That made him uneasy. He shifted and exchanged another look with his girlfriend.
She shook her head.
"Thanks, but I’ll pass."
Paris said, "Thank you, gentlemen. If you'll excuse me, I would like to talk to them off the record."
I gave her a subtle nod, and we left the booth. It was close to 3:00 AM. We decided to leave Flood and head back to theAvventura. In the rideshare along the way, Jack said, "Do you believe his story?”
I shrugged.
"Who do you think is funding the operation? Is this a private venture, or are they backed by some off-the-books CIA group?”
I called the one person who’d be able to figure that out.
23
It was the next morning when Isabella called back. “You’re not going to like this.”
I stifled a groan.
Jack and I chowed down on the sky deck. I put the call on speaker so he could hear.
“I reached out to all of my contacts. I've used all my resources. I can't find anything about Aqus or a covert research program. I’m going to dig into their financials.”
I had given her all the details about the alleged program. "What do you think about this? Is it possible or pure fantasy?"
"The technology exists. Genetic manipulation is commonplace now. It's the neurotransmitter that could be the weak link, but there are private companies doing incredible things with neural interfaces.”
"Keep digging. See what you can find.”
"The problem is if I dig deep enough and actually find something I'm not supposed to find, somebody could get upset.”
“When have you ever been shy about upsetting people?”
“I’m just saying… if this is a covert program, it might be better left alone.”
"I know you know how to look after yourself.”
"I’ll cover my tracks. I’ll dig quietly." Then she added, "By the way, I found something about one of your suspects. Ethan Rexrode is definitely getting large crypto transfers into his account daily. It’s hard to tell where it's coming from. It's all washed through a privacy coin, just like you thought. Then he's putting it into another privacy coin and buying prepaid debit cards online and using those debit cards to fund transactions on For the Fans.”
I couldn't use any of that information in a court of law, but it was good to know. "See if you can figure out where the money initially came from."
"That's a tall order. Whoever is behind this has done a really good job of covering their tracks.”
"Understood.”
"Listen, I gotta run. I'll be in touch."
I thanked her again and ended the call, then said to JD, “I think we need to have another talk with Ethan and turn up the heat.”
We pulled ourselves together and drove to Sandpiper Point. At the Obsession, we crossed the gangway and stepped to the aft deck. I knocked on the glass salon door.
There was no answer.
I knocked again.
Still nothing.
