30. Iris
Chapter thirty
Iris
M y lawyer—one of Tessa’s friends—and I meet Priya at a corner café in midtown across from Carnegie Hall. The windows have been spraypainted with snowflakes and green pine boughs. Inside it’s relatively empty at this hour. In the corner sits an older woman reading a newspaper; a family speaking French sits at another table. My lawyer reviews Priya’s agreement (signed by Kevin) with Dream Company to make sure they can’t proceed against her.
“The job was pretty straightforward, except for your traps. They were very sophisticated. I was bummed I got caught by them,” Priya says. “That’s when I thought—this team obviously has some serious cyber credentials. I did a search and saw that Raphael worked there. But I still wasn’t suspicious—until Kevin had no interest in how I got in. Absolutely none. He totally zoned out. He clearly just wanted the PowerPoint.”
She sips her coffee.
“I’m pretty good at reading people, because hacking involves so much social engineering. I called Raphael, and he was completely unaware that I’d been hired to do this, which makes sense if I’m pen testing, but once I told him they asked me to get the CEO’s PowerPoint, he was like, I don’t know, That doesn’t seem legit . Then I sent him copies of the two PowerPoints I’d exfiltrated.”
She hands those over. They’re the two documents I found in the file titled Zero Trust.
“He said you’d set up the traps and he was going to talk to you, that I shouldn’t do anything further, and that you guys would reach back out to me. That’s the last I heard before you emailed me. But he also emailed me last night, asking me to talk to you because he was no longer working at Dream and had signed an NDA.”
Thank you, Raphael. Raphael did intend to tell me. And he did get my message.
Priya then shows us a copy of the company check she received. She also agrees to join us at our meeting with Dream Company.
I am in the clear.
T he view of midtown from this law firm’s conference room is very different from the view we see from our offices in Chelsea. Ha. Our offices . Not so much anymore.
“They’re here,” my lawyer says. Priya, my lawyer, and I take our seats at the conference table in a row facing the door.
Bob and Xavier enter. We stand and shake hands across the table, but the atmosphere is still frosty—at least from our side. Xavier smiles and tries to make some small talk, but my lawyer shuts him down pretty quickly by saying we’re delighted they could join us on such short notice to discuss the false allegations against her client.
“Yes, we agree that they were false,” Xavier says hurriedly.
“Raphael will be here momentarily. He’s been released from his NDA,” Bob adds.
“Great. Then this should be relatively smooth,” my lawyer says.
Priya shows her agreement and the check to Bob and Xavier and explains that she was the one who did the hacking. Bob confirms that Colby authorized the check payment and then replaced the funds. “Sebastian and Aaron found these documents.”
My heart warms to hear Sebastian’s name.
“I am deeply sorry,” Xavier says. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you—and I’m sorry for how we treated you. Colby has resigned. I fired Kevin when Bob showed me the check and the hacking agreement.”
Kevin is out . A wave of relief flows through me—I’m thrilled that I don’t have to ever see Kevin again.
“I just couldn’t believe my brother would go that far and lie to me. It’s clear to me now that he wanted his mole—Kevin—to stay in the company. Maybe he couldn’t give it up or maybe for the misguided reason that he thinks he needs to protect me from myself. That I don’t have the head for finance or for political machinations. And maybe I don’t.”
His body sags against the chair, but then he straightens.
“Because I really couldn’t believe that he would lie to my face like that. But that’s neither here nor there. I’d like to offer you the position of CISO. I’ll hire a separate CIO, and you’ll both report directly to me.”
CISO! I’d be Chief Information Security Officer of Dream Company! At my age.
“I also expect you to pay my legal fees,” my lawyer says.
“That’s a given,” Xavier says.
“I’d be happy to accept,” I say.
“We’d be happy to negotiate the terms,” my lawyer says.
“Yes,” I say, “pending the negotiation of terms.”
“Great—welcome on board, CISO,” Xavier says.
Raphael arrives and explains how Priya called him, and he agreed with her that it seemed suspicious. But when he confronted Kevin, Kevin said Colby had authorized it. Still, Kevin offered him a severance package as long as he signed an NDA, noting they needed to cut costs to make their proposal competitive for France. It was a year’s salary, so he took it.
He hadn’t thought I would be framed for the hacking job. But he also wanted to make sure I had all the background on the hack so I could deter any future attempts. And leaving these clues didn’t violate the written text of the NDA, although maybe it was not quite consistent with the intended spirit. But then, Colby and Kevin didn’t want to involve lawyers in drafting his NDA, so the language was not as precise as it should have been.
There’s a round of handshaking and goodbyes. Bob and Xavier leave. It’s Raphael, Priya, my lawyer, and me.
And it all hits me.
At first, I can’t say anything because I’ll cry. But finally, I choke out, “Thank you so much. It really means the world to me that I have my reputation back.”
I duck my head. It’s embarrassing to be so unprofessional.
Priya pats me on the back as I wrestle to control my emotions.
“I’m sorry I left you to face that. I really didn’t think Kevin would frame you, but he’s crazy. Did you figure out all my clues?” Raphael asks.
I explain what I figured out. “How did you send me those presents?”
“I left them with my assistant and told her I was your Secret Snowflake and that I wanted to make sure you still received your gifts,” Raphael says. “So I asked her to send them via inter-office mail.”
“She didn’t say anything when I asked her,” I say.
“She definitely liked the secret mission aspect of it,” Raphael says.
“Raphael, where are you going to work?” I ask.
“I’m considering Shooting Stars,” Raphael says. “They’re a start-up, so I’d be coming in as CISO there. They’re building their information security team. I did enjoy the time off, though. I’m worried this will be twenty-four-seven, and that might be a problem with my mom’s care. As you know, I have to make sure she takes her medicine and gets to physical therapy. I explained that to the CEO. She said it’s about working smarter, and they want people to have outside lives.”
“I’m relieved you have an option.” I pack up my bag. “My brother’s friend works for Shooting Stars and is very happy there.”
I say thank you to my lawyer as she sees us to the elevator. She waves off my gratitude. And she promises to get me great terms for my new position.
“We should celebrate and catch up with dinner and drinks,” Raphael says. “How about La Bonne Soupe?”
“That sounds great. Let me just call my boyfriend,” I say. “You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up.”
I stand off to the side on Seventh Avenue and 57 th Street. Across the street is Carnegie Hall. Next to me a newsstand is covered in lottery ads, the yellow typeface glowing against a blue background.
As Priya and Raphael cross 57 th Street, I call Sebastian. He picks up on the first ring.
“It’s all resolved,” I say. “And I was appointed CISO! CISO! Reporting directly to Xavier. Kevin is gone!” I am practically hopping.
“I’ve been appointed General Counsel,” Sebastian says. “Bob resigned.”
“Wow,” I say.
“Wow,” Sebastian says quietly back.
I take a moment to absorb this. We both made it .
“I told my dad, and he said he understood that law was the right career for me—even before this position.”
“Oh, Sebastian, I’m so happy for you,” I say. “I’m going out for drinks with Raphael and Priya. Come join us!”
“I can’t leave yet. Bob wants to walk me through stuff right now,” Sebastian says. “I’ll join later. Or I’ll see you at Jazmine’s party.”
“It’ll probably be lots of infosec talk, so not so fun for you anyway, but I’ll definitely see you at Jazmine’s.”
We hang up. I stare at the traffic whizzing by on Sixth Avenue. A car cuts in front of a bicyclist. The bicyclist stops short, the back wheel rearing up, but the rider stays on board.
That’s how I feel. My career was almost upended, but I managed to stay focused on proving my innocence. And I did. Whiplash. Escorted out . That still makes me cringe inside. But now I’m CISO. CISO . But can I trust Xavier? He’s Colby’s brother. I still can’t believe Colby and Kevin tried to frame me. Will Colby still have some in-the-background influence? And that might be even worse because it won’t be up-front.
I think Xavier is now determined to prove to his brother that he can run this company on his own. And this is a career opportunity I can’t pass up.
And Sebastian is the General Counsel too. It’s perfect. I turn to catch up to Raphael and Priya. They’ve disappeared from view. A burst of wind picks up an empty plastic bag, which swirls in the gray sky. It dips and turns in the wind, filled with so much air that it looks like a ballon. The joy inside of me bubbles up. The bag darts along, buffeted by the wind, until it gets snared by a light pole.
I run to catch up to Priya and Raphael.