“Yeah, happy to help, since I guess this all belongs to you now.” Something tells me Damian may have used more than money to influence Liam.

I leave Reynolds to Ailes and his team when they conference call. Ross drives me back to the airport, with the box of hard drives sitting in my lap. The victims’ faces could be in there, as could the identity of the next potential ones.

I have a thought—what did I do when I first found the site?

I uploaded my own picture.

What if the Warlock did the same? What if his photo is somewhere in here? It’s a chilling thought to think his face could be somewhere on a hard disk I was holding.

Ross speaks up as we head to the airport. “One million.”

“What?” I ask.

“He left his bank account open on his computer. One million dollars. That’s how much your friend paid him. Must be nice to have that kind of money lying around. We have to keep our work cars parked one day out of the week just to fit the gas budget.”

Who knows what the Web site was worth or even if it was making Reynolds much money. Most of those ventures fail. Damian offered him a magical number. Say yes and you’re a millionaire right now . . .

We all feel the crunch of government budgets. It’s half of the paperwork Ailes talked about.

Ross continues, “Of course, your friend probably made a wise bet. Once this blows over and everyone hears about the website, it’ll probably be worth millions more. Smart. Very smart.”

Goddamn you, Damian. You don’t miss an angle.

33

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR BREYER has his fingers steepled as he stares at his desk. I’ve just told him everything I know about Damian. Intimate things. Ailes and Chisholm are seated on either side of me. Chisholm is there to provide some kind of analysis of Damian. Ailes is there to provide what I guess is moral support. All of these men are old enough to be my father. Not that I’d ever tell him any of this. I feel so exposed, yet in a way, I’m relieved.

“Why didn’t you bring this to my attention sooner?” Breyer finally says.

I take a deep breath. “When I went through background checks here, I explained everything.” Not quite everything. I didn’t tell them about some of my assumptions . . .

Ailes tries to defend me. “Agent Blackwood mentioned this man to me before she left for Austin. I don’t think she’s done anything intentionally to hide or obstruct information about him.”

Breyer looks agitated. “Then how did he know she was there? How did he know what we were trying to accomplish there if nobody leaked it?” He looks me right in the eye as he says this. I can tell he thinks I may have whispered it to Damian on a phone call or made some kind of seemingly innocent admission. He’s wondering if things are really over. He still doesn’t know what to make of me.