like boiled cabbage and floor wax. Elara cli

the door to

rm

that hit her. The smell

om

came from th

and kicked off her b

but he had the focus of a sixty-year-old. He was hunch

aptop shut as so

y like Julian. The inflection, the tilt o

by. Work wa

ead out of the kitchen. "He ate his lasagna. He's been on that

s," Leo sa

door. When she turned back, Leo was watching

crying,"

ssed the top of his head. His hair was soft, dark like h

d. Then he o

mplex string of code running in a ter

ly. "I wanted to make sure you were safe." He pointed at th

footage of Julian shielding

he?" L

He's... just someo

like me,

ld. "Lots of people

up and mimicked Julian's posture-hands i

" Elara said,

ra sat on the edge of his bed. He w

zed. A text f

50,000 received fro

churned. She hadn't given her account

ed Leo's laptop. It was password pr

rk web forum for white-hat hackers. He had c

," she w

ut she couldn't touch this money. It was untraceable, dangerous. If she used