1st Case - James Patterson Page 0,71
distraction.
I stood up and positioned myself in front of the laptop’s camera. This time, I lowered my zipper all the way, keeping my breasts covered but showing a full highway of skin down the front. If he wanted more than that, he could go screw himself. Literally.
I set the camera to a three-second delay, clicked the shutter, and stood back. After a quick countdown, it snapped the photo I needed. Then I dropped it into Stego alongside the code I’d already delivered and clicked Run.
The software took it from there, knitting my geolocator right into the image, pixel by pixel. A status window opened up a few seconds later to indicate its progress: 5 percent and counting.
For a few minutes, nothing more happened. Then, just as the image clicked over to 36 percent complete on the laptop, a new text scrolled into the Android’s chat screen.
That’s not much, he said. Presumably, he meant the modest little selfie I’d already sent. You can do better.
I wrote back right away, making sure to keep the laptop out of sight of the phone’s camera.
Of course I can, I said. Isn’t that how the game works? It gets better as it goes along.
Why don’t I believe you? he responded.
Believe it. I don’t have time to be shy anymore. If I play along, will you do everything you can to get Eve out alive?
Absolutely, he said. I’m in charge. Don’t worry.
It wasn’t that I trusted his word. Not even a little. It was all about taking a page from this guy’s book and turning myself into the person he wanted me to be. Or at least letting him think that’s what was happening. It was the best way I knew to draw him into a trap of my own making.
Okay then, I said. Let’s play.
CHAPTER 77
THE SOFTWARE WAS reporting in at 68 percent complete by now. I needed to draw this out for however long it took.
I want to see more this time, he said.
Not so fast, I said. It’s my turn to ask a question.
Go ahead.
Are you Hermes?
I knew you were going to ask that, he said. No. Hermes never existed.
So you have no connection to FNC? I asked.
Clever girl. This is why I like you, Angela, he said. Now you go.
I hated to think about what he might be doing with himself right then, but I stayed focused on the big picture. I was spinning a web here. And first chance I got, I was going to suck the lifeblood right out of this bastard.
So I pulled my zipper down a few inches from where it had been in the first shot and posted a new pic.
That’s about a 6, he wrote. I’m still looking for a 10.
Be patient. We’ll get there, I wrote back. My turn. Why are you doing all this? What’s the bigger objective here?
Why do you think there is one? he asked.
Seems like a lot of trouble for nothing.
Who said anything about NOTHING? he wrote. Ever hear of George Mallory?
I hadn’t, and I took a second to look up the name. Wikipedia told me that Mallory had been a mountain climber in the 1920s. The thing he was most remembered for was his famous quote about why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. “Because it’s there,” he’d said.
And weirdly enough, it made perfect sense. Black hat hackers lived by that credo, in their own nihilistic way. They were motivated by doing things that had never been done before, often just for the sake of doing it.
It also echoed the Twitter handle from that morning: JustCuz. This was starting to add up.
So you wanted to kill those people because they were there? I asked.
Basically.
Does that mean this app is your Mount Everest?
It was, he said. But now YOU are.
And a thousand invisible spiders went crawling through my stomach. Jesus Christ, this guy was all over the map.
I don’t know what to say to that, I told him.
You don’t have to say anything, he wrote back. Next picture, please.
CHAPTER 78
THE GOOD NEWS was, my Stego image was just about there. I watched the status window as it clicked from 99 to 100 percent complete, and a throbber started cycling on the screen while the software did its final processing.
Anyone there? the Poet texted. I warned you, Angela. Don’t bore me. It won’t end well for Eve if you do.
I’m just deciding how much to show you, I wrote back quickly.
That’s easy, he said. Show me everything.
Finally, a new window opened on