers click into place. She put the lockpicks away and turned the knob. Even though she knew the general didn’t keep any alarms in the house other than the smoke alarm and the burglar alarms on the entrances and windows, she still expected some kind of siren to go off.
The room was neat, and everything was in its place, just as she remembered it always being. One of the general’s prize possessions was a large globe in a three-legged floor stand. It had been given to him by his father, who had traded labor for the globe and told his son that one day he would travel the world as a successful man if he would only do his job as any good Russian did. The globe was sadly out of date regarding the names of countries and the shifting boundaries. But the general loved that globe and used to talk to her about countries he had seen in the Middle East. He had never been to America, and he’d never wanted to go.
The desk was large and imposing, a monolith that took up a lot of floor space. It looked extravagant, but when the general was working on a project, he covered all of the available space with folders and papers and pictures.
Anna had seen him working sometimes, and he’d always looked grim when he did.
A massive bookshelf took up nearly one entire wall, filled with volumes on history and politics and on military hardware and training manuals. It also held some of the books the general had read to her as a child.
Forcing her thoughts to the task at hand, knowing that her mother could arrive home at any time, Anna sat down at the desk and brought up the general’s computer. It asked for a password.
She didn’t even try to guess. Instead, she dug out the second thing she had gotten from her office, a small USB device that could connect any computer to her friend, Spaso, a hacker she had met in Moscow while writing a story dealing with the Internet.
Spaso lived off the grid, and she had never been able to identify him. He was a ghost, and anyone in the digital information business in Russia and a dozen other countries told stories about him. He wasn’t hacking for money, though he’d told her he took that when he needed to, but was more interested in obtaining the most valuable commodity in the world: information.
They had become friends. Spaso was also a handsome man, bearded and very mysterious, but he’d told her that he wasn’t interested in anyone who couldn’t live off the grid with him. Even her friendship was a risk. But he’d been willing to take it because she’d been so charming.
At the time, she’d blushed and been surprised at how quickly the outlaw had swept her off her feet. Spaso had taken his name from Spasopeskovskaya Square, which meant Savior on the Sands and referred to the sandy soil of the Arabat District in Moscow. She’d wondered if he had lived there once or, perhaps, if he lived there still. He claimed to be the Savior of Cyberspace.
Quieting her nerves, Anna pushed the device into an open port on the general’s computer. Then she opened her phone and dialed a number Spaso had forced her to commit to memory. It wasn’t written down anywhere.
Occasionally, Spaso changed the number because one contact or another had gotten caught or sold him out. When that happened, he came around and met her—almost anywhere. She was surprised at how well he tracked her movements, until she remembered they were all in her planner in her computer. He would take her to lunch in the park or somewhere, and he would give her the new number, never once explaining why the old one had been compromised.
“Hello, Anna.” Spaso’s voice was low and cheery.
“Hello, Spaso. I do not have a lot of time, so I need to