Dark Sky (Joe Pickett #21)(50)

“What?” Kirby asked.

“This is how I can be helpful to you all. It’s my contribution. I can’t track men in the snow and I don’t know the geography here. But I do know how to post as Steve-2. I do it all the time on his behalf.”

“You’re real close to him, aren’t you?” Earl asked Joannides.

“Of course I am. That’s how I was able to make all of this happen. That’s how I was able to bring him to you.”

“You’re one hell of a friend,” Earl said. “You’re a snake in the grass.”

Joannides started to defend himself, but thought better of it. Instead, he looked to Kirby to intervene. Joannides seemed to think he had the best rapport with Kirby, Earl thought. Probably because they were about the same age. Kirby knew all about ConFab, and he participated in social media, after all. Brad was oblivious to it, just like Earl had been until all of this.

But Kirby simply glared back at the man. Joannides, Earl thought, seemed to finally realize what a precarious situation he was in. Almost unconsciously, he slipped the phone he’d been holding into his coat pocket.

Earl said, “You were aware of us because we contacted your company. You wouldn’t have known about what happened to my angel any other way.”

Joannides said, “You’re forgetting I’m on your side. We all want to see Steve-2 pay.”

“You know,” Kirby said, “we’re kind of confused. You know why we want Steve-2. We want justice, after all. But why do you want him gone? That’s something we just don’t understand.”

Earl thought Kirby’s tone was just right. Reasonable and soft.

“There are a bunch of things,” Joannides said. “The guy is brilliant, but he’s also a sick fuck without any loyalty to anyone. He’ll screw over his friends and he’s ruthless to his enemies. He wasn’t always like that, but he’s completely changed. All his success has gone to his head.”

“What did he do to you, anyway?” Kirby asked.

“He personally fucked me out of billions of dollars,” Joannides said. “Billions. See, we developed this app together. Fifty-one/forty-nine. I was the forty-nine percent. But rather than introduce it to the market and take the time that was necessary to build the brand, Steve-2 shopped it around behind my back and found a buyer. It was practically a done deal by the time he even told me about it. I didn’t want to sell, but he was the majority owner and he could outvote me. Then he bought me out for what I thought was a good price. I later learned that it should have been a hundred times as much.”

Joannides looked to Kirby with indignation, and Kirby clucked with sympathy. He didn’t seem as wary of them as he’d been earlier, Earl thought.

“I helped build Aloft,” Joannides continued. “I was there when we had to pool our money to afford a case of ramen noodles to eat in our dorm room so we could spend every minute writing code and dreaming. But when I came back to the company, he pretended all that never happened. He made me his lackey. It’s humiliating. People in tech think I’m washed up—that I’m only there because Steve-2 feels sorry for me. Like I’m his charity case. But I’m no one’s charity case. I know my own truth, and I know he fucked me. I swore I’d get revenge when the right opportunity came around.

“When we find him,” Joannides said, “remember to make it look like a hunting accident. That’s our deal. If I get back and play my cards right, the board may vote to have me assume the role of CEO. I’m the logical successor, after all, since I cofounded the company. I was with Steve-2 at the beginning . . . and at the end. That’s how I’ll play it.”

Earl looked from Kirby to Brad and back to Joannides.

“So you’re saying our tragedy is your opportunity,” Earl said.

“You’re twisting my words.”

“Am I?”

“Guess who he sold our app to?” Joannides asked Earl.

Earl shrugged.

“The PRC.”

“Huh?”

“The People’s Republic of China,” Joannides said, his eyes bulging. “The Chinese Communist Party—the CCP. They use it to track their own people. They use it to keep an eye on dissidents or anyone else they think might be a threat to them.”

“I do hate the Chi-Coms,” Earl conceded.

“Not Steve-2,” Joannides said, sensing he’d found an angle Earl could get behind. “He claims he has no idea what they do with the software, that it isn’t his business. No, Steve-2 is a fucking heartless tycoon.”

“I can’t figure out if you’re mad at him because of the Chinese or because he screwed you out of money,” Earl said.

“Either one,” Joannides said. “Either. Both. But that’s why we’re here today. We’re working together to take him down,” he said with triumph.

“Are we, now?” Earl asked.

“Of course. Why do you ask?”

Earl rubbed his chin through his beard. “Because I’ve been thinking about something. You knew about my complaints. You knew about my daughter and the situation she was in. But you didn’t tell Price. Instead, you sat on it until it was too late. Then you reached out to us. Do I have that right?”

Joannides’s face went white. He seemed to finally realize what Earl was driving at.