4. Weston #2
Diving back into the network, I quickly sorted through the files looking more so in the shipping part of the company to see if I could find a pattern.
They had a solid business, and there were many massive shipments that would allow them to sneak in extra product.
What I was really looking for were tell-tale signs that they had been manipulated after the fact.
I found a few that seemed questionable, and I pulled those files aside to look at more closely later.
Tommaso landed himself an incredibly lucrative company that had been handled well, all things considered.
This time, I left my phone on the desk so when it went off, I spotted it right away.
Glancing at it, I saw Ghost was here, so I stood and swiped one of the access keys I found in the desk and tested it on the mock sensor, and the computer said it was active.
Jogging down the hall, I didn’t want to leave Ghost alone in the lobby for too long.
I could only imagine what chaos he’d cause if he got bored.
Slapping the button for the lobby, I checked my phone to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Surprisingly, it was quiet, and it seemed everyone was keeping themselves busy, which was nice for a change.
Lately, I felt like I was the mother hen of the group, making sure everyone had what they needed and no one got in too much trouble.
Of course, I’d always been that person for Dax.
I just didn’t realize I signed up to do that for them when they joined the family.
The doors opened, and I stepped out, finding Ghost with a giant duffle at his feet, grinning widely. “You ready to crack this egg?”
“Get the fuck on the elevator,” I snapped. “You look like you’re going to blow the building up or something.”
Ghost frowned. “How did you know I had plastic explosives in here? I figured if we can’t get the code, then we can just blow the bitch.”
“Jesus fucking Christ…” I groaned. “Let’s go. I want to talk to Tommaso before we do this because if he has the code, then all of this was a waste.”
“You didn’t ask him first? That was stupid,” Ghost pointed out.
I just grabbed him by the shirt and the duffle, dragging them both into the elevator. “Look, I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask because if he was fucking us over, I wanted to know now. We can still kill him off and pick someone new.”
“Honestly, I’m leaning more toward not asking and letting me use the explosives,” Ghost shared, leaning back against the elevator wall.
“This is why I wasn’t sure I wanted to invite you to this party,” I muttered.
Ghost shoved off the wall and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Bro, we are family now that we’re with Harper and you’re finally with Dax. Those two are soul sisters which means—”
“No,” I cut him off. “We aren’t soul brothers. Don’t let that phrase ever come out of your mouth.”
Ghost seemed to deflate at this, then a second later, he was back. “You’re right, that wouldn’t be the right term. We’d be soul brothers-in-law.”
“I hate you,” I said as the elevator opened on the twentieth floor.
Slowly, Ghost exited, his jaw practically on the floor and eyes wide with amazement. “Holy shit, you weren’t kidding.”
There was a thump as he dropped the duffle, making me flinch, and walked down the hall running a hand along the wall.
Curious about what else he could have brought, I opened the bag and started to root around.
There were tools I recognized then there were a few things that didn’t make sense to me at all, but I ignored them.
I spotted the one thing I was hoping he’d bring, pulled it out, and searched around for the keyboard.
“It’s a plastic one that unrolls,” Ghost called. “If you’re looking for the keyboard… also, how the hell did you find that panel? There’s hardly a trace of a seam for you to tell where the sections change.”
“Dumb luck, if I’m being honest,” I answered as I unrolled the rubber keyboard.
Plugging in everything, I got to work loading the program I needed before I connected it to the key panel. This wasn’t outfitted with the systems I liked, but they would do the trick all the same.
“Who built this for you? I don’t know many who even know these things exist. I made mine because no one else would build it for what I needed,” I shared as I worked, then stood to plug the cable into the port on the side that was easy to miss.
“Funny you should ask that since you built that one too,” Ghost informed me with a grin.
“Of course, I commissioned it under an alias since I knew you’d never do it if I asked.
That gizmo has saved our asses more times than I can count.
Who knew an old tablet could be gutted and turned into a hacking powerhouse that fits in your hand. ”
I paused and looked at the tech in my hands and realized I was the one to build it.
There were small details I preferred that I instinctively put into all my work.
It wasn’t often I did commissioned pieces.
This, in fact, was the last one I’d ever made.
It was when Dax was getting too deep at Tricks needing me to watch her back more carefully.
“Huh, well, at least I know it will do the job,” I said, grinning back and shaking my head. “Ready to see if they installed a back-door detector?”
“How will we know?” Ghost asked, cocking his head. “Remember, I can’t get hurt, so if you think it will blow up or something, then I need to go hide.”
“If it were me, the smarter thing would be to use an EMP to wipe everything. It would draw too much attention to blow it up, so I think you’re safe. Also, letting it happen on the twentieth floor would be suicide. It could bring down the whole building and ruin all the businesses they had.”
Ghost nodded and cupped his hands over his crotch.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked.
He scowled. “Look, I know Dax doesn’t want kids, but Harper does someday, and I want to be able to have a little Ghost or Ghostette running around. Can’t do that if my swimmers are all fucked-up.”
“So you think blocking it with your hands will work?” I questioned with a raised brow.
Slowly, he relaxed his hold and brushed off his shirt like he hadn’t just acted like an idiot.
“You good, or do you need a minute?” When he flipped me off, I hit the enter key and let the program do its job and tell me where all the backdoors and weak spots were in the system.
The program was good, but that also meant it wasn’t incredibly fast. Yet about ten minutes into the program, it alerted me that it found something and was asking if I wanted to continue or not.
Reading the details, my brows shot up at what it showed me.
Whoever used this copied my code exactly, and I always leave myself a backdoor into my programs. Knowing exactly what was needed next, I got to work.
The old code flowed out of my fingers and, in the next moment, the whole space changed. Everything that had been solid turned translucent, showing all the offices and meeting areas that should have been there to begin with.
“That’s some super cool shit,” Ghost said with a laugh. “Like what the hell, man?”
I pulled the cable free from the panel, knowing all the doors were unlocked now. “Want to go see what dirty secrets Diego might be holding in his desk?”
“Fuck yeah.” Then he was off down the hall.
While he did that, I headed for the server room, and when I pressed the door, it slid to the side.
It was like I was in the future or something.
None of this was making sense. What the fuck did a smuggler need all this security for?
Was Diego getting into something that Marco might not have been aware of? Time to dive in and find out, I guess.