“I’ve finally been able to break into Mr. Wu’s Vox account.” Lingyi met each of our eyes. We all knew the significance of this. It had been much easier for her to hack into the six legislators’ accounts than it had been to crack Wu’s. “I still don’t know Wu’s true identity,” Lingyi said in a tight, tired voice. “All the billing info is bogus, leading to cash payments at various 7-Elevens across Taipei. He doesn’t keep all of his message exchanges, but I found two more sent out to legislators—that makes eight total that we know of.”

She twisted the thick cuff at her wrist, neon green and painted with bright circles. Her fingers shook a little. I straightened, my senses buzzing. If Lingyi was fazed, then we were even more screwed than I had thought.

She continued. “But I was able to find a deleted voice message. Usually these are wiped—he either knows his shit or has someone who knows how to clean up his cybertracks. Wu slipped, this once.” She drew a breath. “Arun, it’s about . . .” She swallowed. “It’s about your mom.”

Arun’s brown face blanched like he’d seen a ghost. He nodded. Lingyi’s fingers glided over her keyboard, and two men’s voices filled her living room. Wu had the rough voice of a smoker, and the man he called “boss” sounded educated and suave. His voice was oddly familiar to me. A chill slithered down my spine, despite that warm baritone. The man asked how Wu was doing, if he had anything to report. Wu coughed, then said everything was going as planned. “I’m very convincing,” Wu rasped, “when I give them all the info you provide, boss. You should see their faces when I show them on-screen with photographic evidence that I know where their mom lives, but also their niece and nephew down to their second cousin on their mother’s side.” Wu laughed. “Shit, we even know where their dog’s groomed.”

“It doesn’t take much,” Wu’s boss replied.

“No,” Wu agreed. “Never more than that and the blaster I’ve got to convince them.”

“I have another task for you,” Wu’s boss said. “The info’s sent. Make it look like an accident.” The connection was crystal clear, and we heard a muffled knock on someone’s door. “Yes?” Wu’s boss said. “Mr. Huang is here for his appointment—,” a woman’s voice interjected, clear but faint.

“Give me a minute,” Wu’s boss replied, cutting her off.

My heart was pounding so hard that I heard it in my ears. She had almost said his name—almost given away his identity. There was a crackling, indistinguishable noise in the background, then silence. “As I was saying,” Wu’s boss continued, “get rid of her.”

“Info received. Her again,” Wu said. “When do you want me to do it?”