Page 39 of Pied Sniper

“I’ll do my best to avoid anything exciting,” I said and I didn’t even cross my fingers.

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After we drove to the bar, Lily handed me her keys and I headed to the office. I parked next to Solomon’s car and jogged up the stairs to the office where our tech geek, Lucas, resided. His office contained a multitude of equipment, most of which I could name although I had no idea how he worked his wizardry. Occasionally, I thought about asking but quickly changed my mind. I figured I’d either get bored, or one day have to testify against him.

“I have a treat for you,” I told him, slumping into the spare chair beside his.

Lucas brushed his untidy sweep of blonde hair from his eyes with one hand. “Is it muffins?” he asked.

“No.”

“Donuts?”

“No.”

“A sandwich?” The hopeful expression on his face waned.

“A laptop.”

“Made of cake?”

“Made of crunchy components.” I placed it on the desk. “It has a password. Please, can you crack it?”

“Sure, but it’ll cost you.”

“Why? You work here. You earn a salary.”

“I’m also hungry. Please bring something tasty with you when you return for it.”

“Any special requests?”

“All of the things I guessed a minute ago.”

“You know there’s a sandwich shop just down the street if you’re that hungry.”

“And I appreciate you going there for me.” Lucas shooed me away. “I’ll call you when I’m done.”

“What are you doing now?” I asked, noticing his screen. A large photo of Tiffany occupied one corner, and line after line of code ran below it.

“Analyzing all the threats made to Tiffany Rose using keywords on her video channel over the last six months. This code will then filter them in order of ‘serious danger’ to ‘pathetic online troll’.”

“Great! Will it take long?”

“Yes, probably. There are a lot of threats to research. The armchair warriors really hate attractive, successful, financially-independent women. Some of the threats are disgusting.”

“How bad?”

“Death, rape, assault, mutilation, doxing, you name it, someone took the time to relate exactly how they plan to do it to Tiffany.”

“What’s doxing?” I’d heard the term before but couldn’t remember exactly.

“Searching for, then revealing, a person’s private details online. In this case, Tiffany’s address. It’s usually done for malicious purposes.”

“From people who can’t get to her in person so they publish her address, thereby encouraging others to go after her?” I asked.

“Yes. Although some people could be simply curious.”

I pulled a face. “Is that legal?”

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