I rubbed at my temple, willing the pounding to subside.
I realized Hannah was talking and I tried to focus on what she was saying.
“So I shouldn’t ask if you have plans for Friday, then?” Hannah asked.
I closed the email that had my attention and returned it to the woman on the other end of the phone.
Or tried to.
My head was now full of the cracker making my life a living hell.
“Uh…”
I balanced the phone between my cheek and shoulder and opened my IRC client, searching the channels. Looking for something. Anything.
Nothing.
I knew that Freedom Overdrive wouldn’t make it that easy.
“I’m getting the feeling this is a bad time.” Hannah sounded strained and I instantly felt like a dick. I didn’t want to bethatguy.
“Sorry. It’s just work—”
“No need to explain. How about you call me when things ease up for you?” Shit, I didn’t want her to think I was blowing her off.
Iwouldn’tblow her off.
“I’ll call you this evening. We can make plans.” I cast a quick look around the busy office and dropped my voice so that only she could hear me. “I want to see you again. Soon.” I hoped she could hear how much I wanted that.
“Good,” she murmured in my ear. I liked the sound of her voice. It excited me. It soothed me. Then I wasn’t thinking about the hacker or what I needed to do to catch him. I wasn’t thinking about the possible break in the case that had been emailed to me this morning.
I closed my mind to everything but the woman I was talking to.
And it feltgood.
Work had always dominated my life to the detriment of everything else.
I thought of Dillon.
Of how I had promised to visit him that last weekend. I was going to take him outside, whether his doctors wanted him to or not. I was going to put a basketball in his hands, maybe for the last time.
We were going to be brothers like we used to be.
Only I never made it. I was stuck on a case. Buried in codes and data. I didn’t make the twenty-minute drive to the hospital to see my dying brother, even though I had told him I would.
Dillon slipped into a coma a day later.
He died being disappointed in me.
But talking to Hannah, even for a few minutes, took me away from Freedom Overdrive. It took me away from the very things that had consumed me.
This “distraction” might prove to be exactly what I hadn’t realized I needed.
“I’ll talk to you later,” I said softly, hesitating before hanging up the phone.
“Bye.” Then she was gone.
“Do you think Freedom Overdrive could be one of us?”
