" "Yes," Sarah said. The only reason you're alive right now is because they don't know who has the drive. They think Gary has it or me. If they find out the Hells Angels have the evidence that could dismantle their entire West Coast operation, they won't negotiate. They'll send a hit squad.
" Frank turned to Mercerer. "You hear that? You want to do business with Vargas? Mercerer looked trapped. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his cut and lit one, his hands trembling slightly.
"If she's lying, Frank. " "If she's lying, I'll handle it," Frank said. "But if she's right, that drive isn't a liability. It's a weapon. It's the only shield we have.
" Frank looked at "Sarah. " "Can you decrypt the rest of it? Get us hard proof. "I can try," Sarah said. But I need a better computer, and I need time.
"Mike," Frank barked. "Get her a laptop. The secure one we use for the books. Sarah, you have 2four hours. Find me a name, someone we can squeeze.
If you can't, then maybe Mercerer has a point. Sarah nodded. She had bought herself a day. But as she left the church, she felt Mercerer's eyes boring into her back like twin drills. He didn't believe her, and worse, he looked like a man who was running out of patience.
The laptop Big Mike provided was an old Toughbook, clunky, but functional. Sarah set up a workstation in the corner of the kitchen, fueled by Mama Jo's coffee and sheer panic. She wasn't a hacker. She was a nurse. But Gary had been lazy with his passwords.
He used variations of the same three things. His favorite football team, his high school mascot, and the street he grew up on. It took 6 hours of guessing. But at 3:00 a.m., she cracked the secondary partition of the drive. The screen filled with PDF documents, scans of bank transfers, emails, and photos of meetings.
Sarah scrolled, her eyes widening. The Apex account wasn't just laundering money. It was paying bribes, massive ones. There was a recurring payment of $10,000 a month to an account labeled Blue Shield. Sarah cross-referenced the dates with news articles from the local paper on her phone.
Every time a payment was made, a major drug bust happened, always against the rivals of the Vargas Cartel. Blue Shield wasn't a security firm. It was the sheriff's department. Specifically, a man named Deputy Chief "Holloway. " Oh my God, Sarah whispered.
"Find something? " Sarah jumped. Frank was standing behind her. He moved with impossible silence for such a big man. He was holding two mugs of coffee.