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I open Tommy’s Wi-Fi, scan for the only active beacon. It’s titled snakep. As in Snake Plissken, my more-or-less namesake from that movie Escape from New York. The only other Plissken I relate to.
File after file is now streaming to my phone. How much time do I have? I glance guiltily over my shoulder. With one hand I mop at the spilled coffee on the chair, just in case anyone is looking.
But my other hand pounds keys—I have a heavy touch—searching for whatever it is that Tommy is hiding. He’s arrogant, fortunately, sure that no one can hack his computer, so the individual files are not password-protected.
There’s a large file of photos. Probably porn or something. I open it, anyway—it might be useful to know Tommy’s kinks.
But if these are someone’s idea of porn, they have very, very strange tastes indeed.
I open more pictures.
I’ve stopped breathing.
I’m seeing long rows of Plexiglas tanks. Some are vertical cylinders. Some are horizontal rectangles.
Each contains a horror.
A full-grown pig with faintly green skin.
A hairless puppy with what looks like two human ears growing just behind its own ears.
A girl, a human girl, at least something like a human girl, but with two faces—one where it ought to be, and one stretched flat across her back.
“Oh God,” I say out loud. I can’t help it.
I shut the file. I swallow back the sour taste in my mouth.
Oh my God.
I hear a sound. Tap, tap, and I’m back in the fantasy football app as Tattooed Tommy returns, wearing the gym clothes he must keep for trips to the Spiker fitness center.
“Get the hell off my computer!” he snarls.
“I was just cleaning up the coffee that—”
“And spying on my picks!” His eyes narrow dangerously. “Did Wilma Petrov put you up to it? That bitch has been trying to figure out my lineup so she can … I’ll kill her!”
“No,” I say, doing my best to seem as if I’m lying poorly.
“Wilma!” he yells across the room. “Dirty pool, Wilma!”
I’m backing away, and I realize suddenly that I’ve left his Wi-Fi turned on. If he notices—
Tommy grabs me, not too gently, either. “Listen, kid: Next time Wilma bribes you, come see me. I’ll double whatever she paid if you get her picks before Friday. Hear me?”
“Yes, sir.”
I’m out of there. And now I just have to decide what to do with a secret that is so very much bigger than I had ever imagined.
I need to clean up the video record of me at Tommy’s computer. I need to get all this stolen data safely stored on something other than my phone, which might be searched at any moment.
Then, after I put together the presentation that will, I hope, bring Terra Spiker down, I need to get it to Eve.
I need her to understand why I have to do this.
– 23 –
The next morning, Maddox has his money. I have extracted my own concession from Aislin: She’s staying with me until her parents get home. They e-mailed her to say they’re extending their trip for a week (Aruba) and I want her in a safe place. Just to make sure Maddox isn’t still being hunted.
