Chapter Thirty-Six Hacker
Robert
Robert and Peter were sitting in the lounge area talking quietly as the halftime show started, and people began coming in for more drinks and food when Eddie approached them, clearly a little drunk and looking upset. “Hey. Where are my father and the other two?”
“Bast and Benji started feeling really sick. They both had the soup in the restaurant and thought it might be food poisoning. Your father went with them to the hotel; he should be back any minute, though.” Robert explained, wrinkling his nose as Eddie belched and opened the can of beer he was carrying.
“Oh, that sucks,” Eddie smirked and dropped down in the chair. “We were thinking about going to a strip club after the game; I was coming to invite you guys to join us.”
“Casey is okay with you going to a strip club?” Robert asked, raising his eyebrow. “She hardly seems the type.”
Eddie nodded as he finished drinking. “Yeah, surprisingly, she suggested it. Of course, there’s only one close by, and her friends work there, so that might be why she’s okay with it. She said since I missed out on it when I married Mira, I could do it this time,” He visibly shuddered. “Although I would completely understand if Bastian didn’t want to go, there’s something about going to see a stripper when you’re dating the daughter of one that just makes it feel wrong.” He looked around as someone called his name and answered their question as Robert and Peter glanced at each other. Robert could see Peter was just as surprised as he was. Greg made it sound like both Casey and Eddie wanted to get back at Mirabelle and Bastian, but it sounded like Eddie was in the dark.
“I'm surprised you're being so accommodating to Bastian; we thought he ruined your life.” Peter sipped his lemon-lime soda and regarded Eddie over the rim of his glass as he faced them again.
“Yeah, well.” Eddie flushed and ran his hand through his hair. “I don't have much choice, seeing how you've all taken to him despite knowing what he did to me.”
“I mean, you did technically cheat on his best friend.” Robert pointed out. “Who was very close with your entire family. Eleanor was devastated when Mirabelle pulled away from her.”
Eddie sighed and shuffled, clearly uncomfortable with discussing how his actions led to his current situation. “Look, I’m not denying I could have handled things much better than I did. I should have been honest and upfront with Mira when I realized I was starting to get feelings for Casey instead of letting get to the point of cheating. I knew what Mira did when Bastian's wife cheated on him. That bitch deserved it, don't get me wrong, trying to pass off another man's baby as his; that's just all kinds of fucked up. But yeah, I should have expected Bastian to come in swinging for her.”
“What this?” Peter's eyes widened in surprise. “Bastian’s ex tried to pass another man’s kid off as his?”
“Yeah, I actually met Mirabelle while she was representing Bastian during his divorce.” Eddie chuckled ruefully. “She was fucking ruthless; it was actually what attracted me to her in the beginning.” He recounted what Mirabelle had done to make the woman pay and her affair partner pay.
“Holy shit.” Peter sat back, looking both impressed and a little scared. “They really don't hold back.”
“Not when it comes to each other.” Robert smiled, glancing at Eddie, who looked a little irritated that they were admiring how far Mirabelle and Bastian would go for each other. “I honestly pity anyone who tries to mess with them; they solidly have each other's backs.”
“I get it.” Peter nodded slowly. “I'd destroy anyone who came after Caroline, and I'd like to think she'd do the same for me.” He glanced at Eddie and also noticed the look on his face. “But hey, you got to be with Casey, and now you’re having a kid! Are you nervous about the whole fatherhood thing yet?”
Eddie slumped in his seat, running his hand over his face. “More like dreading it. This was not what I wanted. I never wanted kids, and neither did Casey, but when she found out “Daddy” had knocked up his child bride and was having a boy, she and her sister came up with the idea of having babies too, so he'd focus on his grandchildren instead of the new kid.”
“Child bride?” Robert scoffed. “She's what, thirty-five?”
“Twenty-nine.” Eddie corrected him. “He's sixty-eight, and they've been together for six years. So he was sixty-two, dating a twenty-three-year-old who is five years younger than his youngest daughter. Tell me that isn't next-level gross.” He mimed throwing up.
“No, it is.” Robert had to agree. He wasn’t aware the girlfriend was so young when they started dating. “But she's not a child.” Robert looked up as Victor walked up to them and sat down. “How are they doing?”
“Had to have the cab pull over twice to avoid a nasty cleaning fee,” Victor said as he picked up the glass of scotch he’d left behind and took a sip. “I got them both some anti-nausea medication from the hotel convenience store before I came back.”
Eddie rolled his eyes, his irritation flaring back up at what Robert could only assume was jealousy that his father was looking after them. “Jesus, Dad, they're grown men.”
“Who are sick and refused to let me call their significant others to come back and look after them.” Victor eyed his son. “How often have I brought you sports drinks and aspirin after a night out?”
He didn't seem to have an answer for that and changed the subject. “So, have you heard from any of the girls?”
“Caroline texted me that they found the little person's door not too long ago.” Peter chuckled. “I don't know what that means, but I'm guessing they've found more bars than scavenger hunt items.”
Eddie exhaled nervously. “Well, that sounds great. I'll only hear about how my family and ex-wife got drunk at a dry bachelorette party during every argument Casey and I have for the rest of my life.”
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Bastian
Bastian and Benji stood outside Eddie and Casey's hotel room and made sure they were alone. “Ready?” Benji asked quietly, pulling out the keycard Victor had requested at the front desk.
“Ready,” Bastian nodded. Benji inserted the card and opened the door; quickly stepping inside, they closed it and looked around. “What a mess,” Bastian wrinkled his nose as the smell of stale French fry grease hit him. There were piles of clothes and fast-food wrappers everywhere. Casey was clearly craving McDonald's fries and hot fudge sundaes, judging by the number of empty cups and fry cartons scattered around.
“Are you surprised?” Benji chuckled softly. “You check around the bed.” After a few minutes of searching, Bastian found a pink laptop tucked under the bed and pulled it out.
“Got it.” He looked over at Benji who was opening drawers in the desk, and held it up. Benji turned around with a grin.
“And look what I found.” He held up a keychain with a USB hanging on it. “Looks like Casey didn’t want to carry anything extra. “Come on. We've only got a couple of hours.”
Bastian blinked in surprise and then let out a laugh. “Benji, I think I might love you; if you ever need a lawyer for anything, my services are free for the rest of my career.” Benji chuckled.
“I really hope I won't need them, but thanks, mate.”
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Back in Bastian and Mirabelle's room, Bastian sent a quick text to Mirabelle, letting her know they had the keys so she could enjoy her night. He set up his laptop on the coffee table and got to work. Greg had sent him the screenshots, and he started uploading those to his Drive so he could remove all the identifying characteristics. Benji knocked on his door ten minutes later; Bastian let him in and directed him to the desk where he had laid Casey’s laptop. While he was setting up, Benji explained his thought process to Bastian.
“Basically. I'm going to upload a virus that will have your file attached to her email account. Whenever she sends an email, the virus will delete any attachments and send it with yours instead.” Benji’s fingers flew over the keys on his laptop at what looked like an inhuman speed to Bastian as he built the virus.
“Is this the kind of thing you do for your job?” Bastian asked curiously, wondering what a Cyber Security Analyst actually did.
“Not exactly. I build programs and firewalls to stop this sort of thing, but to do that, I have to have a really good knowledge of these things.” He had a look of intense concentration on his face as he worked, and Bastian had to force himself to focus back on his own task. “I used to be a hacker, probably one of the best in Australia, and I knew I had caught the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which is kind like your FBI, so I figured I should go legit before I ended up behind bars.”
“I created a virus and unleashed it on the bank I now work for. It was designed to skim twenty-five cents from every deposit made that had more than twenty-five cents worth of change in it across Australia. So if a cheque was deposited for, say, two hundred and fifty dollars and sixty cents, it would take twenty-five cents and deposit two hundred and fifty dollars and thirty-five cents and send the twenty-five cents to my account in another bank. But if two hundred dollars even or two hundred dollars and twenty-four cents was deposited, it wouldn’t touch it.”
Within a month, I had skimmed close to five million.” He explained, as he paused and read the code he had already entered, then started making adjustments. “I brought it to the CEO's attention and told him I would return the money and not go public if he gave me a job. I started work the next day. He's a good friend of mine now.”
“That's quite an audition for a job.” Bastian shook his head in amazement. “You probably could have skimmed way more money than you did and disappeared. Who’s going to notice twenty-five cents missing from their deposits? Especially if the dollar amount isn’t changing?”
“That was my thought process. Depositing two hundred dollars and only getting one hundred ninety-nine seventy-five, you’d notice that, but ninety-nine percent of people wouldn’t double-check the cents.’ He grinned. “I actually got the idea from a book where a lawyer defends a hacker who does the same thing but gets caught because he was depositing the money in an account at the same bank. The lawyer ends up getting him a job at the bank instead of prison time. I'm just glad my boss decided he'd rather have my skills working for him than against him, too. But then again, five million would have set me up real pretty on a beach in Fiji.”
They worked silently for a bit, and then Benji gave a low whistle. “What's up?” Bastian asked.
“You gotta come see this.” Benji leaned back in his chair. Bastian came over and saw Benji had plugged in the USB. Looking over Benji’s shoulder, Bastian found himself looking at pictures of Mirabelle in various stages of undress. It was clear the photos had been professionally and tastefully done but had been photoshopped to give her some scarring or deformity. In one case, a rather grotesque third nipple and another, a vestigial tail.”
“Can you find the originals?” he asked curiously.
Benji pointed to the corner. “Veracruz Studios did them according to the watermark.” He turned back to his computer and searched, finding them on an archived page on the Veracruz Studios website. “Here they are. It looks like both she and Eleanor had the pictures taken two years ago.” Bastian thought about it for a second.
“I remember her being excited to model for a friend of Eleanor's, but I didn't know it was this type of modelling.” Bastian studied the pictures with a grin. “I think I'll pay for her to do another session and replace all the art in my place with them. Fuck. Look at my gorgeous girl!” He couldn’t hold back his pride about how good she looked and the fact that she was his.
Benji roared with laughter, and Bastian went back to his computer, still grinning. He made a mental note to ask Mirabelle about them later. “What did she save the slideshow as?”
“The Bitch's Nudes.” Benji wiped his eyes, still laughing a little. “I'm gonna upload a bot to search for the images on their networks and delete them. I'll put it on a timer to start after the wedding.”
“Seriously, Benji. If anyone in your family ever needs a lawyer, it's free. I'll even take the bar in Australia 'cause I don't know how to thank you for this.” Bastian didn’t know how else to properly show his appreciation for the former hacker’s talents.
“No worries. Loop Peter and me in on some of your and Roberts's golf plans, and I'll consider us even.” Benji smiled. “This is ready to go; how’s the file coming along?”
“Consider it done.” Bastian returned his smile. He really liked Benji. Outside of his computer skills, his personality and demeanour were a lot like Mirabelle’s, so he felt instantly relaxed around him. “I’m still going through the divorce stuff and figuring out what’s best to add. Greg sent the screenshots, and I have to go through them and remove the stuff that identifies that Helena sent them.”
“Send those to me.” Benji cracked his knuckles and wiggled his fingers over his keyboard. “Bet I can finish that before you get through all your evidence.”
Laughing and shaking his head, Bastian sent a link to the screenshots on his drive and made Benji an editor so he could do his thing. An hour later, Bastian sent his file to Benji, who actually did finish just before he did. Benji quickly added the doctored screenshots to it and integrated it into the virus. Bastian watched as he sent it from his email to Casey's and opened the email in hers, clicking on the folder so the package uploaded to her email account. When it was done, he sent himself a quick test email with a random file attached to confirm that it worked the way it was supposed to.
“Beautiful,” Benji murmured as he clicked on the attachment in the email, which opened to reveal the evidence. He then deleted everything from Casey’s inbox and the sent and trash folder, so there was no evidence of what he had done. When he was done, Bastian texted Mirabelle, letting her know the plan had worked, and then clapped his hand on his shoulder.
“Golf in Dallas in November and New Orleans in February. Come on, let's get this back to their room, and I'll buy you their most expensive beer or oldest scotch at the bar, your choice.”