Page 37 of Only the Wicked
“Yes, but as you’d expect, it’s clean. His history is wiped. My bet is he runs a program that uploads anything of value to a cloud and clears the hard drive on his phone daily. There are some things we should be able to get from his phone number, but he’s savvy.”
“Well, he would be. He built a surveillance system based on access to all the information you were hoping to scrape.”
“I’ll keep at it, but you do the same. This guy has his backside covered from all tech angles. You might be right.”
“How’s that?”
“The best way to infiltrate him is the old-fashioned way.”
Inside, I grimace and will away the shame. People died. We need to find the leak.
“Are we good here?” I really do need to hop.
“What’s your game plan? Do you need backup today?”
“He’s not dangerous.” I don’t need muscle sitting in a parking lot. “I’ll spend the day with him. See what that gets me. He believes I’m unemployed. Maybe I’ll angle to get brought along to D.C.”
“You could say you were planning on going. I saw his itinerary on his calendar app. He has a couple of events he might need a date for.”
“He rarely brings dates. Or at least, he’s not photographed with dates. Did you find something else?”
“No. If he has a date already planned, he didn’t notate it in his calendar.”
“Or his assistant didn’t. Okay. I gotta jump. I’ll be in touch.”
“And to repeat, no backup?”
“Clear it with Hudson, but in my opinion it’s an unnecessary risk. What if Rhodes spots someone watching?”
“I’ll cover with Hudson. Do you know where you’re going?”
“Nope.”
“If you can, message me plans. Either way, I’ll track you.”
“Thanks Quinn.”
“And Sydney?”
“Yeah?”
“Trust your instincts.”
Taking her advice to heart, I call Caroline. She answers on the second ring, instantly alert despite the early hour. “Syd? What’s wrong?”
No grogginess, no confusion even though she’s in an earlier time zone.
“I’m—how did you know something was wrong?”
“Because you only call me at dawn when you’re spiraling. Remember Jakarta? Paris?” A door clicks in the background. “Give me a second. Go back to sleep.” I hear muffled conversation, then her clear voice returns. “Okay, talk to me. Is this about Rhodes?”
“How do you?—”
“Because I’ve seen this pattern before. You get an assignment, you execute flawlessly, then you call me in a panic because you’re unnerved. Second-guessing yourself.”
I don’t panic.
“What happened, Syd?”
