Transparency by Charles Royce (children's books read aloud txt) 📕

payroll, to instigate all sorts of schemes, I won’t even get into all that right now. After they started getting paranoid, started spying on us, we retaliated, started spying on them. That was a huge mistake.”

“How so?”

“They escalated, threatened to expose the schemes to the Feds if we went public with what we found. We had no choice but to start covering our asses.”

“Walter and Lennox.”

“You need to listen to what I’m saying.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I am. I am listening.”

“The company has been on life support for half a year now. Together with the investors, we’ve sunk billions into this building. Their ROI is bleak at best. They want out, and they have an exit strategy I’m not exactly on board with. They’re threatening to oust me if I don’t go along with their plan.”

“What plan?” Josh asks.

“The less you know, the better.”

“They can’t oust you from your own company, can they?”

“They can and they will. I’ve given them too much power. I’m in over my head.”

“You need my help.”

“Now that Kimbo is gone, yes. Yes, I need your help.”

“What can I do?”

“Just do what I say. Don’t ask any questions, all right? Trust me. You’ll be compensated in the end, I guarantee it.”

“I’m in, sir.”

“Great. It’ll start with picking them up from the airport tomorrow. I’ll text you the flight information in the morning. We can meet here before.”

“You’re coming with me?” Josh asks. “Who are we picking up?”

“The less you know, the better, I said. Let’s take baby steps with the trust thing.”

C h a p t e r   4 6

“YOU DID SO great!” Agent Pillsbury makes room for him in the van. “West really implicated himself toward the end there, verified some things we’d heard. He wants to trust you.”

Josh slides the door closed. “But does he?”

“Thanks to how you handled yourself, I think he’s starting to. Seriously. Your first spy mission. You have a future.”

Josh exhales. “It took me forever to find y’all.”

“Sorry, everybody started coming out of your meeting at once,” Pillsbury says. “I think we freaked, went overboard with the fleeing.”

“Did you get everything else you needed?”

“Almost. We got the four license plate numbers, but we need to know who the others are. Did you get their names from the login?”

“No, I did not get their names from the login. Not all of us have photographic memories.” He flips an imaginary rolodex.

She ignores his impression of her. “Good news about the main guys coming tomorrow for the grand opening, huh?”

“Who could they be?” He removes the pen from his jacket pocket, then digs the earpiece out of his ear. “Like, who are these main guys? West is being so completely weird about it.”

“We have some ideas.” She opens a baggie for him to drop the pen and earpiece inside. “I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you.”

She snorts.

“So you need me to go back down there later tonight, right?” Josh asks, a little too enthusiastically. “Alone?”

“If the big guys are coming tomorrow, I’m afraid it’s the only time that makes sense. I’m sure you have lots to do for the event tomorrow.”

“You have no idea.”

Her eyes flutter, then she brings up something in the air, starts swooshing her hands around. “From the blueprints, I remember there are three other rooms down there, and maybe a storage closet. Now, this is very important. You’re going to open each of those doors slowly upon entering, making sure there are no other cameras that could document your being there.”

“Jesus, I didn’t even think about that.”

“I mean it. Check the walls, the corners. If you see a camera, close the door and don’t worry about it. Video surveillance monitoring is about movement; if there’s not that much, no one will notice.”

“Okay.”

“We need any hard evidence on the members of CAAD we can get. Anything you can document, just take pictures or videos with this secure phone.” She hands him an iPhone. “It looks like yours just in case there’s any funny business. If someone catches you, they won’t know you have an FBI phone.”

“I see what you did there.”

“My number is the only one in the contacts, so if you need me, call me. There’s facial recognition and a secondary password, which is my last name and your birthday, got it?”

“Oh, I’ll remember that.”

“Now, do you mind giving me your real phone? I don’t want you to get confused.”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“I don’t trust anyone.”

“West has cloned it. He’s the one you need to watch out for.”

Josh hands her the phone.

“I’ll switch back with you when you come back to the van around two a.m., okay?” Agent Pillsbury says.

“Seems you’ve thought of everything.” He lets out a deep breath. “It’s gonna be a long night.”

“You unplugged the login thingie, right?”

“Yes.”

“And there’s still no camera outside?”

“No, I only saw the one in the conference room.”

“Then you’re all set.”

“What’s my exit strategy?” Josh wants to make sure that she has, in fact, thought of everything.

“What do you mean?”

“I have to plug the login setup back in, so they won’t suspect anything.”

She squints her eyes and shakes her head.

“If I do, the computer will log me out when I exit,” he adds. “Can’t have that.”

“Billy Donovan found a way out without his key. You’ll have to do the same.”

“Who’s to say West didn’t let him out?”

“The blueprint.” She swipes her hand in the air again. “There’s something in between the room around the corner from Reagan, in between another room and a storage closet. Maybe a vent?”

“Um, I can’t see that.” He waves his hand in the same airspace.

“Trust me, it’s there.”

Josh pats his pants pocket, remembers the ArchEngine program Phish just sold him. “Never mind, I know what to do.”

C h a p t e r   4 7

JOSH LOOKS AROUND at the two other customers in the DigiNow Café, one of only two Internet cafés left in Manhattan. Opening the ArchEngine file on a work computer would be too dangerous, especially at