Chapter 1: The offer About three in the morning, a whooshing sound had awakened Luca. He heard shuffling somewhere in the house. Luca followed the sound downstairs. In the living room, he met the darkened figure of a woman, slightly shorter than him. “Beth? Is that you?” Beth was a former girlfriend whose quirky side led her to stalk men at odd hours. Luca still missed her. Luca’s call to Beth was met with silence. A burg...

CHAPTER 7: The Studio Luca’s studio was on the second floor. Luca walked in, and Naamah followed. Two tables occupied the corner. Two large monitors stood next to each other on the tables. A laptop computer rested in a well in one of them. “Four terabytes,” said Luca proudly, describing the computer. There were separate boxes for pencils, pens, and markers. A three-drawer file cabinet sat in a corner. A set of shelves hel...