Page 96 of King’s Ransom

‘Seriously, dude, the Bureau’s got itself a nice open-and-shut case right now: everything that went down in that tower was because the angry Ms Ivanova employed the Grandmaster. They’ll be pissed if someone says otherwise.’

‘Probably, yeah.’

‘Then I’m absolutely fucking in,’ the Tech Detect said.

‘You are?’ I said, a little surprised.

‘After that day ended, that Agent Hooper was a total fucking asshole. When I billed the Bureau for my time, he refused to pay. I tried calling him, but the prick wouldn’t even take my calls. Unlike Special Agent Asshat Hooper and Merritt “the World’s Greatest Detective” Garrett, I wasn’t asked to go on every interview show from The View to Jimmy fucking Fallon, even though I risked my life in that tower, too. Shit, that day didn’t do a single thing to help my business.’

‘Then I should mention that Yasmina can’t pay for our services,’ I said. ‘Aristo King shut off her funds and right now she’s at Rikers Island.’

‘If it means sticking it to the Feds, I’ll work with you on spec. What do you need?’

‘All right,’ I said. ‘When you were in Aristo King’s bedroom, analysing his cell phone on the bed, did you happen to make a clone copy of his phone?’

More silence on the line.

For a tech whiz like Monty Woods, making a clone copy of a cell phone’s contents was quite easy and often one of the best ways to solve a case quickly. With a copy of someone’s phone, you could access text messages, emails and photos and get to the nub of a case super-fast.

‘You sure you’re not working for the Feds, Sam?’

‘Let’s just say I like Special Agent Hooper even less than you do.’

‘Okay, then, yeah, I totally did. But I never got a chance to look at it. When you clone a phone, you also clone all the passwords and firewalls on it, and his phone had a shit-ton of security. I finished making the clone just as all the craziness began—when that military drone rose up off the bed and shot all the windows in the bedroom and flew out.

‘Then those kids were attached to the outside of the windows, and the two wives were put in the chopper on the roof, and then you guys found him out at Sleepy Hollow. But I still have it on a hard drive, yeah.’

I said, ‘I can’t shake the feeling that everything that went down at 59West was personal, and usually personal means an angry lover. Now, Aristo King had a whole lot of women in his life, including four that we know of: three wives and a nanny. He also had a two-way mirror in his bedroom. Guys who have two-way mirrors usually have them for one reason.’

‘You think Aristo filmed his sexual conquests through it?’ Monty said.

‘Yes, and I reckon he did it with his cell phone. Can you check your clone of his phone for sex videos? I want to know who he’s been sleeping with lately.’

‘It’ll take some time to crack the passwords, but sure, can do. Next?’

‘How are your darknet skills?’ I asked.

‘Let’s say they’re above average.’

Guys like the Tech Detect lived in the darknet.

(Formerly known as the dark web, the darknet was a nasty corner of the internet that you accessed using a special kind of search engine program called Tor. On it, one could find all kinds of illegal stuff for sale: child pornography, snuff films, drugs, ­military-grade weapons. Oh, and contract killers and kidnappers like the Grandmaster.)

I said, ‘I imagine whoever hired the Grandmaster did it via the darknet.’

‘I would agree,’ Monty said. ‘In fact, I’ve already been there. After December 21, I checked it out, just to see what the chatter was about the Grandmaster.’

‘And?’

‘Are you kidding? The darknet fucking loved it. They were thrilled by what this cat did. I mean, snatching the W.O.R.M. and putting him through hell and making all of us jump through hoops, that makes a guy a legend in the cyber world.’

I said, ‘Can you do some more digging there about the Grandmaster? See if you can find out where he was hired on the darknet, so we can find out who hired him.’

‘Will do.’

I changed tack.

‘What do you know about the QuantumSpeed-7 chip that the kidnapper wanted delivered to the cemetery?’