Edición en Inglés
Detective Sergeant Richard Williams' oldest friend and reliable snitch, Connor McBride, is gunned down in front of him, and with his dying breath, begs Richard to "Look after Penny. She's all I've got. You're all she has left."
Penny, nearly fourteen and Connor's adopted daughter, comes complete with all manner of teen anxieties and a potty mouth. Until the night Connor was gunned down, Richard was unaware of Penny's existence. He and Connor had a "Don't ask, don't tell" agreement concerning their personal lives. Before the police and ambulance arrived on the scene of the shooting, Richard took a photo, two business cards from Connor's wallet, and a set of keys for his apartment building.
Richard and Connor, best friends since childhood, had drifted apart during high school. Richard went on to university and the police force, Connor became a stoner before embarking on a life of petty crime. However, they kept in touch during those years while Connor was in and out of prison, and Connor's tips helped Richard achieve promotions.
Richard makes his way to Connor's apartment building. He finds Penny, identifies himself and breaks the news about her father. Connor was also a self-taught wiretap specialist and computer hacker. Richard explains that the Mob—if it were the Mob responsible for Connor's death, would want his computer. Richard persuades Penny to accompany him as she could be at risk as well.
Penny, highly suspicious of Richard's motives but without options, agrees to accompany him. They remove Connor's laptop and other electronic equipment from his storage locker and leave before the police or the Mob get there.
The story unfolds in a city on the outskirts of Toronto and weaves its way between police procedural and personal relationships. The former goes well. The latter less so. From their first encounter, Penny's suspicions about Richard build until she is convinced he could be a rapist and murderer. She plans to run away but realizes ending up on the street would not be a good move. Penny refuses to go back into foster care, where she spent the first six years of her life, and they grow to accept that they are stuck with each other in Richard's condo.
Penny has learned all the tricks of the wiretapping and hacking trade from her father and announces that she is better than her dad with an IQ of 185. She maintains mediocre grades in school, so she doesn't stand out. It's bad enough that she's the smallest kid in Grade 8, but being seen as exceptionally bright would mean being picked on by bigger and less intelligent kids. Furthermore, as the school board does not know of her new living accommodation and Richard is unwilling to have the Children's Aid Society intervene, seize her and place her in foster care, he deems it wisest for her to continue as before, staying under the radar. Not for the first time in his police career, Richard finds himself in a jam.
The police make arrests in Connor's murder, but it's not enough for Richard and Penny. The murder was personal. With growing mutual trust, Richard and Penny plan to achieve a measure of payback by creating suspicion and confusion in the Mob's computers and phones through misinformation. However, before they can fully implement their plan, they intercept phone conversations between Mob members, concerned to the point of paranoia that there may be a snitch among them.
The Italian Mob arranges a meeting. Members of the Montreal and Buffalo families would be there as well. The meeting is a heaven-sent, a one-time opportunity for Richard's police intelligence unit to bug the meeting place for sound and video for information vital in the war against organized crime.
That's where they meet up with Murphy's Law, and the best-laid plans of mice and men start to unravel, personally and professionally.
Título : Hacker: a Novel
EAN : 9781990765278
Editorial : middleroadpublishers.ca
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