Page 96 of The Five Year Lie

“Oh, that’s easy—the godlike power to do whatever the fuck you want. Like stalking high school girls, or violating people’s privacy. And inventing a judge is cheaper than buying a judge. You could just cheat your way into the information you need, and then figure out how to get arealjudge to give you a warrant for it. If you even need one. If you’re just getting videos for your own personal bullshit, court doesn’t matter.”

“Jesus, that’s an evil idea,” Zain says. “Which probably means you’re onto something. Do you think it was an inside job at Chime Co.? Setting up a judge in the system is kind of a pain in the ass.”

“Think about it—we don’t exactly train our people on the ins and outs of the judicial system. It’s just a form on a screen. You’ve worked a shift or two on the warrant desk, right? If someone gave you a bunch of faked paperwork, would you actually be able to tell?”

“Probably not,” he says quietly.

“That’s why it’s the perfect scam. You could fake that shit pretty easily if you knew how the warrant system at Chime Co. worked.”

“Okay...” he says slowly. “I see what you mean. You’d just copy another judge’s documents... And fake a notary’s stamp. The more I think about it, the better this theory gets.”

“At Chime Co., we’ll put anyone with a pulse on the warrant desk. Even me. Whoever set this up would be someone who understood that.”

He grunts his agreement.

“Zain, can you find thefirstwarrant for this judge? Wouldn’t we be able to see who set it up in the system originally?”

“Of course,” he says. “But not right now.”

“Really? Lot of people around the office on a Saturday?”

“Actually, yes. We’re in the middle of a messy intrusion. I got athree a.m. call about a denial-of-service attack. We’re still trying to get back to a hundred percent.”

“Oh shit. Sorry.”

“Yeah, it’s been a long day already. And also...” He drops his voice another decibel. “I think someone else in the system is watching all my database requests. They’re being mirrored to a dummy account.”

“Wait, what?” I don’t speak geek, but that sounds bad. “Are you saying that someone is spying on you?”

“Feels like it.”

“Who?Is it Ray?” Zain is already suspicious of my uncle.

“I don’t know if it’s him,” he whispers. “Some of the time stamps don’t add up.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s complicated.” He sighs. “But it also doesn’t matter. I need to see this thing through. I like your theory about the judge, but that’s ahugesystem vulnerability. What if there’s more of them?”

“Oh shit.”

“Exactly. This is officially my problem. I’m responsible for ensuring the integrity of the database. And if I get fired for doing that, my next employer wouldn’t hold it against me.”

“God, don’t get fired,” I whine. “Who would I complain to?”

He laughs. “Let me go. I’ve got a network to fix before I try to verify your evil theory.”

“Okay, later.”

He hangs up.

31

FIVE YEARS AGO, AUGUST

Drew is hunched over his laptop in the living room, his crutches on the floor beneath him. Again.

He’s so close. He’sthisclose to nailing down the whole scam, and shutting down Chime Co., too. His notebook is open in front of him—the one Ariel can never see. It’s filled almost completely now with notes about the so-called warrants signed by Judge Kerry.