It didn’t take Lou Corlin long to decide that he’d made a mistake carrying Autumn Belfontaine’s computer down to Jack Lang’s work area. If Jack took one look at it and told Lou it was within his skills and fix it himself, Lou was not going to enjoy carrying it back.
However, he found Jack in a chatty mood for a change. He was a little unhappy about getting information fourth hand, and was seriously considering calling up to the newsroom to get Autumn’s first-hand description of events. On consideration, he decided that she was probably busy enough already, and it would be better if he only contact her if he couldn’t figure it out on his own.
Lou was about to go back to his own work when Steffi Roderick walked in. “Got a good one for you this time, Jack.”
She described the cryptic text she’d just gotten from an old friend over at Grissom City. “It’s not like Toni to send weird stuff like that. She’s a straightforward sort.”
She’s talking about Toni Hargreaves. Lou had to suppress an urge to smack his forehead. Why hadn’t he thought of her? Especially since she was considered one of the greatest white-hat hackers of all time, and was married to one of his clone-brothers.
Sure, she didn’t live steeped in the creche traditions of lineage-right the way everyone over here in Shepardsport did. But she was aware of it, and wouldn’t look askance at his approaching her.
On the other hand, any method he used to contact her would leave a record. Which meant he would need to be very careful how he phrased anything.