Ivy clapped her hands. “That’s my girl! Who is it? Please tell me it’s them Timeless bitches. I swear, they’re always getting upset with us when we’re investigating the same person they are. Like they own all the bad guys or something. We have a right to investigate and kill them just as much as they do.”
The Timeless agents were our sisters in crime. But Ivy saw them as rivals. If I really were shifting the blame onto one of them, that would make her immensely happy. Unlike Ivy, Tina didn’t seem impressed or excited by my new plan.
“That’s... unexpected andunlikeyou,” Ms. Tina drawled. “Who are you wanting to take the fall?”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to get an innocent person killed. I’m shifting the blame to a dead man,” I told her.
One of her eyebrows lifted. “That sounds more like you. Okay. Let’s hear more about this dead man.”
“One of our Petals came across a memorial board about a week ago for a hacker we all knew, well, knew of,” I started.
“A memorial board?” Ms. Tina drawled.
“Yeah. It's basically an online condolences site for hackers.”
“That's a thing?” Tina asked.
“Yeah. Most hackers live solitary lives. They stay to themselves and don’t really make friends because they don’t know who to trust. Many are incapable of trusting. And some are afraid of others finding out what they do for a living. So, sometimes, hackers who respect each other befriend each other online. They chat, swap intel, and job requests. Some become what they call a digital family. Some even fall in love, but never truly meet face to face.”
My thoughts drifted to Rome for a nanosecond before I reeled that shit in.
“Anyway. There are hackers who want their digital family to know if they die or something bad happens to them. So, they set up emails to go out after seven days or whatever set time they decide. If something happens to them and they can’t delete that email, the email will go out to their digital family, letting them know the hacker’s real name and telling them that if youreceived this email, I’m probably dead. The group receiving the email can look up the hacker’s real name and verify if he or she passed. That way, they get to know what happened to their friend and mourn them.”
“Really?” Ms. Tina whispered. “That’s so... sad.”
I nodded. “The members of the digital family will then add the fallen hacker's name to the memorial site, and people can go online and offer their condolences. Anyway, one of our Petals let me know a hacker named EyeCeeYu passed away recently.”
“Like the intensive care unit?” Tina asked, frowning.
I chuckled before spelling out his name for her.
“Ohh. I get it,” she stated. “Cute. How did he die?”
“The post didn’t say. EyeCeeYu was known for taking spying jobs. He commented on job boards all the time. Bragged about his success rate. Bragged about jobs he'd completed. This guy was cocky as hell and had a large digital family.”
“He was annoying as hell, too,” Ivy muttered. “But he was good at what he did.”
“True,” I agreed. “After he died, people started sharing stories about him under his memorial post. Talking about old jobs he'd done. Talking about cases he'd worked.”
“Isn’t that snitching?” Ms. Tina asked.
“Not if he bragged about it already,” Ivy pointed out.
“Exactly!” I stated. “So, since there were so many people on the post, sharing his successes and saying he would be happy to seehow much he was being complimented, I came up with the idea to add another success story to his resume.”
Ms. Tina grinned. “I see where this is going.”
“I had several of our Petals use their burner accounts to say that EyeCeeYu successfully provided intel to the Italians about a member of the Cattaneo crime family. One account posted, Wasn't he the hacker who took the job to spy on the Cattaneos in Mississippi?”
A grin spread across Ivy's face. “Oh, that's dirty. I like it.”
“Another account replied,I think I saw somewhere that he was. But I can't find the post anymore,”I told them.
Tina's smile grew.
“A third account jumped in and said,It's best not to talk about things like that. Even on sites like this.”
“Ooh,” Ivy cooed, leaning against the counter, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “That creates suspense, a hint of doubt, but enough believability that others will start spreading the rumor of his success against the Cattaneos. And those digital breadcrumbs will lead Rome away from us. I love it. That’s why I fucks with you, Blossom.”
