“Because I don’t even trust burner phones for this.”
That gets his attention, and he goes quiet. As I run another update, he moves back to his wet bar and pours another Scotch. With the glass in his hand, he crosses the room and sits at a small table with a chess set like a villain in a movie.
“Explain.”
I glance up. “Right. This program is going to shut down the entire dark web.”
“Excuse me?”
“Okay, that’s an exaggeration. No one can shut down the dark web. But this will be the next best thing.”
He blinks, waiting.
“And it’ll only be temporary.”
“How temporary?”
I purse my lips, tilting my head side to side as I do some mental math. “Three minutes? Maybe four.”
“That’s not enough time.”
It’s a guess, but it’s a good one.
“No, it’s not,” I confirm as I peer back at the screen. “That’s why it’s taken me so long. I had to build the program, and now I’m working on increasing the time we have.”
He swirls the liquid around in his glass as he leans back in his chair. “What’s the point of it? Surely you don’t need to shut down the dark web to do what I need you to?”
“Technically, no, you’re correct.”
His problem doesn’t need a weapon this big, but mine does.
I set my computer on the coffee table and explain things further, about darknets and onion routers, about what it’s going to take to gethisjob done. There are a lot of moving pieces that make it a complex task, but he follows along like he always does. He’s terrifyingly smart, which is inconvenient because it means he keeps asking questions, even when I try to give him a good enough excuse for all of this besides my own priorities.
His eyes narrow. “And that’s why you need to shut down the dark web?”
Ihatehow fucking smart he is.
“Well…no. Not exactly.” I gulp, rub the back of my neck, and scoot forward on the couch until I’m sitting on the edge. “Youpromise you won’t kill me?”
“Right now, you’re the only hope I have of protecting Lane.Unfortunately, that makes you safe from me. Then again, that also depends on what you’re about to tell me.”
I tilt my head side to side in contemplation again. “Good enough, I guess.”
My palms are sweaty as fuck, and I rub them on my ripped jeans.
Maybe I shouldn’t be telling Harrison this, but he’s not going to keep being patient with me unless he knows there’s a good reason.
“I could have erased the digital will and drained his accounts two weeks ago.”
Harrison slams his glass on the table beside the chess set, a few drops of the amber liquid splashing out onto the board.
I flinch.
Yeah, he’s definitely going to kill me.
Holding my hands up, I’m quick to say, “I’m aiming higher!Bigger.”
“Talk fast before I cut off your fingers,” he snarls, learning forward, ready to attack me the second I say something else he doesn’t like.
