Saturday
We dropped Grizzly at the entrance gate of Great Lakes—he’d taken a cab up—and headed south. Neither of us talked. I was trying to internalize everything Grizzly had said. I’d faced threats before, but there was usually an individual or group on the other side. People with names and faces whom I knew were not my friends. But this was an entirely new script. Who was after me? How many of them were there? And who wanted the flash drive?
Charlotte Hollander was the only person outside of my family, Zach, Luke, and Grizzly, whom I’d told about the drive. But whoever was tapping my phone, if it wasn’t Hollander, also knew since I’d called Dolan about it from home. So there was Hollander, Dolan, Luke, the phone tapper, and now Grizzly. Whom did Hollander tell? And whom did they tell? The number of people who knew about Parks and his flash drive, and the fact I had it, had possibly increased exponentially by now.
But why? What was on it? If Parks really was a spy, had he hacked into Delcroft’s system and stolen the plans? Hollander had been pretty antsy to get the drive back, and she was Delcroft’s queen bee of drones. But was she behind the phone tap? She’d told me over drinks that she’d tapped Parks’ phone. Why not mine, too? Or had she run it up the chain of command? Grizzly had said most companies had their own intel departments now, and he’d also said Delcroft and the military were practically married to each other. Did that mean the NSA had hacked into my computer? And if they had, where did it stop? Were they also tracking Rachel? Or my father? I shivered.
“Luke,” I said. “I want to give the drive back. I don’t want to be involved anymore.”
He flicked his gaze from the road to me. “I agree.”
“So what should I do?”
“Call Hollander in the morning. Drop it off at her house.”
“Somehow that sounds too simple. What if it’s a trap?”
Luke didn’t reply.
I swallowed. We passed a sign that said we were entering Lake Forest. I sucked in a breath. “I have a better idea.”
“I’d like to get home.”
“Hollander lives in Lake Forest. Let’s drop it off now.”
“Why? Do you have the drive with you?”
“You know the answer to that. Please. Pull over.” I fished my cell out of my pocket.
Luke didn’t stop, but he did slow down. “It’s not gonna work. Someone with her security clearance won’t be listed. You’re not going to find her unless she wants you to.”
I jiggled my foot again; I’d been doing that a lot recently. Then I sat up. “I know how to find it. Please.”
Luke’s brows knitted, but he turned off Green Bay Road onto a side street and stopped the pickup. I fished my cell out of my pocket and called Susan.
Thankfully, she picked up. “Hey, Ellie. What’s happening?”
“I’m in a hurry, and I need a favor. You know people whose kids go to Lake Forest Middle School, don’t you?”
“Sure. Jim and Carol Milgram’s kids.”
Susan knows everyone. “They’d have a student directory, right?”
“Yes…” Susan stretched the word into three syllables, which meant she wasn’t sure she wanted to go any further.
“I need an address and phone, if it’s listed, for a twelve-year-old boy whose last name is Hollander.”
“Ellie…”
I cut her off. “Please, Susan. It’s important.”