Page 127 of Broken Wheels

Chapter 38

If everything wasn’t so fucked up right now, Josh would be like a kid in a candy store. He’d clicked on the link, only to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data.

There has to be something useful here.

One look at a handful of the files Chalmers’s boss had provided them revealed names, dates, times, and results of horrific experiments they’d conducted first on their own people, then on the towns they’d decimated. The amount of life lost was staggering, but what was even more so was how they’d covered it up.

The icing on the cake? Some people in the government had acted as though the tragedies were natural and not murder.

Now there’s a great place to start.

Josh jotted down a list of all the former Congresspeople whose names appeared in the documents, and started digging into their financials. He wasn’t at all surprised to find deposits made by an overseas company totaling hundreds of thousands, maybe more. And every deposit was made within a specific window—one week before each attack.

What shocked him was the amount of information that, even on his best days, Josh wouldn’t have been able to access.

“I have got to meet Chalmers’s boss,” he muttered.

“Why?” Gary asked absently, as he examined his own files.

“I want him to teach me what he knows.” He leaned back with a sigh. “Hacking isn’t as simple as getting through a firewall and you’re home-free. It evolves.”

“But you’re good at it,” Gary protested.

“Sure I was—back in the day. But now? We’re talking new security measures, more sophisticated equipment…. I’ve been stymied on more than one occasion.” He stared at the screen. “I could learn from him.”

“Josh,” Gary said, a note of warning in his voice.

He held up his hand. “Nothing bad, I swear. In fact, it gave me an idea.”

“Uh-oh.”

Josh chuckled. “I was just thinking… we could open a cybersecurity branch, and I could head it up. Show people how to keep their precious things safe from… well, people like me. It would all be aboveboard, totally legit.”

Gary narrowed his eyes. “Why would you need to do that?”

Josh met his gaze. “Am I the only one seeing the big picture here?”

“What do you mean?”

He pushed out another sigh. “My life is pretty much screwed.”

“Hey, don’t say stuff like?—”

“Gary, just stop, will you? Take off the rose-colored glasses and see what’s really happening.” Josh straightened in his chair. “With that bombshell of his, Spencer put out a hit on me. Now, there are people out in the real world who think Spencer walks on water. Okay, they’re misguided, but they’ll flock to his message. No matter how much proof they’re shown, they’re going to believe the lies—believe I did this—because they trust the source. I won’t be able to go to the grocery store without being harassed or accused.”

“But once we clear your name in court?—”

Josh shook his head. “People close themselves off to inconvenient truths, Gary. You know it, I know it. While the majority of them will accept it and move on, there will be a sliver of them that will refuse to believe I’m innocent.” He grimaced. “He’s framed this beautifully.”

“You can’t?—”

“Spencer will become a martyr to them,” Josh blurted. “Even if he’s found guilty and sentenced to prison, there are always going to be some nutjobs who are convinced he’s innocent, the government’s covering up the truth, Spencer’s a political prisoner, and they’re jailing him to keep him from becoming president. At least if we open a cybersecurity section, I can still be useful.”

“Listen, Josh?—”

“It’s okay,” he persisted. “I’m a homebody. Now that we have a cat to keep me company, I have everything I need at CrossBow. Why would I need to go out? I mean, it’s not like Dixon and I would ever want to go out on a date, right?”

Josh tried to bite back the tears, but it wasn’t working. He’d finally found something—someone—to give him a reason to step out of the lab on occasion, but now?

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