by Isabel Jolie
“So, you know about Spectre?” Her question made me want to vomit. My insides churned, but everything else stilled.
“Yes. What can you tell us?”
“Not much. My brother believes the less I know, the safer I am. He got in over his head. He’s been working to dismantle Spectre. He has several partners who are all actively working to counter their efforts. That’s what I was doing. Helping them.” The FBI agent appeared to believe about as much of what she said as I did. He leaned forward, over the desk, in an intimidating position.
“Ms. Lai, that’s an interesting spin. Are you aware his group recently pulled off a three-million-dollar ransomware operation in Spain?”
“No.”
“But you still think your brother is good?”
“If he did it, he had reasons. It met his ultimate objectives in some way. I’ll grant you his ethics are off-kilter, but he’s looking at the larger picture.”
“Is that how you justify it?”
She glared at him. She hadn’t asked for a lawyer yet, but this would be a good juncture for her to request one. The two interrogators waited, possibly expecting her to ask for a lawyer. Minutes ticked by, then Matt resumed the questions he appeared to have listed in front of him.
“Who owns the house you currently live in?”
“I do.”
“Ms. Lai, we have access to financial records.”
“It’s part of a trust he set up, but I still own it.”
“When you flew out to Washington State recently, you didn’t fly commercial. How did your brother get you out to the West Coast?”
“The company jet.”
“Did you see a logo for the company? Anything inside the jet that would show what company owned the jet?”
“I wasn’t really paying attention. My mother was in the hospital.” Her words slowed, and her gaze dropped to the desk. “My brother…” Her eyes fluttered closed, and she bowed her head. I leaned forward, closer to the monitor, watching. It could be an act, but she looked emotional. Broken down. “What other things do you believe my brother has done?”
Matt glanced directly into the camera, and his lips scrunched. He once again transitioned to a different interrogation approach. “Spectre started out earning most of their income from drugs. You’ve heard of Dread Pirate Roberts? You mentioned him earlier, when you asked if we planned to scapegoat you. So, you’re familiar with what he did? The network he set up that allowed the trade of anything on the Dark Web?”
“Yes. Are you saying my brother deals drugs?” Her brow wrinkled, and she examined him.
“It would be simpler if that was the only thing he did. No, dealing drugs, organs, slaves, stolen goods, information, credit card data, Spectre does it all. Your brother is a part of one of the more sophisticated crime corporations in the world. But we believe their ultimate game is to create an unstable United States. Really, an unstable world. The group has ties to arms dealers.”
“I just told you that he’s trying to dismantle Spectre.”
“Okay. And how do the profiles you created fit into his plan for dismantling Spectre?”
She rubbed her forehead and winced. Did she think she could somehow lie her way out of this?
“I’m not sure. He didn’t get to explain it to me before you picked me up. I created them. I don’t know what he did with them.” She was good. I’d interrogated plenty of people, and she had a believability quotient. Clearly, I was susceptible to her game.
“How did you think he was using the accounts you created?”
“Like I told you. He was using them to counter Spectre’s propaganda machine. To promote pro-democracy rhetoric to undermine Spectre’s ultimate objectives. At the worst, it generated political discussion.”
“Political discussion? That’s one way of phrasing it.” Matt stood and paced, the first sign he was beginning to lose patience. “No, groups like your brother’s, they foster false information on both sides. In the US, it’s the Democrats and the Republicans. In Great Britain, it’s the Conservative and Labour; in Canada, it’s the Liberal and Conservative. In any country, there are different political factions. Groups seeking instability ultimately feed all sides of the spectrum, fostering division, feeding hate groups. It’s a long-term plan in a country like the United States. But we’ve already seen it destroy smaller democracies like Myanmar.”
“But why?”
“Our profile on your brother suggests he is doing it for personal freedoms, possibly a long-term plan for Hong Kong independence. Some groups believe an unstable world gives Hong Kong its best chance at prolonged independence. But I can tell you that the profiles of the other men in his company do not match your brother’s. They have their own agendas.”
“I told you. My brother is trying to take them down. He got in over his head. He wouldn’t…” She raised her hand over her eyes and let her head fall back. Her lips trembled. When she lowered her head and revealed her eyes, she held a new resolution. “Are you pressing charges against me?”
“No. Not right now. I’m in the process of obtaining a warrant to go into your home.”
“So, I’m free to go?”
“Yes.”
Cali pushed her BlackBerry across the table to him. “You don’t need the warrant. Nym is at Logan’s house. You’re welcome to search the property and take my computers.”
“Is there a safe room in the house?”
“Yes. Upstairs in the attic. Accessible from the master bedroom. Can I see Logan?”
“Cali, do you maintain servers?”
“Yes. I’ll show you where. Can I see Logan?” I couldn’t breathe.
Matt looked to the other agent, but where the man stood in the room, I couldn’t see his face. Matt stood and exited. Moments later, my office door opened.
“You want to see her?”
I didn’t. But I’d been down this path before, and I welcomed my first meeting with her on camera. My anger would remain controlled.
“I’ll go in. Anything you want me to ask her?”
“No.” He stared me down. “You okay to do this?”
“Yes. You want to come?”
“No. I’ll be here. Watching.”
“Okay.” My hand fell over the doorknob, and I paused. “It looks like that hurricane is going to hit. If you want to check out her house, do it now, before we go into evacuation mode.”
I entered the conference room and made eye contact with the agent. His badge read Zayerdon. I couldn’t remember his first name. He stood in the corner like a prison guard. I pulled out a chair across from Cali, outside of the view of the camera.
“You wanted to see me?” Her dark brown eyes held the tell-tale sheen of sadness. Inside, a hard wall blocked my emotions. She could cry all she wanted, but she lied to me. The person I loved didn’t exist.
“I have done nothing wrong.” Her words, by complete chance, happened to be the same words Huxley, my Chicago PD colleague, said to me when I first asked him about the Hildebrand case. He’d hired my wife as his defense attorney, and she got him off. But to this day, I believed they should have convicted him. He hid evidence on a case, all to build a stronger conviction against a man who may have been innocent. The thing about innocence in the United States—it could be bought.
“You can tell that to your lawyer.”
“Logan, you know me. Please.” Her voice broke, and she sniffled. Disgust prevented me from looking at her.
“I thought I knew you.” I lifted my gaze and found those brown eyes staring back at me, pleading. The liar wanted forgiveness. “Tell me, were you ever married? Or was that part of the sock puppet profile you created to get close to me?”
“I never.” She closed her eyes, and lines formed around her mouth as her lips puckered. I hoped for anger from her. I’d like to have it out right here and now. But when she opened her eyes, the tears trailing down her cheeks reflected the overhead light. “I told people I was a divorcee before I ever met you. It was a simple explana
tion for how I could afford the house on the beach. An easy explanation that gave me space. If you think about it, I never added to the story. I hated I couldn’t tell you the truth.”
“Your brother didn’t ask you to get close to me?”
“No. No.” Her tone rose an octave as she worked to convince me. “He didn’t want me anywhere near you. He wanted me to stay far away from you. And I swear, I think they’re wrong about him. He believed I was in danger. They killed his colleague’s girlfriend. He sent me here so I’d be safe. He’s not a bad guy. He’s not. And he didn’t have me doing anything illegal. He promised me he didn’t.”
“So, let me get this straight. He’s a top-level executive at an organization that’s essentially a modern-day mafia crime group, but he didn’t know they were bad? He didn’t know they were breaking the law? And then he pisses off someone out there, and he realizes his sister might be attacked in retribution. You know what that is, Cali? That’s gang mentality, right there.” I’d love to believe she was that stupid, but the problem with that was that she was all kinds of brilliant. Her bottom lip trembled. I’d had enough of the damn trembling lip, the tears, the whole devastated bullshit routine. I came in here to hear her out, but I couldn’t deal with her playing the whole ‘I’m innocent’ card. I got up and paced the room, clutching my fists behind my back. Keeping it controlled. Breathing in and out. “And you… go along with it? You believe he never did anything bad? You believe he’s only on the good side?”
“No, I did. But I just thought… he was hacking into websites illegally. I knew he was afraid of the Chinese government. And maybe he was bending some US laws.”
“Bending? Bending?” My anger threatened to boil into rage.
“My brother is not a drug dealer.” A hint of matching anger lit her words. “He made some bad choices. He got in too deep. He’s trying to correct things.”
Enough anger resonated in her defense that I believed her. Well, I believed she honestly thought her brother was innocent. Innocent in her frame of mind. Criminals rarely recognize that by definition when you bent a law, you broke it.
“Here’s the thing, Cali. I’ve dedicated my life to my country. To stopping people like your brother, who want to tear this country apart. Whether it’s from propaganda or drugs, it doesn’t matter. It’s all criminal intent.” I exhaled loudly and ran my nails into my beard. “Did you have a question you wanted to ask? They said you wanted to see me.”
Tears ran down her cheeks, freely flowing. I didn’t so much as flinch. She lied to me. I didn’t know this woman. I hoped Matt and his team were over in her house finding evidence to lock her away for years. I wanted them to lock her up and send her far away from me.
Chapter 26
Cali
* * *
I opened the door and pressed the keys to the alarm keypad. Four strange men stood behind me, and oddly enough, I felt safe entering my home. Erik had built up NSA in my mind as some evil waterboarding organization, a group who would create a case against me to build their careers. But they had yet to slap handcuffs on me.
Logan’s eyes—I’d never forget them. I couldn’t unsee them. He’d been so cold, so angry. Worse than I could have ever imagined. The Logan who held me in Seattle, who told me he loved me, he was no more. His absence hurt more than that of my brother and father.
The men passed down the hall. One had a camera—a real camera, not his phone. And he snapped away. Another had a phone to his ear. Matt, the agent I knew, stood at my side.
“Do you…” I stopped myself from asking the naive question. Of course he believed what he said about Erik. “Can you show me more about Spectre?”
“I can.” He led me to his kitchen table and opened his phone. He handed it to me. It was open to a page on a site. An internal NSA document.
“What’s this?”
“It’s an overview of what we know about the organization. There’s nothing on there that requires clearance.” Of course. So, this was what they had available for anyone to read. Which meant he had more evidence that couldn’t be shared.
I scrolled through, reading in detail about the global organization. The document concluded with a list of cybercrimes the NSA had credited to Spectre. Notations were made if there were disagreements about the responsible parties.
I found it hard to swallow and hard to stomach. All that concern, for all those years. It turned out that worry had been warranted. This was all so much worse than I’d ever comprehended. This was what he’d meant by never seeing him again unless we were in a non-extradition country. But had he been full of shit? Did he not extricate himself? Was he not working to dismantle the organization?
I had two options. I could believe my brother was good and sharing information would ultimately help him. Or I could believe my brother had been lying to me. And if he was lying to me, would I really help him continue as a criminal? No, ultimately those two options funneled into one solution.
“There could be cameras in here.” I handed Matt his phone.
“What do you mean?”
“My brother’s company installed the security. I discovered several hidden cameras. I think I found most of them. I disengaged any I found inside. Except for the ones on the porch.” I pointed out the door we’d just come in. “The company, or whoever is monitoring the house, they know you’re here. The cameras outside definitely still work.”
Matt’s brows came together as his forehead wrinkled. I expected another round of questions, but he gave a quick, “Wait here,” and hurried down into the living area. He spoke to his colleagues.
I leaned against the wall, staring out at the deep blue ocean. Erik had always been a genius. Fantastic with computer code. Obsessive to a fault. But how did it come to this?
“Cali, can you show me your safe room?”
“Sure.” I led the way to the bookshelf in my bedroom, which moved to reveal a secret staircase, up to the panic room. I’d never used it, but my brother had insisted on adding it to the house.
“Oh, and your computers. Do you mind if we look at your computers?”
“No problem. I have nothing to hide.” A small part of my brain said I should force him to get a warrant, that I should seek a lawyer. That they might find some technicality to lock me up for life. But the larger part of my brain, and all of my heart, didn’t care. If my brother lied to me, if he didn’t recognize his mistakes, as he said he did, then I had no choice but to assist.
Outside, the whitecaps and the angled waves signaled strong winds and a coming storm. The grasses over the dunes whipped in the wind, and the sky over the horizon loomed grayish blue. I stared out the windows as one man tapped away on my laptop. Jill, the FBI agent who had been back at Logan’s office, entered the front door without knocking. All the agents wore gloves.
I left Matt and some others in the safe room. It turned out those monitors connected to cameras all through the house. If I’d ever stopped to explore that claustrophobic room, I would’ve been able to figure out exactly where cameras were. Erik hadn’t tried very hard to hide the cameras from me. Jill approached, all business.
“Can I show you some photos? See who you recognize?”
“Sure. I haven’t met many of my brother’s business associates.” Business associates. Is that what you call criminals?
“We’re going to try to get through what we can before the hurricane hits.”
“It’s coming here?” I hadn’t been in front of a television. And I handed all my electronics over to Matt.
“It’s looking like it. It’s making it hard for us to get a full team here. We might take a little longer going through everything. I hope that’s okay.”
“You don’t need to pretend to care.”
She didn’t respond. She opened a laptop and clicked away, presumably preparing to play “do you know” with me.
Matt joined us, his phone to his ear. I snapped my fingers to get his attention.
“Your phone. It’s bugged.”
> “How do you know my phone is bugged?”
“Erik called me before you came to Logan’s. He told me you were on the way. I asked him how he knew. If you look on the motherboard in your phone, I’d bet you’ll find a chip that doesn’t belong.”
“Any others?” I shrugged. He inched forward, wanting an answer.
“I’m sure.” What did he want me to say?
I sat down on the leather sofa beside Jill. I rested my head on my hands, leaning forward, spinning from the day. Telling on my brother felt so wrong. He loved me; he was my twin. We shared a womb. And here I sat, no doubt under his watchful eye, selling him out. Sharing his secrets.
A tissue box appeared below my knees. “It’s gonna be okay.”
I looked up and sniffled. No, it’s not.
“Give Logan some time. He’ll come around.”
Did you see him with me? I wanted to ask her. But I didn’t. She wasn’t my friend.
Hours passed as they opened drawers and looked behind photos. Jill gave up on me recognizing anyone. I wandered around my house while officers invaded.
A framed photograph of my brother and me sat on a desk, and I picked it up. I held the photograph, trying to remember where we were when it was taken. Based on the hairstyles, we’d been in grad school. My hair was still the same. But Erik’s was now cut short. Back then, he’d been shaggy.
A hand on my shoulder shook me. Matt peered down with a concerned expression.
“I think we’re going to head out. I think we’ve got everything, but we’ll be back tomorrow.” He thrust a piece of paper in my hand. “If you want to do some research of your own, check out some of these links. Do you know how to access the dark web?”
“No.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll show you. And I’ll have more questions for you too.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re not going to—I’m free?”
“So far I haven’t found anything to indicate you’ve broken any laws.” He raised one eyebrow, and I imagined he was analyzing me, or profiling me, attempting to discern if he’d missed something.
