Agent Appleton’s phone rang a little after 2 a.m.

“This better be good.”

“I figured out the rest of the encryption from the data you provided, and it is all accessible,” Mr. Henry said.

“I thought you said that the encryption was unbreakable.”

“Takes time, but it is not impossible. Turns out the author wrote his own encryption routines, which is frankly the only reason I was able to crack it at all.”

“Did you find anything useful?”

“I haven’t looked at it. I wanted to give you the honors.”

Agent Appleton made it to Mr. Henry’s house shortly after sunrise. Mr. Henry opened the door as soon as Agent Appleton got out of his car.

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“I went through the data while you were en route and found Rocky has several connections to the IP addresses you supplied. I was able to access a backup of his phone and was able to harvest several contacts.”

Mr. Henry led Agent Appleton into his kitchen, where he gestured to a partial diagram on a whiteboard. In the center, a town graphic appeared with lines pointing to names such as Natasha, Nigel, and Tage.

“Who are these people?”

“They have the most contact with our buddy, Rocky.”

Agent Appleton made a sketch of Mr. Henry’s whiteboard.

“Milford seems to be the epicenter of all activity. Nigel is linked to several of the IP addresses that I gave you, while Rocky has physical links,” Agent Appleton said. “But what does it mean?”

The deputy director’s deadline was fast approaching and Agent Appleton had little to show for it. Agent Appleton’s new plan was simple: offer Rocky a deal in exchange for key information and testimony. Nigel didn’t seem to be important, but Agent Appleton would put that theory to the test if he didn’t get results.