He pulled his hood over his head, walking past the armed sheriff, and the police constable standing by the nurses’ station. His heart pounded so hard, all he could hear was the blood in his ears.

Had the police figured out that Leah’s laptop was missing? Would they guess he had lied to them when he said he hadn’t been to Leah’s apartment recently?

Would they ask Mike, Leah’s neighbor, if he had seen anyone go into Leah’s apartment?

The rinsed cat food tin.

He had fed Spook, not even thinking to wear gloves.

Would Maddie realize that Joey had been to the apartment?

Would she tell the police?

Oh, God.

His stomach clenched. He stood at the elevator, waiting for it to arrive. It seemed as if there were eyes drilling into his back.

The elevator had not budged from the top floor.

Screw it.

He took the stairs, arriving in the lobby more breathless than the descent warranted. Within minutes, he was on his bike. His first stop was the gym. He had hidden Leah’s laptop in his locker. Heart pounding, he slipped it into his backpack. All he wanted to do was hand it over to Condor.

It was near eight o’clock when he arrived at the library on Spring Garden Road. The modern glass building had transformed the downtown core of Halifax, bringing fresh community spirit to a segment of the city that had once been a vibrant shopping area, but had suffered from the usual woes of dysfunctional urban planning. The fabric of Halifax’s downtown was changing, and no one really knew what it would bring. Kind of like Joey’s life right now.

He locked his bike and hurried through the main entrance to the stairs near the middle of the library. It wasn’t too busy at this hour, so he took them two at a time to the fourth floor.

A series of long white bookcases led to a sitting area of cubist-style furniture in shades of lime green and citrus orange, placed invitingly in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Near call number 520 stood a man. The man at whose suggestion Joey had become an accessory to a crime that was snowballing into something even worse.

The man stood with his back to Joey, astronomy book in hand, gazing past the expanse of bookcases through the glass window to the nascent evening sky. It was still blue, but the clouds were edged with fiery gold and coral pink.

While the man studied the sky, Joey studied the hacktivist he only knew as Condor. Grey beanie, not very tall, with an olive complexion.

Joey’s high-top sneakers squeaked as he walked toward the man who had masterminded some of the Forum’s best hacks.

At the sound, Condor turned, throwing him a sideways glance as he pretended to study the astronomy collection.