15. Sebastian
Chapter fifteen
Sebastian
C olorful country flags wave from the tall poles surrounding the Rockefeller Center ice rink. “All I Want for Christmas” and the sharp slish-slash of skates slicing through the ice fills the air. The majestic Rockefeller Christmas tree is always an impressive sight. I never called Melody to see the tree lighting this year. That used to be our thing. Among others. Not that she called me either. It’s good. I’m moving on.
Iris is already out on the ice, and she’s grinning at her little sibling. The more time we spend together, the more I’m attracted to her. When I pulled her out of the way of that guy about to poke her in the face with his umbrella, I didn’t want to let her go. Rupert and Lily. Zeke and Tessa. Four very good reasons why we are off-limits for each other.
Jamal already has his skates on. I lace up mine and wobble over to the area where our group is gathering. I gingerly step onto the ice as Jamal rushes on with all his friends. He’s definitely a better skater than me. To be honest, though, his technique seems to be to run on the ice. Definitely more fearless.
I wasn’t lying when I said I’m not a good ice skater. I want to join the one kid clinging to the side. Jazmine skates over to reassure her.
I sort of glide around in a circle, keeping my eye on Jamal. He’s having a great time with his friends. We’ve clearly done whatever bonding we’re going to do for now.
Ahead of me, a woman jerks backwards and spin-wheels her arms. I give her wide berth. I barely have my own balance and definitely don’t want to be taken down.
Ice skating may have been a mistake. I look pathetic—more walking than gliding—but I’m trying.
Iris skates up to me and slides her arm through mine. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure humiliating myself is giving my little sibling the best impression of me.”
“Of course it is,” Iris says, her warm body pressing against mine. Maybe ice skating isn’t so bad after all. “It shows that you’re willing to do a lot to hang out with him and that you also have enough confidence to try something new, even if it means failing at first.”
“Does it show all that?”
“Subconsciously.” She grins.
I slip on the ice slightly, and Iris grabs me.
“I don’t want to take you down with me,” I say. “I don’t think you should hold me.”
“I’m stronger than I look,” she says.
“I think that’s true, but I’m not sure you believe it,” I say.
She blinks.
It’s pretty clear that Iris is still recovering from being cheated on. When that song came on yesterday, she noticeably froze. Is she afraid to date again—except with someone like Ernest? She was being very friendly towards him during the cookie-making session. But at least she told him she doesn’t date coworkers.
Like me.
But this is good because we can get to know each other as friends and colleagues, without stepping immediately into a relationship that may fail. The way my father got to know my mother.
“I guess I can lean on you,” I say, pulling her closer.
She manages to hold my weight.
“I think you’re single because you’re a flirt,” she says.
“I don’t flirt with just anyone,” I say. “But you’re a lot of fun to flirt with. And I know you’re not looking for a relationship right now, so you’re safe.”
“Exactly.” She nods.
Confirmed.
Not that that approach worked with Melody. Our best friendship didn’t turn out to be a firm foundation.
The first lines of “Last Christmas” by Wham play, filling the resulting silence between us. The air is crisp, and everything looks so bright under the lights. My breath forms a cloud in the air. Someone dressed in an ice hockey jersey does a quick stop in front of us, slashing through the ice.
A few snowdrops fall. Iris sticks out her tongue to catch them.
“First snow,” she says. “Perfect.”
She’s glowing. Maybe not that safe . I need to keep this all business.
“I looked through our files, and I found a partially executed white hacking agreement,” I say. “Kevin signed it. But it doesn’t have the assignment attached.”
“I found what the hacker went after.” She looks around. “It was the board presentations. The board presentation of the New Mexico CEO and Xavier’s board presentation.”
I stop short. Iris keeps going. She almost pulls me over, but we grab each other in time. Now we’re standing in the middle of the ice, holding on to and staring at each other. Other skaters flow around us.
“Sorry,” she says.
“You can’t tell me stuff like that when I’m ice skating.” I wobble.
“I can’t tell you via email, either,” she says. “And I don’t want to tell you where anyone can overhear me.”
“Ooh. What are you telling each other?” Jazmine skates up. “You guys look so cute together. Is there an office romance brewing?”
“No.” Iris shakes her head. “I’m asking him legal advice on the asset segregation strategy.”
Jazmine’s whole face falls. “What am I going to do with you? There’s holiday music playing, it’s snowing, everything is twinkling, you’re skating under the Rockefeller tree, and you’re asking him legal advice? She’s obsessed with her job.” Jazmine puts her hands on her hips. “I’ll rescue you, Sebastian.”
“What about Aaron?” Iris asks.
“I need to make Aaron jealous.” Jazmine grabs my hand and pulls me. I shrug sheepishly at Iris and skate slowly off with Jazmine. For my own reasons. I want to find out more about Iris. Jazmine is a very good ice skater. That doesn’t surprise me.
“Aaron is definitely looking over,” I say. “But you shouldn’t tease him like that.”
“He is?” Jazmine grins. “That was just an excuse to talk to you about Iris. Iris is a very good friend. I want to ask you about your intentions.”
“My intentions?” I falter on the ice, the front of my skate catching on an ice chunk. “We really were discussing work.”
“Iris was really asking for legal advice just now?”
“I started discussing business first,” I say.
“I’m disappointed in you, Sebastian,” she says.
“But you just questioned my intentions,” I say.
“Well, I’d hoped you had intentions,” she says grumpily.
“Shouldn’t I keep it to business? Isn’t she interested in Ernest?” I ask.
Jazmine’s head whips around to face me. “You know that?”
Well, that confirms my suspicion. I can’t say I’m happy about it.
“I suspected it,” I say.
“She’s only asking you questions about Ernest because she’s the secret snowflake for him,” Jazmine says.
“I don’t think that’s the sole reason,” I say.
“Maybe she thinks he’s good boyfriend material, but Aaron doesn’t like him, so I don’t think so.”
“Aaron doesn’t like him?” I ask.
“Aaron says that Ernest is too subservient to management,” she says.
Okay, so maybe Bob was right and I should socialize more if I can get this kind of on-the-ground intelligence.
“In what way?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” she says. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Don’t tell Aaron I said anything.”
“I won’t. But I may indirectly follow up with him in case there’s something I should know. You should skate with him, though, not with me, because he looks lonely over there. And I should hang out with my little sibling.”
I catch up to Jamal, who introduces his group of friends.
“Do you want to take a break and get some hot chocolate?” I ask. “We can talk.”
“You may not be good on the ice, but you got two of the prettiest women at the company to skate with you,” he says. “Not bad, bro.”
“I can’t say it was intentional. I’m not that clever. But…”
“I think you’re definitely milking it,” he says.
“Just a little.” I grin. “And not to set a bad example. I thought I wasn’t that obvious.”
We sit down with hot chocolate. Iris, Aaron, and Jazmine join us with their siblings.
“Jazmine and I are going to go shopping for her secret snowflake this weekend,” Nora says.
“After we look at your homework.” Jazmine explains what the Secret Snowflake program is. We all admit that we’ve signed up.
“Do you know who your Secret Snowflake is?” Faith asks Iris.
She shakes her head. “I’ve received so many gifts that I think I must have more than one.”
“We do secret snowflakes too, but we just exchange a gift on a certain day, so it’s not really a secret,” Jamal says.
“And it usually ends up being candy,” says Faith.
“Which I give to my mom,” Jamal says.
“What your mom would really like is for you to get top honors in math,” Faith says.
“So would yours,” says Jamal.
“True. And your mom would like you to get a summer job or internship,” Faith says.
“What do you like to do?” Iris asks Jamal.
“Play computer games,” says Faith, answering for him.
“You like to play them too,” Jamal says.
Are they dating?
“You guys are close?” I ask.
“We’re neighbors,” Faith says.
“We’ll get you there in math,” I say. “We can keep meeting after school via Zoom to go over your homework.”
“Me too,” Iris says.
“Our internet is not always that reliable.”
“We can also have a phone call,” Iris says. “What’s your textbook called? Maybe we can find a used version on the internet.”
“And we should research possible summer jobs or internships now. The applications probably open up in January,” I say. “Should I get another round of hot chocolates?”
“I’ll come with you,” Jamal says.
Jamal punches me playfully as we leave to buy more hot chocolates. The price is outrageous.
“Way to play wingman,” he says. “I just might get honors this year if I’m spending all my evenings with Faith.”
“Have you asked her out?” I pick up the tray with hot chocolates and turn to carry it back to the table.
“No.” He shakes his head. “She’s made clear she’s all about studying right now. No time for guys. I’m just lucky to have grown up with her and be her neighbor. But maybe if I get top grades, I can prove to her that I’m good enough.”
B oth Iris and I elect to return to the office. Jazmine raises an eyebrow.
“How are you getting home?” Aaron asks Jazmine. “Maybe we can take the subway together. I’m uptown.”
“I’m uptown too,” Jazmine says.
“I’m downtown. Maybe I should go back to the office too.” Ernest shakes his head. “But I promised Mother I’d be home early tonight.”
“Is your mother not feeling well?” Jazmine asks.
“No. Mother is fine. She just made her beef stew for me, and I promised I’d be home in time to eat it.”
Ernest may give the nice guy vibe, but he seems to be a package deal with his mother.
We all say our good-byes, and Iris and I walk off. Or try to. We immediately get stuck in a crowd that’s not going anywhere. We stand there, waiting, taking a step here and there, as the person in front of us inches forward.
I hook my arm through Iris’s. “I don’t want to lose you in this crowd.”
She laughs. “Like you could.”
But Iris doesn’t pull her arm away. And I’m happy to be back in my shoes on flat ground. I feel so mobile and free—except for being utterly hemmed in by the crowd.
We shuffle along, following the person in front of us, surrounded on all sides by people. We finally pass by the side doors of Radio City Music Hall. The smell of buttered popcorn is strong. Next to us is an Italian family chattering away. They’re probably figuring out directions, but it sounds like they’re reciting poetry.
“There,” Iris says. “It’s moving over there. Let’s follow them.” We scoot behind a line of pedestrians advancing down the pavement. Iris shivers and sticks her hands into her pockets.
“Can you show me what you found?” I ask.
“Yes,” Iris says. “Also, I received another Secret Snowflake gift today—a very dog-eared copy of Zero Trust Networks , which I swear I’ve seen on Raphael’s shelves. Raphael must be my Secret Snowflake. I asked his assistant if she was sending me his gifts, but she said no.”
“Did you think she was going to tell you if she was?”
Iris pouts. “So many secrets.”
“Christmas is kind of a time for secrets—the whole Santa Claus thing, and parents trying to keeps gifts hidden from their children—but there’s a joyful revelation at the end,” I say.
Iris glances at me. “I hope it’s joyful in this case. I feel so guilty about getting this promotion because of Raphael leaving.” Her face is clouded by concern and doubt.
“Raphael is a grown-up. He made a decision to leave, and he received a very sizable severance package.”
“Did he?”
“I shouldn’t have told you that.” I shake my head. I’m usually very good at keeping company matters confidential. Iris just seems to be able to undermine my defenses.
“So did you discover where your parents hid your presents?” she asks.
“Yes, in a bathroom closet, high up. And my mom sometimes hid them under the bed. I bet you found where your parents hid yours.”
“They hid them in the basement. They really didn’t do a very good job. I hide all my presents in an extra laundry bag because my siblings will definitely look if they come over. Believe me, nobody goes looking in the dirty laundry.”
“Clever,” I say.
“Except that the true meaning of Christmas—and any holiday, really—is not a secret,” Iris says slowly. “It’s about giving and creating community. It’s about shining light when the season is at its darkest.”
She looks up at me, and her eyes brim with tears. I want to kiss them away.
I pull her closer to me. My usual flippant response isn’t the right answer here. “We’ll figure out what’s going on.”
B ack at Dream, we meet in my office since Iris’s desk has no privacy. Iris places her laptop on my desk and scoots her chair around so we’re sitting next to each other. She’s wearing this soft, fluffy pink sweater that looks like an invitation to touch. I turn away and sign into my computer.
“How did you find out what was stolen?” I ask.
“Raphael put them in his investigation files. We keep a backup of all our files offsite in case of a ransomware attack. Raphael’s backup files were not deleted, and I found the two presentations in his investigation files in a folder called Zero Trust. Raphael said I had to follow the clues. I think his sending me that book was the first clue.”
“Wow, that’s clever. Doesn’t Kevin know about the backup?”
“He definitely knows we have a backup, but he must’ve assigned the deletion to Hank. According to the version history, Hank deleted Raphael’s files. Like I said, Hank was hired as a favor, and he’s not the most competent guy.”
“And isn’t Kevin a good friend of Colby’s from college?”
“I didn’t know that,” she says.
“Bob mentioned it,” I say.
“Who would want to steal the board presentations?” Iris asks. “Rivals? The competing CEOs? Is that legal?”
“Not without some official company authorization. The work product is the property of the company, but the CEO is not the company. Also, don’t you agree that Kevin must be involved because there’s that partially executed agreement authorizing white hat hacking? Can I see the presentations?”
“Here are the documents. I copied them into another file on premise.” She hands me the documents.
I read aloud the file name where she re-saved the board presentations on our system. “Backup for Training on Interacting with Colleagues—Think Courtesy.”
“Nobody is going to want to look at that,” she says.
“That’s for sure.”
“Here’s the New York presentation,” Iris says.
I flip through it. “That’s not our presentation.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve never seen that before. And I’ve been working on our presentation.” I pull up our presentation on my monitor. “Look. There’s nothing similar except the title page.”
“So, it’s a fake presentation?” Iris asks. “They must have told the hacker to steal both presentations so it looked more legitimate to the white hat hacker. Then it would look like a corporate-approved exercise to assess both CEO’s vulnerability. But they planted a false New York presentation for the hacker to steal so that the real one wouldn’t get out. And that means it’s New York who wanted the presentations.”
We stare at each other. This is so much worse than what I expected.
I click on the folder labeled “No Micromanagement” in Iris’s files.
“N and M for New Mexico?”
She nods.
I read through it.
“These are basically the slides New Mexico gave at the board meeting. And I think someone here definitely saw this Albuquerque presentation before we gave ours because I can see why we had to buttress certain points they told me to improve before the meeting.”
“So, it seems that the Albuquerque presentation was the target of the attack, and a senior executive here had to be involved because that person saw this New Mexico presentation and then had the New York slide deck changed to make it better than New Mexico’s,” Iris says. “Kevin signed that agreement, but he must have acted at Colby or Xavier’s direction.”
We look at each other for a second before speaking.
“This is not good,” says Iris.
“This is bad,” I say at the same time.
“Did you tell Kevin yet?” I ask.
“No. I don’t trust him anymore. But he insisted that I tell him anything I find. But if he’s the one who authorized this…”
“We could tell the board,” I say.
“The board. I don’t feel I have enough to tell the board.”
“Two CEO presentations were exfiltrated, and we have a partially executed white hat hacking agreement.”
“Which Kevin could just say was never actually implemented. And if I go above Kevin’s head, I’m definitely going to lose my job. Maybe not immediately because I’ll be protected as a whistleblower under the no retaliation policy. But eventually, Kevin will figure out a reason to fire me. If I could figure out the identity of the hacker, we could ask that person what they hacked and who authorized it. And then we’d have enough to inform the board.”
“Could Raphael be the hacker?”
“What’s Raphael’s motive?”
“Remember Bob said he did something unauthorized.”
She shakes her head. “Raphael knew about the traps, so he wouldn’t have tripped them. And given our investigation to date, we could have gotten that PowerPoint via either the CEO or the assistant with no trace. They sent the presentation to their personal emails so they could work on them at home.” Iris bites her nail. “I could tell Kevin. If I’m thrown out tomorrow, we’ll know why Raphael was thrown out.”
“But L’Etoile wants another presentation—in two days,” I say.
“On what? Didn’t you cover everything in the last presentation?”
“This is to showcase our new movie ideas, so Bob said our role is limited and it’s mostly up to creative. A few updated budget numbers will need to be included, but that’s about it.”
“If Colby, Xavier, and Kevin hired the hacker the first time, won’t they be tempted to steal New Mexico’s draft presentation again?”
“I think so. We have to tell the board,” Sebastian says.
“Kevin is meeting with Colby tomorrow at nine a.m. in the conference room. I had to give him updated budget numbers today for that meeting before I left. We should listen in,” Iris says. “If that meeting is completely innocuous, I’ll tell Kevin. If it’s not, I’ll tell the board.”
“We can’t listen in,” Sebastian says. “If they’re discussing some sort of hacking, wouldn’t they meet in their offices?”
“You’d think. But he definitely told his assistant to reserve the conference room. It’s the one with the walk-in supply closet. We can hide in there. Are you in?”
“I’m in. But I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”