“We circle around and park face-out about twenty yards from what I suspect is O’Hara’s sedan. I’ll get out and demand to see Susan and Davie. You keep the car running. I’ll first make the trade of the hard drive for Davie. When that’s done, we exchange the KryptoFold and the private key for Susan, and we leave.”

“Okay.” His shaky voice betrayed his lack of bravado. As he crossed the lot and swung wide to turn around, he saw the small door of the Quonset hut open. Susan and Davie were just inside the threshold, she standing and the boy in his chair. Behind them, the man Jesse recognized as Ed O’Hara held a gun aloft. What little confidence Jesse had left evaporated when he saw the fear on the faces of the mother and child and then the gun and the grim expression of the rogue agent.

“Stop here,” Ethel said. She reached into her bag on the floor for Finch’s drive and then grabbed an umbrella from the back seat. “Leave the KryptoFold and the private key in the bag for when I return.”

As soon as she shut the car door, O’Hara bellowed, “Show me your hands!”

Ethel refused to be intimidated. “They’re at the ends of my wrists, dumbass. One’s holding the umbrella and the other has Finch’s drive. You know, the one I accessed to get to his crypto wallets? The one you’ll get when you release Davie.”

“How do I know it’s the real deal?”

“What do you care? It’s only the backup to Finch’s computer, and you already have that. But it’s proof that we control the accounts. So, let the boy go, and you can inspect the drive.”

“Bring it to me.”

“No. I take the boy to the car, and then I bring you the drive.”

“And then?”

“Then I go back for what you really want. The private key and the KryptoFold.”

“And how’s that exchange going to work?”

Ethel started walking closer to him. “Like this. I walk to you as Susan walks away from you. You’ll have me and what you want. I figure you’ll either let me go or you won’t. Either way, the car leaves.”

She stopped and waited.

O’Hara thought for a moment. Then in a softer voice, he said to Susan, “Tell your son to wheel himself to her.”

Davie clutched his mother’s arm.

“Come together, Davie,” Ethel said, lifting the umbrella as if it were a tent of safety. “I brought some LEGOs for you.”

Susan bent down to her son. “You know Miss Crestwater. Mommy will be right behind you. Show her how fast you can roll through the puddles.”

“Puddles,” he repeated. “H2O. Miss Crest-H2O.”

“That’s right,” Ethel said. “I brought some Tinkertoys too. It’s all in the car.”