Page 65 of The B-Team

“And,” Katy continued, “apart from more tall tales about his misspent youth…” She paused. “Is it still your youth if you’re in your twenties? Do rich people get a longer youth time than the rest of us? They don’t seem to mature as fast, that’s for sure.”

“Katy,” Claire interrupted. “Did you find anything of use on the dark web—after we very specifically told younotto go there?”

As reprimands went, it was kinda weak.

“I know, I know, but what else could I do?” Katy said. “This is like life or death for Lake, isn’t it?”

Claire looked to the heavens for patience. “Not to mention your actual family members,” she said pointedly.

“Them too,” Katy said. “Anyway, it was a big old waste of time. I can give you his old drug dealer’s deets but not much else. Plus, I don’t think that will help anyway. The guy’s in jail. I thought, you know, that this might be a Hashtag Me Too situation or something. Like, he might have assaulted a girl, and they covered it up. Rich people do thata lot.Every day, there’s a new Insta story about how some rich guy got away with feeling some girl up. Or worse. It’s awful, Aunt C. They shouldn’t get away with stuff just because they have money.”

“I know, honey,” Claire said gently. “It is terrible.”

“Yeah, well, we gotta fight the patriarchy to stop that crap,” Katy said with the wisdom of youth. “But”—she sighed—“there’s no hushed-up assault stuff in Darian’s past. I mean, he treated his girlfriends like crap, but I guess there’s no law against that. This world sucks,” she said in disgust.

“So, you’ve got nothing?” Ryan said as the bottom fell out of his stomach.

“I’m sorry.” Katy suddenly sounded very young. “I looked everywhere I could think of.”

Ryan felt instant remorse. “Don’t be sorry, Katy. You did a good job, and you were a great help. It’s not your fault that I hoped there’d be something more to find.”

Claire flashed him a grateful smile. The last thing any of them wanted was to make a teenager bear the weight of responsibility for their current predicament.

“I can keep looking,” Katy offered.

“No,” Claire said, and Ryan nodded his agreement. “You’ve done a great job, but now it’s time for us to move on to other options. Thanks, honey, and stay off the dark web, do you hear? Otherwise, I’ll tell Uncle Matt, and he’ll put you back in Invertary’s jail.”

“That’s just mean,” Katy said, and you could almost hear her pout.

“Thanks, Katy,” Ryan called, and the rest of the team chimed in before Claire ended the call.

For a second, they all stared at each other, weighed down by the knowledge that their options were fast running out.

“If we have no idea what we’re looking for,” Beast said, “we’ll never find it before the commander’s hacker. And the more time they have on our server, the worse it will be for all of us.”

Ryan ran a hand over his head. It was definitely aching, but not with the migraines that sometimes assaulted him. This was more the dull ache of exhaustion and anxiety.

“Guess we have a decision to make,” he said. “We either wipe the server—and the Benson Security business along with it. Or we wait and hope we find what we’re looking for in the meantime. But with that option, we risk Fitz gathering what he needs to lock up the rest of our team for good. He might not be able to admit what he finds into evidence, but it will definitelyhelp him locate information that he can use in court. Our choice is stark: no business or no team. What do we do?”

“Are we sure we can’t download all the files before we wipe the server?” Isobel asked.

Ryan shook his head. “Too much data. It would take days to download. And that’s a lot of time for Fitzwater’s hacker to have access to the server.”

Faces had fallen, and the sour scent of lost hope lingered in the air.

“There’s only one choice here,” Rochelle said at last. “We do the right thing. We save our people.”

“Yeah,” Isobel said, wide-eyed. “We can always rebuild the business, right?”

The answer was grim silence.

“Okay.” Ryan stood. “Then there’s no point in continuing to hunt through the files.” He glanced at Belinda. “Can you call Katrina and put her on speaker?”

She did as asked, and Katrina’s voice filled the oppressively quiet kitchen. “Hi, everybody, what’s happening?”

Ryan brought her up to speed. “Do you think you could sneak up to reception and grab the code from the lamp?” he asked hopefully.

“No, that isn’t possible.” There was genuine regret in her tone. “There’s a cop posted at the reception desk at all times. Word is they’re worried someone from the team will come back to the building to deliberately disrupt the investigation. There’s half a dozen other officers still here. They move around from office to office, searching the place. So far, nobody’s found the panic room, but there’s a good chance they’ll decide to move the bookcase in front of the door. They can’t get in—unless they bring in a work crew to cut their way through—so for the moment, I’m secure here. If I leave, they’ll see me, and that will give them access to everything in the panic room too. There’s alot of hard copy information in here, Ryan. Stuff about Benson Security that the cops might find useful.”