“We were indeed.”

Fat Gandhi offered up another beatific grin, but now—and maybe this was just his imagination—Myron could see the decay behind it.

“Do you think only you can use your phone as a listening device?”

Myron said nothing.

Fat Gandhi snapped his fingers. A map appeared on the big screen. There were blinking blue dots all over it. “All of my employees carry such phones. We can use them as listening devices, as GPSs, to page. We can keep track of all our employees at all times.” He pointed at the blue dots on the screen. “When we get a match on one of our apps—let us say one of our clients has a desire for a malnourished white male with a studded dog collar . . .”

The kid started to shake.

“. . . we know where such an employee is and can arrange a meeting at any time. We can also listen in if we wish. We can discover if there is any danger. Or”—and now the smile looked positively predatory—“we can see if we are being cheated.”

The kid reached into his shoe, pulled out the five hundred pounds, and held it out toward Fat Gandhi. Fat Gandhi didn’t take it. The kid put the money on one of the desks. Then he actually slid behind Myron. Myron let him.

Fat Gandhi turned toward the map. He spread his hands again. The other men in the room kept their heads down and typed.

“This is our nerve center.”

Nerve center, Myron thought. This guy should be petting a hairless cat. He sounded like a Bond villain.

He looked over his shoulder at Myron. “Do you know why I don’t fear telling you all this?”

“Is it my trusting face? That’s come in handy tonight.”

“No.” He spun back toward Myron. “It’s because there is nothing you could really do. You’ve noticed the security. Sure, the authorities could eventually get in, maybe whoever is on the other end of your smartphone even. By the way, one of my men is driving around with your phone. Just to make it all the more fun, no?”

“Sounds like big laughs.”

“But here is the thing, Myron. May I call you Myron?”

“Sure. Should I call you Fat?”

“Ha-ha. I like you, Myron Bolitar.”

“Great.”

“Myron, you may have noticed that we have no hard drives in here. Everything—all of the information on our clients, our employees, our dealings—is kept in a cloud. So if someone comes in, we press a button, and voilà”—Fat Gandhi snapped his fingers—“there is nothing to be found.”

“Clever.”

“I tell you this not to boast.”

“Oh?”

“I want you to understand with whom you are dealing before we do business. Just as it is my responsibility to know who I am dealing with.”

He snapped his fingers again.

When the screen came back on, Myron almost groaned out loud.

“Once we heard your name, it didn’t take long to learn much more.” Fat Gandhi pointed to the screen. Someone had paused the video on the title: