A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan Read Free Book Online

by 911. At first I thought it had something to do with 9/11, but it’s so deliberately a reverse that I looked into 11/9, which happens to be the day that JFK was elected. A long shot, right? But then JFK was bombed the next day.” I looked up, braced for John’s reaction.
    He was looking at me, working the half smile. There was no mockery on his face, just sort of admiration and enjoyment. It was a little the way my dad looks at me at moments of mathematical revelation but different somehow. “So you’re a genius.” It wasn’t a question. “Named Farrah.”
    “Something like that.” I felt a little empowered by the recognition. What did I care what he thought, anyway? “I have a gift for math and patterns and puzzles. I had a perfect score on the math SAT, the math subject test, and the AP Calculus exam, and I had the highest score in the country on the National Gifted Math Students Exam. I’m going to MIT in the fall.” There. I said it. And it hung in the air for too long for my liking, so I went on. “After you were of so little help on Thursday, I decided that I needed to investigate myself. I went to KPOP, the local station that broadcasts the show, to see what I could find out. I went all the way to Anaheim and found out very little except that the guy who presumably runs the station is incredibly creepy. I guess I asked too many questions when I was there because when I left he chased me all the way here. Which could not be a coincidence.”
    “In his car?”
    No, on a secret terrorist witch’s broom. “Yes, in a 2007 Chevy Impala, white.” And your shoulders look really good in that crisp white shirt. I checked his face for shock. Nothing. My internal monologue seemed to be cooperating again. “You can see him on the security tapes from the parking garage. You do have security cameras, right?”
    He smiled, both sides of his mouth up now. Was this guy too old to be cute? I mean cute in a nerdy-wasn’t-cute-at-the-beginning-of-the-movie-but-was-super-hot-by-the-endsort of way? Maybe it was just the fact that he was listening to me. All patience, he said, “Okay. Let’s go check out the security tapes and see if we can identify your broadcast bomber.”
    The mocking was back, but it felt like progress. John escorted me out of his office. I say “escorted” because it is rare that a man opens the door and guides you gently by the elbow to where he wants you to go—I’d gone into the FBI and stumbled upon Mr. Darcy. We walked down a long hall into the security room. It was no bigger than a walk-in closet with twelve televisions on the long wall and a guy who looked like he stared at screens for a living.
    “Ken, may we have the parking garage security tape for the hour ending 1300 hours?”
    “Sure, you want to watch that crazy hottie running wild past security? I love it, thinking I’d put it on YouTube if it wouldn’t get me fired.” Apparently he did not see me standing behind John.
    John laughed and stepped aside, with a dramatic wave of his arm. “Ken, I’d like you to meet Crazy Hottie, of security film fame.”
    I waved, eyes down. We took the tape and went back to his office to watch it. I guess the good news is that not much happens in the parking garage of the Federal Building. It didn’t take much fast-forwarding to come across my performance.
    John smiled and shook his head. “What were you trying to do?”
    “I was trying to get arrested, okay? Now rewind to before I got into the garage. You have to see the guy behind me. That’s him. Zoom in on his face—can you do that?”
    “Yes, I can do that,” he said patiently. “There he is. You’re right—he does look creepy.”
    “Right? Is he a known terrorist? Is he on the Most Wanted list?”
    “I have no clue who he is.”
    “Are you kidding me? Don’t you have a database of photographs of known operatives in the L.A. area? Can’t you scan his face and come up with a match?”
    “
CSI
fan?”
    “Never miss it.