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Sarah snorts. “That’s so Henny. Trust me, what he did was a very big deal. Don’t let him tell you otherwise. Also, I call bullshit. Henn knows it was amazing, or else he wouldn’t have joked that he’d prefer we name our first-born Hennessey rather than Peter.” She laughs. “Did he tell you he said that?”
I laugh along with her, even though my stomach is tightening. “No, he didn’t. He never toots his own horn. Ever. All he said was that he found you for Jonas after you’d sent Jonas an anonymous email.”
Sarah glances at the dance floor. “Yeah, that’s it in a nutshell. Apparently, Jonas went into full-on obsession mode, so Josh called Henn and asked him to find the sender of the email.” At my urging, Sarah elaborates a bit, and to my relief, what she says tracks everything Henn’s already told me . . . That is, until Sarah gets to the part of her story where she says, “So, that’s when Henn went in and grabbed the law school’s student roster and got the contact info of anyone named Sarah and passed it along to Jonas. And the rest is history.”
Went in.
It’s that phrase that’s sticking with me. Does that mean Henn hacked into the University of Washington to get that student roster for Jonas? I think that’s what Sarah is saying.
I clear my throat. “So, uh, when Henn hacked into the University’s system to get that student roster . . .” I pause, figuring Sarah will correct my assumption if I’m wrong. When she doesn’t, I finish my sentence with, “Do you know if it was hard for him to do?”
“I can’t imagine there’s any hack that’s all that difficult for Henn to pull off,” Sarah replies without missing a beat. “The man is a fucking genius.”
“That he is.”
Holy crap. When Henn told me the story of how he’d found Sarah for Jonas, how did I not realize then that Henn had hacked the University of fucking Washington to do it? The same way he hacked into nine motherfucking airlines to find a flight attendant for Ryan. And performed some hack that helped Keane out of a “stripper jam.” The same way Henn hacked Sarah’s former employer to bring them down. And how he hacked YouTube to give a boost to the first music video ever released by River Records. Oh! And Henn hacked that ex-boyfriend of Kat’s to help Josh with his unconventional marriage proposal, too. The list goes on and on.
In a flash, all the dots that have been separately floating around in my head converge and connect. Henn is a hacker. A full-time one. A professional one. All this time, I’ve thought my boyfriend is a cybersecurity specialist who occasionally dabbles in hacking to perform a harmless favor for a good friend for a good cause. In the name of true love, for instance. But suddenly, the evidence of Henn’s hacking activities all around me is making me realize . . . Henn doesn’t dabble. Henn is a professional hacker for a fucking living. He doesn’t do it occasionally, here and there, but as his fucking day job. Why else would all these people constantly approach him for favors of this nature? I don’t know much about hacking, but I know enough to realize a hacking hobbyist wouldn’t be able to pull off hacking nine freaking airlines. Isn’t that a huge job to pull off?
How did I not realize all this before now? Am I epically stupid, or has Henn been carefully choosing his words whenever he tells me stuff, specifically to keep the full truth from dawning on me? I’m one thousand percent positive Henn told me he’s in cybersecurity and has never once corrected that statement. I’m also positive he’s never once said the words “I’m a hacker” to me. Holy shit.
“So, is that everything you were wondering about?” Sarah asks, her eyebrows raised.
Oh. Clearly, I’ve been in my own little world for a bit too long. “Oh. Yes, it is. Thank you.” At this point, it doesn’t matter if Sarah knows what Henn did for Ryan or Keane or anyone else. Based on what Sarah has told me about Henn’s favor for Jonas, it’s now clear Henn has lied to me. Or at least, he’s been less than truthful. And I need him to explain why.
Sarah says, “I’m so glad you asked me about this. You of all people should know how brilliant, generous, and romantic your boyfriend really is. I don’t think there’s anything Henn wouldn’t do to help someone he loves, especially when there’s the possibility of true love at the finish line.”
“That’s true. That’s Henn. He’d do anything to help someone he cares about.”
“Or, as was the case with Jonas, the sibling of someone he cares about,” Sarah adds.
