Anika:
I close my office door and sit back down at my desk. According to Leanne, Carter will be out for a while so it gives me a little bit of time to do what I need to do. I think he’s still pissed because I wouldn’t tell him where I got the bruising. Not like I can tell him that I got a little roughed up by my fighting coach that’s basically training me to be my own brand of assassin. No big deal. He can get over it and just take the shitty advanced self-defense class excuse I spun.
Bringing up a VPN window, I use the backdoor route and try and connect to a shared laptop in the research department. After trying two passwords, I get in with no problem. I save all the files to my computer and transfer to my portable hard drive. Next, I do the same for my department, but that’s much easier since I know all of the security passwords, and on down the line backing up file after file. I can sort through everything later when I’m at home and completely locked down. I wipe everything out so this part is untraceable, but I need to be extremely cautious going forward because Lintech’s got firewalls higher than the fucking U.S. government and everything is encrypted.
Since Carter is out this buys me just enough time to start the next phase. I just need to see exactly what I’m dealing with here. I shove everything I need into this expensive ass handbag I bought, just to look like I belong here and head straight to Carter’s office, first stopping at Leanne’s desk.
“Hi Ms. Finley. I hate to bother you…” she looks up from her computer.
“Hi, honey! You’re no bother, and please, you know to call me Leanne. What can I do for you?”
“I have that meeting with Carter later, and I forgot to pick up some files from him this morning. I was going out to lunch in a moment, and thought that I could review them while I eat. Would it be a problem, if I went in and grabbed them really quick?”
“You sound like him. Always working…” she chuckles. “Of course, go on in, he wouldn’t mind. Do you know what you’re looking for?”
“Yes, I know just where to look.” I smile.
“Ok then, just give me a shout if you need me!” she says. The phone rings, and she answers providing me the opportunity to slip in and shut the door quietly behind me. I take a second to just look around while I’m alone. It’s nice, and from what I know of Carter, this seems to suit him. Everything is white except for the giant desk that is black lacquered wood, the conference table, and the matching built in book cases. It follows the theme of the rest of the offices except it smells phenomenal in here and I can’t quite place what it is. It smells like Carter and something else decadent. All of the art is black and white, and I snoop a little bit and look at the pictures he has lining the shelves. They look to be mostly from trips he’s taken or of him receiving awards, but there are a few of his family. One stands out to me it’s of two families bundled in ski gear, standing on ski slopes with big smiles. In the center is Carter and Braxton with their snowboards making silly faces. According to Braxton, they are half-brothers, but this makes me curious about the story, and I remind myself to do more digging on that subject later.
Realizing I’ve already wasted more time than I should have being nosey, I quickly sit myself in his chair and wiggle his mouse as his screen comes to life. Pulling my laptop from my bag, I set it on his clean desk and open it up. I open up everything I need and use the cables I have to connect the two. I need to clone his hard drive, and fast. If I had more time, I could dig deeper, but that will come later – I just need enough to find some weaknesses and basic info. Just as I knew it would be, his desktop is locked. I key in a few quick guesses for passwords and all of them fail. Instead of numbers, I decide to target phrases since I know those are popular, but hard to crack. Six tries in, and I’m still not getting it. With no time to hack the encryption and no equipment to do so, I decide to do this old school.
I find the thumb screws and take apart Carter’s computer case and pull the portable dock from my purse, swapping the cable from his PC to the dock instead. I press in on the little tabs and release his hard drive and insert it into the slot in my doc. Bringing up the diagnostics page, and just as I knew it would be, his hard drive is encrypted too. I try again with guessing at his passwords, and laugh to myself. That cocky bastard is so confident in himself that he failed to protect the most important part of his computer with something more complicated than his middle name and birth date. He has no idea just who he’s dealing with here.
I type in some shortcuts and clone the hard drive into my files. It’s a sloppy job, but its good enough. It takes longer than it should because the file size is so large, but I manage to pop the hard drive back into Carter’s computer, reassemble the case, reboot and restore everything just in time.
There’s a knock at the door and I shove my laptop into my bag, and grab the file folders out of there that Carter gave me earlier in the day when Leanne walks in.
“Everything ok in here?” she asks, and I look up from the files as though I’ve been here the whole time completely enthralled with Lintech’s analytics.
“Yes, sorry – just got carried away.” I stand and stash the folders away in my bag. I check my watch, and say, “Well, I suppose I better get going if I’m going to get back in time. Can I get you anything while I’m out?”
She reaches out to pat my arm, “No sweetheart, I brought some lunch from home today. Thank you though.”
“Ok. I’ll see you in a bit then.”
“Be safe.” She sends me a smile and I genuinely smile back. I actually like Leanne, and I don’t tend to like many people.
I take everything out to my car in the parking garage, and put it all in my trunk before snagging a quick lunch down the street and heading back to the office. I decide to study up so I can actually contribute.
My door is open, and I hear someone stop outside. I don’t need to look up to know that it’s Carter. I feel his eyes boring into me.
“Mind if we get started early? Leanne had to rearrange some things this afternoon.”
I continue sorting through the spreadsheets. “No, come in.” I say, finally looking up.
“I guess we’re doing this here then.”
“I guess we are,” I agree like a smart ass. I know I shouldn’t, but it’s so fucking fun getting him riled up. He gets this super serious look, and his jaw ticks like he’s about ready to come unglued at any moment. Maybe I secretly want to feel his wrath, I don’t know. I never claimed to be sane.
He steps into my office and shuts the door behind him. As he sits, I catch a whiff of perfume and something else. I inspect him a little closer and see that his hair is slightly more unkempt than usual, his tie is gone, and his cheeks have a flush to them. A feeling that has been completely foreign to me for so long flares somewhere deep inside my gut… jealousy.
He continues to stare at me with the oddest expression on his face as he places himself in one of the black chairs in front of my desk.
“What?” he asks.
“What do you mean, what?” I mock him.
“Whoa.” He holds up both hands in surrender. “You’re just staring at me like you are about ready to stab me to death.”
I take a deep breath. If he only knew how close I am to doing just that. I guess my jealousy manifests itself as anger and I try to push it back in.
“Anika. Seriously… what?”
I don’t mash my words. “You smell like sex.”
His mouth drops open in shock. “I don’t really think that it’s any of your business.”
“Well, you’re right. It isn’t, but you insisted that I tell you what was on my mind.” I look back down to the papers I’m sorting. I don’t understand why it is affecting me so much. I pass it off as me being envious of the fact he’s having sex at all when it’s been too long for me. I’ve been preoccupied lately with other interests.
“You’re jealous,” he says, and I look up to find him smirking at me.
“Why would you think that?” I snap.
“Your face. I’ve never seen you with that look before. It was like you were actually affected – like you actually cared about something.” He kind of laughs as he shakes his head in disbelief.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Mr. Linwood, and don’t even begin to pretend like you know me at all.”
“Ouch. You wound me, Anika.”
“Not yet,” I mumble under my breath, typing my findings into the pivot table on the spreadsheet I’m making.
“But I must admit, that I do like it when you call me Mr. Linwood.”
“Do I need to call HR, or are you nearly finished?” I raise my eyebrows in question.
“For now, but not forever. Let’s talk business for a bit,” he says, pulling a sexy as fuck pair of glasses from his pocket and sliding them on as he grabs the spreadsheets I was working on. I watch him for a minute, hating how my body heats just from the sight of him completing a task as simple as reading a damn piece of paper.
The only response I have is a grunt of some sort, and the asshole has the audacity to look up and wink at me.
Carter Linwood is becoming a fucking distraction. A problematic distraction.
CHAPTER SIX
Carter:
“Sir?” There’s a knock at my door and I look up to find Jason, the lead on Lintech’s Quantum Compute project.
“Yeah, man. Come on in,” I say, taking off my reading glasses and tossing them on the stack of acquisition documents I have been reviewing all morning. I look at the time and I realize I really need to get going soon if I’m going to make it to the company picnic and charity event in time.
“Sorry, I know you’re busy. But I just had a couple things to run by you and no one else is here on a Saturday.” He walks timidly towards me.
“It’s alright, Jason. I feel like I’m always here. Question is why are you here?” I smile, hoping it puts him at ease and I gesture to the chairs in front of my desk.
“First, I wanted to say that everything is on schedule. The amendments that you made to the original plans worked like a charm and we were able to transfer the data at compressed rate. That sped up the lag we were experiencing. So, thank you for the help. Also, you were right. Going back to the very basics and dissecting the binary helped us in figuring out where the gaps were in the program.”
“Fantastic!” I say genuinely pleased. What I helped them do is what I love doing. I miss the days when I had the time to get elbows deep in code. My buddies and I would have contests to see how much we could do in an hour. The loser would have to buy pizza and beer. Hell, it’s all my plans that these teams are working with downstairs.
“Tell me, are we still on schedule for the full-scale rollout by the first of the year, or are we just talking trial release timeline?” I ask.
“Full scale, baby!” he gets the cheesiest fucking grin on his hipster bearded face, and I love it. I love seeing my employees happy, and engrossed in their work.
“That’s what I’m talking about! Awesome job! Lintech is lucky to have the best. Now talk to me. What’s got you in here on a Saturday instead of at home with your wife or at the picnic?”
He hesitates for a minute before handing me the tablet in his hands. I tap on the screen to bring it back to life. I enlarge the text but I’m not sure what I’m looking at for a second, until I do.
“How?” I ask, trying to figure out the mess before me.
“I have no idea, Mr. Linwood. Some of our major project files are like this. Completely scrambled. There have been no security breaches, no cracks in the firewall that security has detected…” he trails off, seemingly at just as much of a loss for words as I am.
“Did you back everything up separately to different files for offsite disaster and data recovery?”
“Of course, but I thought you needed to be aware because there’s more.”
“What do you mean there’s more?” I look at him, but his face gets a worried look.
“Swipe right.”
ph4n70m-k155
I stare at the repeated pattern as it fills the page and filters through on loop. What. The. Fuck?
“Phantom Kiss,” Jason says, stating the obvious.
“We’ve been fucking hacked?” I question, tossing the tablet down beside my glasses. “How the hell did that happen, and how didn’t we detect it?” I yank at my hair in frustration, and I stand to pace. It helps me think.
“Well first, this isn’t some amateur. This is the same guy that hacked into the State Department’s website just to put a disclaimer out there saying that the US Government fucks business owners up the ass with taxes and rules.”
“No shit?” I remember the news story a few years back, but I don’t recall that name.
“Yes sir… this guy is somewhat of a legend. It appears why we were unable to detect it was because he found a way to simultaneously crack and repair code, so virtually he was able to bust through without every really breaking anything at all. There was zero down time. The other thing is, he managed to not only repair the breaks, but rebuild our firewalls far stronger than they were initially.”
“So, you’re saying you’re locked out of your own data systems.”
He grimaces, “Yes sir, that’s exactly what I’m saying. So far, it only appears to be these files.”
“Well, shit. There’s nothing we can really do right now without the full team, and I’m not calling everyone back in here on the weekend when we don’t have any answers. Get a note out to all of our teams that can help, have everyone think on it over the weekend and I’ll rearrange my schedule Monday so we can figure something out. Maybe Anika will have some ideas or contacts that we can contract out.”
“Thank you, Mr. Linwood.”
“No, thank you Jason, for telling me. Let’s not stress. Nothing is really lost yet that we know of, and we’ll get it figured out.”