Page 62 of Cyn
“What more can we do?” Nora asked.
Cyn looked to Joe, who shook his head. Wouldn’t it have been nice if he’d had a brilliant idea? She sighed. “We keep doing what we’re doing. I’ll give Lucy a call after this to see if she’s made more progress than we have on the encrypted files.”
“Call us,” Devil ordered unnecessarily, but Devil was bossy like that.
“Of course. And Six? Stay safe,” Cyn said.
The sound of Six’s car engine filled the room as she started her journey toward the university town. “Always,” she said, drawing out a snort from Cyn, a laugh from Devil, and an indistinguishable but concerned sound from Nora. In response, Six let out a loud huff, then dropped the call. A few minutes later, Cyn had hung up with Nora and Devil as well.
“Time to call Lucy?” Joe asked.
Cyn nodded and started to dial, but as she did, her phone rang with an incoming call from the woman herself.
“I was just calling you,” Cyn said by way of answering.
“The tech support behind the encryption was provided by Kevin Bartlett. I’d recognize his work anywhere, and he’s also on the FBI’s radar. They’ve been keeping their eye on him ever since an attempted attack on one of their servers last year. They didn’t have enough hard evidence to go after him, but there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence,” Lucy said, skipping a greeting altogether.
“Does that mean you can break his encryption?” Cyn asked.
“Of course,” Lucy all but scoffed. “He’s very good, especially for one so young, but Brian and I are on it,” she said, referring to her husband. “We should have it all to you tonight.”
“Anything more I should know about Kevin Bartlett? Anything that might help us better understand what’s being planned, where, and when?”
“Bartlett’s life philosophy aligns closely with the young men you are tracking. The server he tried to hack into was the one that held the investigation files for the Brother’s Nation group that the FBI recently brought down.” Brother’s Nation was indeed aligned with the philosophy of Waters, Harrow, and Persons, although it was—or had been—a significantly more sophisticated organization. Three months ago, the FBI had raided their headquarters and arrested more than fifty members on all sorts of charges ranging from illegal weapons possession to murder to conspiracy to commit treason—to name a few. It was the kind of organization Waters, Harrow, and Persons would aspire to join or create.
“That would explain why he’d help a bunch of young college kids,” she said. “Anything else?”
“He’s young himself,” Lucy answered. “Only twenty-three. He also attended your university for two years as a computer science major before dropping out. He stayed in the area, though, and only lives about an hour from you.”
Cyn glanced at Joe, and his eyes narrowed at her as if he knew what she was thinking. Hell, there was no doubt he knew what she was thinking since she knew he was thinking the same thing, even if he didn’t think it was a good idea.
“Would a road trip be in order?” she asked, although she wasn’t sure to whom she was directing the question.
“Why?” Joe asked the not unreasonable question. “It’s not as though we’re going to waltz up to his door and ask him about Waters, Persons, or Harrow, and even if we did ask him about the encryption on McElroy’s phone, he’s not going to give us anything.”
“He won’t,” Lucy concurred. “And to set your mind at ease, I have passed this information onto Beni. I don’t know what her team will do with it since she’s already said they aren’t hearing any chatter about any activity in Boston, but I thought she needed to know about his tie to the work you all are doing.”
“So, no road trip,” Cyn said, not bothering to hide her disappointment. They were both right, of course. No way would Bartlett talk, but at least a road trip would give her something to do other than sit and stare at the computer or wait for Lucy to break the encryption.
“Probably not worth your time…hold on, wait a sec,” Lucy said with a slight hitch in her voice that had Cyn leaning forward in anticipation. “This is weird…”
“Lucy?” Cyn said after a few beats of silence.
“Hold on,” she replied. Cyn glanced at Joe as the muted clack of a keyboard filtered over the phone. After another two minutes passed, they heard the squeak of a chair as if Lucy was leaning back. “I take that back. A road trip might be in order.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask why,” Joe said.
“Because the utility consumption at his house has been steady for the last forty-eight hours,” Lucy answered.
Cyn didn’t know how Lucy had been able to figure that out, but she did know that wasn’t a good sign. It was next to impossible to keep a steady rate of consumption of electricity unless all the same appliances and fixtures remained on for the same amount of time every day and there was no movement into or out of the building. And in a practical world, even accounting for outside temperature fluctuations, that didn’t happen.
“Could be he’s away?” Joe suggested.
“Hmm,” Lucy said. “It’s possible, but I wouldn’t bet on it at the level of consumption I’m seeing.”
Cyn looked at Joe, whose expression was a mix of resignation and curiosity. “What do you think?” she asked, then realized what agrown-upquestion that was. Less than a month ago, she would have been up and out the door already. Now here she was, taking someone else’s opinion and, dare she say it, feelings into consideration. Her mother and father would be so proud.
“I think you know what I think,” he replied, and the scary part—even scarier than the fact she now considered the impact on him when making decisions—was that she did.
