Two Hackers Under One Roof

On my wedding night, my crippled husband was sitting in his wheelchair. He was carefully sticking fake scars onto his face in front of the mirror. I pretended to be cooking in the kitchen while checking my phone.

The International Deep Web rankings had just been updated. My ID was ranked second, right under The Faceless. For three years, The Faceless was the only person I couldn't hack.

I glared at that name until I noticed something terrifying. His login port was using the exact same IP address as my home WiFi. I dropped my spatula and walked toward the study door.

My useless husband was supposed to be a vegetable living off his familys wealth. Instead, his legs were kicked up on the desk while his fingers flew across the keyboard. The screen was glowing with the admin panel of The Faceless...

My name is Sienna Sullivan. To the outside world, I was the disgrace of the family. The Sullivans were a line of decorated military officers, and I was the only failure who never enlisted.

I was pale, thin, and always silent. At family gatherings, I was always relegated to the back row. When they forced me to marry the crippled third son of the Blackwell family, everyone laughed.

Its a perfect match, my aunt sneered. One piece of trash for another.

The Blackwells were the elite of Chicago. Old Mr. Blackwell had three sons. The oldest was a politician, the second was a businessman, and then there was Sterling.

People said Sterling had been in a car crash that ruined his face and paralyzed his legs. He lived in the family mansion, hidden from the world. No one ever saw him.

Our wedding was held in the backyard of the Blackwell estate. There was no white dress and no guests because the family was ashamed. I wore a fifty-dollar dress I bought online.

I stood in front of his wheelchair. The officiant droned on for five minutes before telling us to exchange rings. I looked down at him.

He wore a black mask that covered most of his face. The jagged scars around his eyes looked painful and ugly. He looked bored, like he didn't care about the wedding at all.

I slid the ring onto his finger. His skin was freezing cold. Sterling Blackwell, I whispered his name.

He looked up, his eyes half-lidded. Yeah, he replied. Just one word.

Then his motorized wheelchair turned around. His nurse pushed him back into the house without another word.

On our wedding night, we were given a small cottage on the edge of the estate. I didn't mind the isolation. I needed a place where no one would watch me.

I had work to do. While I was boiling some ramen, my phone buzzed. It was an encrypted message from the Deep Web.

J, theres a massive cyber defense competition tomorrow. Thirty million dollar prize. You in? My contact, Leo, asked.

I typed back with one hand. Im in. Leo replied quickly. The Faceless will be there. You sure you can handle it?

I gripped my spatula until my knuckles turned white. The Faceless. He was the number one hacker in the world.

Id been hunting him for three years. Every time I got close to his identity, hed kick me out at the last second. Once, I almost broke into his database, but he left me a message.

Nice try, Little J, it said. My handle is J, and he called me Little J. Dammit.

As I vented my anger, I noticed a detail. The Facelesss last login IP led back to a physical location. It was the same one as my phones WiFi.

I let the ramen boil over. I didn't care. I walked to the study and peeked through the cracked door.

He wasn't in his wheelchair. He had his feet on the desk, looking lazy and dangerous. His mask was off, revealing a face as smooth as silk.

He was incredibly handsome, with cold, sharp features. His eyes moved across the code with predatory focus. He didn't look like a waste of space.

He looked like a predator who had finally been let out of his cage. The screen showed an admin system. At the top, it read: The Faceless Admin Panel V7.2.

I leaned against the doorframe. My husband was The Faceless. Sterlings fingers flew across the keyboard while he sucked on a lollipop.

Then, he froze. He noticed someone was tracing his IP. He frowned and pulled up his own tracking tools.

He dug through six layers of proxies. His expression changed when he saw the final location. It was his own WiFi.

He spun around instantly. But the doorway was empty.

I was already back in the kitchen, setting the table. My face was a blank mask. Dinners ready, I called out.

Sterling slowly rolled out of the study in his wheelchair. His mask was back on and his eyes were half-closed. He looked like a helpless invalid again.

Thanks, he said softly. He took the bowl and tasted the noodles. Not bad.

Its all I know how to make, I lied. Two world-class hackers were eating together, both pretending to be losers. This was going to be interesting.

2

During the first week of our marriage, we maintained a strange balance. By day, he was the crippled heir and I was the silent, useless wife. By night, we locked ourselves in separate rooms.

I handled three major black market orders from my bedroom. One involved hacking a foreign intelligence satellite for a mercenary group. Another was helping a victim recover deleted evidence against a billionaire.

The third task was to dethrone The Faceless from the rankings. I failed. It wasn't because my skills were lacking.

Every time I touched his firewall, he seemed to sense it. He would immediately add another layer of protection. I stared at the message that popped up on my screen.

Little J, thats the third time tonight. Maybe you should get some sleep? I typed back a threat: Just you wait.

He replied with a smiley face. A guy who hadn't used an emoji in three years sent me a smiley face. I slammed my laptop shut and stared at the ceiling.

Did he know I was J? No, that wasn't his style. If he knew, he would have left my full dossier on my pillow as a warning.

He was still playing with me. He only knew the IP, not the person. Fine. Lets see who gets exposed first.

One night, the Blackwells held a massive family dinner. Everyone was there. The wives of the older brothers wore designer gowns that cost more than my house.

They looked at me like I was the help. Sterling didn't say a word the entire time. He only reached out to take a glass of wine when someone tried to toast me.

She doesn't drink, he said coldly. His sister-in-law rolled her eyes. Youre quite the protector, Sterling. Too bad you can't protect much else.

Sterling didn't bother to answer. I took a sip of my tea. Then, my phone vibrated with an emergency alert.

It wasn't a text. It was an encrypted mission on the Deep Web. C-Rank Mercenary Task: Target at the Chicago International Convention Center. Time: Midnight.

The target was an international arms dealer. I ignored it and kept drinking my tea. Then I noticed Sterling look down at his watch.

It was a smart watch, but it flashed in a way no normal watch would. It was a coded transmission. He received it too.

After dinner, I returned to our cottage and changed into a black tactical suit. I pulled a locked case from under the bed. It contained a KAC assault rifle and night vision gear.

I climbed out the window once the estate went dark. Two hours later, I was on the roof of the convention center. I crawled through the vents and aimed my rifle at the arms dealer below.

I adjusted my breathing and put my finger on the trigger. Suddenly, I heard a faint sound behind me. It wasn't the wind. It was breathing.

I spun around instantly. A silenced pistol was pressed against the back of my head. The person was wearing the same black tactical gear as me.

His night vision goggles covered his face, but his eyes looked familiar in the green light. He froze too. We both saw the patches on each others shoulders.

He had The Faceless emblem. I had the J emblem. We stood in silence for three seconds.

Then he reached out and pushed my goggles up. The moonlight hit my face. His pupils contracted in shock.

Sienna? His voice wasn't electronic anymore. It was a harsh whisper. He knew me.

I reached out and pushed his goggles up too. I saw Sterlings face. It was perfect, without a single scar.

Sterling, I whispered back. We both lowered our weapons.

Downstairs, the arms dealer was signing a contract. Upstairs, I was staring at my husband.

Youre J, he said. And youre The Faceless, I countered.

Another three seconds of silence passed. Then he laughed. It wasn't a polite laugh; it was the laugh of a man who was tired of hiding.

Should we finish the mission before we kill each other? he asked. Agreed, I said.

3

The arms dealer never knew what hit him. From the security footage, the whole thing took less than forty-seven seconds. A woman dropped from the vents while a man burst through the fire exit.

Our coordination was perfect down to the millisecond. I suppressed the guards while he moved for the target. When the dealer pulled a gun, my bullet hit his hand, and Sterlings bullet destroyed the contract.

It was clean and professional. During the escape, Sterling pulled me toward a helicopter on the roof. It was his, branded with his logo.

A bearded pilot looked back and blinked in confusion. Who is this? he asked. My wife, Sterling replied.

The pilot almost dropped his helmet. Sterling sat across from me and crossed his legs. The legs that were supposed to be paralyzed were now resting firmly on the floor.

Your legs? I asked. Fake, he said, tapping his knee. Carbon fiber exoskeleton. I lock the joints to look paralyzed.

He explained it helped him avoid social obligations and keep his relatives at bay. And your face? I pushed.

Special effects makeup, he said, spraying a bottle on his skin. The scars melted away like wax, revealing his real face. It takes thirty minutes every morning. Its a pain.

I understood. I didn't have to wear scars, but I had to look sickly and weak every day. My family thought I was a failure because I left the military.

They didn't know I was recruited into a special operations unit. Special forces? Sterling guessed.

Former, I said. Now Im a freelancer. Hacker, medic, and occasional shadow operative. I looked at him. What about you? Youre more than just a hacker.

He was silent for a moment. The Faceless isn't just one person. Its an organization, he said.

He told me his parents were murdered when he was seventeen. He built this intelligence network to find the killers. Hacking was just the doorway.

I saw something familiar in his eyes. It was the look of a child who decided to never rely on anyone again. I was the same way at eighteen.

Now you know the truth, he said. Ill give you a divorce and a massive settlement if you want out.

I looked at him for a long time. Then I ripped the Faceless patch off his arm.

Divorce? I stuck his patch onto my own arm next to my J emblem. Were just getting started.

Sterling was stunned for a second. Then he gave me a real, deep laugh. Fine, he said. He took my J patch and stuck it to his chest. Lets play this out.

4

We decided to keep up the act. It wasn't just for fun; we both had unfinished business. I was hunting a war criminal, and he was hunting his parents' killers.

Being useless was the perfect cover. But pretending became a different kind of challenge now that we knew the truth.

During dinner, Sterling would sit in his wheelchair with his mask on. I would serve him soup and whisper. Any news today?

I checked your server. You left a backdoor when you hacked NATO. Someone is scanning it, he whispered back. He didn't even move his lips.

When did you find it? I asked. Three this afternoon while I was cleaning up your logs, he replied.

We discussed server intrusions while looking like a miserable, quiet couple. When the butler came in with fruit, I immediately put on a fake smile. Is the soup okay, honey?

Sterling closed his eyes and nodded weakly. Its fine, he murmured. The butler left.

We both immediately sat up straight. What about the logs? I asked.

You left a comment in my system saying my encryption was trash, he said. It got backed up to the cloud. If someone sees it...

Why didn't you delete it? I hissed. I did. But I replied to it first. I wrote: Want me to teach you?

I glared at him. He smirked while sipping his soup. He had a mischievous, hidden smile.

If his relatives knew he spent his time hacking military systems, theyd have a heart attack. But I was just as bad.

The next night, the results of the international hacker competition were posted. The Faceless was first. J was second.

But the internet exploded because of the victory speeches. The Faceless wrote: Thanks to my wife, J. I wouldn't have improved so fast without her.

I wrote: Thanks to my husband. He tried to teach me encryption, though he wasn't very good at it.

The Deep Web went into a frenzy. People couldn't believe they were married. They were shocked they were even different genders.

Sterling showed me the comments on his tablet. That last part was unnecessary, he said. No, it was the best part, I replied.

Sienna, he warned. What? You were the top-rated hacker for three years.

And you still broke into my system three times, I reminded him. He went silent. I won that round.

Two months later, the Blackwells held a mid-year gala. It was my first formal event as the third daughter-in-law. Sterling bought me a custom gown from Paris.

When I walked down the stairs in that deep blue mermaid dress, the room went silent. People weren't just stunned by my beauty; they were confused. They didn't understand how the Sullivan failure looked so different.

My aunt was there, wearing a dress from last season. Her face turned pale when she saw me. The woman who called us trash was now ignored in the corner.

But that was just the appetizer. The main course came during the speeches. Sterling Blackwell stood up from his wheelchair.

He walked toward the microphone with a steady, powerful stride. Every step he took was like a slap to the faces of everyone in the room.

Good evening, he said, removing his mask. There were no scars. His jawline was sharp, and his eyes were like cold steel under the lights.

I know most of you think my brothers are the stars of this family. But today belongs to me, he announced. He turned toward me. And my wife.

People were snapping photos. Some were so shocked they dropped their drinks. He continued speaking.

You might not know Sienna Sullivans resume. Shes a former Lieutenant in the Special Forces with three medals of honor. Shes the second-ranked cybersecurity expert in the world.

The room was deathly quiet. You thought the Sullivans married off a failure to a cripple, he said with a faint smile. Actually, I had to beg her to marry me.

My aunts face went from pale to white. Her children stared at Sterling like they were watching a movie. I stood there in a dress that cost more than my aunts house.

Sterling reached out his hand toward me. Sienna. Come up here.

I walked up the stage, my heels clicking on the marble. He handed me the microphone. I scanned the crowd, stopping at my aunt.

I want to thank my aunt for her words, I said clearly. She said it was a perfect match: one piece of trash for another.

I paused for a second. Too bad neither of us is trash.