“But a lot of people are like, ‘I’ve got nothing to hide.’” Joey twisted on the sofa. “Until tonight, I was one of them.”

“Even more reason to not want some guy in some office knowing everything about you.” Matt pulled out a battered paperback from his messenger bag. “Have you read this?”

Joey squinted at the title. “1984? Uh, no. I wasn’t even born then.”

“But you’ve heard of it, right?”

“Kind of.”

Matt tossed the book to him. “Read it. It’s all about what happens when we have no privacy. It’s not just what happens to us, but to the people in power. How they use that information for their own ends. We need checks and balances, Joey. That’s what democracy is all about.”

“Yeah, but not when people are afraid of being killed by terrorists and shit.”

Bombs were real, data was abstract.

“Joey, think about it. If our government can’t protect the data of its citizens what kind of job are they doing protecting our cities from terrorist attacks?” Matt raised a brow. “If they won’t admit to their failure to protect our privacy, do you really think they are suddenly going to man up and tell people when they discover that passwords to our missile launchers have been stolen?”

“Of course they will! They’d have to!”

“Maybe. Maybe not. You have a lot of faith in the integrity of your government. Me, not so much.” He shrugged.

“So far, nothing the Forum has done has changed anything. Ever.” Joey threw a defiant glance at him.

“That’s not true. We’ve had successes in the past.”

“But not with this exploit.”

Matt could not deny the truth of Joey’s words.

They had achieved nothing with this attempt to doxx Harry Owen.

And now they were caught in the system they had tried to expose.

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

11:55 p.m.

Aiden stretched and glanced out the large picture window of Tr0lz’s living room. Ironically, her building was not very far from the dilapidated rooming house where he had lived.

The fact that as a student Tr0lz could afford an apartment on the Halifax waterfront with a living room and two bedrooms was not lost on him. Especially since this apartment possessed nicely-appointed fixtures, high-end appliances, and a killer view of the harbor. The furniture was modern in style, although upholstered in a generic, contemporary gray everything.

Wherever Tr0lz had come from, she had come from money.

Or had a nice side business of something on the Internet. Her computer network was loaded with all of the bells and whistles a hacker could need.

After Aiden got over his initial envy of Tr0lz’s living space, he realized it was simply a living space—there were no clues about Tr0lz. No photos, no artwork, no little touches that he would expect such a style-conscious woman to add to her living environment.