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Although he’s a thousand miles away, his sigh comes through the phone loud and clear. When he says nothing, I assume it’s my cue to launch, giving him the story without embellishment.
There’s really not much to tell. I was hacking, which wasn’t exactly news to him. My bad habit started in junior high. I was doing white hat hacks when he and Mom found out. I stopped for a while, but started up again not long after.
Will he believe I never even tried to do anything as heinous as hacking the second largest bank in America? How lame it must sound when I blame it on my ex-boyfriend. I even let down my barriers and admitted the jerk dated me in a premeditated plan to pin the whole thing on me.
Slater’s a buttoned-up lifer in the military. Will he evenwantto help me?
I finish my story with, “So, my lawyer tells me things don’t look good.”
“And your trial is intwo days?”
Why is it that no matter what he says, I always feel like I’m twelve years old and receiving a scolding from a man with austere military bearing?
“Yes. I think the chances were better until this new piece of evidence came to their attention.”
The line is silent for longer than I expected. Is he contemplating how to let me down easy? Sadly, this surprises me. As much as we were like oil and water when I was growing up, I always believed, deep in my angry teenage heart, that deep in his stern, military heart he cared for me.
“I think I can fix this, Josie, but it’s going to cost you.”
Although my heart stutters in my chest, I see a tiny sliver of light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Slater’s nothing if not fair.
“I can make a call to the DA and tell him I’m bringing you onto my Top Secret project. Like the other twenty women involved, you will have to sign a nondisclosure agreement and commit to staying the remainder of the two-year program. We’re only a month in, so you’ve got twenty-three months to go.”
Although I experience a moment of overwhelm, I quickly tell myself that twenty-three months is better than the four years or more I’m facing.
“You’ll have to stay on a contained, sixty-thousand-acre parcel of land in Texas. Not only won’t you be allowed to leave, but you’ll also be prohibited from contacting family or friends.”
My mind bounces as I consider the facts he just laid out. Almost two years on sixty thousand acres in the back of beyond of rural Texas. I settle on the one fact that causes me no grief—the no-contact clause.
There’s absolutely no one in the world I want to talk to.
“What do you want, Josie? Just say the word and I’ll make the call. I’ll buy you a ticket to the San Antonio airport and meet you personally to drive you to our little… town.”
“So let me get this straight. My lawyers tell me I’ll be lucky if I only do four years in jail for my alleged hacking crimes. You can just make a phone call and I walk? Just like that?”
“No. Not just like that. You’ll have to swear you’ll walk straight onto a plane, straight into my Jeep, and onto this facility. It’s surrounded by razor wire. You won’t be allowed to leave until the project is complete.”
“Got it.”
I swallow, then rub my palm over my sternum. I don’t know why I’m stalling. It’s the best deal I’m going to get. Being incarcerated on a huge reservation, even if it’s in middle-of-nowhere Texas, is a damn sight better than a jail cell.
Maybe I should ask what I’m signing on for.
“What’s the project?”
“Was there something ambiguous about the words ‘Top Secret’?”
It’s been so long since we’ve talked, I forgot how military and by-the-book he is.
“Give me a hint.”
“You’ve never seen anything like it. Couldn’t even imagine it. Not in a million years.”
Now he’s got me wondering. Sounds intriguing. If he does make a phone call to magically get me out of all this trouble, maybe I could slide onto the web and poke around… Did Mom hint once that after their divorce he’d gone to Nevada? Could this be aboutextraterrestrials?
Stop it! I’m going to wind up in even more trouble if I try to sneak into Top Secret files.
“Should I make the call, Josie? I’d…” He pauses a moment, then adds, “I think I can create the ideal job for you.”
