Loverboy (The Company #2) - Sarina Bowen Page 0,90
hackers for the scary boss?”
“They might be,” she says quietly. “But the way they talk, it seemed more like they know the guys who did it. Meanwhile, the messages keep rolling into that mirrored channel. There’s talk of obtaining more poison gas. And how to move it from place to place.”
“Can you show us the channel?” Max asks.
She shakes her head. “I’m not the hacker.”
“So who spoofed your phone to behave like a laptop on WiFi?” I ask, because that’s the trick that fooled me.
“My boyfriend. Obviously. He needed me to help get the authorities’ attention, but he didn’t want anyone to figure out who was ratting them out on a public WiFi. I only post things when he’s at work on their machines. We figure they can see his keystrokes. They won’t think it’s him. Because it isn’t.”
“Uh huh. But let’s back up a second,” Max says. “I want to hear more about the scary boss. Have you seen this man? Do you know what he looks like?”
She shakes her head again. “My boyfriend doesn't want him to know I exist. They never ask him about his personal life. But they have his home address, and his social security number. He wants to just disappear, you know? But it’s not that easy.”
“I understand that,” Max says. “Take me through your thinking, then. Why share the details of a crime on a public WiFi? What purpose does that serve?”
“We’re just looking for a way out of this mess!” Her eyes burn with fury. “We didn’t really know how to point a finger at the boss without giving too much away. We couldn't name the location of the office, because we can’t tell if the murderers had actually been there. So we triangulated it instead, with the WiFi locations.”
“But there's thousands of people who live and work inside that triangle,” Max argues.
“Yeah, I got that. But did you miss the part where I said we don't actually know what we're doing? I make donuts, for fuck’s sake.”
“But your guy is a hacker,” I point out.
“Sure, but his big crime is selling cheat codes to teenagers. The only thing he's ever killed is the Gargoyle on level Z of Starmancer.”
“He played level Z?” Scout asks, her head popping up. “Whoa.”
Max shoots her a look that suggests she really shouldn’t change the subject.
“So what's your plan?” Max asks, cracking open a soda. “Empty the contents of your donut account and move to Costa Rica? Hope he can't find you?”
“Something like that. We don't have a real plan. We were just hoping someone would swoop in and take him away in handcuffs.”
“But they didn’t. So you upped your game, right? You've been posting about a planned killing.“
“Yeah. They're pissed off at some guys who are in their way.”
“In their way of what?” Max presses.
“Something about selling hardware to a car company. They never said what the hardware was, or if car was really a car, or code for something else.”
Well, shit. That sounds like our new client. So Max—and me by extension—are the target now?
Cool, cool. Just another day at The Company.
“… My boyfriend feels so bad,” Teagan says tearily. “Someone is going to die if we don't do something.”
“Here’s a crazy thought,” Scout says. “Why didn't you go to the police?”
“Because we stole information off someone else’s computer. And we sound like psychos!” Teagan throws her arms in the air. “Picture me going in there and trying to explain a mirror channel to a beat cop. I barely understand what it is myself. They’ll make a report, and send me home again, right? These guys have our home address and my boyfriend's social security number. I don't know how to get away from this. And I didn’t have a better idea. We were just hoping someone was paying attention. And you were paying attention, right? But I still don’t see how you can help me.”
“Teagan,” Max says, propping his hands behind his head. “I need his name. And I need to meet him. Today.”
She makes a face. “I bet you can’t help us at all. If you’re not the police, you can’t protect us.”
“I can hide you for a while. My primary business is protecting high net-worth clientele. I employ hundreds of guards, recruited from militaries around the world. I can put you in a safe house in New England for a few days until I can get this guy into the hands of the authorities.”