Page 81 of Deep Tide

“And that’s the major deal that’s going down,” she said, suddenly catching on. “The thing you mentioned yesterday. You’re trying to intercept the shipment before all these preloaded devices go out to drug cartels and mafia people and so on.”

He nodded.

“When is it happening?” she asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

“And where is it happening?

“Again, I don’t know yet. I wish I did. It’s a little challenging to investigate someone when all their sensitive communication is done on encrypted devices. Not only that, every person using these devices is difficult to investigate. Many of our usual tools and methods are useless. I mean, we arrest somebody with one of these phones, and suddenly all their messages are wiped clean before we can even get a look at anything.”

“They can wipe them remotely?”

“Yes,” he said, clearly frustrated. “This technology puts a major dent in our ability to build cases. And we’re talking about criminal operations all over the globe that utilize this software.”

She sighed. “Damn.”

“Exactly.”

She watched him, thinking about what he’d said as something niggled at the corner of her brain.

“If I’m remembering my freshman lit class correctly, Virgil wrote about a Trojan horse,” she said. “You know, the wooden horse the Greeks used to sneak into Troy?”

Sean didn’t respond.

“So... you’re not just trying to intercept these devices. You want to corrupt them or something. That’s why you need Gagnon. You want to convince him to give you guys a back door?”

He lifted an eyebrow, and she felt a rush of adrenaline because she could tell she was on the right track.

“Not a bad plan, assuming it works,” she said. “It sounds risky.”

He sipped his coffee, not confirming or denying anything. But she knew her guess was at least in the right ballpark. She could tell from his body language.

Sean checked his watch. He was getting antsy to leave, and she still hadn’t agreed to run his evidence for fingerprints.

Nicole debated what to do. He’d just shared some very sensitive information with her, and she knew it was a trade. Which made her think this beer can had to be important. Why he couldn’t run it through the FBI, she had no idea. His channels were faster than hers, but clearly it was more important that the evidence not link back to him. She’d have to think about what that meant, but in the meantime, she wanted to keep the flow of information going.

“I’ll take care of the beer can for you,” she said.

“Thanks.”

“I know someone at the lab up there. I’ll put in a call, see if I can get a rush on it.”

“I appreciate it.” He checked his watch again. “I’d better go.”

She led him to the door.

“Thanks for the coffee,” he said. “I needed it.”

“Sure.” She glanced at him. “Not as good as Leyla’s, but it does the job.”

He nodded, keeping his face carefully blank.

She stopped by the door. “I hear you’ve been spending time with her?”

His eyebrows tipped up. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Small island. You know, you want to be sure to keep her out of it.”

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