Page 83 of Secret
"Bryon, meet Noam." Kasey smiled.
"Pleasure to finally meet you." Noam smiled as he shook his hand.
"You as well." Bryon grinned.
"Want coffee, Bry? It'll be done in a minute," Kasey asked.
"Sure." Bryon sat down at the table, and Noam followed, unsure what to say.
"So, I didn't plan to rush into this, but I had something come up and can't stay long. I hate to admit to you this visit isn't just about meeting the man who finally grabbed Kasey's attention. There is more to it than that." Bryon smiled across the table at him.
Noam glanced at Kasey, then back at Bryon. "Okay." He glanced at Kasey again. "You knew?"
"Yes, but only since last night. Bryon wanted to be sure I was okay with things before he talked to you." Kasey came to stand behind Noam, gripping his shoulders gently.
"What's this about?" Noam was trying not to feel like he needed to be on the defensive.
"I hear you might be looking for a job," Bryon said.
"I am." Noam eyed Bryon cautiously.
"I'm expanding my operations and am looking for someone to run the newest team." Bryon glanced up at Kasey.
"Damn it, Bry, don't be so vague." Kasey sat down beside Noam. "The truth is, Bryon works with me, or more like we all work for him. He's the head of our team."
Noam sat up straighter. "Oh, I guess I shouldn't be shocked to hear you work together. It would make sense. For some reason, when I tried to think of who might work with Kase, I never thought of you. I'm not sure why."
"I worked with a team when I met Kasey. When they split, I started my own." Bryon folded his hands on the table.
Noam held up his hand. He was flattered they would think of him, but he couldn't stomach doing what Kasey did. "I can save you time. I can't do what Kasey does, and I have no computer skills. I wouldn't be of any help."
"No, but you do have connections with the police department." Bryon again glanced at Kasey before looking back at Noam. "What I have in mind is all legal. It's currently being done around the world, but not as effectively as I hope to have it work."
"Explain." Noam wasn't sure he liked the idea of anything that had to do with the team and his department connections.
Kasey stood and poured them each a cup of coffee. "Just give him the facts, Bry."
"What I want to do is have a team of people who act like young kids online. Decoys. What is happening in other areas are these decoys save chat logs with men and women who are trying to meet them, then the decoys and their teams go to the meeting place and call the cops to come arrest them. What I'm hoping to do is gather evidence through chat logs, then arrange with the police to join my team at the meet and arrest them. I don't want to call the police when we get someone and have to explain it all. I want to go in, have the police already informed and make an arrest for child grooming with intent to meet."
"Okay, but you know I'm not with the police department anymore, right?" Noam was slowly starting to understand what Bryon wanted to do. He liked that it was legal and not as violent as what the others did.
"But, you, if anyone, could get the city to listen and maybe work with your team. I want you to run the team of decoys I hire. It would be your job to decide when a pedophile was serious about meeting a child, set up that meet, have the police go with you, and make an arrest. My team of hackers will get you all the background we can on the pedophile before you go in. I'm only focusing on those who want to meet children under twelve. It would be too large a job if we included children older than that, but it's something we might look into in the future. For now, I want the vilest pedophiles off the street and on the sex offender's registry. I want a paper trail so that if this isn't enough to scare them off, then we know about them. We can watch them."
Kasey gripped Noam's arm. "Our team only goes for those who have already served time or have shown they are deep into the pedophilia and sex trafficking circles. For many of the people you'll arrest, it will be their first offense. We're not castrating for that, though at times I think we should."
Noam nodded.
"So, this is just something I'd like to set up, nothing is being done as of yet. I need someone I can trust to have contact with my main team, share information, but work with the other team. The decoy team would never know about my main team. I want the decoy team on the up and up. Somewhere the police can come visit if they want to see how it all works." Bryon took a sip of his coffee.
"Wow, that's the last thing I was expecting." Noam blew out a hard breath. "So how involved with your main team would I be?" He didn't want to be close enough that he would draw attention to any of them.
"Information only. You'd join our meetings twice a week, share information with us. Give us names and information so we could search a person's location and background before you set up a meet with them, other than that, you wouldn't have to have contact at all. If you'd rather only deal with Kasey and me, then I'm okay with that. I get why you might not want to get too involved."
"And who would you hire for decoys?"
"That, I have yet to work out. I'm not sure how to go about finding people with the mental strength to deal with the vile chat that some of these men and women send to what they think are children. One member of our current team who was testing this out had a sixty-nine-year-old man tell what he thought was a nine-year-old little girl that he wanted to fist her. The chat logs are horrid to read, and whoever we hire will need to be strong enough to deal with it."
Noam sat back, his hands curled around his coffee cup as he thought about everything. He loved the idea, but it wasn't going to be easy. How was he supposed to explain his new job to his contacts at the station? How did he go from detective to pedophile hunter in just a few months?
