Page 14 of Wired Target

Sophie nodded.She trailed Leong into the building and up a flight of stairs, noticing that the woman’s well-defined back and muscular shoulders filled the tight polo shirt she wore in the school’s trademark colors.“Do you work out, Char?”

“I do, as a matter of fact.Fitness is my outlet.I pretty much don’t have anything else going on in my life besides work and family.”

“I can relate.”Sophie liked Leong’s ready openness and upbeat energy.

Could she have discovered a possible new friend?Lei was so busy with career and family on Maui, and Marcella, not yet a mom and caught up in her work, was hardly ever available.Finding women Sophie connected with since the babies were born had been next to impossible.

Leong’s office was a cramped cubicle off the main employee lounge.Cluttered with file boxes and office supplies, the desk obscured by three computer monitors, there was nowhere for Sophie to sit.Leong appeared unfazed by this; she moved a pile of file boxes off a folding chair, picked it up, and opened it behind her desk.“Squeeze in back here.Be easiest if we log in together, and I explain what I’ve been up to with this strategy.”

Sophie slid off her backpack and maneuvered around the boxes to sit beside Leong as the security operative sat down in front of her cockpit of computers.

“First of all, let me punt you all my passwords and logins,” Leong said, her fingers flying on an ergonomic keyboard that Sophie approved of.“I’ve already prepared a list of the sites I’ve used to monitor student activity for you, with their passwords.”

“I looked at some of them.”Sophie leaned in to see a half dozen app windows pop open on Leong’s screens.“That’s when I knew I needed to meet with you.I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.These kids seem to speak their own language.”

Leong snorted a laugh.“You got that right.When I was hired, Dr.Ka’ula asked me to make monitoring school gossip and cyberbullying the focus of my job.Our staffers each have an area of focus on campus; I consider mine one of the most important, as cyberbullying is a source of many concerns at the school.”Leong glanced at Sophie; her expression somber.“It has certainly been an education.But you’ll like my avatar.”She swiveled one of the monitors so Sophie could see a pixyish animation with blue antennae and a pair of bright blue wings.“My screen name is SoBee.I am sixteen, love mangoes, shave ice, several bands whose name I won’t bore you with, and I am good at animation drawings.No boyfriend, but I’ve got crushes on the usual popular guys.”

Sophie smiled.“Your avatar looks fun and likeable.I’d tell you my gossip.”

“That’s the idea.”Leong oriented Sophie to her different identities and the tone of her interactions.“Now, how do you want to proceed with this?”

“First, show me anything and everything you have on the Moli Massacre,” Sophie said.“And the sale of live eggs.Turns out there’s been a theft of those on Maui, and we’re worried that something that started here is spreading to that island too.”

“Oh no!I passed what I had on to the headmaster; it wasn’t much, but it was enough to make us realize that our students were involved in that terrible crime.”

Leong showed Lei the picture of the egg that Sophie had already seen, and a file of screenshots that showed interactions alluding to the attack from two seemingly male identities.“The trouble is that we can’t actually tell who these students are,” Leong said.“And the posts were made from phones, so we can’t track an IP address.”

“I have a tracking device called a Stingray.If we get an indicative post in real time, you can use it to locate the phone by its embedded identity number,” Sophie said.“The Stingray will pick up the signal and show its location and potential owner.”

Leong nodded.“Great.Those things are expensive and supposed to be law enforcement only, or I’d already have one.”

“Security Solutions has several.”Sophie smiled at the other woman.“We have our ways.I’ll have a device messengered over to you after we meet.”She leaned in to point at one of the apps, a social site that featured time-limited posts that disintegrated after viewing.Viewers were by invitation only.“How did you build a connection with these kids so that they invited you to see their posts?”

Leong slanted Sophie a look.“Did you see my avatar?My alter ego is uber-cool.Everyone wants to know who she is—and nobody does.It’s the spice of the unknown, plus popularity.”

Sophie’s years at a Geneva boarding school had not been pleasant; she had been both the wrong color and too introverted and tech-oriented to make friends with other girls, and her height and physical prowess had been off-putting to the boys.She’d spent most of high school ensconced in the library, gym, or in her room, alone.

Sophie shook her head regretfully.“I don’t think I can replicate your presence online.Maybe I should passively mirror your interactions on my computer.If I have something I want to put out there, I’ll let you know.”Sophie continued as Leong leaned away from the monitors, swiveling to face her.“I want to find out more about the live eggs.Where they might be going, and of course who is selling them.Discovering who is buying them might help us track back to the source.How can we devise a social media post to lure out more information on that subject?”

Leong tapped a finger on her chin as she gazed up and to the left, considering.Her nails were short and unvarnished; Sophie approved.“There’s a Fabergé egg inspired art contest being planned by the art and history departments.World history class has been studying the period of the Romanovs, and they and the art staff decided to coordinate their efforts to create a little more interest in that time period.Maybe I can come up with something fishing around for an idea, drawing an egg with a Laysan Albatross chick in it?Put my idea out there and see if someone gets eager to share—or brag.”

“I like it.I could not come up with this angle to create an inquiry on my own.”

Leong smiled.“Glad we’ll be working together on this, then.Let’s exchange numbers.You can text me, and I can do the same when I’ve got something I want you to see.”

Sophie input Leong’s personal cell number, and they exchanged a quick hello on their devices to make sure their numbers were saved.

“Now.My avatar is very arty.What kind of project would she want to come up with?This is the fun part for me.”Leong pulled up another app; this one was a drawing program.Within a few moments she had imported several Fabergé egg images from the internet.She began a playful animation, and inside one of them, she inserted a fuzzy gray download of amolichick.

“I can’t believe how fast you came up with that art.”Sophie was amazed.“You’re really good at this!”

“Well, I’m hoping to have time for my art when the kids are older.Notice I’m saying ‘the kids’ as if we already have a complete family, and we’re just beginning.But a girl’s gotta dream.”Leong typed rapidly, finishing her content upload.

The post at the bottom read,“Where can I get a real, original photo of a moli chick escaping the egg?Would be a fun way to win the art contest!”She threw a couple of animated emojis around the corner of the art piece, then turned the monitor to Sophie.“Too obvious?”

“Maybe it is.Why don’t you just suggest a chick, but include the picture of the moli?”

Leong turned back, her fingers flying as she made a few corrections.She then posted the art piece on several of her social media sites under her avatar.“Now to let this percolate.”

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