“Enough,” I growled.
I grimaced when I heard a knock at the door, twisting around on the desk, hoping for the millionth time that no one had heard me talking to myself, but also glad to have the interruption. “Come in.”
William Junior entered, glancing around nervously. “Did I uh...interrupt?”
“No, Will, nothing important,” I said with a snort, gesturing for him to close the door behind him. “What can I do for you?”
“You wanted to know more about the shipping lanes through the area,” he said as he walked in and set a memory card on the desk. Unlike my father, I wasn’t all that fond of physical media. His precautions made it unlikely that a paper trail would be found, but I didn’t like the idea of leaving important paperwork lying around. It was the twenty-first century, and there were plenty of options to be safe without taking thirty extra steps.
I slid it into my laptop. “Thank you. Have we heard from Connelly and his men yet?”
“No,” Will said nervously, but I ignored it. I couldn’t figure out if he was terrified of me or my father, who had assigned him to trail after me for however long I was here, but the man was in a constant nervous state and always seemed on the verge of a breakdown. I didn’t know how he felt about being forced to work with me, and I hadn’t been all that thrilled to have him at my side.
Sure, Augustine could claim it would be good to see someone from the original family working with me to make William Senior’s group see me in a better light. I wasn’t convinced. William Senior had been well known for coddling his children, especially the child who had been given the same name. Perhaps Senior’s group had been good at hiding their disdain for Junior, but they hadn’t bothered to hide their lack of respect. Either my father was seeing something more than I was, or he stuck Junior with me for some other reason. Paranoia and cynicism told me Augustine was trying to sabotage me, but that wouldn’t make sense considering he didn’t want to lose our hold on this part of the country.
At the very least, Junior was a fine personal assistant. So long as he wasn’t made to take on any responsibility, he was organized and had a superb memory. He also looked like he was going to keel over from heart failure at any moment, but there were upsides and downsides to everyone.
“Take a breath,” I told him, gesturing to one of the chairs across from my desk.
Sitting at my laptop, I reached into my pocket and grabbed a flash drive to plug into the side, letting it and the memory card meet, so to speak. Encryption was the only guarantee of privacy, and I kept the decryption key close at hand. There were two keys to the puzzle. I needed to see the information, and I letthe program run as I leaned back and considered what else was on my list for the day. I had hit the ground running from the moment I landed in Cresson Point just over three weeks ago, and I hadn’t stopped running since.
“Can...” Will began and then stopped, wincing and ducking his head.
I looked up. “What?”
“I just...wanted to ask a question.”
“Then ask.”
“Sorry, you looked like you were thinking.”
“I am thinking. But Augustine put you with me for a reason, and I suspect part of it was the hope that you would learn something.”
“He...kinda said something like that when he told me I was going to be helping you personally.”
“Then ask. You can’t learn if you don’t ask questions,” I told him, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice. With anyone else I’d been in charge of over the years, I didn’t have to sit around and play nice. Will Junior? God, the man was so sensitive, and I still didn’t know how to interact with him half the time.
“Why...do you have all of that encrypted?” he asked, glancing nervously at the computer. “It’s just...basic information. Anyone could get it if they dug deep enough. Nothing there is going to incriminate or look bad.”
“For the same reason I made sure you used at least three different sources to gather the information,” I explained as the files were done. I opened the folder to begin leafing through everything, detaching the screen from the keyboard so I could hold it as a tablet. “Sure, all that information isn’t suspicious on its own, but we’re operating in a theatre where the police and the feds are aware the Family operates and that so far, no one has stepped up to take over in Portland. Which means they’llpay attention to anything that stands out here. At least three different sources of searching and collating are going to draw less attention from any algorithms and bots they have keeping an eye out for keywords or searches done together.”
“And the encryption?”
“If every bit of information I require is given to me and stored in encrypted drives and files, then anyone who decides to go through my stuff is going to have a tough time getting their hands on anything significant.”
“Because it’s all being treated like it’s significant?”
“If it all looks significant, then what actually is significant?”
“Oh.”
I wasn’t worried about law enforcement for the moment. They were too busy congratulating themselves and leveling their gaze northward toward Augustine. He had been involved in The Family since he was out of diapers, so he knew his way out of trouble. There was no real heat to speak of, but it was worth watching, especially because there wasn’t much attention on me at the moment.
Which made it vital to keep it that way. It was why I needed to know how to get in and out of the city, both openly and quietly. Augustine had left me in charge, with minimal advice or support, so I was going to work with what I had. And if the police and feds wanted to start staring at Augustine’s metaphorical wall, then it was better that they keep their attention there for a while longer. And if I moved products through the city and state in a way that made it look like Augustine was controlling operations from a distance, all the better.
And if my father didn’t appreciate the extra heat, maybe he should have been more specific in how he wanted me to handle things.
The real problem was keeping a tight rein on William Senior’s former associates. As I had expected, none of his innercircle was thrilled about an outsider messing with their affairs. They were even less happy that Augustine had sent me of all people. I could never decide if I should be irritated or amused when people assumed everything I’d achieved in The Family had been because Augustine liked to play favorites with his own blood. All it said, no matter how I felt about it, was that they were not paying attention.
