"Holy crap!" I said. It had been huge news. The Board of Education said that its No Child Left Behind tests had cost tens of millions of dollars to produce and that they'd have to spend it all over again now that they'd had the leak. They called it "edu-terrorism." The news had speculated endlessly about the political motivations of the leaker, wondering if it was a teacher's protest, or a student, or a thief, or a disgruntled government contractor.
"That was YOU?"
"It was me," she said.
"And you told Jolu this --"
"Because I wanted him to be sure that I would keep the secret. If he knew my secret, then he'd have something he could use to put me in jail if I opened my trap. Give a little, get a little. Quid pro quo, like in Silence of the Lambs."
"And he told you."
"No," she said. "He didn't."
"But --"
"Then I told him how into you I was. How I was planning to totally make an idiot of myself and throw myself at you. Then he told me."
I couldn't think of anything to say then. I looked down at my toes. She grabbed my hands and squeezed them.