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Some are clearly phishing attempts, which I delete, but there are even more that appear viable.

My eyes flick to the icon in the corner of my screen, indicating no one else is accessing this account with me.

Good.

Earlier, I tried to track down the owner of this website’s computer, but it kept bouncing back to my own location.

They must have software built in that I didn’t uncover. And the phone number is connected to a burner.

The number is saved in my own burner phone… Just in case.

I spend the next hour writing up the code needed to automatically filter the emails out correctly.

A paw on my ankle draws my attention, my eyes flick to Beanie before following her gaze.

“You still have water in there. It’s just low,” I tell her, but the paw doesn’t let up.

Heaving a sigh, I push off from my kitchen table, wobbling on unstable feet. A thousand pins prick, and I realize I had been sitting there a long time.

Guilt churns through me.

If not for me, I should at least get some rest for Beanie’s sake.

Getting her bowl off the ground that still has plenty of water, I rinse it out before refilling it with the filtered jug just for her.

She stretches, not bothering to get up for it, even as I set it down.

My attention bounces around the space. This shit box apartment was all I could technically afford.

A studio where from my meager kitchen, I could also see my bed and the door to the only bathroom.

Sure, I had enough money to settle into something nicer, but I promised I would live straight and narrow from here on out.

That I wouldn’t touch the money I had acquired from unsavory means.

Sixteen years ago, my family decided to choose greed above the lives of others, and while I didn’t know it at the time, I was an instrumental part in it.

The fourteen-year-old hacker who found the formula to make the poison that would go on to kill...

A single mom.

A newly married wife.

A father.

Who wouldn’t find out until years later and would continue being their family’s tool.

Until one day, I decided to step outside of numbers and coding and realized that the world I had created was a lie.

I wasn’t smart. I was the biggest idiot.

And now countless more are dropping dead around the city.

My clammy hand goes to my chest, clawing into the material as my breath comes out erratically for a few beats.

Beanie’s whine and her wet nose on my other hand pulls me from the panic attack.

I look down at her before crouching and offering her my full attention. “Such a good girl, you always know when I need you most.”