Zero Sum Read online

  Zero Sum

  Binary Hackers Book 1

  Jan Thompson

  Zero Sum (Binary Hackers Book 1)

  Copyright © 2017 Jan Edttii Lim Thompson

  Book News from Jan Thompson: JanThompson.com/newsletter

  Author Website: JanThompson.com

  Published by Georgia Press LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, persons, places, events, and things are the product of the author’s active imagination or are used fictitiously.

  eBook Cover Design: Georgia Press LLC

  Paperback Cover Design: Georgia Press and Deranged Doctor Design

  Scripture quotations are from the public domain King James Version of the Holy Bible.

  First eBook Edition: October 2017

  eBook ISBN 978-1-944188-40-5

  First Paperback Edition: June 2018

  Paperback ISBN 978-1-944188-41-2

  To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save me from my sins and rose again from the grave to give me eternal life in heaven.

  Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

  Psalm 69:14

  Contents

  Books by Jan Thompson

  About the Binary Hackers Series

  About ZERO SUM

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Thank You for Reading ZERO SUM

  The Next Book is ZERO DAY

  ZERO DAY Chapter 1 Sneak Peek

  Notable Supporting Cast

  Acknowledgments

  Books by Jan Thompson

  Binary Hackers

  Protector Sweethearts

  Savannah Sweethearts

  Vacation Sweethearts

  Seaside Chapel

  About Jan Thompson

  Books by Jan Thompson

  Binary Hackers (3-6 Books)

  JanThompson.com/binary

  Protector Sweethearts (9 Books)

  JanThompson.com/protector

  Savannah Sweethearts (11 Books)

  JanThompson.com/savannah

  Vacation Sweethearts (7 Books)

  JanThompson.com/vacation

  Seaside Chapel (9-12 Books)

  JanThompson.com/seaside

  Keep up with Jan Thompson’s book news:

  JanThompson.com/newsletter

  About the Binary Hackers Series

  Inspirational Romantic Technothrillers

  From USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson come these inspirational near-future cyberthrillers combining technothriller and romance, starting with Binary Hackers that feature computer specialists living at the edge of cyberspace, where they have to juggle being law-abiding truth-telling Christians while carrying out their assignments by any and all means possible. If you’re looking for clean futuristic romantic suspense thrillers that don’t compromise the Christian faith, these books are for you.

  The Binary Hackers series is set in the same story world as Jan’s other books, and characters from the other series may make cameo appearances in this series and vice versa.

  Reading order:

  Book 1: Zero Sum

  Book 2: Zero Day

  Book 3: Zero Base

  (More Books to Come)

  Binary Hackers

  JanThompson.com/binary

  Get book news from Jan Thompson:

  JanThompson.com/newsletter

  About ZERO SUM

  Binary Hackers Book 1

  A broken hacker.

  A brave FBI agent.

  A deadly brain implant.

  In Zero Sum (Binary Hackers Book 1), FBI Cybercrime Special Agent Stella Evans finds the last surviving computer consultant who holds the key to destroying a terrorist organization’s global network, but Cayson Yang may not live long enough to dismantle the computer system.

  From USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson comes Binary Hackers, an inspirational Christian romantic suspense technothriller collection, featuring hackers and cybercrime specialists at Binary Systems, Inc. Binary Hackers begins with the trials and tribulations of Cayson Yang, the fearful leader of the struggling Binary Systems, Inc.

  The Chaos…

  Computer network specialist Cayson Yang’s struggling network infrastructure company has received a rash of new clients lately, the total income of which finally puts Binary Systems, Inc., in the black for the first time ever. He is now able to give pay raises to himself and his business partner and cousin, Leland Yang-Joule, and bonuses to his employees. Cayson dreams of a bigger office space for them all.

  Somewhere between two dollars in his bank account and a two-million-dollar computer network contract, Cayson finds himself in the crosshair of the world’s most notorious terrorist organization that is now coming after him, his business partners, his family, and even relatives he doesn’t know exist.

  Ignoring repeated warning lights might have been Cayson’s downfall, but it’s too late for him to backtrack…

  The Crime…

  Assigned to the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, FBI Special Agent Stella Evans finishes assisting her colleagues from the Counterterrorism Division to apprehend a notorious terrorist.

  On trial in Europe for war crimes too numerous to list, Molyneux refuses to help the authorities dismantle her sophisticated international computer network. The only alternative is to find the architects of this network and hope they will cooperate.

  Shutting down Molyneux’s underground computer network is the best way to destroy those mercenary terrorists for hire. However, the terrorist organization doesn’t want to be outdone. A successor is named, and they begin to kill off anyone who has worked on the underground network in the past.

  The Crisis…

  By the time Stella reaches the Binary Systems global headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, most of the original computer specialists who worked for Molyneux are either dead or have disappeared—except their fearful leader, Cayson Yang, the final link, kept alive for reasons unknown.

  Stella finds herself at a crossroad between duty and following Cayson and the cybernetic implants in his head. She stands to lose not only her carefully cultivated career but, more dangerously, her closely guarded heart as she decides what to do with the Pandora’s box she has opened.

  Zero Sum (Binary Hackers Book 1)

  JanThompson.com/zerosum

  Binary Hackers


  JanThompson.com/binary

  To receive book news from Jan Thompson:

  JanThompson.com/newsletter

  Prologue

  “This better pay off, Kel,” Cayson Yang said when his employee and friend came back to their booth at a corner of the noisy convention center. “We paid five thousand dollars for this spot, and nobody has stopped by all morning. Day two.”

  All around their tiny booth were gargantuan displays from mega technology firms that Cayson’s small computer consulting company could never hope to compete with. They were big, loud, noisy, and they had food. Which Kelvin Gallagher had been munching on as he made the rounds, leaving Cayson to manage the Yottaflops Data Storage LLC booth on his own.

  Kelvin had a mouthful of snacks. He muttered something about missing breakfast. It came out sounding like he was missing butter.

  Or buffer, depending on if you were at work or home.

  “There must be hundreds of tech expos in the southeast, and we had to pick this one where we’re invisible,” Cayson continued.

  “We? You picked it,” Kelvin reminded him.

  “Well, I’m scolding myself right now.” Cayson pointed to one of the booths nearby. It had a big poster of a bobblehead advertising 3D printing, and a long wraparound line of people. “We’re in the wrong business.”

  Kelvin pulled out something from his pocket. It was a bobblehead doll of himself.

  “Whoa. So that’s what they’re doing over there?” Cayson asked.

  “Yeah. You can ask them to print anything for you. The kid in front of me skipped away with a nerf gun that actually shoots darts. I got this.” He shook his bobblehead.

  “You do have a big head. How much did it cost you?”

  Kelvin winked. “If you had to ask, you can’t afford it.”

  Across another aisle, speakers blared loud Bollywood music as a huge crowd gathered around a demonstration of graphics design innovations.

  Cayson felt the urge to get off his folding chair and join the decibels of success.

  Instead, he found himself tidying up his empty counter, stacking up business cards and a sorry brochure he had printed off their office printer—because someone had forgotten to order new brochures.

  We’re a digital company. We don’t do paper. Save the trees!

  The IKEA countertop was slightly chipped on a couple of sides from when he and Kelvin had tried to offload it from the top of his hybrid vehicle on Monday morning. That was after the Atlanta police had given him a citation for dangerous driving.

  How was he supposed to know that bungee cords had a breaking point?

  His D in college physics hadn’t helped.

  “Maybe we need a bowl of candy,” Kelvin suggested. “Food draws people.”

  “Candy is not food.”

  “A technicality.” Kelvin downed a whole bottle of soda and smacked his lips. “Maybe it’s the name of the company.”

  “What’s wrong with Yottaflops?” Cayson had picked the name of the company carefully.

  At this moment in his life, yotta was the largest metric unit.

  Hence, yottaflops.

  A bazillion floating point operations per second.

  Ten to the power of twenty-four.

  That’s some fast server.

  “The dichotomy in meanings is too obvious,” Kelvin explained, as if he thought that his employer had missed the point. “If we’re not talking server speed, but data storage, it should be YottaBytes.”

  “But we’re not only doing data storage,” Cayson countered. “We do primarily systems. Systems mean servers, and servers means FLOPS.”

  Kelvin pointed to the logo on his bright-yellow tee shirt. “This says Data Storage.”

  “Whatever you do, don’t talk to Leland about this. She’s been wanting to fold Yottaflops into our parent company, Binary Systems.”

  “One name to rule them all…”

  “She has fifty-one percent of the company shares. If she says it costs too much money to run two separate companies, then that’s the way it is.” Cayson looked around, wondering where all the customers were. “It has already cost too much money to change everything. Bank cards, logos, door signs, checkbooks—”

  “Whoa. What? Did you say checkbooks? Who uses checkbooks these days?”

  “I do. And I had them specially printed. A lot of money has gone into this business and we’re still not breaking even.”

  Cayson had sold his house to start Binary Systems, Inc. Then he created a branch to give Kelvin a job. It hadn’t seemed ridiculous at first because Cayson felt great saving Kelvin.

  Thing is, Cayson was not Kelvin’s savior.

  But the deed had been done.

  Binary Systems had spawned off Yottaflops, and now Cayson owed the IRS money.

  The companies had to succeed.

  Cayson couldn’t live in Mom’s basement too long. Pretty soon she would ask him to do more than just take out the trash. At least she had not yet suggested that he volunteer in her law office in exchange for free meals.

  Well, she had been taking care of his cats when he was at work all day and night long.

  “Whatever,” Kelvin said. “It’s your company. Say, when is Leland coming? I have to get back to the machine room. Our Dubai client wants his data backed up somewhere safe and offshore.”

  “Hush.”

  “Like anyone can hear us—or even cares.” Kelvin put up a palm. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that in a bad way. Obscurity has its benefits, you know, especially in our line of work.”

  Cayson said nothing.

  “I’ll stay if you want me to.” Kelvin wadded up another candy wrapper and tossed it into the trash can under the counter.

  “I don’t think we’ll have a lot of foot traffic the rest of the day. Why don’t you go?”

  “See you at the meeting.” Kelvin shook his head. “Who in the world calls for a meeting at three in the morning?”

  Guilty as charged.

  Well, when the customer was paying half their income, Cayson had no choice but to comply, even if they wanted to talk business at a time convenient to them. It would not always be during the day in Cayson’s time zone.

  The perks and perils of having global clients.

  Cayson watched Kelvin go. He meandered in and out of the booths, picking up snacks, brochures, and such.

  Kelvin was a hard worker. Not as brilliant a hacker as Cayson’s cousin and business partner, Leland, but he was a great system administrator. And he didn’t need any sleep. He could fill in all night long and still function in the daytime.

  Boisterous cheering across the aisle from the Bollywood booth made Cayson look that way.

  He flinched.

  Blocking his view was a ghost from his past.

  Startled, Cayson gripped the counter and felt the chipped edge cut into his palm.

  He couldn’t remember her username. He had only seen her online. Never in person.

  Didn’t she live in Asia somewhere? Macau someplace?

  What was she doing in the United States?

  Something must be terribly wrong for her to show up here. Why here? Why now?

  “Are you Cayson Yang?” She sounded like she was in a hurry.

  Her accent was pretty good. She had said online that she had learned English by watching American television shows.

  But that was eighteen months ago.

  No one was supposed to contact anyone else in the team.

  They had all agreed.

  What is she doing here?

  Cayson decided he had to have a talk with Dmitri about this breach of security.

  “Who’s asking for him?” Cayson replied.

  “Do you always speak in third person?”

  “Huh?”

  “Your name tag says Cayson Yang.”

  “Oh.” Cayson winced. Note to self: stop wearing name tags.

  “How may I help you?” He started over, continuing his charade. Definitely need to talk with Dmitri about this.r />
  “I have a warning for Ulysses.”

  What warning? “You mean a message?”

  “A warning.”

  Only a small handful of people knew who Ulysses was.

  And even fewer people knew where he had gone.

  In fact, Cayson himself had no idea where Ulysses was at the moment. Only Ulysses’s best friend knew, and the latter was incommunicado.

  Cayson prayed to God for mercy. He had thought that blighted time in his career had been long gone. How could it resurface now, when he was trying to make a legitimate, above-board living?

  “He no longer works for me,” he said. “He’s off the grid.”

  Bollywood music thumped in his ears. People cheered and made a lot of noise.

  Cayson saw the woman’s lips move, but he couldn’t hear anything.