Black Karma by Thatcher Robinson

have a problem. I’ll probably have her call log and address book within an hour or two. They’re rarely encrypted.”
    â€œI’m curious to find out who she’s been talking to. While you’re working on the phone, I’m going to do another Internet search on Daniel Chen. His profile doesn’t add up. The background I’ve found on him so far only dates back a few years. Before that, Chen didn’t exist.”
    â€œLooking for Chen is turning out to be a risky business. Are we really sure we want to find him?”
    â€œWen Liu is dead. So are the Norteños we found in Chen’s office. He may be the only one who can tell me why they died. Now I absolutely have to find him.”
    Lee turned to give her an appraising stare.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYour logic just reminded me you’re a girl.”
    She shrugged off his comment. “Do you think thirty is old?”
    He looked at her blankly. “Not since I turned thirty.”
    â€œFunny how that works, don’t you think?”

Chapter 12
    Bai went to Lee’s apartment to watch him clone Wen’s phone. He settled in at his desk and turned on his lab machine, a basic desktop computer without Internet or network capability. The barebones machine had a simple operating system and a myriad of ports for accessing and copying data. He took the secure digital memory card with built-in encryption out of Wen’s phone and put it into an SD port on the lab machine to copy the contents onto a hard disk for backup.
    â€œIf there’s a fail-safe program on the phone to protect the contents against unauthorized access, the backup will give us a second chance to decrypt the data,” he explained.
    â€œGreat! Whatever that means,” Bai replied, mystified by Lee’s jargon.
    â€œI’m just copying the data in case I screw up.”
    When the backup finished, he removed the original SD card and put it into a desk drawer. “While I’m doing this, why don’t you go upstairs and rest? I’ll call you when I have something.”
    â€œAre you sure you don’t mind? I can stay and help.”
    â€œThat’s what I’m afraid of.”
    He smiled but didn’t look up from his task.
    â€œI’m a distraction. I get it. All right, call me if you find anything of interest. I don’t care how late it is.”
    He nodded to let her know he’d heard, too immersed in his task to verbally respond. She let herself out of his apartment and took the elevator up to the third floor. Since it was past eleven, the girls would be in bed. When she stepped out of the lift, she found Elizabeth waiting for her. A worried expression on the older woman’s face informed Bai her long and crappy day wasn’t over.
    â€œThe pictures didn’t do you justice, but I could still tell it was you.”
    â€œWhat are we talking about?”
    â€œYou made the ten o’clock news.”
    Someone at the Grand Hotel had photographed the altercation in front of valet parking and sold the pictures to a local television station. The shots led the 10 o’clock news report. Bai had been hailed as an unassuming, and presently unknown, hero.
    â€œI’ve made tea,” Elizabeth said. “I was just about to have a cup in the living room, if you’d care to join me?”
    Bai recognized the subtle tone that turned what might have been considered an invitation into an edict. They adjourned to the living room, where polished natural bamboo floors and contemporary leather furniture lightened the atmosphere. Large ceramic cups glazed a dark blue rested on the brass and glass coffee table between them.
    â€œI was protecting my date,” Bai declared in her own defense. “Dates are few and far between. I couldn’t let someone just steal him.”
    Elizabeth didn’t appear to be amused. “You could have been hurt.”
    â€œBut I wasn’t. As a matter of fact,