“James! It’s nice to hear from you,” Sam said.
“Find Kasia Poplawski for me and I’ll pay off your son’s expensive Harvard loan, no questions asked,” I promised.
“You got it, boss,” he answered. “She must be pretty important for you to put out that kind of capital. I mean, I’m not complaining, but the wife has gotten used to the all-expenses-paid trips.”
“Can you find her?”
“Already on it. Her name is on the watchlist, so it should go faster than normal.”
“Good. Call me back as soon as you find something. Do me a favor and text me a picture of her. I need to make a few other calls and that would be helpful,” I explained.
“Got it.”
I hung up again and my phone pinged right away. I opened the text to see Kasia’s pretty face staring back at me. I smiled, just studying it for a second. With a sigh, I eventually closed the picture and dialed one of the top computer hackers in the world.
“Nina,” I began.
“James,” she yawned. It was late at night, and she probably had yet to go to bed. I heard a can click open and I knew she’d probably just popped open a Monster. Her favorite were the pink ones.
“I need a favor. Get me everything you can find on Kasia Poplawski.”
“I’m going to need another energy drink,” she complained.
“I’ll send you a six-pack and your favorite pepperoni pizza from Giovanni’s. When the job is done, I’ll make some calls and get you an early copy of that game you like before anyone else,” I promised.
“You mean the new God of War?”
“That’s the one,” I answered, grinning.
“You got it. You’ll have a zip folder in your email by morning,” she replied, sounding far more awake now. She was young, but there wasn’t a system she couldn’t hack, be it the FBI, the CIA, or the Oval Office. Every computer system in the world was available to her. It was just a question of how long it would take her to get in.
I’d found her several years ago on the dark web and I hadn’t turned to anyone else since.
“I look forward to it,” I said.
She hung up the phone and my own rang less than a second later. It was Sam.
“She just walked into the Majestic Hotel a few minutes ago. I’ve got the manager on the line. What do you want me to tell him?”
“Give her one of the rooms on the upper levels and bill it to my account. Have a keycard ready for me in the morning.”
“You don’t want them to detain her?”
“No. I want them to give her a safe place to stay for the night and I’ll deal with her tomorrow when I get there,” I explained.
“Got it.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
“No. Thank you, Mr. Monroe,” he replied.
I hung up the phone and pinged my driver. With a sigh, I walked out to the road and my car pulled up alongside me. I slipped into the backseat and leaned back against the soft Italian leather.
“Where to, boss?”
“Take me to the Majestic. I’m going to spend the rest of the night there,” I said.
With a curt nod, he drove off into the night. Less than ten minutes later, I was standing in front of the hotel. A man rushed to the door and held it open for me.