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Freddy rolled his eyes but understood Wils’ point. “He was constantly hovering over my shoulder, asking all these questions about our code and firewalls. It felt... off. I mean, it annoyed the shit out of me, but more than that. Like something hinky was behind it.”
There was a moment of silence before Patrick spoke, his voice tight. “What kind of questions did he ask?”
Freddy ran a hand through his hair, remembering Renner’s intense gaze. “He wanted to know how our firewalls were structured, and he kept asking about how we sectioned off the bots to prevent them from interfering with each other. It was the same questions you two used to go round and round with Dad about.”
“Fuck,” Patrick huffed.
“What’s the risk?” Wils asked.
“Everything,” Patrick answered.
Wils grunted, “Not possible. What’s the risk?”
“Fine.” Patrick’s sigh crackled through the headset. “DS could reverse engineer our code, program their own bots, terminate our contract over the leaked reports, and we’d go bankrupt.”
“Timeline?” Wils asked.
“Six to twelve months,” Patrick responded, having obviously already thought through the ramifications of TI losing their biggest contract. “We might be able to extend it by picking up additional civilian contracts, but if our reputation takes another hit, we could lose more contracts and go under sooner.”
It was much, much worse than Freddy had imagined. Suddenly, he understood why Sabrina was so worried Patrick would throw her under the bus to save the company. If things were really this bad, and Patrick didn’t exaggerate, Sabrina’s job might be fucked no matter what.
Freddy rode his horse in circles on the game as he thought, piecing together all the little moments that had seemed odd but not quite alarming at the time. “Renner’s been to enough of our Monday meetings to have access to those leaked reports, too. Could he be behind everything?”
A heavy silence fell over the group as the implications sank in. Freddy’s eyes darted to Sabrina’s closed bedroom door, worry for her mixing with his growing unease about the situation.
“Wils?” Patrick prompted.
“I need more details about his exact attendance, technical knowledge, role at DS, and relationships with both his coworkers there and everyone he works with here, but based on my current information, yes. We should consider him.”
“Fucking dammit!”
Freddy heard the crack and clatter of a gaming controller hitting a wall and blasting to pieces.
“I expect a replacement by next weekend,” Wils said over his headset.
“Yeah, not my biggest concern right now, but you know I’m good for it,” Patrick answered him.
“I need to ask a favor,” Freddy started. “It’s big. And you aren’t going to like it, but I need you to do it for me. As my brother.”
“What?” Patrick’s snarl didn’t scare Freddy. He’d become immune back when they were kids.
“Exempt Sabrina from the joint meeting. Let her stay here.”
“No–”
“Actually,” Wils interrupted Patrick before he could fully form his refusal.
“Wils,” Patrick threatened in a deep growl.
“Body language reveals information humans may not consciously choose to share. I’ve got a few articles about it–”
“Wils.” This time Patrick’s reprimand was a sharp demand that he get to the point.
“If you discuss Sabrina as a lead suspect being investigated, Renner’s body language may provide insight that supports our consideration of his as the leak, or it could suggest that he is uninvolved. That would be easier to do without Sabrina present.” There was a moment of silence as they considered the possibilities. “Of course, I would recommend you read the articles to ensure any interpretation of his behavior is well-informed,” Wils added.
He would never understand how his brother ended up best friends with Wils, but once you got past the guy’s quirks, he was a decent man. It just took alotto see past those oddities.
“Fine, but I’m not reading a bunch of damned articles. Summarize them for me, Wils. Or better yet, send summaries to Holly. She can make understanding them moreworthwhile.”
