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“You did a good job on those firewalls,” Adam comments with a low whistle. “Damn good. But your bots aren’t picking up any kind of pattern to this case. I’ve worked a few human trafficking cases in the past, but nothing as large scale as what you’re suggesting now.”
“Broderick doesn’t do anything small,” Aria adds.
“Except for his dick, I’m sure.” Jasleen stifles a laugh.
Aria says nothing, but her cheeks do color drastically.
“I’m thinking the lack of a pattern is actually the pattern itself. You notice how sporadic and infrequent the contact between these people? Your potential buyers? You have to tweak the parameters of your search.” Bill muscles close, his meaty shoulder nudging Aria. “Do you mind?”
Her smile is amused when she steps aside. “Oh, by all means.”
“You do realize you’re being an insulting prick to the actual mistress of the dark web, right?” I ask Bill. “Because that’s exactly what you’re doing.”
“She knows she’s a goddess. I’ll fall to my knees in front of her once I’m done with this.” Bill sounds distracted, his fat fingertips flying over the laptop keyboard before he stands back proudly. “There. Run your program now and see what it brings up.”
Aria takes over, all of them nestled in front of the screen like the three blind mice. The cursor, mirrored on the screens behind them, moves almost too fast for me to follow, and whatever programming they run, it takes off with a string of white text on a black background.
“Whoa! Hold it!”
Aria, Adam, and Bill all talk at once, noises of equal excitement as they move closer to the laptop as a single unit. Whatever they see in the hieroglyphics of computer jargon, the rest of us have no idea, and the girls and I sit like students ready to be taught.
“Right there, do you see it?” Adam points at something. “A snag in the fabric.” He claps his hands together before pumping a fist in the air.
“Whatisit?” Bill leans closer as Adam adjusts his glasses. Somehow, the movement helps him see the code clearer, and he offers the room one of his rare smiles.
“A potential pickup point,” he explains to us, the dummies in the room—all action and no brains. “One of the homeless shelters in the city is going to have a ‘Feed the Streets’ day, and it seems that the event has been targeted.”
“He’s using my programs to try and remain undetected.” Aria sounds sick. “When do you think they’re most likely to make a move?”
“Pretty fucking stupid of them to use a computer for any of this anyway,” Naomi grumbles. “Too easily traced if you know what you’re doing.”
“If you think getting into the system was easy, then you have another think coming,” Aria corrects her.
“You’re telling me it’s not? It took you guys less than ten minutes. I watched you.”
“On a systemthis onedesigned. And you’ve got three certified geniuses working on the case now.” Adam pushes his glasses up higher on his nose again. This time, the move reeks of excitement, an almost unconscious gesture.
“If I’m the best in the biz, then these guys are a close second. Let me tell you.” Aria instructs them to keep running the program and approaches me. “We’ve got to stop the grab, Tough Guy. I don’t care what happens to me, if he finds me or not, but I’m not letting him get his hands on any of those kids. Or adults. No one is going to suffer because of him.”
She’s practically trembling, and I stand, uncaring what the others see when I gather her into my arms. Full of more fire than anyone I know, and she’s got the hair to match.
“We’re not going to let him do anything,” I assure her. “We’ll stop his grab, or at the very least, make sure he knows he’s being watched.”
“Then what’s the plan?Tough Guy?” Jasleen mimics. Without a hint of malice, thankfully. “And what do you want us to do? We’re ready.”
“Especially when we’re supposed to be out there looking for you, Dev.” Naomi looks worried, going so far as to lift her thumb to her mouth to ravage her cuticle bed. “I mean, we’re supposed to bring you in right away. The APB is no joke.”
“That’s why you’re going to go back to the station for work as usual, and let me handle this. I’ll set up surveillance on site. There’s little chance Broderick will show himself and less chance he’ll have more than a handful of men in place to lure his product.” I swallow hard, hating myself for considering live human beings as a product, even though it adds another layer to distance myself from the horrors of the situation.
Naomi jumps up from the couch at the same time Aria slams her palms into my chest to push me away from her.
“Are you out of your mind?” Naomi snaps.
“There is no way I’m staying here and letting you go alone,” Aria says. “I’m going to help you.”
“There’s no reason to wait. It’s better for us to get out there and put a stop to it while the rest of you work together with enough evidence to take him down and keep him there.” I’m used to being the voice of reason. I stepped into the role too many times to count when Layla got something stuck in her paw and wanted to go on a rampage. Not like I wanted to be the lion tamer; things sort of naturally evolved to that point. “Ellison will raise suspicion if she’s seen with me, as will you. You want to give away your defection immediately? Bad enough that you took off after the shootout. Someone knows you’re stepping out of line, enough to target you.”
Now, with Aria and Naomi both staring daggers at me with differing levels of intensity, I fall back into my familiar patterns. Speech. Body language. All of it designed to remind them of logic and make me come off as a typical male asshole, I’m sure.
