Chapter 3

It turned out to be a deep backdoor program, and it was still steadily sending data out.

"Lesley, have you connected to any Wi-Fi you didn't recognize lately?"

Lesley grinned, a little embarrassed.

"Just Boss Lambert's place. Curly's Mom said it was free, so when I took my grandson there to play, I connected a few times."

"There's something pretty serious wrong with your phone. I'll need to keep it and do a deep clean."

Lesley suspected nothing and left with a stream of thanks.

That night, after I closed up, I sat down at my computer and hooked the phone up to my professional gear.

Cracking a trojan at this level wasn't hard for me.

But after a few hours of analysis, I realized the situation was worse than I'd expected.

It could copy everything on the phone, right down to capturing the passwords on payment apps.

The source was, as I'd guessed, the arcade, and the data was landing overseas.

I knew at once this was beyond anything some corner-shop owner could pull off. There was a ring behind it.

I was still sorting the evidence when the neighborhood group chat started blowing up again.

Louis's mom fired off several fat cash gifts, her tone giddy.

"Everyone, Boss Lambert's got a late-night special going."

"Just connect to the Wi-Fi and sign up as a shop member, and you get two hundred dollars cash back."

Curly's Mom followed right behind.

"I already collected mine, two hundred bucks hit my account instantly. Boss Lambert really is a gem of this neighborhood."

The other parents in the group who had no idea what was going on went wild, all asking how to do it.

I had no fondness for these people, but I couldn't just watch them walk off a cliff.

Out of professional principle, and to cover myself as someone who knew the truth, I posted a message right away.

【Neighbors, I'd advise against connecting to free Wi-Fi. There's a security risk.】

The moment it went out, the group exploded.

Louis's mom was instantly furious, spitting curses in a voice message.

"Daniela, have you got any shame? Jealous that Boss Lambert runs a generous business, so you smear him on purpose."

"Go take a piss and look at your own reflection, see what kind of trash you are."

Curly's Mom sent another voice message.

"Exactly. My son plays games there every day, been connecting for half a month, not a cent missing from his card."

"You're a piece of garbage a man dumped. What gives you the right to point fingers here?"

In the span of a few minutes, hundreds of messages, the whole group flooding with filth.

Then Curly's Mom, the group admin, kicked me straight out.

I let out a scoff, screenshotted every message, and packaged all the evidence.

Early the next morning, I'd just rolled up the shutter to head out and file a report when a wave of stench hit me in the face.

The whole door was smeared with rotten vegetable leaves and grease, flies swarming everywhere.

Pressed into the grease was a sheet of white paper that read: Rotten black-hearted trash, get out of the neighborhood.

I pulled up the storefront camera footage on my phone. The picture was clear. It was Curly's Mom and her crowd.

After dumping it all, she'd even flipped my shop door the middle finger.

And not far off, buying breakfast, Curly's Mom was making a point of pointing me out to the person beside her, laughing loudly.

I didn't waste any more attention on them. I cleaned it up as fast as I could, grabbed the evidence, and went straight to the economic-crimes squad.

"Officer, I want to report a crime."

At first Officer James took it for an ordinary dispute.

But when he plugged the flash drive into the computer and saw the professional analysis I'd submitted, his expression changed in an instant.

"This lead... we've been watching it a long time. We could never find the local foothold."

He leaned back in his chair and dragged a hand down his face.

"Half a year ago we got a tip that an overseas money-laundering crew had a downstream hub here in the city."

"But we searched for ages and never pinned down the exact spot. You've done us a huge favor."

Officer James finished reading everything and fixed his eyes on me, bright and intent.

"Miss Henson, no, Engineer Henson. Your technical skills are exactly what we need."

"I need you to be our informant and technical consultant, to hold the situation steady for us."

"Just three days. Within three days, we'll follow the thread and take the whole lot of them down in one sweep."