Web of Lies by Michael Cross

Author:Michael Cross [Cross, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

After we leave the cafe, we walk down the street. I surreptitiously watch the street around us, looking for a tail. The crowd is heavy but spaced out fairly well—well enough that a tail would stand out. I don’t see anybody, but I remain vigilant anyway. Better safe than sorry.

I walk Justice into a plaza half-filled with people. Most of them are hanging out on the patio in front of a sports bar on one side of the plaza that’s playing a Blackhawks game. On the other side of the plaza are a restaurant, coffee house, and ice cream parlor. They’re less populated than the sports bar, but there’s still a decent crowd.

I lead Justice over to the fountain directly in the middle of the plaza. I think between the crowd at the bar cheering their ‘Hawks on, the ambient noise from the other side of the plaza, and the splashing of the water in the fountain, it’s loud enough to obscure any attempt at electronic eavesdropping. Justice turns and looks at me with a small grin on her face.

“Paranoid, much?” she jokes.

As I lean close enough that my mouth is near her ear, she starts to recoil. I grip her arm tightly, holding her in place. From the outside, we look like a couple sharing an intimate moment—which is the point. Despite the noise all around us, I pitch my voice low anyway.

“Lesson number one—if you’re serious about getting into this line of work, you’re going to need to be paranoid as hell,” I whisper. “Assume you are being watched and listened to at all times. And if you are discussing something sensitive, you take measures to beat it. Always.”

“Lesson number one?” she practically squeals. “So you’re going to do it? You’re going to train me?”

“That remains to be seen,” I reply. “Before I decide anything, tell me how you can crack my uncrackable problem.”

“Well, I know that you’re looking at Eleanor Vogel,” she says.

“And how do you know that?”

She arches her eyebrow and gives me a roll of the eyes. “Who do you think put that very complete, very thorough dossier together?”

I chuckle. “Right. Okay,” I nod. “Go on then.”

“Well, I obviously don’t know the op specifics, but I assume you’re either looking to steal something or plant evidence on Vogel,” she continues. “I assume if it had been a greenlight op, you wouldn’t be casing her place of business.”

“That’s a fair observation,” I offer with a shrug, neither confirming nor denying anything.

“Well, I’ve done some homework on my own, and I think either way, you’re going to need access to her computer—which is air-gapped,” she adds. “Which adds a whole different set of problems.”

“Obviously,” I say.

“But the biggest problem you have in front of you is that—as you’ve undoubtedly seen—her place of business has Pentagon-level security,” she says. “Which makes sense since they do a lot of work for the Pentagon in there.”

“Yeah, that’s great,” I say, growing impatient with the pace of her big reveal. “The place is an uncrackable nut, as you said.

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