Not this again. I assumed when he showed up here, he was done protesting. “It’s not that big a deal.”

“It is a big deal.” His eyes are wide behind his glasses. “We drugged him, and now we’re breaking into his house and hacking into his computer. That’s a really big deal.”

There’s a famous experiment by a Yale psychologist named Stanley Milgram—or should I say, infamous. The experiment measured the willingness of study participants to perform terrible acts when instructed to do so by an authority figure. Subjects were led to believe they were participating in an experiment in which they were a “teacher” administering electric shocks to another subject—the “learner”—every time he got the answer to a question wrong.

In reality, the “learner” was an actor. And the electric shocks were fake.

During the experiment, the learner would beg for mercy. He would plead for the experiment to stop. He would complain about a heart condition. But the experimenter overseeing the study would tell the subject to keep administering the shocks of increasing intensity. The subjects grew increasingly uncomfortable as the experiment proceeded, but here is the amazing part:

Every single subject administered shocks of at least 300 V. And more than half of them administered a shock of 450 V—a fatal shock if it had been real.

The purpose of the experiment was to explain the psychology of genocide. That the Nazis did terrible things just because they were told to do so. But I have a different interpretation.

I believe that any human being is capable of terrible things if you push them hard enough.

So is Luke.

“Please do this for me, Luke.” My eyes fill with tears—I’m not sure if they’re real or not. “You’re the only one who can help me. He’s a terrible person. He’s going to destroy me if I don’t get this video off his computer.”

He shakes his head. “Whatever is on that video… Maybe you should just deal with it.”

“I can’t.”

“Well, I don’t think I can do this.”

I take a step back. “So that’s it. You’re going to let this man destroy my entire life when you have a chance to stop him.”

“Adrienne…”

The tears are running down my cheeks now. “You don’t trust me. Even after all this time.”

“I trust you…”

“Then why won’t you help me?”

Luke stares down at the set of keys in his hand. He exhales slowly. “Okay. I’ll do my best. But no promises.”

“Thank you, Luke.”

I throw my arms around him in an uncharacteristically affectionate gesture. Usually, he’s the affectionate one. But this time he just stands there stiffly under my embrace.