Page 62 of Matrix

“A dungeon.”

“Holy shit.”

“And other kids. A lot of other kids.”

“Ones he kidnapped?”

“Some, yes. But others were literally handed to him by the system. He was a foster parent too.”

“Was he married?”

“No.”

“That’s unusual. Usually, they try to place kids with married couples.”

“If you have enough money, they don’t give a fuck.”

“He was rich?”

“Filthy rich. He has more money than God.”

“He’s still alive?”

I nod because I can’t bring myself to say his name.

“Who is it? If you tell me, I can check the statute of limitations. We can prosecute him.”

“It’s probably too late. And even if you could, you wouldn’t.”

“Why the hell not?” Her eyebrows draw together.

“He’s untouchable.”

“No one can escape justice. I mean, people try, and some get away with it for a while, but eventually—”

“Justice doesn’t always prevail, so don’t bother trying to convince me that it does.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ve had cases where we had video evidence of the crime, and yet the perpetrator was found not guilty, or their case was thrown out.”

“Exactly.”

“But maybe that won’t happen in this case. Have you checked to see what he’s up to now? Does he still have kids at his house? If he does, we have an obligation to do something to stop him.”

“He doesn’t have them anymore. We checked.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. We keep a close eye on his place.”

“But … as far as I know, there’s only one person you watch. If you had other cameras set up, I would have found their feeds in your system.”

“There aren’t any other cameras,” I say slowly, watching as realization marches across her face. “The man who hurt me, who hurt us. Me, Scar, Nitro, Talon, and Reaper—”

“Jonathan Blackstone,” she whispers.

“Yes. Now do you see why he’s untouchable? We’ve tried and failed more times than I can count. Even that video last year wasn’t enough to bring him down. We wanted to kill him, but we’ve never been able to get close enough.”

“Matrix, this is really bad.”