Page 58 of Wicked Sexy (Wicked Games 2)
Harry narrows his eyes at her. “You said earlier you knew how to contact him.”
“I do, but it won’t give us his location.”
“How do you know? Have you tried to contact him before?”
“No. But I know it’s only an origination point, not direct access. He’ll have built in layer after layer of obfuscation. I can reach out, but that’s all. It’s like firing a flare into the night sky. He’ll see the flare, and then respond when he’s ready. But even then his location will be cloaked. He’d never be stupid enough to give me a direct line.”
“Hold on,” I say, understanding dawning. “You’re saying you have his phone number?”
Tabby stares at me for a while before she answers. I can feel how carefully she’s choosing her words.
“I’m saying I have a phone number. I don’t know whose it is, I’ve never called it. But if I reach out to him that way now, as all his systems are under attack, he’ll not only know it’s me, he’ll know it’s a trap.”
In a tight voice, I ask, “You don’t want him to know it’s you?”
Miranda says, “No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.”
Tabby looks at her in surprise. “I see someone other than me has read Machiavelli.”
Miranda’s smile is pinched. “Yes. I’ve studied his writings extensively.”
I don’t know what to make of the expression on Tabby’s face. She says, “‘It’s double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.’ That was always my favorite of his lines. You?”
Miranda locks eyes with Tabby. “‘Nothing great was ever achieved without danger.’”
Some unspoken understanding passes between them. Tabby murmurs, “Indeed.”
Harry is irritated with the interruption. “If we’re done quoting a dead guy to each other, ladies, can we get back to the situation at hand?”
Tabby turns her attention back to Harry. She leans forward in her chair. “Give me a chance to engage him, distract him, play with him a little. He won’t let it last long, but once he’s shut down his servers, we can analyze whatever data my program has scoured from his system.”
“And if your program comes up with nothing useful?”
Tabby leans back in her chair and lifts a shoulder. “Then we can make a phone call. But once we do that…once he knows I’m involved in this…” Her voice darkens. “The game will change.”
“How?” I ask, my voice hard.
Tabby looks at her hands when she answers. “We’ll no longer have any control whatsoever.”
My throat is tight, crowded with every question I want to ask her about Søren, but won’t. Not here. Not now.
Harry, however, has no problem getting straight to the point. “Why not? What will he do?”
Tabby looks at me. She says softly, “He’ll end it.”
Harry crosses his arms over his chest. “Miss West. Please. I don’t have the patience for puzzles. What will he do?”
It’s Miranda who answers, her voice strained. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? He’ll release all the data he stole from me to the press and my competition—including my proprietary software—cut the power to the entire studio, and destroy my business. Every production will be shut down. Every office and soundstage will go dark, possibly permanently, depending on how much control he has over the Department of Water and Power’s computers.”
“We’ve got agents working on that,” says Harry. “The DWP has been notified there’s been an intrusion into their network—they’re executing breach protocols as we speak.”
“If they block one hole, he’ll find another,” says Tabby. “There’s always a way in. Also, there’s the possibility he has people inside the DWP assisting him.”
Harry nods. “We’re working on that theory too.”
“The bottom line,” says Miranda in a shaking voice, “is that everything I’ve worked for and created over the last twenty years will be gone. So please—let her go to work!”
It’s so unusual for Miranda to show strong emotion that I’m momentarily distracted from Tabby. Next to me, Ryan watches everything with hawk-like focus, taking it all in. It’s one of the reasons I wanted him here. He can see whatever I might be missing because I’m too close.
