Page 104 of The Beat of My Heart
“You just wait and see if you think that when you all have teenage daughters. It's about being safe,” Lanie informs us.
“Back on track, guys, can I see the email?” I ask Lanie.
“Sure, you’ll be able to decode it faster than I can anyway,” she says, handing over her phone.
“Tell me how the code works,” I ask her.
“Okay, well, the first number will show where to start in the alphabet,” she looks over my shoulder, “so, her first letter is I because she starts with 9, and it is just the word I because it has an ^ after it. 9^ is the word I. Then there is a backslash, so it’s telling you to go back 8 letters followed by the number 12^. So, 9^\8.12^ says I am,” she explains.
“Okay, what are the other directives?” I ask.
“An * means you need to jump ahead ten letters. Periods are number or letter spacers. The & sign means a new sentence, and the forward slash means move ahead that many letters from the last one you used,” Lanie tells us.
“Jesus, that’s really fucking complicated. She couldn’t have just called you?” Preston asks.
Rolling her eyes, Lanie says, “This is the dumbed-down version for me. She had all kinds of tracking software incorporated into this email account in case I ever got abducted on one of my dates, but I could never follow the code she originally had. Even this one takes me an hour to decode.”
“Holy shit,” I say. “Julia has more than just tracking on this email account,” I tell everyone. “Julia is a freaking genius.”
“Actually, she really is. She’s been a member of Mensa since she was fourteen,” Lanie says, catching my attention.
“Seriously?” I ask.How did I not know that? “Jesus, she was the one giving all the presentations in Boston that I wanted to see but couldn’t get into,” I say, working through memories out loud.
Lanie grins, “My girl's a rockstar.”
“She really fucking is,” I say in awe.
“So, how’s it feel to be the second smartest in the family?” Dexter teases.
“As long as I get her back in one piece, I’ll gladly bow to her superior intellect any day of the fucking week,” I tell him. “Okay, give me a minute to work through her email.”
Fifteen minutes later, I sit staring at the message she has sent, trying to make it compute in my brain.
I am fine. At Romero’s. Tell Loki Miles knows about him. Miles hunting Loki. Warn him. Setting a cyber trap for Miles. Do not retrieve me for three days. Systems running follow it.
“I don’t get it, is she working with your father?” Preston asks, reading over my shoulder.
“I-I don’t know. Get Seth though, we need to get a message to Loki,” I tell him.
“What does she want you to follow?” Dexter asks.
“I think she set up this program so I can follow all the activity between Romero and Miles Black,” I tell him. “I-I have to get acquainted with her programming before I’ll have any other information.”
Seth comes barreling through the door, “What’s going on?”
“I think Loki is in danger,” I tell him.
“What? Where is he?” Lanie asks. This poor woman, I don’t know how much more she can take in her state. Dex must be thinking the same thing because the next thing I know, he is trying to usher her out, reminding her she needs to nurse the twins.
“He’s collecting a-a package,” I tell her before she leaves, hoping that’ll ease a little of her stress for the time being.
“What do you know?” Seth asks.
I spend the next ten minutes filling Seth in, then watch as he takes out multiple phones and starts shooting off messages left and right. I know Julia hates this man, but something tells me he is loyal to Loki in a way that doesn’t just happen. I’m convinced there’s a story here, but it's not mine to question.
“Trevor,” Seth yells across the room, “Loki thinks you’re the best to follow Julia’s path. Is that correct, or do I need to bring in some guys?
“No,” I say determinedly. “I’ve got this. Preston, grab all my screens from the bedroom, I need to set up a war room. Dex, I’m going to need some extension cords and a tower server. You have one in your office, right? Can you bring that down here?”
