her that the way he had sold it, she was the anti-Christ. Now I knew it was because he didn't want to have to face her again, though I didn't know why he was so afraid of her. "I've only known him for a few months, but being in your house, hearing you speak... you don't seem-"
"Compatible?" she asked.
"Yes."
She sighed. "The Lord works in mysterious ways."
TWENTY-FIVE
Enter Sandman.
We waited until we heard Judith hit the bottom of the steps. Then Prithi went and sat at the messy desk, digging the retrieved data card from her jeans pocket and opening the lid of the laptop. She logged into the machine and slipped the card into a slot on the side. As soon as she did, the computer started freaking out.
"Shit," she said.
Windows were opening and closing across the screen in a smooth cadence.
"What the hell did you do?"
"I just put the card in. I'm not doing that."
"Shut it down."
"How?"
"Close the lid, pull the battery. I thought you were a nerd?"
She reached forward with shaky arms, grabbing the lid to slam it closed. There was no way the card was supposed to be doing this, was there? It should have been intel: locations, times, dates, maybe even some blueprints, security codes, that sort of thing.
Not a fucking virus.
All I could guess is that Black had beaten us to the card after all. That Jet had been screwing with me. Or maybe he hadn't known.
If Tarakona could have two teams trying to outmaneuver Mr. Black, Mr. Black could be doing the same.
Prithi froze, her hand on the top of the screen, her head turning and looking back at me.
"What are you doing? Close it."
She had a look of confusion on her face. I shifted my attention to the screen. The windows had settled. Black screen, green text. A blinking cursor. What year was this again?
Then I saw the text.
"Hello, Baron."
Not a data card then. A direct link to the spy. I joined Prithi at the desk, shoving a pile of books out of my way, hoping Judith hadn't already cataloged them. I wasn't a great typist, but I had enough experience writing medical reports.
"What should I call you?" I wrote back.
"Sandman."
It fit. "How do you know you have the right ghost?"
"I know."
"How?"
"I can see you."
There was a small camera on the lid of the laptop. Of course there was. I felt like an idiot.
"Why the live chat?"
"Layers of protection. Black is a hard man to fool. He's everywhere."
I remembered when he had whisked me away from his fixer's apartment in Boston to somewhere else, thousands of miles away, in an instant.
"You have good intel?" I asked.
"Yes. I know where the Hua is. The timeline is shortened. You need to move quickly."
"Pass me the data."
"Can't. Not here. Not secure."
"Where?"
"The Machine."
I held back my groan. For as much as Prithi loved the Machine, I despised it. I was trapped in the Machine while Dannie was being shot in the head. We had gotten screwed going in the last time. I wasn't about to set myself up for that again.
"Machine isn't secure."
The response didn't come back right away. Prithi and I looked at each other. She didn't argue with me about the security of the system. Not after what she had gone through. There were still people running the Machine, and people could always be bought. Or tricked.
"I know what happened with Matwau." Sandman wrote back. "I can guarantee your security from external interference. No promises on the inherent complications inside."
He was referring to the fact that the Machine had few rules. Anything and everything could happen there at any given moment.
"You don't have to worry about that," Prithi said. "I've got your back."
"Where can we get into the Machine?"
"Most of the nice hotels on the strip have their own Machinery. It shouldn't be a problem."
"Not secure."
"I can help with that. I have mods."
I shook my head. I wasn't doing it again. "They're not secure."
"Baron?" Sandman wrote.
"Need a secure Machinery location. What do you have?"
"Conor, I-" Prithi started to say.
"No." I snapped at her, harsher than I intended. She flinched, and then got angry.
"You can figure this shit out yourself."
She turned on her heel and headed for the door. I reached out and grabbed her arm. She flinched again at my cold touch.
"Prithi."
She wheeled on me, her eyes burning and moist. "You aren't the only one who cared about Danelle. You aren't the only one who feels responsible."
The words hit me hard in the gut. "I didn't