Page 97 of Enzo
“I can’t…”
I cradled his face. “We’re just talking.” He stared at me, confused, and nodded. There it was… his trust in me overrode his fear, and I felt like the most powerful man on Earth.
“If you think it’s a good idea.”
“I hope it is, but if not, we leave, okay?” I said, he nodded and I reluctantly dropped my hand from his face. “Killian, this is Robbie, he’s…”
“The eidetic genius,” Killian completed for me, eyes scanning Robbie with a clinical precision that made me uneasy. “Tudor mentioned him. Said he was important to you.”
“He’s everything to me,” I said, and Robbie’s head snapped up, his eyes wide. “You know people, and I want you to use your legal or not legal resources to protect him from people who want to hurt him.”
Killian didn’t seem surprised. He moved to the small table we had set up in the kitchen, dragging over a chair and sitting down like he owned the place. “Start at the beginning. Leave nothing out.”
I glanced at Robbie, who gave a small nod, clutching his notebook tighter, and then he began to explain how he was like a human ledger, and at that point Killian opened his tablet and made some notes.
“A human ledger?” Killian asked, his expression inscrutable. “Define that for me.”
Robbie shifted and glanced at me for reassurance. I nodded, squeezing his shoulder.
“I remember everything,” Robbie said. “Not just words or pictures. Numbers. Transactions. Accounts.” He tapped his temple. “It’s all in here. Names, dates, amounts. Who paid what to whom and when.”
Killian’s eyes narrowed. “And who exactly knows about this talent of yours?”
“The wrong people,” I cut in. “Men with guns. The kind who make problems disappear.”
“Specifically?” Killian prompted, fingers hovering above his tablet.
“John Mitchell,” Robbie said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “He chained me, collared me, used me, offered me to two people he worked for.”
Killian went deadly quiet, his jaw tight, his eyes narrowed. Did he know that name? Or was he reacting to the statement about how he’d hurt me?
Robbie’s hands trembled as he opened his notebook and reached for a pen. He scribbled a list, two pages of intricate notes and numbers, and handed it to Killian. “Money laundering, bribes, payoffs, blackmail. I know who they paid, how much, and where the money came from. the last entry is a payment order for a hit. He hid it in crypto, and I was the only other one to know the codes.”
“He will have moved that money already,” Killian said, and sat back.
“He can’t,” Robbie said.
“What do you mean, he can’t?”
“How much do you know about cryptocurrency?”
Killian shrugged, “I read some things. Like you, I remember pictures of what I read, just not as insanely obsessive as you.” he tapped his temple. “Photographic, not eidetic.”
“The crypto wallet password is nothing without the Seed Phrase.” Robbie glanced at me. “It’s a sequence of random words as a master key to access or recover a cryptocurrency wallet, allowing users to regain access to their funds even if the wallet is lost, damaged, or the device it’s stored on is compromised.” He sounded as if he were quoting from something he read, but I got the gist.
Killian sat forward in the chair, alert. “And you have this Seed Phrase,” he stated rather than asking, leaning even closer, his professional demeanor slipping to reveal something hungrier.
“It’s up here,” Robbie tapped his head again. Random words that can’t be guessed or hacked. I changed them, and he only has a single physical copy of the old words. He’s lost all of that cash and proof. Over twenty million.”
Killian whistled low, his eyes calculating. “That’s motivation enough for a lot of bodies. What else do you have?”
“Names to transactions, years of them, names that I looked up since I got here. A judge, cops, businessmen,” Robbie’s voice grew steadier as he spoke. “Every judge I identified who took a bribe. Every politician I can put a face to a name now with offshore accounts. I saw the payments myself.”
Killian sat back, rubbing his jaw. “Jesus Christ.”
“That’s why they want Robbie, and there’s a dark web price on his head,” I said, placing a protective hand on Robbie’s shoulder.
Killian looked between us, then fixed his gaze on Robbie. “Why didn’t you go to the feds? Witness protection?”
