Page 152 of The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The Second Collection
“No,” I say, truthfully. “But you knew he was married when you started it. You’re not blameless, Lindy.”
“He swore to me it was over. They hadn’t had sex in years. He was going to leave her. I saw them every day at work and they barely spoke to each other. I was twenty-two when it started. He was the first man I was with. FirstpersonI was with. First person who told me he loved me. I might not be blameless, Max, but I’m notsolely to blamefor everything, either.”
I rub my fingers over my face. “Okay, there’s blame to go around. But that doesn’t justify hurting other people to get revenge on Neal Orelo.”
“Now I’m in trouble for exposing the truth? WEDGE isn’t secure, Max. Not really. You know that. You helped crack it. Who’s not taking responsibility?”
I sigh and slump back in the seat. “I did it because I thought I was doing the right thing. You told me we were supporting the military. Doing the things our boys couldn’t do. That was all a lie, Lindy. You did it for yourself. To get revenge. You can give me noble reasons now, but that’s not why you did it.”
“That’s half of why I did it. Yes, I want Orelo to go down. But I also want people to realize that relying on security programs like WEDGE gives them an illusion of safety rather than the reality. I want them to see the illusion.”
“You helpedcreatethat illusion.”
“That’s not what my algorithm was designed for! I was trying to make safer cars, for heaven’s sake.”
“I didn’t hear about you resigning in protest or anything when your company got awarded the contract for WEDGE. C’mon, Lindy.”
“So, I’m a hypocrite? That’s why you don’t want to be my friend anymore?”
I groan. I recognize my own hypocrisy. I don’t have any business lecturing Lindy on his.
“I don’t want to be your friend anymore because I can’t trust you.”
“Give me a chance to regain your trust?” Lindy asks quietly.
“Lindy, Jesus.”
De Leon snorts. “Soft touch.”
“Fuck. Off.”
De Leon doesn’t understand. The things Lindy said about being my friend, speaking my language, he may have been tryingto goad me at the time, but he wasn’t wrong. I love Logan, Manny, and Mac, but they don’t understand what I do, how I think. Lindy does.
“You swear to me these are clean targets,” I say after a long silence. “Swear it, Lindy. On your mother’s life. The hack exposes the weaknesses in WEDGE and that’s all. No one gets hurt.”
“I swear. Targets are on my laptop in a folder called Targets. Access is biometric. I’ll open it for you as long as you promise not to look in the folder called NYU. That’s got your exams in it.”
“Are you for fucking real?”
“Yeah. That’s cheating.”
Knowing he can’t see it, I shake my head at him.
I unpack his bag until I find his laptop. He lifts a finger for me and I hold the laptop’s sensor to it. A second password screen opens and Lindy holds up a different finger. Another password screen; another finger. That’s smart. Almost impossible to hack. Someone would have to get all his fingerprints and figure out the order. I’m betting he’s got a self-destruct on it after too many failed attempts, as well, same as I do.
Once we’re through all his security, I set his laptop next to mine and as tempting as it is to clone the damn thing, I just navigate the surprisingly tidy desktop until I find the Targets folder, copy it onto a pen drive, move it to my rig, upload it to Snarlzilla, and send it to Squid. Then I close his laptop and return it to his bag.
Lindy’s quiet as I work through the information on the two targets. One’s in Texas. The other’s in Canada. Neither are military. Both are companies. Reading on, I find they’re labs that do cosmetics testing on rodents and reptiles. There’s been some uproar about them from PETA and other organizations because they don’t have veterinary care for the animals. Lindy’s already primed three radical-looking animal rights organizations, whohave been protesting at both sites. They’re ready to go in and “liberate” the animals as soon as WEDGE is disabled. Sasha’s at one site, organizing the protestors; Jo’s at the other.
Squid must be reviewing the target information at the same time I am, despite the time difference. A chat box pops up on my screen.
Squid: If we turn off the fire-suppression systems along with the door locks and the labs burn down, that would be too bad.
No, I message back.Without being there, we can’t guarantee any humans or animals wouldn’t be caught in a fire. We do this clean. Door locks. Cage locks if they’re electronic. CCTV so the protestors don’t get prosecuted for trespassing. In and out.
Squid sends me back a line of frowning emojis but ends it with a thumbs up.
“Okay,” I say to Lindy. “I admit these are good targets. You think they’re high-profile enough to accomplish your goals?”
