In the Crosshairs. - done

Ailly "Jinx' Cully read the file on the screen of her be-stickered laptop. She stat cross-legged on the soft hotel room bed with the remains of her room service meal as her side. Therough hacker websites, a name had come to her attention. Jason Delacroix. Millionaire businessman, philanthropist, owner of one of the largest manufacturing firms in the world. And scumbag. Complaints had be filed against his business practices and the way he treated his workers was notorious. And yet anyone that tried to press charges or sue seemed to step into the shadows and were never heard from again.

As far as Jinx was concerned, that made his bank account ripe for the picking. Some money would go to the families, some to charity and well, a girl had to eat, after all.

Mick's keys bounced rhythmically to the pounding of his fingers, greasy and unwashed. He scoured the screen through lines of code before taking a long blink to try to remove the text from his eyes but even with them closed it remained. How long had he been here staring at the computer screen? Judging by the discarded crisp packets and banana skins; far too long. Yawning he arched his back and was greeted by a creaking that horror film stairs would be proud of. He had been following this jackass for weeks now, picking up on loose e-mail security and locking down a paper-trail of evidence against him. It seemed he was a real scumbag, someone defiantly better off behind bars. The lowest of the low. Leader of a notorious drug cartel and potentially, if he wasn't mistaken, also a human trafficker.

But as he scrolled through Jason Delacroix's past histories he started noticing anomalies, someone else was here, he realized. He stepped away from the computer uneasily and waited for his fellow hacker's next move.

Jinx popped the remains of a shrimp cocktail into her mouth while she dug further into her target's personal emails and files using only her mind. Suddenly her eyes narrowed, someone else was accessing some peripheral files and she knew the man himself was in the Hamptons with his mistress. Bending her will to checking on whoever was in the system, she set two search bots into the files. One to see what the other person was looking into and the second to backtrack the location whoever it was.

Knowing that the trace would take a while to find a really good computer whiz, Jinx turned her attention to the files whoever it was had been trying to access. She had looked in this sub-routine. It hadn't triggered any of the keywords she'd been searching for. What she saw scrolling past her eyes shocked her. Drugs? Smuggling? Holy shit! People! Jinx felt her cheeks heat up. That bastard was going down! Stealing his money would be poetic justice, but it wasn't going to be enough.

Mick was talented with computers, no doubt, but sometimes even the simplest tricks can be the most effective. Kicking the power switch on his computer to switch it off, he hurriedly pulled the cables from the back. Plenty of data was stored on his external hard-drive anyway, perhaps even enough to warrant a conviction, if the police could be bothered to follow his leads which, as of recently, they hadn't been inclined to do. Bloody Rozzas he thought, even across the pond some things never change.

He unplugged his mobile phone from the computer, perhaps whoever was there in the Deepnet with him would be able to track it to his location if they were really that good. He smiled and tossed the phone on the bed and jumped into the shower. Maybe it would be interesting to meet whoever was searching through Delacroix's files anyway. He thought They might have some thing interesting to say and besides he was more then prepared for unexpected visitors. As he steps out of the warm shower the cool laminate flooring on his feet jolt him awake. As he dons the suit of KnightSkye he feels more alive than he has done for days.

Jinx turned her attention to the mysterious intruder. Well, the OTHER mysterious intruder. Concentrating, Jinx bore down on the search making it search in nanoseconds what would ordinarily take whole minutes. And then the trail suddenly ended. "Clever." Jinx grinned to herself. "Not fast enough though." She bit her lip in thought, Whoever it was was digging up dirt on Delacroix, not trying to cover his tracks. So, maybe they were on her side. So to speak.

Jinx decided to take a chance and with a single thought accessed the phone used to set up a mobile wi-fi spot and messaged the owner. Curious sort, aren't you? Me too. Meet?"

KnightSkye swiped his phone from the bed and read the message. His fingers hesitated before tapping away: "Mother always told me not to talk to strangers." He glanced out the window to the dark New York skyline. "Besides it is way past my bedtime, perhaps you should head to mine if you want to talk."

Knight's flat is just under the penthouse in his apartment and the windows give him good scope to scout out anyone approaching. He had a strong suspicion whoever was contacting him was a member of Delacroix's security and he had no intentions of getting caught out in the open. He slid his bow from under the bed. Whoever came he would be ready.

Send.

Jinx read the message sent back to her with a bright grin. "At least they have a sense of humor." She glanced toward her computer, starting another search to track the cellphone's GPS chip and location. It didn't take long since they stayed on the line with her. I'm not a stranger anymore. We've been in someone's dirty laundry together. She chuckled at her own joke. I can be there in 20 minutes. Are you going to make me guess or do you want to tell me what floor?

She grinned at what she had to imagine would be a look of consternation on their face. Promise to play nice?

"Penthouse, of course"
It wouldn't hurt to get a good look at them first, see what they had.
I promise you'll regret coming if you try anything daft, but that's about all.

KnightSkye crosses into the apartment's lift, leaving his foot in the door to make sure no-one is around (he disabled the apartments CCTV some time earlier) and smashes the elevators buttons to pieces with a few clean muay thai elbows. He lives on the 21st floor and walking up 42 flights of stairs would take it out of whoever was coming, even a small advantage like that could pay off big-time later in combat.

KnightSkye rebooted his computer, minus the ethernet cable and pointed his webcam out of his window as his own CCTV system so he could see when his mysterious visitor was arriving.

Jinx canted her head at the term 'daft'. English? Aussie, maybe? Interesting, she thought to herself. Picking up her jeans, she shimmied into them and threw on a light jacket before tossing her heavily stickered laptop into her Hello Kitty back pack. She bounced down the stairs to the lobby and called a cab. Her Mother's stringent warnings were a bare echo in her mind. She was curious. It didn't occur to her that this was an incredibly stupid idea.

As she'd calculated, the ride to the location that her GPS identified took just about 20 minutes. A large residence hotel and apartment building loomed above the street, remarkably undamaged. Jinx paid the driver and got out. She stood on the sidewalk for a few seconds, guessing she would be under observation. A little doubt began to slide through her thoughts. "Now's a hell of a time to grow a brain cell, Ailly." She muttered to herself. That said, she took her courage in hand and marched into the lobby, heading for the elevator. Hitting the button garnered no response. She frowned and placed a palm against the call button. The electrical signal was interrupted. She'd either have to override it or hike.

Deciding not to show her hand just yet, Jinx resolved to walk. Forty two flights later, she was out of breath and regretting that decision, but, at least she'd arrived. Taking a few deep breaths, she eased the door open and peeked into the hallway.

KnightSkye lent against the door of the penthouse hoping that its real owner wouldn't pick this moment to nip out to the shops, or anything equally damning, given that he really lived the level below. KnightSkye peers down the hallway as an exhausted child eases the door open, sensing her intrepidation he asks "Are you lost?" Knight has no problem putting himself in danger but has no desire for innocent members of the public to get caught up in his vigilantism.

"You should leave" he urges "You shouldn't be out at this time, can you not see the city is in chaos?! Go home kid, I'm waiting for someone."

Just at that moment the real owner of the penthouse opens the door and Knight falls inwards. "What the pissing hell are you doing lurking outside my door?" he exclaims.

"I was just, uh, waiting, for someone"
"Well go wait by your own flat ten! Latex wearing weirdo!"
"It's Kevlar actually..."
"Whatever"

Embarrassed Knight flushed red beneath his mask, he quickly taps a message to the other hacker
"Change of plan, meet me one floor below the penthouse"

As the girls phone buzzes Knight brings his palm to his forehead.
"You..? Really?"

Jinx peers at the costumed man leaning on the doorframe to the penthouse. The British flag on his chest answered one question she'd had. Before she could reply to his urges to leave and 'be safe' an older man in an old sweater and clutching a bag of groceries entered and shouted at the man she'd evidently come to meet.

The younger man's discomfiture was somehow reassuring to her and when her phone goes off indicating the message he'd hurriedly typed he just gaped at her. You? Really?"

Jinx grinned brightly at the old man, "It's OK, I'm here with his medication, It'll be alright, I promise."

The old man simply huffed and slammed his door in both their faces, "Freaks!"

"Not what I was expecting, I gotta say. I expected loafers and glasses, actually. Not....you know...." she waved a hand at his attire, "that." She winked at the man and stuck out her elbow, "Care to join me downstairs, then?" She teased brightly.

Knight walks straight past the girl and heads to his room with his head still in his hand. When they arrive he takes off one shoe and props the door open, the room is small, dark and covered in half-eaten food. The result of Knight being 'wired in' for the past few days. After the worst of the smell has left by the door he opens the curtains and window and invites the girl inside.

"So it really was you before?" he asks.

Still smiling, Jinx followed the man in the costume downstairs to a far humbler room and watched him prop the door open. "If you're gonna use someone else's place to jack in, I recommend doing it from a completely different part of the city from your place." She waggled her phone at him, "Too easy to find you."

When he asked if it really had been her in the files, she nodded, "Yup, Jason Delacroix. Scumbag du jour." She helped herself to a seat on one of the rooms' windowsills. "I know why I'm aimed at him. Why are you? And what do you plan to do to him?"

"The guy is a total scumbag" He replies "Owner of one of the biggest drug cartels in NYC, one of his goons was at a party with me and my friend, someone there started ODing off his supply, apparently it wasn't cut right. So I followed the guy, asked him a few questions, turns out he didn't have much in the way of loyalty to his boss. Delacroix plans to run this city and he is halfway there already with the money he has amassed. I decided to start digging online, I found some pretty interesting stuff on him, including links to human trafficking. That's when I saw you and decided to pull the plug. Most of it's on here" He tosses the harddrive to the girl. "I'm KnightSkye by the way"

He glances towards his window and catches a glimpse of his computer screen, the webcam is still rolling. On screen a suited man steps out of a Mercedes with blacked out windows. He doesn't mess around and pulls his gun from his jacket. It isn't Delacroix, he's too old, and too ripped. But this is too much of a coincidence, Knight grabs his bow and darts towards the door.

Spoiler:

Jinx catches the drive the guy tossed in her direction and unshouldering her backpack, she extricated her laptop from it so she could plug in the drive and access the files. Using her hands this time, she brought up the files and skimmed them. She hadn't had a chance to review them in much detail earlier. As she concentrated on the files, her brow furrowed in a frown and she chewed on her lower lip.

Jinx glanced up when she felt the man moving, "Well, KnightSkye, you haven't told me wha...." She stoped when he snatched up a honest to god longbow and headed toward the door. "Hey! WHat's going on?" Her eyes flicked toward his computer screen and just caught a glimpse of the man that KnightSkye had already seen. "Oh man. Are you kidding me? I told you not to jack from your own place." She made short work of stowing her laptop back in her backpack and looked for somewhere to hide. "Shit, shit shit." She muttered.