On the phone from the plane, I’d told Reynolds I wanted to talk about building up a profile of a programmer who might do what the Warlock did. I imagine Reynolds might see him as a kind of equal. With the right prodding, he might even see helping us take him down as a worthy task.

“You took an FBI jet here?” Reynolds says this almost as if it’s not a question.

“Yes.” Ailes was insistent that I have some backup, and had a field agent meet me at the airport and drive me here. An older agent, Mark Ross, with a polite Texas gentleman twang, he offered to wait in the car and do some paperwork while I talked to Reynolds.

Reynolds shoves a cheese stick into his mouth. “I tracked an IP address on your e-mail that came from an FBI router. The ping time took a little long. I figured you guys have some fast fiber, so it must have come from a satellite, which meant an airplane.”

“Interesting. I didn’t think about that.”

“You can tell a lot from data.” He says it like it’s a profound statement.

He seems to want to flaunt the fact that he has access to such information. I resist the urge to take the bait. “I don’t know much about computers. Figuring out how people work is enough for me.”

“So you’re not going to ask me about my server?” he asks.

“Not really.” I notice that he has a hard time looking me in the face, even when he’s not staring at my breasts. I’m wearing my normal office attire, a suit and a blouse that’s not very revealing. That might be what’s tantalizing him, figuring out what I look like under it all. “We can talk about the server if you want. But I think you made your case pretty clear to Agent Valdez.” I flip to a page in the questionnaire. “Do you think someone else could copy what you’ve done with Faceplaced?”

He smirks. “Not my code. It’s locked down. There are other systems out there, but I think mine is the best. Part of the strength of the program is that it looks for images that aren’t just straight-on shots. It’ll take profile shots and make data points for that as well. That’s how you get better nose and cheekbone maps. I got the idea working on a face scanner for a security company. They just wanted something that worked head-on. I tried to explain that if the image only works like that, then you can fool it with a photograph. It’s like the face recognition they put into phones. You can trick it with an image of the person you took on your own phone. Stupid. Absolutely stupid.” Reynolds wipes his greasy fingers on his shirt and shakes his head.

“That does sound stupid. So your system is the only one that does this?” I’m not trying to play dumb, just overemphasize what I’m not clear on to keep him talking.