I opened my computer and pulled up the signature I had been obsessing over for weeks.
I stared at the numbers and letters on the screen.
12080512alwcaw.
It looked so random, but I knew from experience it was anything but. A hacker’s signature was their waving flag. It was their branding stamp. Their big “Hey, look at me.”
I knew that figuring out what those numbers meant was the key to unlocking Freedom Overdrive’s identity.
12080512.
Those numbers could mean anything.
A date, maybe?
Two dates?
0512 wasn’t a year, but 1208 could mean December 8. 0512—May 12?
Birthday? Anniversary? Significant event?
Fuck, the possibilities were endless.
“Mail call,” Perry chirped, dropping a brown envelope on my desk.
I picked it up, a pang of alarm buzzing through me.
I barely noticed that Perry was still standing there as I tore into it.
It was another typed note. Plain white paper. Two sentences.
Do you see the truth? She does a good job hiding it from you.
“Is that another note?” Perry asked.
“Yeah, it is,” I said, dropping it onto my desk as if it were on fire.
Perry picked it up and read the cryptic message and frowned. “I think you should take this to Agent Sanders.”
“And what will Agent Sanders do? It’s virtually impossible to trace where this came from, and like I said last time, it’s not a direct threat of any kind.”
Perry handed it back to me and I folded it up and shoved it into my desk.
“Who do you think it’s referring to? Who’s the ‘she’?”
I shrugged. “The Queen of England?”
Perry snorted. “Why can’t people sending warnings just tell you what they want you to know? Why make it all mysterious?”
“Good point. And exactly why I’m not going to stress about it.”
I’d never admit to my partner that it was bothering me. It wasn’t the first time in my career that I had been targeted by crazy shit. But something about the letters bugged me.
But Perry was right; if they were trying to warn me, why couldn’t they just spell it out?
My phone rang, startling me.
“Agent Kohler.”
