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On the screen, Jacob Black looked thoughtful.
“Black!” Pierce raised his voice, which Riley thought not too many people did to Jacob Black. Black didn’t look mad, though. Just pensive. “What the fuckinghell!”
Riley side-eyed Pierce, then turned to Jacob Black. “They’re not going to stop, are they? Not just trying to get to me, but they’re not going to stop the march to war. Cooler heads might prevail in the end, but real damage will be done. And in any case, my life will be ruined.”
Black inclined his head. “That’s right.”
“So my plan, if it works, can potentially stop both things from happening, right?”
He waited a beat. “Yes.”
Pierce crackled with energy. She was surprised lightning bolts weren’t shooting out of his fingertips. “If! If the plan works! It’s got a million moving parts and you’re counting on Adrian Sommers being able to open his mouth without telling a lie. Not to mention the danger to Riley.”
Riley put her hand on his forearm and could feel the electricity. He was of course right. It was a crazy plan, but it was the only one they had. On another screen, Hope and Emma were watching her without saying anything. They’d listened carefully as she explained the plan to Black and Pierce. They hadn’t said anything at all, because Pierce was taking up all the oxygen.
For all Riley knew, they thought she was crazy, too.
She drew in a deep, calming breath. “Pierce. Let’s break it down, pretend it’s an IT problem. I imagine you do the same when planning a mission. You first break it down into all its parts. So will you let me do that? Explain the plan step by step?”
Pierce opened his mouth and Black stepped in. “Jordan.” Black’s voice had dropped about seven octaves and it had massive amounts of command in it. Riley had no idea what you had to do to get a voice like that, but it worked. Pierce’s mouth shut with an audible click.
“Sit. Down.” Black said, the voice of God, and Pierce sat as if his legs had gone out from under him.
But Riley stood, because she liked delivering briefs on her feet. “Okay, I think we all agree that the situation is devolving fast. There are a lot of actors involved, including the military of two super powers, but it all began with one man, Adrian Sommers. I did some digging, and though Sommers is CEO of the Sommers Group, a security firm, it is nothing like ASI or Black Inc.” She ignored what sounded like a growl from Black. “I did a deep dive into the Sommers Group’s activities and did my best to get a handle on Sommers’ personality.” She wrinkled her nose. “It wasn’t pleasant. Sommers seems to be a money-obsessed man with no scruples. There are a lot of those around. So money is a weak spot. And another thing. What struck me, digging through his emails, is the degree to which he is susceptible to flattery. And also how fragile his ego is, which is odd for the owner of a security company. You guys aren’t known for your thin skin and sensibilities.”
She slanted a glance at Pierce and looked straight at Black in the monitor. He sketched the tiniest of smiles.
“Instead, Adrian Sommers can blow up at the slightest sign of what he considers disrespect, but can be calmed down with flattery. The more ornate the better. So that’s another element.”
“I don’t see how—” Pierce began hotly, but Riley lifted her index finger. She had to get all her reasoning out all at once. Because Pierce was spoiling for a fight.
“So the first thing about a trap is to set it and entice the trapee to come. And my instinct tells me that I need to play to his ego. Contact him. Tell him how smart he’s been. How scared I am. I am completely in his hands. I have this weapon which isn’t working but which can still trip him up. I don’t want it. I wandered into this whole situation by chance, by mistake. I’m just an admin drone who happened on some info and my life got derailed. I want my life back and I’m scared. I’ll give him anything he wants.”
Jacob Black tilted his head. “You’re going to have to record what he says. But he’s going to frisk you for recording equipment. He will have a detector and will find it no matter where it is. And he might insist on being out in the open so what you say can’t be recorded from a distance.”
Riley didn’t answer immediately. She pivoted to the monitor where her friends in Portland were. “Hope, you remember Ranesh?”
“Sure.” She smiled. Ranesh had been a gangly Indian kid who went through MIT with them. Sweet, goofy, and an off-the-charts genius.
“He perfected his Antz.”
Hope’s eyes widened. “Oh my God! That’s the answer! And good for Ranesh! He’ll be a billionaire inside a decade, maybe less. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”
Ranesh had been born a ‘Dalit’, an untouchable, in India. His stories of his childhood would break your heart.
Riley could feel the intense focus of Pierce and Jacob Black.
“So here’s the deal. Antz are tiny drones, the size of ants or flies. They are essentially invisible and completely silent. They have powerful cameras and microphones and swarm. There’s a program that puts together the film and sound into a coherent and very sharp recording. Sommers would never see them, when I get him to confess. And he’ll want to confess. To show the little woman how very smart he is.”
She’d seen it over and over again, a man who needed to lord it over her, prove he was smarter. Even when he wasn’t.Especiallywhen he wasn’t. She’d seen it, Felicity had seen it, both Hope and Emma had seen it. To a certain kind of mind, lording it over her was irresistible. All four of them had looks that a man like Sommers, and men like him, inevitably underestimated. The guys at ASI and Jacob Black were not among those men.
“You don’t understand, Riley.” Pierce was so stressed the cords in his neck stood out. He was trying really hard to look and sound reasonable, but his hands were tightly fisted and his jaws bunched as if he were chewing the words. “This is a man who was trained by the US government to be a killer but didn’t absorb at all the notion of rules of engagement. You know I had a commander like that, and he was a stone-cold killer. Adrian Sommers wouldn’t think twice about snuffing you out. He’d probably like that. There has got to be another way. I can’t have you stake yourself out like a goat for the monster to swallow.”
“Well, I can give him an incentive to keep me alive. And as for trying to kill me, what do I have you guys for? Decoration?”
He huffed out a breath like a bull. “He’ll send operators who’ll target you.”
Riley laid a hand along his jaw, this man who was finding it hard to contain his horror at the idea of her getting hurt, killed. The skin under her palm was hot, as if he had a fever.
