I rolled down the window to find Perry standing there, a strange look on his face.
“I was going to call you when I saw your car out front.” Perry stepped aside as I got out.
“Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you have called it a day hours ago?” I asked him as we walked toward the front of the building.
“This case is driving me crazy, Mason. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
All I could think about was Hannah. I knew that Jacob was going to notify Derek about my compromised computer. Tomorrow I’d be raked over the coals. There might even be an internal investigation. I had to prepare myself for that.
Because of Hannah.
And for what purpose? That was what I couldn’t figure out.
Who was Hannah Whelan?
“You still need to take a break, Perry. Sleep and food are good things.”
Perry followed me into the elevator and I hit the button for the third floor.
“I’ve been going over Freedom Overdrive’s targets, trying to find a common thread. We know that they’re all corrupt. But what if the link is personal?”
“That would make sense,” I said tiredly, wishing Perry would shut up already.
“Take Stanford Pharmaceuticals. They upped prescription costs by four hundred percent in the last five years, making medication unaffordable for a lot of people. And Ryan Law. Did you know they cheated people out of legitimate settlements? What if that’s the connection? The victims.”
Stanford Pharmaceuticals. Ryan Law. The victims. Perry, for all his ignorance, might be onto something.
“I was reading about a case several years back that involved a contractor that laid a bunch of bad asphalt that led to the death and injury of dozens of people. Did you know Ryan Law used all sorts of blackmail and intimidation to get those families bringing suit against the town and contractor to drop their cases? It was really awful. A lot of those victims, the ones that survived, ended up with some pretty serious conditions. I couldn’t access medical files—you know, with HIPAA and all that—but what if those people used Stanford Pharmaceutical products?”
My ears were buzzing. I was listening to Perry but I was preoccupied.
With Hannah.
Always Hannah.
She had taken over my life and now I knew that wasn’t a good thing.
We got off the elevator and Perry kept talking. “I really think we need to look into a closer connection. Someone from the inside. Because this required a lot of skill—”
I sat down at my computer and opened my email. I had dozens from the hours since I had left. One stood out.
It was from an address I had never seen before yet I recognized instantly.
06050900.
I knew those numbers.
They belonged to the second hacker signature I had found after the Ryan Law DDoS attack.
“Perry, I’ll come talk to you later. I’ve got stuff to do. But you’ve got some solid ideas,” I told my partner.
“Oh, okay. Well, how about I compile my theories and send them over to you?”
I nodded, distracted, not wanting to open the email until Perry was out of the way.
From:[email protected]
