“They’re on my personal computer.”
“What you took, Dorian, was a folder claiming to be from the security office. You weren’t even on my private login, and you didn’t have access to anything remotely important. I made it just difficult enough for someone to believe they’d bested my security. Someone impatient and impulsive. Trust me, little boy, I secure my information much better than that.”
“You’re lying.”
“Those doctored files can easily be proven false with the simplest of searches, which you obviously neglected to perform. You must not have gotten too far into them, either, otherwise you would have had the pleasure of reading quite a number of badly written erotica novels I pulled off the net years ago. Hot sex scenes, but fairly sparse in the plot. Kind of like you, come to think of it. It’s a test I devised a very long time ago for those who have access to my room and my computer. I haven’t even updated the files since last year. I suppose you didn’t notice.”
His superior grin faded.
“I’d tell you to go back and look at the files more carefully, but you also downloaded a handful of my very favorite viruses, including a Trojan horse inside my snoop programs.” She snickered at his face, frozen and pale. “I can’t believe you were dumb enough to run the damn thing before you tested it, much less fail to see its purpose. Not only do you not have any incriminating files left, Dorian, but you won’t even have a computer the next time you boot up, just a very expensive paperweight.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not. Again, I’m disappointed.”
“I don’t need what was on your computer. I have your trail, Prolix.”
“Where? On your extra-crispy computer?”
“I can find it in the logs again.”
“Can you? Are you sure the proof is there any longer?”
“You were with me all last night, and you didn’t move from your compound all day. You didn’t return to Bullstow.”
“I wiped the trail that night, senator. There’s nothing to find. You have nothing.”
“I have plenty. You just confirmed that you broke into a government network and more.” La Roux retreated into the center of the room. “Your entire room is bugged. I’m backing up—”
“Which bug in particular? The one behind my bedside table, the one under my desk, or the one on the coat of arms? Or perhaps the one in my palm? I crushed them all under my heel while you were waiting for me downstairs. By the way, the one you planted in the bathroom was just poor form, Dorian. It’s creepy. I’ve had to go across the hall all day. It’s a good thing my brother has been at Randolph General, or I would have had to explain myself.”
La Roux spun around Lila’s room, his breaths coming in labored pants. After a long moment of silence, the disgraced senator spoke again. “I still know what you did. We have plenty of computer geniuses at Bullstow. Any number of them could find the data.”
“Unlikely, but that’s not the point. You don’t get it, do you? You’re talking to one now. Who do you think Prolix is? Some highborn hacker who uses the data she finds to get ahead? I wasn’t a liar when I spoke to you the other night. I never wanted to be an heir. I’ve always felt a very different sort of responsibility to those who work and live on this estate, to those who live in New Bristol and Saxony. My father has been nurturing those feelings since I was a child, and when he became prime minister, he recognized me as a resource and used me. I never sought out information for myself or for my family, I’ve only ever worked for Prime Minister Lemaire, and before that, Governor Lemaire. I’m good at what I do, which is why he hired me a month ago to find out who has been blackmailing hackers and the highborn.”
“You say that as if they aren’t criminals.”
“Oh, they are deeply flawed,” Lila agreed. “Just like you, netting highborn in your traps so you can blackmail them for cash and favors, just as you did with Celeste Wilson and her son. It angered the prime minister when he found evidence that highborns had broken into government databases, but what pissed him off the most was that someone was watching it happen and using that knowledge to profit.”
“I was cleaning house.”
“If you were cleaning house, then you would have turned those people into Bullstow immediately. You would have turned me into Chief Shaw the moment you caught me, but you didn’t, did you? You wanted to play with me. You wanted to use me. Did you order Peter Kruger to kill me, too?”
La Roux shook his head. “Reaper ordered that without my knowledge, thinking he’d get rid of a loose end. The fool hacker almost cost me the greatest prize of all.”
Lila drained her glass of wine. At least she hadn’t slept with her potential assassin. “Aren’t you noble?”
“I can’t be held responsible for every decision my subordinates make.”
“You didn’t turn him in after he made that decision, did you?”
“You don’t throw out a hammer because you smashed your thumb. He was too valuable for that. I’m not a killer, Lila.”
“No, you just steal from dead children.”
La Roux looked away.
“What about Senator Dubois? What’s his part in all this?”