Page 107 of Only the Wicked

“Of course you did. My grandson is a good person.”

“I try to be.”

“You are.” I suspect if we were in the same room she’d pat my shoulder.

“And it sounds like this Sydney might be a good person too.”

“She lied to me.”

“That is unfortunate. But it doesn’t sound like she lied to hurt you or for her own personal gain, at least, not in a greedy way.”

Silence reclaims the line, and I let it, choosing to sidestep Nana’s unstated implication that Sara was a greedy one. She never liked my ex.

“You know, the Greek gods typically did not forgive. That didn’t work out so well for them.”

This time, I do chuckle. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, they were so focused on punishment and revenge that they created more problems than they solved. Meanwhile, the planet moved on to other belief systems—ones that embraced forgiveness and redemption.”

“And I’ve been acting like Zeus throwing lightning bolts,” I admit.

“Just an old lady ruminating. But you’re not a god, honey. You’re human. And humans get to choose growth over grudges. I know you’ll make the right choice. You always do.”

Do I? This time, maybe I will.

“I should probably head back. Love you, Nana.”

“Love you, too.”

Chapter

Thirty

Rhodes

I push up from the bench, pop out the earbuds, and start the walk back, Nana’s words echoing in my mind. Syd lied to me, yes. But not for greed or malice. She’s trying to find whoever got her people killed. If someone had targeted my team, betrayed people under my protection, wouldn’t I do anything to find them? The difference is, I’d probably just throw money at the problem. Hire investigators, offer rewards. Sydney? She became the investigation. She put herself in harm’s way to get justice for people she couldn’t save. That takes courage.

Sure, I can understand the rationale in believing ARGUS is a source of leaks. I can understand why she accepted the assignment. I can even see how everything progressed over the last few days. I can get my head around forgiveness, but there will be no relationship. That’s done.

As for working with her…that I can do. I can find the leak. Finding a leak is no problem. But there’s more going on here.

Why did the FBI approach her? She’s right. They don’t cultivate assets. Did the DOJ authorize an investigation? Did someone lie to Miles so he mistakenly believed it was handled?

The timing of Alex’s IPO pressure now seems too convenient. Every week it’s another dire funding projection, another investor demanding liquidity. But what if those aren’t organic pressures? What if someone’s been manufacturing the financial crisis to force my hand? I can’t take Alex’s word for it.

I’ll trace the source, do the research myself. On both points—our financial needs and the investigation. As for the investigation, who else is watching me? Which intelligence agencies are in on this?

The agent may have recognized Sydney, which is why he confronted her, thinking a former CIA officer could be convinced to aid an investigation. Or maybe he has no idea who she is, and the government will approach anyone in my circle. I’ll need to update my security team back in San Francisco. I believe they already monitor the staff, but they’ll need to take more care. If there’s not a surveillance camera over my trash, maybe they’ll need to put one over it, just to discover if anyone’s digging through garbage. Absolute insanity.

Of course, if I do what Russia wants and make a move to buy the Forbes database, the investigations will no longer be clandestine. There are a handful of senators who will make it their mission to stop the acquisition. Political theater. Everyone seeking a payday.

If I’m successful with the acquisition? What does that look like?

The owner of secrets.

ARGUS was designed to analyze data, not collect it. The system processes and analyzes data that is supplied by our clients. The Forbes database would change everything—theoretically, it could transform my creation from a tool into a weapon by augmenting clients’ data.

Daisy has been clear about the technical integration challenges, but the ethical considerations keep me up at night. The database contains troves of data, including every public FBI and CIA report ever released. What happens when that information interfaces with ARGUS’s pattern recognition algorithms? Power beyond imagination—and responsibility I never wanted.