Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
KENSINGTON, TEXAS
Saratoga Springs, N.Y., A site, claiming to have harvested over one million classified chats from the US government, was threatening to sell them. Minutes after the claim was made, the site was obliterated by Castor Industries.
With thanks from a grateful nation.
—InfoSec Gov News
“I’ve found a pattern against the operation in Seven Virtues,” Sam announces after I get back from my much-needed vacation with Fallon.
“Talk,” Leanne demands.
It’s just the three of us. Thorn is undergoing the preliminary part of his semi-annual national security clearance re-up. When we connected with him earlier, he whined worse than a dethroned prom queen. “I’m followed every fucking day by agents of our own government, agents of foreign governments. They maintain a damn tick tock of my whereabouts, my wife’s whereabouts. Any day now, I’m expecting a report telling me when my kid takes a crap. Is this really fucking necessary?”
Sam and I both laughed heartily before he dropped to talk to his team of investigators. With the way Leanne’s lips curved as we relayed the story, she was going to enjoy tormenting her friend and handler later.
Sam tells Leanne, “The IPs at Devil’s Lair—all belonging to their phone sex operators—match up to those Messina used in every single attempt he made to hack Dioscuri before he decided to?—”
She doesn’t let him soften the blow. “Murder my sister and try to kill me for it?”
“Yes.”
“So, was he infiltrating the phone system to steal data, or was he using the connection to mask his own activity?” she muses.
“We’ll never know since he’s dead,” I remind her.
“Think it’s not worth giving a shot, Ethan?”
I snort. “You want to replicate an attempted hack from close to five years ago?”
“Since everything from Dioscuri has been backed up from the moment I stood it up, why not?” Her eyes gleam with the challenge.
Sam’s lips purse as he wipes both our screens and creates a sandbox for us to play in. Then he attempts to connect to one of the IPs within the Devil’s Lair.
[198.51.100.2/24]
[Connection Refused]
Leanne purrs, “Well, isn’t this interesting. I thought you had more talent than this, Sam.”
“Bite me, Leanne.” His eyes widen before. “Son of a bitch. Now they’re counterattacking and trying to access Hudson’s IP.”
“Oh, hell no,” I snarl. “You don’t get to have all the fun, Sam.”
“Fun, my ass. They’re trying to drop two Zero Days and some Ransomware on my system. Christ!”
“Sam, hold on a second,” Leanne cautions him. Then, a moment later, it’s like a game of Space Invaders when Leanne aims her brainchild, Dioscuri, at the intruders attacking Sam’s company network and picks them off one by one.
“Lee.” I don’t recognize the voice that comes over Sam’s line. “Are you fucking around in my network for a reason?”
“Hey, Keene.” I subdue my smile when Leanne morphs from cool agent into happy-go-lucky friend. It’s like watching a German shepherd roll over onto their back for some tummy rubs from their owner. Her cheerful demeanor is for none other than Keene Marshall—a man I know gives zero shits about my former boss. Something Thorn shared one night with me with great amusement after our first call when he explained that Leanne had her own personal entanglement with the investigation giant, outside of her husband being one of their best bodyguards. Leanne blithely assures him, “Nope. Just keeping up my end of our bargain.”
“Which is?”
“To keep you protected after you did the same for me,” she swears.
Keene’s sardonic tone drops. “Keep up the good work, Lee. I came by to drop some paperwork off for Sam and received quite the show.”
“What do you mean?” I ask curiously.
Keene’s amusement is evident. “Sam rocking back and forth in a corner.”
“Aww, Sam. Did we get too close to your precious server,” Leanne coos.
“Yes! And this ass won’t let me buy a new one,” Sam accuses Keene.
“Not if you’re violating our acceptable use policy. Remember, Sam—the phrase is limited personal use.”
I can’t keep my snicker in at this point. I call out, “Sam, what happened to all the guts you used to display so brazenly?”
He calls out, “I joined Hudson and Keene made me sign away my soul. Not long after, I met Leanne at a hackathon where she kicked my ass barely out of her diapers.”
All of us, including one of the renowned owners of Hudson Investigations, double over laughing. Keene offers us some sage advice before leaving us to scratch our heads over what alarms we tripped. “Don’t get caught.”
We wait for him to leave before discussing in detail what happened. Finally, we agree to think about it some more before trying again.
But try again we will.
None of us are planning on giving up because of one little scare.