Not Char.

Not my sister.

After everything tonight, it was the final straw.

I felt dead inside.

Numb.

I had completely shut down.

“I’ll be right there.”

I couldn’t think about Toxicwrath or Mason. Because Char always came first.

Always.

“Hurry, Hannah. We can’t lose her,” Mom cried.

“Hang on, Mom. I’m leaving the house now.”

I hung up the phone and stared at my computer screen. Without another thought I typed a string of numbers into the command line. Within seconds the screen went blue, the system crashing.

Everything on the hard drive was wiped clean.

I picked up the external hard drive containing the tracking program and quickly walked back to the bedroom and put it in a shoebox at the back of my closet. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving it in the house. First thing in the morning I’d open a safe-deposit box and leave it there. For now it would have to stay where it was.

I had to get to Char.

I couldn’t waste any time.

I couldn’t lose her.

She was all I had left.

My phone pinged with a text.

I opened it, my heart thudding painfully in my chest.

The message came from a blocked number.

There weren’t any words.

Only three symbols.

Chapter 27

Mason

She didn’t answer the door. I hadn’t really expected her to. She was avoiding me now.

And trying to protect her many secrets.

I drove back to the office after leaving Hannah’s, not wanting to go home with only my endless doubts for company.

Hannah had put a root kit on my computer. What had she been looking for?

Why had she done it?

Was that why she had broken up with me? She’d gotten whatever she wanted from me and didn’t need me anymore?

I should have known better. My instincts were never wrong.

I sat in the parking lot at the field office, not wanting to get out of my car.

It was almost nine-thirty at night, but there were still people inside. Agents didn’t work normal hours like everyone else.

I couldn’t face anyone right now.

Not with the truth staring me in the face.

Hannah Whelan wasn’t who I thought she was.

I pulled out my phone and tapped out a text to her.

Call me.

I erased it and tried again.

We need to talk.

That sounded idiotic.

Was any of it real?

There was a knock on the driver’s-side window, and I put my phone back in my pocket without sending the text.

I rolled down the window to find Perry standing there, a strange look on his face.

“I was going to call you when I saw your car out front.” Perry stepped aside as I got out.

“Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you have called it a day hours ago?” I asked him as we walked toward the front of the building.

“This case is driving me crazy, Mason. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

All I could think about was Hannah. I knew that Jacob was going to notify Derek about my compromised computer. Tomorrow I’d be raked over the coals. There might even be an internal investigation. I had to prepare myself for that.

Because of Hannah.

And for what purpose? That was what I couldn’t figure out.

Who was Hannah Whelan?

“You still need to take a break, Perry. Sleep and food are good things.”

Perry followed me into the elevator and I hit the button for the third floor.

“I’ve been going over Freedom Overdrive’s targets, trying to find a common thread. We know that they’re all corrupt. But what if the link is personal?”

“That would make sense,” I said tiredly, wishing Perry would shut up already.

“Take Stanford Pharmaceuticals. They upped prescription costs by four hundred percent in the last five years, making medication unaffordable for a lot of people. And Ryan Law. Did you know they cheated people out of legitimate settlements? What if that’s the connection? The victims.”

Stanford Pharmaceuticals. Ryan Law. The victims. Perry, for all his ignorance, might be onto something.

“I was reading about a case several years back that involved a contractor that laid a bunch of bad asphalt that led to the death and injury of dozens of people. Did you know Ryan Law used all sorts of blackmail and intimidation to get those families bringing suit against the town and contractor to drop their cases? It was really awful. A lot of those victims, the ones that survived, ended up with some pretty serious conditions. I couldn’t access medical files—you know, with HIPAA and all that—but what if those people used Stanford Pharmaceutical products?”

My ears were buzzing. I was listening to Perry but I was preoccupied.

With Hannah.

Always Hannah.

She had taken over my life and now I knew that wasn’t a good thing.

We got off the elevator and Perry kept talking. “I really think we need to look into a closer connection. Someone from the inside. Because this required a lot of skill—”

I sat down at my computer and opened my email. I had dozens from the hours since I had left. One stood out.

It was from an address I had never seen before yet I recognized instantly.

06050900oneforallunitynet

06050900.

I knew those numbers.

They belonged to the second hacker signature I had found after the Ryan Law DDoS attack.

“Perry, I’ll come talk to you later. I’ve got stuff to do. But you’ve got some solid ideas,” I told my partner.

“Oh, okay. Well, how about I compile my theories and send them over to you?”

I nodded, distracted, not wanting to open the email until Perry was out of the way.

From: 06050900oneforallunitynet

Subject: The Truth is out there

Date: April 12, 2016 21:45

To: Kohler, Mason <Mason.Kohleric.fbi.gov

The time for cryptic warnings is over. It’s time for you to know the truth. See who you’ve been in bed with.

Literally.

There was an attachment. I hesitated opening it.

This had the feeling of doom.

Once I clicked the file, there would be no going back. Everything would explode. I was certain of it.

But of course I clicked on the attachment. I had to know.

There was a mine of information. Chat transcripts. Data copied from a personal computer.