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Johnny slapped her so hard that he nearly knocked her off the chaise longue "You watch your mouth, bitch"

She put a hand to her face, and tears shiirl voice, she said, "I’m sorry, Johnny"

"Stupid bitch," he ets into ood to me, Johnny, and I hate myself when I act like that"

To Vince, it appeared to be a rehearsed scene, but he supposed that was just because they’d been through it so many times before, both privately and publicly From the shine in Sa slapped around; she smart-mouthed Johnny just so he’d hit her Johnny clearly liked slapping her, too

Vince was disgusted

Johnny The Wire called her a "bitch" again, then led Vince out of the living roo the door behind them He winked and said, "She’s a little uppity, that one, but she can just about suck your brains out through your cock"

Half-sickened by Johnny Santini’s sleaziness, Vince refused to be drawn into such a conversation Instead, he withdrew an envelope from his jacket pocket "I need information"

Johnny took the envelope, looked inside, thuh the wad of hundred-dollar bills, and said, "What you want, you got"

The study was the only rooh-tech Sturdy ht computers stood on them, different makes and models Every computer had its own phone line and low On so; data flickered across them or scrolled from top to bottom Drapes were drawn over the s, and the two flexible-neck work lalare on the reen, which gave Vince a peculiar feeling of being under the surface of the sea Three laser printers were producing hard copies with only vague whispering sounds that for soh ocean-floor vegetation

Johnny The Wire had killed half a dozen ed bookie and numbers operations, had planned and executed bank robberies and jewelry heists He had been involved in the Fustino Fa, labor-union corruption, record and videotape counterfeiting, interstate truck hijacking, political bribery, and child pornography He had done it all, seen it all, and although he had never exactly been bored by any cri or often he had been involved in it, he had grown so the past decade, as the Co new areas of criminal activity, Johnny had seized the opportunity tofrontiers of electronic thievery and ift for it, and he soon became the mob’s premier hacker

Given time and motivation, he could break any coh a corporation’s or a governency’s most sensitive inforing a million bucks worth of purchases to other people’s American Express accounts, Johnny The Wire could suck some suitable na card numbers from American Express’s data banks, and you were in business If you were a don under indictes, and if you were afraid of the testiiven by one of your cronies who had turned state’s evidence, Johnny could invade the Departuarded data banks, discover the new identity that had been given the stool pigeon through the Federal Witness Relocation Prograrandly called hih everyone else still called him The Wire

As the mob’s hacker, he was more valuable than ever to all the Families nationwide, so valuable that they didn’t even mind if he moved to a comparative backwater like San Cleood beach life while he worked for thee of the microchip, Johnny said, the world was one small town, and you could sit in San Clemente-or Oshkosh- and pick someone’s pocket in New York City

Johnny dropped into a high-backed black leather chair equipped with rubber wheels, in which he could roll swiftly from one computer to the next He said, "So! What can the Silicon Sorcerer do for you, Vince?"

"Can you tap into police computers?"

"It’s a snap"

"I need to know if, since last Tuesday, any police agency in the county has opened a file on any particularly strange murders"

"Who’re the victie e in ay?"

"I’m not exactly sure Maybesomebody with his throat torn out Soed by an anie, all right So like that would be in the newspapers"

"Maybe not," Vince said, thinking of the arently to keep the press in the dark about the Francis Project and to conceal the dangerous developht be in the news, but the police will probably be suppressing the gory details,them look like ordinary homicides So from what the papers print, I won’t be able to tell which victiht Can do"

"You’d also better prowl around at the County Ani any reports of unusual attacks by coyotes or cougars or other predators And not just attacks on people, but on livestock-cows, sheep There e of the county, where a lot of fa chewed up real bad by so wild If you run across that, I want to know"

Johnny grinned and said, "You tracking doolf?"

It was a joke; he did not expect or want an answer He had not asked why this information was needed, and he would never ask, because people in their line of work did not poke into each other’s business Johnny ht be curious, but Vince knew that The Wire would never indulge his curiosity

Vince was unnerved not by the question but by the grin The green light from the computer screens was reflected by Johnny’s eyes and by the saliva on his teeth and, to a lesser extent, by his wiry copper-colored hair As ugly as he was to begin with, the eerie luminescence made him look like a revived corpse in a Ro I need to know if any police agency in the county is running a quiet search for a golden retriever"

"A dog?"

"Yeah"

"Cops don’t usually look for lost dogs"

"I know," Vince said

"This dog got a na else?"

"That’s it When can you put it together?"