Page 21 of Wild Fever

She gave me a look. “I facilitate the transfer of information. And just so we're clear, I haven't killed anyone lately.”

"Out with it. I need full transparency if you want my help.”

She hesitated for a long moment. "Remember your promise.”

I had a sneaking suspicion that promise was going to come back to bite me in the ass.

"It was a straightforward job. Simple. Or so it seemed at first. I got an encrypted anonymous drop. Nothing unusual. The terms and the money seemed agreeable. The risk seemed palatable. But I certainly didn't sign up for this.”

"What was the job?”

By this time, JD had joined us in the salon.

I made brief introductions. "I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name."

"Kara Valentine.”

I took it with a grain of salt. It was probably an alias. “Tell me about this drop.”

“My job was to acquire the target, get him back to his hotel room, and gain access to his laptop. From there, I could access the server using his credentials and download specific encrypted files.”

I exhaled a breath, knowing where this was going, and it wasn’t good. “Your target was Yan Zheng.”

“I swear to God he was alive when I left.”

“Okay, you need to come down to the station and make a full statement. If what you say is true?—“

She cut me off, rage tensing her jaw and reddening her cheeks. "No. This is a federal case. You have no jurisdiction. You'll have to hand me over to the feds. It will take days to process through the bureaucracy, and I'll be dead. I don't have that kind of time.”

"You’ve put me in an awkward position."

"I gave you ample indication this was a complicated scenario, and you promised.What’s said in this room stays in this room. Remember?”

There was a long, uncomfortable pause.

"You just admitted to a cybercrime—unauthorized access of a computer network. That's a felony. And if we help you, we’re aiding and abetting."

"I knew this was a mistake." She thought about bolting for the door, but Kara knew she wouldn't get far. "Something big is going on, and you both know it. If I sit in a jail cell right now, the truth is never coming out. You want to find out who killed Yan Zheng, don’t you?”

Now she was playing to my sense of duty and my ego.

"This thing is a powder keg just waiting to blow. Every minute that goes by without resolution, political tensions increase,” she said. “Who knows what that could lead to?”

A global conflict wasn't off the table.

"Who was your client?” I asked.

"I told you. I got an anonymous encrypted drop. I have my suspicions, but no proof.”

"Who do you think it was?”

"Usually, this type of job comes from a three-letter agency. They want plausible deniability. Off the books.”

"Do you still have the files you downloaded?”

She nodded. "Yes. I'm supposed to meet a contact and make the handoff today. Given the situation, I'm not doing that. Not until I find out who poisoned me.”

"Do you know what's contained in the encrypted files you downloaded?"