forced them to change the sequence of the op, but it doesn't change the value of the targets.”
“And now I've had time to discover the missing paperwork,” Alex said, “and the other missing items. To put together pieces. Meaning if there was some kind of backup they missed…”
Ben nodded, then inclined his head toward Sarah. “Exactly. Also, they might have let her live because she wasn't important enough to kill. But now they have to figure that you could have warned her about what's going on. You know more now than you did before. They might reassess her threat level as a result.”
Sarah tried to control her irritation at the way he was discussing a threat to her life as though she wasn't even in the room. “Well, possibility one doesn't sound very promising,” she said. “What's the second possibility?”
“The second possibility is that you come up with a meaningful explanation of what makes Obsidian worth killing for. You'll be a step closer then to knowing who's doing the killing.”
“I've tried,” Alex said. “I couldn't find anything.”
“Who's threatened by it?” Ben said. “Or who stands to gain? Existing security software companies?”
Sarah chuckled. “You mean software companies are killing people? Please.”
Ben looked at her. “Please what? Please don't tell you anything that might save your life at the cost of puncturing your little bubble of naivete?”
“Come on, Ben,” Alex said. “Companies don't kill people.”
“And you're basing that conclusion on what evidence?”
“What about the government?” Sarah said. “Maybe the NSA doesn't want networks to be more secure than they already are.”
Ben chuckled. “I really don't think the NSA-”
“What, you don't think the NSA would kill people? And I'm the one living in a bubble? I bet you don't think the president would arrest an American citizen on American soil and hold him without granting him access to an attorney or charging him with a crime or otherwise adhering to constitutional requirements. I bet you don't think the government would wiretap Americans without a warrant, either. I bet you don't think-”
“You don't know the first fucking thing about what I think.”
“-that the government would cook up intelligence to start a war. I bet you don't think the government is run by people who've gotten as far as they have in politics by learning to rationalize all kinds of corruption, in the name of the greater good. Are you telling me these things don't go on, every single day?”
She stopped, breathing a little hard. She hadn't meant to make a speech. But she'd gotten through to him. That little f-bomb wasn't part of the control curriculum, was it?
“You know what?” he said. “If a few laws need to get bent to save lives, they get bent. That's just the way it is.”
“Yeah? Who determines which laws get bent? And how much? If you can break some laws, why not others? Where does it stop? What does the law even mean?”
“Here's an idea for you,” he said, chewing his gum lazily. “Instead of blaming America first for everything that bugs you, why don't you consider some other possibilities? If it's not too much of a strain.”
“Like who?”
“How about the mullahs in Tehran, for a start? You wouldn't believe the shit they're up to.”
Sarah knew he was baiting her again and tried to stay cool. She wanted to say, I'm American, you fucking racist, and I hate the mullahs, but knew that's what he wanted, he wanted to make her angry. After that, he would tell her she was just being emotional, adding sexism to the list of qualities she already loathed him for.
“Absolutely,” she said, channeling her anger into sarcasm. “Let's make sure Iran is on the list. After all, every country with a GDP the size of Finland's is a grave threat to our national security. I mean, did you see it on the news? Two Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated last week in Istanbul.”
“Really?” Ben said. “I must have missed it.”
“Yes, and their bodyguards, too. Even though we have a law-Executive Order 12333-that prohibits assassination.”
Ben shrugged. “What can you do? Iran has a lot of enemies.”
“Sure, and maybe we subcontracted the job to one of them, just like we used to subcontract torture to get around our laws against that. Until we started doing it ourselves. You see what happens when it's okay to break the law a little? It starts getting broken a lot.”
“I admire your idealism,” Ben said, with a paternalistic smile that made her want to punch him.
Alex said, “You mentioned a third possibility. What is it?”
A moment went by while Ben examined a cuticle. Then he said, “You don't want to know about that one. It's the one that doesn't have a happy ending. And right now, it's looking the most likely. I get the feeling you two are going to keep your heads in the sand until someone shoots your asses off.”
How could he talk that way about his own brother? How could he care so little? Was it an act? After all, he was here, that must mean something.
“What about the police?” she said.
Ben looked at her. “What about them?”
“We could tell them about the missing files.”
“Sure you could. What do you expect they would do at that point?”
“I don't know. Recognize something really is going on here, just like we have. Devote additional resources. Protect us, maybe.”
Ben shrugged. “Well sure, then do it.”
She glared at him. She wanted to slap that insouciance right off his face.
“Okay,” she said after seething for a moment, “tell me what I'm missing.”
Ben sighed. “You're not looking at things from the other side's perspective. Here, the other side is the police. Alex already ran his conspiracy theory past them, isn't that right, Alex?”
“Well, I wouldn't call it that,” Alex said. “And anyway, that was before-”
“Before what? Before you claimed some files went missing? They'll think it's a stunt. They'll think you're trying to find a way to be taken seriously. They'll start to take a very close look at you in a way you do not want to be looked at.”
“But my files are missing, too,” Sarah said.
“Right. They'll think Alex took them so you would corroborate his claim.”
“They wouldn't think that,” she said, realizing she sounded petulant. She just didn't want him to be right.
“How many police do you know?” Ben asked. “Do you know how they spend their time, how they look at the world? Let me tell you what a San Jose homicide detective is focused on. Gangs. Teenagers dead of gunshot wounds. Witnesses afraid to cooperate. Trying to keep a lid on all that. That's his world. The shit you've gotten mixed up in? That's what he goes to the movies to see. That's as real as he thinks this kind of thing is. And even if he did believe you, what then? What do you think-you're going to get a protective detail from the San Jose police?”
Damn it, he was right. But…
“Someone took those files from our offices,” Sarah said. “How did they get in?”
“I can think of several ways,” Ben said. “Why?”
Alex sat forward in his chair. “Right-the key cards. They're all individually encoded. So if you wanted to, you can tell who's been coming and going, and when.”
Ben shook his head. “Even if they had help on the inside, you're not going to find out who with a key card.”
“Why not?” Sarah said.
“Everything else they've done has been too thorough. They're not going to make a mistake that obvious.”
“How else could you get in and out at night?” Sarah asked.
“Look, you wouldn't have to be Houdini to slip past the receptionist during business hours and hide in a bathroom or wherever until the place had emptied out. There wouldn't be any electronic evidence of that.”
“But they knew exactly which offices to go to,” Sarah said.
“Your names are on the wall outside them. Not that anyone would need even that. This wasn't planned
