Max popped his head up over the partition, his watery eyes going my way again.

“Just testing out some new software,” I explained.

He shook his head. “You know, I remember when reporting was going out in the field with a notebook and a stubby pencil.”

“Welcome to the digital age, my friend.”

He shook his head again, muttering, “You kids and your machines,” before he disappeared behind the fabric partition.

Seeing how easy it was to change from female to male, I clicked another button, putting the website to the test. Mechanical voice. After fiddling with a few buttons, I crossed my fingers and hit the play button.

A robotic Tina came on, informing me I was gonna catch a creep. Unfortunately, it sounded nothing like the creep who had called me last night. Mechanical, yes. A match, no.

Undaunted, I went back to the page with the list of programs. Five others were listed. I hit the second one, instantly transported to their webpage and began downloading their package.

An hour later I’d gone through three more sites, two months of allowable expenses, and was just about to give up on this wild goose chase. Honestly, my mystery caller could have used any number of software programs. I was totally grasping here.

But, since I had nothing else to go on but grasping, I cued my audio file up one more time and put website number four, Audio Cloak, into use, once again transforming my own voice. I hit play.

A shiver went up my spine as my mystery caller said that Tina was going to catch a creep.

Audio Cloak sounded exactly like the message I’d gotten. No doubt about it, this was the one that my caller had used.

I was just about to email the webmaster and ask if anyone from PW Enterprises had used their site last night, when a sandwich dropped into the middle of my desk.

I looked up to find Cal standing over me.

“What’s that?”

“Peace offering. Salami on sourdough.”

“I hate salami.” I was totally lying. Salami was my favorite. I’d eat it every day if I wasn’t afraid of perpetual salami breath.

“You sure? You look hungry.”

I was. Starving. I poked at the white wrapper. “Where did you get it?”

He nodded his head toward the window. “Had the deli across the street deliver.”

I looked over to the spot he’d occupied all morning. A footlong, a bag of chips, and two sodas sat on the desk.

“Coke?” I asked, gesturing to one of the cups.

He nodded.

Caffeine and hoagies. I tried to resist…but I was only human.

“Hand it over,” I said, gesturing to the cup as I unwrapped my sandwich.

I thought I saw the ghost of a smile twitching his lips again.