Page 95 of The Game

“I guess you’re sworn to secrecy,” I say, turning the spoon for my coffee over in my hand, and she scowls at me.

“Why the hell did Anna go to Russia? She’s putting herself in real danger,” I say.

“You are the one who is putting her in danger! The academy takes care of the people it gets to the top. They are not going to harm someone like Anna who brings them a lot of glory. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

“Yes, I do, and they can do all sorts of things to Anna, Mila. Some visible and some less obvious. An accident? A sudden injury?Rape?” A hot sick feeling washes through me.

She leans forward, right into my face. “You are here, talking about this. Do you not think they know about you, Adam Miller? That this apartment could be bugged?”

And oh shit! I never thought of that. She’s right, Iaman idiot. Of course they’ll be keeping tabs on their academy players. I pick up my phone and text Fabian.

Have you left yet?

Just heading out the door.

I’m at Anna’s apartment. Her tennis pal Mila is here. She says Anna’s gone toRussia.

There’s no response for about a minute, then:

Jesus Christ! I fucking told her not to go there!

Can you sweep her apartment?

You think it’s bugged?

No idea. Do you know how to do that?

Child’s play. On my way.

Mila’s mouth is set in a grim line. “I don’t like you, Adam Miller. You and your stupid hacker friend will put us all in danger. You think you are smarter than the people in Russia? You are children.”

She leaves the kitchen, disappearing down the long hallway toward the bedrooms. I think I’m revising my earlier opinion of liking her. And one of us is a real expert in this kind of thing, and it’s not me. I bury my head in my hands.

Fabian turns up thirty minutes later, and the doorman lets him up.

He pulls a notebook and pen out of a big bag, followed by various pieces of equipment, including his laptop, and starts a piece of software that scans all the devices connected to the router and Wi-Fi signals. He writes something on the pad and gestures to me to read it:

After I’ve done this scan, we’re going to sweep for different radio frequencies. See if anything else is here trying to communicate out. We’ll need to turn off everything that we think has wireless capability.

I nod, and he puts on some plastic gloves and hands me a pair and I start looking for wireless devices, working my way through the open-plan space into the living room.

Mila comes out at some point, makes herself another cup of coffee, and watches us both. I don’t introduce her to Fabian. How much can I really trust her?

After about an hour, Fabian writes on the paper:

Why is Mila here?

I take the pen:

To look after Pepper, I think.

Can we trust her? She could be the bug. Or her phone. What made you think the apartment might be bugged?

She did.

Fabian frowns, then walks into the bedroom she disappeared into without knocking.

I hear her say, “Hey! What are you doing in here?” and then, “Give that back!” Fabian reappears with a phone in his hand, and Mila is right behind him. She tries to grab it from him, but he bats her off and pulls a laptop out of his bag, plugging her mobile into it. He loads a program that starts to run through what’s on it.

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