Page 83 of Love and Loathing

Fi looked up with a frown. “You think this was FTP?”

“Who else!”

But Fi was shaking her head. “Not us. Not them. We couldn’t.”

Zig made a noise of agreement, handing her phone back. “Domnall’s not a target anymore. His lawyers got wind of what we were up to, hit us with so many threats of libel, invasion of privacy, defamation of character, anything you can think of, that FTP got scared. Backed off. The whole thing got dropped. Your man in the suit along with it.”

“But…” Evie said. “Are you sure? Maybe they just pretended to drop it. Someone might have still done it. Hacked into his computer, the BlacktonGold network, some cyber activist somewhere…”

“I mean, it’s possible,” Zig said, sitting back against the desk and scratching his beard thoughtfully. “But FTP isn’t exactly bursting with tech-savvy computer experts. That’s why we wanted you to get the emails the way we planned.”

“Exactly,” Fi said. “It’s not easy to access things on a system like BlacktonGold have. They’re not an amateur operation. They’re dealing with people’s money, personal details. I suspect all of their IT stuff is secured pretty damn tight.”

Zig nodded. “And those lawyers—Domnall’s lawyers—they werescary, Eve. It’sHallardPuck. They could literally get away with murder. Probably do. No one’s going to be dumb enough to tangle with them. It’d be suicide.”

Fi gave a dramatic shudder. “They have investigators. Like their own secret police. That’s how they knew what we were up to. They managed to get intoourcomputers no problem at all.”

“Like a hot knife through butter,” Zig said. “I had to erase my entire hard drive. Then I ended up getting a new laptopanyway just to be safe. Still gives me the creeps thinking about it. It’s unethical, spying on people’s emails, getting into their computers…”

Fi gave him a pointed look.

He grinned sheepishly. “Oh. Yeah. Like we were trying to do. Fair cop.”

Evie didn’t pay much attention. Her mind was still stuck on that name. HallardPuck. Liv worked for HallardPuck. Liv was one of Domnall’s lawyers. She could easily have been told about FTP. About Evie’s mission.

She still felt sick, the damp, musty air of the portacabin not helping. She opened the door, stepped out vacantly into the mud, looking at the unimpressive view of the empty site without really seeing it.

She got her phone out. Looked up a number. Dialled it.

“Who are you calling?” asked Zig. Both he and Fiona were giving her worried looks.

“HallardPuck,” Evie said as the phone rang.

“No, no, no, no…” Zig tried to grab her phone. Evie turned away. A receptionist answered.

“I’m a client of Liv Villais. I’d like to speak to her, please.”

“May I take your name?”

“Evelyn Blackton.”

“One moment, please.”

Fi stepped into her line of sight, making slashingstopmotions with her hands. Evie turned away.

“This is Liv Villais’s secretary. I’m afraid Liv is out of the office right now. May I take a message?”

“No. It’s fine.”

Evie hung-up, hands shaking.

“Are you mad?” Zig asked. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I don’t know. But I think I know who’s behind this.” She tucked her phone away, looked at Zig and Fi. “The leaks onlyhurt Aubrey and BlacktonGold, not Domnall White. That doesn’t make much sense for FTP.”

Zig shrugged. “No one’s going to cry any tears if they go down.” Fi elbowed him sharply. “Except, uh, you, of course.”

Evie ignored that, frowning at nothing. “But why would she hurt him,” she said to herself, “if she loves him?”

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