files had already self-converted to an
A H
file format.”
“A H?”
Gruss asked.
“For Angela Hoot,” Keats said, and ticked his head in my direction. Gruss looked over like she was memorizingmy face. I’m not sure how much I’d been on her radar before that.
“And there’s noway to trace it back to the sender?” she asked, still on me.
“I’m sorry, no,” I said, and immediately saw Eve wince on her screen.
Don’t apologize if it’s not your fault.
It was one of her favorite pieces of advice.
“But we’re working on it,” I added quickly. “The problem is, with cloud-based computing, there
are
no rules about relative locations. They can route this through any server in theworld if they have access to it.”
I wasn’t telling them anything they didn’t already know, but it seemed worth emphasizing while I had the chance.
And just like that, the meeting moved on without me. My head was spinning through everything I’d reported. Hopefully, I’d made a good impression, not that it mattered in anyone else’s bigger picture. The real mandate here was to get a handle on thisquixotic piece of coding, ASAP. I forced myself to stay focused on the conversation at hand, while various members of the team threw out different theories.
“We have known victims in Boston, Binghamton, and Albany, yes?” Gruss asked the room. “What’s the radius here? Tristate? New England?”
“Hard to say,” Keats answered. “It goes back to what Angela was telling us. At this point, the pool ofpotential targets is as large as the internet itself. They can send this app to anyone they want.”
“That’s the second time one of you has said ‘they,’” Gruss pointed out. “Where’s that coming from?”
Keats’s eyes flitted over me before he answered. “This could be some kind of collective as opposed to a lone-wolf operation,” he said. “We’ve been considering the possibility. They still needfeeton the ground for the actual murders, but it’s unclear where and how it’s coordinated. Just that it
is
coordinated. All of which points to some kind of team approach.”
SAC Gruss ran a hand across her mouth. There was no one in the room to be mad at, but you could tell she was pissed as hell.
“And that all means that the next targets, the people we need to make sure don’t wind up dead, couldbe—”
“Yeah.” Keats was right there with her. “Beijing, Cleveland, or two doors down,” he said. “This could happen literally anywhere, at any time.”
CHAPTER 20
I TOOK A short dinner break and walked out toward the harbor to clear my head. One of the perks of our office’s location was easy access to the wide-open space of Boston Harbor. If I can’t get out on my bike, just being near the water is the next best thing for me.
On my way, I grabbed a veggie burger from Kinsale’s and then called A.A. while I wolfed it down on the go.
“Owl!” sheanswered.
“Hey, Pooh,” I said. “Tell me a joke or something. I need it.”
“I can hear it in your voice,” she said. “Take a breath and unclench, will you? Tell me what happened.”
“I wish I could,” I said.
“Have people died?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Does it have anything to do with that family who was killed in Lincoln?”
“I can’t say.”
It was driving me crazy, keeping all this from her. A.A.was the one person I knew outside of the Bureau who could appreciatethe scope of this sick puzzle. And it wasn’t like I thought she’d spill any details if I told her. It was more about sticking to the code of ethics I’d signed up for the minute I took the Bureau internship—much less gotten involved in a case like this one. Just like you never know which details will become relevant, you alsonever know which casual slip of the lip could be fatal to an investigation. For the time, anyway, I was going to walk a razor-straight line through the Bureau’s confidentiality policy.
I think A.A. knew it, too, just from the way she
A H
file format.”
“A H?”
Gruss asked.
“For Angela Hoot,” Keats said, and ticked his head in my direction. Gruss looked over like she was memorizingmy face. I’m not sure how much I’d been on her radar before that.
“And there’s noway to trace it back to the sender?” she asked, still on me.
“I’m sorry, no,” I said, and immediately saw Eve wince on her screen.
Don’t apologize if it’s not your fault.
It was one of her favorite pieces of advice.
“But we’re working on it,” I added quickly. “The problem is, with cloud-based computing, there
are
no rules about relative locations. They can route this through any server in theworld if they have access to it.”
I wasn’t telling them anything they didn’t already know, but it seemed worth emphasizing while I had the chance.
And just like that, the meeting moved on without me. My head was spinning through everything I’d reported. Hopefully, I’d made a good impression, not that it mattered in anyone else’s bigger picture. The real mandate here was to get a handle on thisquixotic piece of coding, ASAP. I forced myself to stay focused on the conversation at hand, while various members of the team threw out different theories.
“We have known victims in Boston, Binghamton, and Albany, yes?” Gruss asked the room. “What’s the radius here? Tristate? New England?”
“Hard to say,” Keats answered. “It goes back to what Angela was telling us. At this point, the pool ofpotential targets is as large as the internet itself. They can send this app to anyone they want.”
“That’s the second time one of you has said ‘they,’” Gruss pointed out. “Where’s that coming from?”
Keats’s eyes flitted over me before he answered. “This could be some kind of collective as opposed to a lone-wolf operation,” he said. “We’ve been considering the possibility. They still needfeeton the ground for the actual murders, but it’s unclear where and how it’s coordinated. Just that it
is
coordinated. All of which points to some kind of team approach.”
SAC Gruss ran a hand across her mouth. There was no one in the room to be mad at, but you could tell she was pissed as hell.
“And that all means that the next targets, the people we need to make sure don’t wind up dead, couldbe—”
“Yeah.” Keats was right there with her. “Beijing, Cleveland, or two doors down,” he said. “This could happen literally anywhere, at any time.”
CHAPTER 20
I TOOK A short dinner break and walked out toward the harbor to clear my head. One of the perks of our office’s location was easy access to the wide-open space of Boston Harbor. If I can’t get out on my bike, just being near the water is the next best thing for me.
On my way, I grabbed a veggie burger from Kinsale’s and then called A.A. while I wolfed it down on the go.
“Owl!” sheanswered.
“Hey, Pooh,” I said. “Tell me a joke or something. I need it.”
“I can hear it in your voice,” she said. “Take a breath and unclench, will you? Tell me what happened.”
“I wish I could,” I said.
“Have people died?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Does it have anything to do with that family who was killed in Lincoln?”
“I can’t say.”
It was driving me crazy, keeping all this from her. A.A.was the one person I knew outside of the Bureau who could appreciatethe scope of this sick puzzle. And it wasn’t like I thought she’d spill any details if I told her. It was more about sticking to the code of ethics I’d signed up for the minute I took the Bureau internship—much less gotten involved in a case like this one. Just like you never know which details will become relevant, you alsonever know which casual slip of the lip could be fatal to an investigation. For the time, anyway, I was going to walk a razor-straight line through the Bureau’s confidentiality policy.
I think A.A. knew it, too, just from the way she
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