I’d read we were working on a project like this but the Department of Justice lawyers weren’t sure of the legality of collecting personal profiles en masse for non-terror cases.

“I didn’t know it was that far along,” I reply.

“That was sidestepped when an outside contractor did all the heavy lifting and basically presented it to us for no charge.”

“I see. That outside contractor wouldn’t have been a certain computational mathematician who now consults for the FBI?”

“No comment,” replies Ailes flatly.

So he went ahead and built the Yearbook Project on his own dime and just gave it to them. The man’s heart is all in.

“I’ve got some other little tricks we’re putting into it,” says Ailes. “We can glean all kinds of information from body language in photographs. Did you know that we can tell with eighty percent accuracy whether or not you’ve had sexual intercourse with someone based upon your posture and expression in a photo of you next to them?”

“I hope you don’t mean me personally.” My mind immediately thinks of all the photos online of me with ex-boyfriends.

“Uh, no, Agent Blackwood. I admit it’s creepy. But this kind of data is everywhere if you know how to collect and interpret it. Online marketers are already using this stuff. You’d be amazed at how much we didn’t have to invent. It’s shocking the amount of information we put online about ourselves that we’d rather not share with the world.”

My magazine cover flashes in my mind. “Trust me, I know. What should I know about this programmer? I’m about to call him.”

“Liam Reynolds. He’s twenty-eight. Has a degree in computer science from Texas A&M. He makes his living as a freelance programmer. He’s done a lot of contract work for different companies. His hobbies are the usual—video games. If you play, don’t make the mistake Jennifer did in telling him her online handle.”

“Why is that?”

“He found out he was nowhere in her league and didn’t take it well. Of course, she also qualifies in the top five percent in marksmanship in the FBI. Gerald says he once watched her hit a perfect series with a blindfold. She was doing it all from muscle memory.”

I knew she was scary. “No need to worry about the video game thing. If it’s not an app for my phone where I’m trying to solve word puzzles or line up pretty gems, I haven’t played it.”

“Good. I think we need to play up the other side. Just be your charming self. Don’t intimidate him. Please don’t steal his watch. The mere fact that an attractive girl is talking to him will probably be more than he can deal with. Hold on.” Ailes pauses. “Gerald just handed me a note. He says that it’s a seventy percent probability Reynolds hasn’t had a date with a girl in the last three years. For what that’s worth.”

It feels terribly manipulative, but I got over that while learning how to do undercover work in the police academy and then in the FBI. I haven’t done a lot of it in the field, but you realize that most of the people you’re going to be lying to aren’t actually the ones you want to arrest. With Liam Reynolds, I have to pretend that I don’t think he’s a power-mad creep standing in the way of us stopping the Warlock from committing another murder. I just need to be an attractive woman asking for a favor.