Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
While I wait for him to be done with his workday, I get in touch with the people who tipped me off to Marcus Waterstone in the first place.
Libraryleaks is a network of journalists like me who pool information across the world. We are not known to the public in general, but every now and then we do something very special. Or at least, they do. This is my first time having any chance to contribute. Whatever I get on Marcus Waterstone will go into their databases and be available for other journalists to reference.
I want to get a lot more than one weird pic and the fact that his favorite food is allegedly fish and chips. I want to find something that links him to some of the rumored activities he is supposed to be involved in.
Opening an encrypted app on my phone designated by nothing other than a large L, my screen turns black with green chunky text. It’s styled after the way computers used to look back in the 80’s, very simple, and very secure.
There’s nothing but a > indicating I should be putting in my username. I login with my handle: Carebear.
A second > appears below it.
I put my password in manually. The app doesn’t allow you to use saved passwords. I know I’ve put it in correctly when a third > appears.
I’m now connected to a network of completely anonymous people who have a goal of making the world a better place by sharing information. Wherever rich, powerful, corrupt people are, there are those like us undermining their efforts. We are their cleaners, their gardeners, their cooks. We are the ones who carry their bags, and sometimes we are the ones who send cheeky emails asking for interviews.
Initial meeting fine, second meeting booked.
The cursor blinks for a moment or two as my message hangs in void space.
Good work, Carebear. V.
I don’t know who V is, and I will likely never know. This is how we keep one another safe, by cloistering ourselves in an impenetrable blanket of privacy. No personal information is ever requested, or shared.
I fell into Libraryleaks after a bad breakup left me feeling like I didn’t have much purpose anymore. I thought I was going to get married, have kids, the usual fulfilling stuff. But Trent left me feeling far too fucked up and broken to even think about attempting anything like that again.
I log off and spend the rest of the day thinking about how I am going to make this drinks date with Marcus Waterstone count. The idea of seducing him comes to mind, though I don’t know that I have the nerve. I can’t imagine he’d want to fuck someone like me. He probably has a girlfriend in every city block—though I suppose availability of options never stopped Trent from being an unfaithful bastard.
CHAPTER 2
Charlie
I head back up to Marcus’ office just before seven. The office is just as busy as it was earlier in the afternoon. I would put money on the fact that the employees here work close to twenty-four/seven. They might take shifts, but this is a business that never sleeps. It’s too powerful. More powerful than any government you might care to name.
I’m starting to get nervous again. What am I doing? How on earth am I ever going to outplay someone like Marcus Waterstone?
I’m fretting about that question when a large hand comes down on my shoulder.
“Miss Crown,” he says.
I turn around to look up into his eyes. He really is very tall, and very imposing, and there’s something knowledgeable in his dark eyes, as if he possesses information of the kind I’ll never be able to handle. I should be careful when I’m playing with monsters.
It’s safe to say he looks nothing like my ex, but for a brief moment, I get a flash of anxiety. Am I safe? Will I ever be safe again?
“Come,” he says, speaking to me not unlike I am a dog. He turns around and walks toward the elevators. I follow on his heels.
We get into the elevator, just the two of us, and he presses a button. I thought we’d be going down, but instead he presses the button for the highest floor. Interesting. I wonder what’s up there. I wonder if anybody officially knows what’s up there.
“Oh, wow!”
The elevator opens onto a gorgeous rooftop bar. It is empty, without so much as a bartender. I wonder if he asked for it to be private.
This is about the most romantic setting I have ever been in. The city is laid out beneath us in a glimmering grid that speaks to order and chaos at the same time. There’s something about watching dusk turn to proper night and seeing the lights of the city get brighter and brighter that enchants me. I am in the very heart of power right now, at the nexus of so many roads and flows of capital and influence. It is all quite overwhelming.