Page 89 of Insidious Threats

She choked out a laugh and looked past him into the hallway. “Where’s Petra? Did she do it?”

“With fourteen seconds to spare. She added a little flourish, too. Every time the worm replicates, a crudely drawn middle finger flashes on the screen along with the words ‘F U Delone’ written in Comic Sans. She’s sitting there watching it, giggling like a twelve-year-old boy.”

The blonde rolled over onto her side.

“Uh-uh,” Connelly warned her, pushing her back down with his foot.

“My left shoe,” she said.

“What about it?”

“Cut the heel open. There’s a micro-SD card inside.”

Sasha and Connelly exchanged a look.

The woman continued, “I’ve recorded every conversation I’ve ever had with Leith Delone. I transfer the recordings to a new micro-SD once a month. Call it an insurance policy. This one has over four thousand hours of audio on it, going back at least five years. There’s more where that came from.”

“You want a cooperation deal?” Connelly asked.

“New name, new identity, full immunity, and I’ll give you everything I have.”

He turned. “I need to call Hank. You got this?”

She nodded.

He extended the gun, and she took it warily. He went out into the hall and ducked into an empty office, already pulling up Hank’s number on his phone.

Petra appeared in the doorway, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. She looked down at the blonde and then at Sasha.

“You have a bruise on your cheek. Do you want some ice?”

“No. But will you grab her left shoe for me, please?”

The hacker raised an eyebrow but yanked the sneaker off the woman’s foot and handed it to Sasha.

“There’s a knife under the refrigerator. Could you get it?”

Petra fished the knife out from under the fridge and held it with two fingers. “This is a serious-looking knife.”

Sasha used it to slice through the hard rubber heel. The heel fell away to reveal a tiny memory card wrapped in a scrap of bubble wrap and taped to the shoe. She removed the card, slipped it into her pocket, and let the rest of the shoe fall to the floor.

“You know, I thought you and your husband were a total mismatch. But, I think you might be the complementary flavors of weird.”

Sasha laughed. “I guess we are. Word of unsolicited advice?”

Petra shrugged, “Sure.”

“When you meet someone who’s the right flavor of weird, don’t overthink it.”

46

Two weeks later

The offices of McCandless, Volmer & Andrews

Sasha looked around the long conference room table at the assembled team. “Who’s missing?”

“Ellie’s on her way,” Will told her. “She was helping her parents pack up their van.”