Page 61 of Made of Steel (Made of Steel 1)

"Liza. Or maybe I'm making it up. I guess you'll never know."

I laughed.

This time she responded with a small smile.

Now seemed like as good a time as ever to ask for a favor. "Actually, since you're so good with computers, I was hoping you could help me."

"You're right. I am good with computers. What do you need?"

I slid my backpack off my shoulder and pulled out my laptop. "I was trying to check someone's Facebook profile the other day. And for some reason I couldn't see it on here. But my ro

ommate easily pulled it up on her phone."

"Whoever it was probably blocked you."

"But we only just met."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what to tell you."

"Could you maybe just look at it?" I held out my computer toward her.

She sighed and grabbed my computer. "What's the password?"

"Password."

"Seriously? No wonder someone messed with your computer." She pushed her glasses up her nose and then started typing furiously. "Overprotective parents?" she finally said.

"Something like that, I guess. Why?"

"You have parental controls set. It's weird that they'd involve phrases including names. That's not usually what they're used for. I can override them if you want or..." she stopped talking as the computer screen turned blue. Numbers and letters started scrolling across the screen. "What the hell?" She started typing furiously again. "This isn't like any normal settings I've ever seen before. It's extremely high tech." A red light started beeping on the key pad. Liza's fingers stopped as her eyes scanned the screen. "Fuck. Why would you bring this here?" She slammed the lid shut and ran over to the window.

Before I could stop her, she had opened up the window and thrown my laptop out of it.

"What did you just do?! What is wrong with you?!" I ran over to window and stared out. I couldn't even see it, we were so high up.

Liza hadn't answered me. I turned around and she was pacing again. It looked like she was mumbling something under her breadth.

"Why did you do that?" I tried to ask a little more calmly.

She stopped mid-pace. "It had a tracking device in it. The vigilante isn't the only one watching you. You need to go. When they realize the transmitter isn't working, they might try to come for you. You have to go."

It was just Mr. Crawford. It made sense that he wanted to know where I was. To make sure I was safe. "It was just my parents," I lied.

"That was some next level government shit, Sadie. Someone is after you. And the vigilante isn't high tech enough to pull that off. It's someone dangerous, with deep pockets. You have to go."

"But I..."

"You coming here started something, something bigger than the vigilante." She hit something and all her monitors went black.

"Let me help you figure out who he is. I need to know."

"I don't want your help with this. You're not who you say you are. You're involved somehow and I don't want..."

"Please. Please help me."

She stared at me for a moment before handing me a card. "Don't use whatever phone you currently have. It probably has a tracker on it too. You need to dump it. Give me a few days. I'll have a new headquarters by then." She unplugged a fistful of wires.

"Isn't this where you live?"

---