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

at Tracy’s apartment, Tracy in her office taken from her computer’s camera, Josh in his office taken from his computer’s camera.

“Jesus,” Shawn says.

“Event photographers capturing more than what they were hired to, illegal cameras in people’s homes, tapping into our computers at work.” Josh shakes his head. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Who the hell are these Élan people? Where’d you get these?” Shawn asks.

“Oh, there’s more.” Josh pulls something out of his pocket, lays it on the table.

To Shawn, the device looks like one of those new inhalers—oval shaped, about two inches in diameter, white, flat—only with tiny red and yellow bulbs embedded on its edges. “What the hell is that?”

“Some sort of SSD.” Josh turns it around so Shawn can see the USB port. “This tiny thing holds twelve terabytes of information.”

“That’s impossible.”

“That’s what I said. It’s almost at capacity too. I can’t access a lot of it because most files are encrypted, but what I was able to access? Holy shit.”

“Where’d you get that?”

C h a p t e r   1 7

“WHERE’D YOU GET him?” Haylee bends down and grabs the goldendoodle by the face. “How’s the big boy?”

The dog licks her face.

“I bought him.” The teenage girl they’ve just encountered licks her fingers, uses the spit to wipe some a spec of dirt off her pristine Nikes. “Actually, my parents did. Please don’t tell anyone, it’s totally embarrassing. I know I shoulda got a rescue dog.”

“Well, he’s beautiful.” She turns back to the dog. “Hey there, oh my goodness, you’re a kissy fella, aren’t you? Yes, yes.”

The dog turns and walks to Micah. He bends down, pets his head. The dog starts licking his face.

“Hey there, fella, oh my goodness.” Micah’s pitch and enthusiasm match Haylee’s, as do his words. “You are a kissy fella, aren’t you? Yes, yes.”

The dog walks back to his owner.

“Y’all have a good day.” The young girl and the goldendoodle walk away.

“That’s what you need. A delicious dog.” Haylee says to Micah as they walk along the cobblestone to the Bergen Street subway station. “Someone to keep you company in that big ol’ condo. It might be good for you, once you get back. Where are you going again?”

“Corsica. Three weeks. Lennox planned it a while back. Wanted it to be our second honeymoon. We were supposed to leave in April, but I think I’m gonna move it up a bit, maybe hop around a bit before. I’ve always wanted to travel Europe.”

“I’m really glad you’re doing that.” Haylee opens her arms. “Come here.”

Micah hugs her. “Thank you for the quick lunch. And the conversation.”

“My pleasure. I’m glad we could squeeze that in before my one o’clock.” She releases him. “If you do decide to sell the condo, I can hook you up with a great agent in Brooklyn. We’d love to have you near us. All of us.” She pats her belly.

Micah smiles. “I’ll think about it.”

“Please do. And I’m looking forward to our Lamaze date.” She dramatically breathes in and out as she starts to walk away. “Don’t forget!”

“I still think you’re jumping the gun on Lamaze.” He watches her walk down the street. “You’re eight weeks, Haylee!”

“That’s what my absent husband said!” She flips him off with a smile. “So screw you both!”

He laughs.

As he walks down the subway stairs, he wipes the dog slobber off his face with his sleeve.

C h a p t e r   1 8

SHAWN PUTS DOWN the half-eaten pizza slice on the cardboard, wipes his hand on his pants, then inserts the SSD in his laptop. “Now, where were we?”

“You asked him where he got that oval thingie.” Jenna licks her fingers.

“From Kimberly,” Josh says. “At least we think it was Kimberly. Jenna found it.”

“You sure you don’t want the last piece?” Shawn asks Josh.

“Lactose intolerant, gluten free, I told you.”

“I know.” Shawn laughs. “Who’s Kimberly, and how did she get this?”

“It’s he,” Jenna says.

“Kimberly is a he?”

“Kimbo,” Josh adds. “He goes by Kimbo. He used to be James West’s assistant.”

Once the drive appears on his desktop, Shawn opens it. Three folders appear: one named SURV, another named 4JFK, and the third is simply named with an underscore symbol. He selects all of them and hits the enter key. Only the folder named SURV opens. Thirty-seven subfolders are inside, organized by what he deduces are last names.

“The SURV folder is the only one that wasn’t encrypted,” Josh explains. “These folders contain hundreds of videos of employees, all working for Élan in some capacity.”

“There’s only thirty-seven folders. Élan has thousands of employees.”

“Near as we can tell, they were only keeping tabs on upper management, although a few are just regular folks, like assistants and managers.” Josh says. “Go ahead, click Tracy’s. It’s Heissman, right below mine.”

“I wanna see yours.” Shawn moves the cursor up one folder to HARRISON.

“That’s fine, but mine is only me in my office. Tracy’s has footage from her office and her home.”

Shawn clicks HEISSMAN instead. Hundreds of tiny videos begin to appear across the screen, popping like fireworks. Some are from Tracy’s work computer, some from the corner of her living room.

“Do these have sound?” Shawn asks.

“Yes,” Jenna says. “All of them.”

Shawn looks at the top of the folder. “There’s no Ancelet.”

“I was already gone,” Jenna says. “They started all this surveillance shit right after I left.”

“Jenna, that’s not entirely true,” Josh says. “West knew what you and Lennox were up to, remember? He called you back to Élan, asked you about the account.”

“We don’t know he was surveilling us, though.”

“Uh, the camera in Lennox and Micah’s apartment.”

“Those recorded to my computer.” Jenna voice sounds annoyed. “And they didn’t have sound.”

“I’m gonna take this to a guy,” Shawn says. “He can open the two encrypted folders no problem.”

“That is not leaving my possession,” Josh says.

“Why the hell not?”

“Because—” Josh searches for an easy explanation. “Well, here’s the story, which starts the Monday morning after Lennox and Walter were killed.”

Shawn closes his eyes. “Oh God.”

“Last story, I