“Hide and go seek,” she says, looking at me with even more curiosity than the agents looked at her.
My heart is throbbing wildly from all the adrenaline coursing through my body, and I’m having a hard time controlling my breathing. I have the vague thought that it might be useful for me to go find something elsewhere to break to relieve some of my tension. I haven’t felt this fucked up and pretzel brained in…
Ever.
“What does that mean?” asks Miranda. She’s been watching us all so quietly, I’d almost forgotten she was here.
Tabby replies mysteriously, “It was S?ren’s favorite. He won’t be able to resist.”
Something about the way she says it makes my skin crawl. Ryan’s grip on my shoulder grows a little tighter. He murmurs, “Easy, brother. Take a breath.”
“And?” prompts Harry.
“And if I can distract him long enough, we might have a chance to gather some clue as to his whereabouts. I’ve started a traceback. The longer my program spends in his system, the better chance it has to gather data before he discovers it and shuts it down. But if I engage with him, it might stall him a bit.”
Harry narrows his eyes at her. “You said earlier you knew how to contact him.”
“I do, but it won’t give us his location.”
“How do you know? Have you tried to contact him before?”
“No. But I know it’s only an origination point, not direct access. He’ll have built in layer after layer of obfuscation. I can reach out, but that’s all. It’s like firing a flare into the night sky. He’ll see the flare, and then respond when he’s ready. But even then his location will be cloaked. He’d never be stupid enough to give me a direct line.”
“Hold on,” I say, understanding dawning. “You’re saying you have his phone number?”
Tabby stares at me for a while before she answers. I can feel how carefully she’s choosing her words.
“I’m saying I have a phone number. I don’t know whose it is, I’ve never called it. But if I reach out to him that way now, as all his systems are under attack, he’ll not only know it’s me, he’ll know it’s a trap.”
In a tight voice, I ask, “You don’t want him to know it’s you?”
Miranda says, “No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.”
Tabby looks at her in surprise. “I see someone other than me has read Machiavelli.”
Miranda’s smile is pinched. “Yes. I’ve studied his writings extensively.”
I don’t know what to make of the expression on Tabby’s face. She says, “‘It’s double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.’ That was always my favorite of his lines. You?”
Miranda locks eyes with Tabby. “‘Nothing great was ever achieved without danger.’”
Some unspoken understanding passes between them. Tabby murmurs, “Indeed.”
Harry is irritated with the interruption. “If we’re done quoting a dead guy to each other, ladies, can we get back to the situation at hand?”
Tabby turns her attention back to Harry. She leans forward in her chair. “Give me a chance to engage him, distract him, play with him a little. He won’t let it last long, but once he’s shut down his servers, we can analyze whatever data my program has scoured from his system.”
“And if your program comes up with nothing useful?”
Tabby leans back in her chair and lifts a shoulder. “Then we can make a phone call. But once we do that…once he knows I’m involved in this…” Her voice darkens. “The game will change.”
“How?” I ask, my voice hard.
Tabby looks at her hands when she answers. “We’ll no longer have any control whatsoever.”
My throat is tight, crowded with every question I want to ask her about S?ren, but won’t. Not here. Not now.
Harry, however, has no problem getting straight to the point. “Why not? What will he do?”
Tabby looks at me. She says softly, “He’ll end it.”
Harry crosses his arms over his chest. “Miss West. Please. I don’t have the patience for puzzles. What will he do?”
It’s Miranda who answers, her voice strained. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? He’ll release all the data he stole from me to the press and my competition—including my proprietary software—cut the power to the entire studio, and destroy my business. Every production will be shut down. Every office and soundstage will go dark, possibly permanently, depending on how much control he has over the Department of Water and Power’s computers.”
“We’ve got agents working on that,” says Harry. “The DWP has been notified there’s been an intrusion into their network—they’re executing breach protocols as we speak.”
“If they block one hole, he’ll find another,” says Tabby. “There’s always a way in. Also, there’s the possibility he has people inside the DWP assisting him.”
Harry nods. “We’re working on that theory too.”