Wrench plans to go through dad's data again, looking for anything they can use, but ends up with a surprise visitor instead.
Notes:
It's Wrench. There's cursing. Among other things. See notes at the end of the chapter.
The sun was bright and the breeze felt good as Wrench sped north towards Pacific Heights on a bike he'd appropriated for the day. It was a thrill having put such a major dent in Blume's reputation but Wrench was under no illusion that it wouldn't take long for them to recover. DedSec really needed to figure out a second strike quickly if they wanted to keep their momentum up. Which is why he found himself heading to Pacific Heights, where he'd hid his father's data almost 10 years ago.
He hadn't been back in almost a year, a few months before Marcus joined up with DedSec. Even before Marcus, his visits to the house had dropped dramatically as he got caught up in working with DedSec to further their agenda. He had his garage and the hackerspace to hang out at and a group of friends that actually welcomed him into their lives more than anyone else had before.
Prior to DedSec, he'd spent a lot of time harassing a small local business and a few individuals affiliated with his father's conglomerate. It was sort of like shooting an elephant with a NERF gun. While he'd managed to get the business to shut down, it had taken several years. A number of times he got so frustrated and disheartened, he almost gave up. Plus, the loss had next to no impact on Philips' empire. Which was Wrench's wake up call.
He'd scoped out a few different hacker groups but after what happened in Chicago three years ago, DedSec made the top of the list for him. They obviously got shit done and he was all about GSD. So he started showing up at the hackerspaces, enthusiastically joining in on missions and building whatever shit he could with the parts he had until he'd convinced them to get a 3D printer. Sitara welcomed him with a threat. Josh took him in stride, mostly avoiding him at first because he was "too loud." And Horatio watched him suspiciously until he'd run a mission that went south when it turned out the CFO they were harassing over some sketchy business practices was a sick fuck. Wrench showed up at the same time the Auntie Shu Boys were making their "delivery" and refused to let it go against most everyone's recommendations since one hacker against five Auntie Shu, seven security guards and a high chance for reinforcements was terrible odds. Wrench wasn't the subtle type, of course, so multiple small explosions and a fuckton of property damage later, he'd finally managed to extract the girl and send her on her way, using himself as a decoy to draw the gang reinforcements as far away from her as possible. He limped away with a sprained ankle and Horatio fully welcoming him as a "crazy ass fucker" while Sitara reamed him for being a complete idiot as she forced him to put his foot up and got him a beer.
Unfortunately, the local DedSec group wasn't as productive as the one in Chicago, spending more time "building a brand" (Sitara's words) over actively pursuing targets. But he found something he wasn't expecting: acceptance. And once Marcus had joined, they really started to see things move.
Funny thing was, as much as he hated Blume on general principle and knew that his father had some connection with the company, it hadn't really occurred to him to check his dad's old data for anything on the technical giant so the dwindling number of visits he spent in Pacific Heights before Marcus came into the picture found him looking through the information randomly and not really finding anything terribly useful. After Marcus planted that back door at Blume, things moved really quickly with their campaign against the company. He barely had time to think about much of anything but what they were working on at the time.
With a little time to breathe now, Wrench was wondering what he might be able to dig up in those old files. He'd originally used his dad's data to help him hack into and bring down that local business but after hooking up with DedSec and, more specifically, finding a place with Sitara, Horatio and Josh, he'd found himself less focused on his past and more interested in what he could do with his friends. Now he was hoping that combing through the information again might pull up some additional dirt on Blume or even something on his dad that might fit with DedSec's agenda.
He arrived at his childhood home a few minutes later, hopping off his bike and grabbing the bag of Chinese food he'd picked up on the way. The next moment found him standing in the drive staring up at the surprisingly modest two-story, feeling the usual mix of trepidation and defiance that hit him whenever he came back, even after so many years on his own. He stared at the house for another minute before tossing his laptop bag over his shoulder, jutting his chin out and walking to the door like he owned the place.
When he'd first run away almost 10 years ago, he'd avoided Pacific Heights completely. He was afraid of what would happen if his family found him and he hated everything about the place, everything it reminded him of, so he'd stayed away. Five years later found him out here again on a whim, which is when he'd learned that his childhood home was empty and his family living somewhere else. Later, he'd made some quiet inquiries and found out they'd moved to a larger property in the Woodlands.
The house in Pacific Heights had been closed up, furniture covered, and though the alarms were left on, no one came back over that 10 year period. Wrench had debated numerous times with himself about why they hadn't sold the place and finally decided his family was so obscenely wealthy that having an extra empty house sitting around wasn't even a blip on their radar. It pissed him off when he thought about it. So, he'd made sure to get somewhat regular use out of the place, leaving a stash of beer and snacks, using his parents giant jacuzzi tub, watching the big screen tv, and crashing out on the couch or the bed in his room. And, of course, he'd hidden his father's data at the house, like a giant middle finger to them. It wasn't home for him and he didn't think it ever could be, but it was a good place for a change of scenery and to search through his father's data in private to see what he could discover.
At this point in time, however, he really wasn't convinced there would be much that was still relevant. It had been 10 years. But even a little something that might give them a lead to follow would be better than spinning their wheels or just sitting around planning all the time. For the first time, he was considering the possibility of bringing the data back to the hackerspace to see if Josh could tease anything out of it. Wrench had done everything he could, so far, to keep his old life completely separate from his current one but if it could provide them some kind of edge, it might be worth it. And he figured he could just hand it over without getting into details about where it came from.
He entered the house and dropped the bag of Chinese on the side table while he punched a few buttons on the alarm system. When he'd originally decided to use his childhood home as his own personal hotel, he'd set up this sneaky little virus in the alarm system that, when triggered, would delete all data at the security center regarding the house being accessed by anyone and make it look like there had been a brief glitch. Five years later and it still worked like a charm.
Locking the door, he grabbed the Chinese food and turned to head toward the living room. His grand plan for the evening? Take his mask off, grab a beer, watch something with lots of action and explosions and eat before he dug out dad's data. He took a step into the living room and froze, hearing a noise he couldn't account for, something that shouldn't be there. He backed out of the room, quietly setting everything along the wall and grabbed the sledgehammer he always kept here. Slinging it over his shoulder, he walked through the living room toward the kitchen where he thought the noise originated.
As he stepped through the kitchen door and paused he immediately found the source, a person standing at the counter facing away from the doorway. It took a moment for it to register-pale gold hair, broad shoulders, muscled arms all wrapped in expensive business casual clothing and a $1000 pair of Italian leather boots. Lance turned and saw him, giving his brother a wicked grin with a "Hey, baby bro." Wrench's mask flashed double exclamations but he didn't give Lance the chance to say anything else. Flinging the sledgehammer at his brother, he turned and ran for the door, vaulting over the couch on his way through the living room.
Wrench heard a crash from the sledgehammer then a singsong "You missed!" from his brother followed by the sound of heavy footsteps behind him. Rounding the corner into the entryway, he skidded to a halt in front the door fumbling at the lock before he'd fully stopped, desperately trying to get the door open before his brother got to him. Just as he'd managed to grasp the deadbolt and start turning it, his brother crashed into him from behind, slamming him fully into the door and knocking the breath out of him. He shoved back as hard as he could, feeling like he was backing into a brick wall and then slammed his head back, grazing his brother in the chin as Lance realized what he was doing and threw his own head back to avoid the full hit. Wrench instinctively turned, trying to dodge around his brother but found both of them spinning on the slick, wood floor knocking over the side table and scattering Wrench's things as Lance grabbed his arm and tried to twist it up behind his back. Wrench let the momentum carry him around and slammed his fist into Lance's head while simultaneously pulling on his arm to free it. His brother wouldn't let go, though, giving the arm a yank to pull Wrench back within striking range. He gave a hard tug in opposition, hearing a sickening sounding pop just as he pulled free.
The pain from his newly dislocated shoulder caught up with him an instant later, taking what was left of his breath from him. He backpedaled, hazily thinking of the back door, but his foot hit the rug in the hallway and he came crashing down on his back. He shouted "FUCK!" as the fall jarred his shoulder and then immediately twisted onto his stomach, pedalling with his feet and pulling with his good arm to get himself up and away from this brother. He half crawled, half threw himself toward the stairs, grabbing the railing with his hand as his brother reached him. Leaning down to grab both his ankles and drag him back to the living room, Lance gave one good tug and the railing slipped from his hand leaving him flailing for anything he could hang onto to stop the backward progression, kicking and bucking in an attempt to break free. Halfway into the living room, Lance jerked roughly on his ankles before letting go, making him slide a couple of inches along the floor. Before he even had the chance to get his knees under him, his brother landed heavily on his back, pinning him to the floor with his knee and shoving his hand into Wrench's dislocated shoulder, ripping a strangled scream from him. Lance followed up by grabbing Wrench's hoodie and hair and bouncing his head off the floor several times to leave him dazed and moaning in pain.
Wrench must've passed out for a moment. The throbbing in his shoulder brought him back to consciousness but he couldn't remember what he should be doing. He just had this sense of urgency that he needed move. Now. He guessed he'd pissed dad off again cause he felt like he'd been hit with a freight train. This was when he should be making himself scarce before his dad decided he needed another beat-down. Stirring, he tried to move into a better position to push himself up. He could hear noise behind him, something thumping and someone speaking. His brother, maybe? His brother! The present came crashing back in. Alarm shot through him, the adrenaline giving him enough energy to push himself onto his knees with his good arm but the movement made the pain in his dislocated shoulder spike again, causing the room to spin and bringing him close to retching. He blinked through the nausea, swaying dizzily. Was that his mask on the floor? Before he could clear his head, someone grabbed his hair roughly and dragged him backwards, throwing him onto a hard chair. He bit back a cry as his shoulder was jarred again. A moment later he was screaming in agony when Lance wrenched his arms behind his back to tie his hands to one of the upper rungs of the chair back. The position left him gasping and squirming in pain from the pressure on his shoulder.
"Somebody's been a baaaad boy. Ten years bad. And dad is pissed, Brandy." His brother, who was seated on the arm of the couch examining his mask, looked up at him with a smug smile that quickly turned cruel. Wrench stared at his mask, not meeting his brother's eyes, breathing heavily and unconsciously shaking his leg in an effort to control the pain.
Lance waved the mask in front of Wrench. "Nifty toy. Tough. Trying to keep people from seeing that face of yours, huh?" Standing, he tossed the mask to the side watching Wrench's eyes track it as he stepped closer to the chair. He leaned down, placing a hand on each arm of the chair and moved his head around trying to catch Wrench's eyes.
"No? Baby brother? Still the same pathetic loser under all that gear, aren't you?" He pitched his voice higher, "No! Please stop! I promise I won't do it again….Whaa-whaa." Wrench turned his face away, pulling back from his brother and watching him from the corner of his eyes.
"Nothing, Brandy?"
He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes for a moment at that fucking nickname and then bit out, "You might want to consider brushing your teeth, dickhead. Your breath smells fucking rank."
A look of fury crossed Lance's face briefly before he turned it into another cruel smile as he placed his hand on Wrench's neck, kneading it roughly. He leaned in close.
"Dad wants his data back," Lance said quietly. "But, do me a favor, little brother. Hold out as long as you can. It'll be more fun that way."
For a moment, the only sounds were Wrench's harsh breathing and the tapping of his heel. Then Lance stood up and with one swift motion pulled the hacker forward, forcing his head down almost to his knees and tearing another agonized scream from him as the barely endurable ache in his shoulder turned excruciating. Lance held him in that position until he started retching, vaguely thankful he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday so he didn't end up with puke running down his legs.
The pressure let up at some point in the middle of his dry heaving and he pushed himself upright as soon as he realized he could, tears streaming down his face and breath coming in gasps. His foot started up immediately again, not that he noticed. He still couldn't bring himself to look at this brother directly so he focused on his mask lying near the wall and tried to figure out how he was going to get himself out of this fucking mess. His brother had left the room and was in the kitchen talking and apparently searching for something based on the banging he could hear of cabinets and drawers.
"Oh, he's not going anywhere. He's secure." A pause. Lance must be on the phone, of course. Another cabinet slammed closed. "Nah, I don't think they actually know about this place. He has fucked it up a good bit though. Remember that Rosetti mom has in your sitting room? He drew on it with a fucking Sharpie." Wrench's lip twisted into a sneer that turned into a grimace as he shifted, trying to take pressure off his shoulder without any luck.
Lance walked into the room, still on the phone, tossing a roll of duct tape in the air. "Yep. My pleasure. I'll see you in the morning." DedSec was out. They didn't know anything about this place. Though they could find him with the gps on his phone, but how long did they have before he was dead or relocated?
Lance walked around the chair to stand in front of Wrench. He paused for a moment with his hand at his chin as if he were contemplating something. Wrench stared at the duct tape in his other hand and ruled out texting anyone, especially while his brother was so...attentive. Heck, if he could just get to his phone or laptop, he could fuck some shit up.
"So, this is the part where I pretend to try and get information out of you. And the part where you pretend like you're not going to tell us anything." His brother paced in front him and he watched the duct tape cross back and forth with Lance. People were getting off work, coming home. If he could get his brother pissed off enough, Lance would probably go after him and forget about the duct tape. And maybe the noise would alert a neighbor.
"Problem is, since it's evening everyone's coming home and we can't be too noisy here." Lance held up the roll of tape, shaking it.
"Dad doesn't keep you around for your brains, does he? Can't get any answers out of me if I can't talk, douchebag." Lance's eyes narrowed briefly at the insult and then his face shifted into an almost gleeful look.
"Thing is, I really, really don't care if you tell us anything. You obviously haven't found anything in there worth shit or you would've used it, so I don't think it matters. I'm just here for the questioning." Fuck! He needed to come up with something fast...
"Lance, you…" he was interrupted by his brother placing tape over his mouth and wrapping it around his head a couple of times. Wrench risked looking in his brother's eyes as the man straightened up, tossing the roll of tape aside. He regretted it instantly, giving a full shudder at the look of anticipation he found there.
It was going to be long night.
Notes:
I probably should've mentioned the fact that I tend to torture the crap out of my favorite characters before giving them a happy ending. This is where you should start heeding the story warnings in case you were ignoring them before. There's likely to be a good bit of violence from here on out in most chapters and possibly a sex scene before it's all over.
This took a lot longer than I'd planned but I got side-tracked writing some background to this scene that I may or may not post later and with RL.
