Page 43 of Wired Strong

Sophie

Sophie setdown the phone on the park bench beside her. She looked around the park, reorienting herself in time and space after the call with Connor. Anubis sat beside her, leaning gently against her leg, while Ginger nosed around the corners of the bench, making sure to mark every bit of it.

Off in the distance, a white egret picked its way across the smooth lawn, and a flock of mynah birds chattered loudly in the top of one of the nearby banyan trees. Beyond them, she could see the ocean, and a beautiful white boat sailing away somewhere.

If only she could get on a boat and sail away, if only there were some part of the world that was safe enough for her to hide in, with her children, with Armita.With Connor.

But refuges, anywhere in the world, were few for the likes of them. Maybe, by taking this next step, Sophie could expand that circle of safety just a little more.

She had just agreed to her own mother’s death.

Sophie breathed through a wave of nausea.Morning sickness.That’s what it was.

Sophie looked down at her phone, and scrolled to Marcella’s number. She called with a press of her thumb.

“Hey girl!” Marcella’s voice was upbeat. “The day’s still young. What are you up to?”

Sophie shook her head, and then remembered Marcella couldn’t see that gesture. “I don’t have time to talk, Marcella. I just called to let you know that Connor has agreed to try to do away with Pim Wat and the Master in return for immunity.”

A short, charged pause.

“That’s amazing.” Marcella’s voice was tight with excitement. “I didn’t really expect it to work.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s going to be able to do it.” Sophie’s stomach knotted with dread. “He says they are too dangerous, separately, to leave either one alive. Both have to be taken out at the same time, and the only thing he can offer the team is proof of death. But he did offer to kill them for you.”

Marcella was silent.

Sophie cleared her throat. “They’re planning to kill me, Marcella. They each had different reasons for wanting me dead. Mother wants revenge because I turned her over to the CIA. And the Master thinks I’m a distraction to Connor and his duties at the compound. But, they want my children. Pim Wat plans to kill me after my baby is born.”

Marcella cursed. Sophie could almost see her friend’s vigorous Italian hand gestures to go with her colorful language. “This must be really hard, Sophie.” Marcella’s voice softened. “I can’t imagine how painful. But you know your mother isn’t right in the head. She isn’t wired to love anybody in a normal way. It’s not your fault.”

“I know that.” Yet the voice of the depression argued:Your own mother wants you dead; you’re not worth loving. You’re cursed. How could one person have so much bad luck?

“You should make an appointment with Dr. Wilson. Talk it through. Promise me you will.”

“Yes. I will. But I have to go now. Tell the team what Connor said. He said he would provide the proof of their death in our chat box when it was done. He doesn’t want us communicating anymore for safety reasons.”

“I love you, Sophie. I’m so sorry about your mother.”

“She’s not dead yet.” Sophie ended the call. She slid the phone back into her pocket and stood up from the bench. Marcella might have been saying, “I’m sorry,” because it sucked to have a mother like Pim Wat.

That was certainly an understatement.

Sophie might not survive it.

* * *

Sophie headed into the office.She had spent most of the morning dealing with her personal business, and it was past time she dug into the computers that Leede and Raveaux had left for her in their makeshift lab.

Sitting down in the dim basement in front of the next computer she needed to dig through was a relief to Sophie’s frayed emotions. Once she was “wired in” to her classical music and the threads of the keywords she was searching using the DAVID program, her conscious mind seemed to turn off. She was pure logic: sorting, noting, following, manipulating—her brain pinging with messages of irregularities among numbers and traces.

No messy emotion marred her focus.

She was getting closer to finding someone who had activated an auto deduction system from the bank account of Kama`aina Schools’ main budget, and found a way to hide small withdrawals under a variety of expense accounts.

Maybe she could identify all the categories that the deductions were occurring under, but it would be more efficient to pass that piece of it to Leede. Sophie punted those threads into a subcache for the other investigator.

Sophie needed to track where the money was going. Once they found that link, hopefully, they could trace it to whomever was accessing that account. Sophie hunched forward, her fingers flying as she hacked the bank’s central server, her soul relieved to flee matters of the heart.

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