Page 47 of Insidious Threats

Leo shook his head. “No clue.”

The IT guy spread his hands wide and made a ‘can’t help you’ gesture.

As he turned to walk out of the room, Maisy said, “Hang on.”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“How many tries do you think we have at the PIN? If you had to guess, I mean. Like, he wouldn’t have set it up so you only get one try, right?”

He scratched his forehead. “Most of these secure drives give you a surprising number of attempts. Up to twenty, sometimes. But I wouldn’t risk doing that many if I were you.”

Maisy was nodding eagerly. “What about two?”

“Two ought to be safe,” he answered slowly, clearly unhappy about having to opine.

“Do you have an idea?” Leo asked.

Maisy grinned. “I have two.”

“Even if we get in, we’ll still have a password to deal with,” Jordana reminded them.

Maisy waved a hand. “I got into his phone and laptop, didn’t I?”

August wheeled around and returned to the table. “Can I stick around and watch?”

“Sure,” Leo told him. “If she does manage to get into the files or whatever’s on here, we’ll need you to tell us what we’re dealing with.”

He passed the drive to Maisy.

She took it hesitantly, her confidence apparently already deflating. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

After a moment’s thought, Leo nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. I definitely don’t know the PIN. So unless you give it a shot, my only options are to take as many wild guesses as I can or toss this thing back into the safe and wait for the end of the world.”

She turned her head and gave him a searching look. “And you promise you’re not going to be mad at me if I accidentally destroy it?”

“Hell, Maisy, we’re out of options. I promise I won’t be mad.”

“Okay, then. After all, as my Aunt Alice always says, ‘Cain’t never could.’”

Cain’t never could?

Leo looked at Jordana, who shrugged, then at August, who shook his head.

“Um, what?”

“You know, the saying, ‘cain’t never could.’”

They stared at her with blank faces. Finally, Jordana said, “That’s not a saying.”

Maisytskedat them. “Come on, y’all. It means you’ll never do it if you don’t try.”

“How does that remotely mean—?”

Leo cut August off and gestured toward the drive. “Let’s focus, people. Maisy, do the honors.”

She took a deep breath, positioned her right index finger over the number pad, and said each digit aloud as she pressed it. “Zero-three-one-one-nine-zero.” She blinked down at the drive. “How will we know if it worked?”

“Hit the green icon of an open lock,” Jordana told her.