Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
Ken
When Ken’s work phone buzzed with a text he softly swore. It was an alert he’d set up for Miranda Segura’s computer.
Peyton looked up. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” he muttered, setting his tablet aside and dragging his laptop in front of him.
Jake, Peyton, Trevor, and Ken were in the process of scouring satellite photos of the region near Jake’s old hideaway, backtracking in an effort to locate the lab site and the barn.
Ken’s fingers flew across the keyboard as he logged in and pulled the latest data from his back-door access point.
“Goddammit, she plugged a thumb drive into her personal laptop. It’s got a bunch of spreadsheets and other files, but someone also dropped a spyware payload that loaded into her computer as soon as she plugged it in. Stupid woman.”
“What kind of payload?” Peyton asked.
“Not sure yet.” It appeared to contain several scripts, a keystroke logger, and had been configured to send data remotely to an IP address on a server located in South America. It didn’t appear to give the person remote access, however, much to Ken’s relief.
“Did someone find your software?” Peyton asked.
“No, not yet.” As he traced through the spyware that had downloaded to her hard drive, he realized it was older, not as sophisticated as the software he used.
Whoever had copied the other files onto the drive, it looked like they all originated from the same computer that copied the spyware to the thumb drive.
Fortunately, he quickly spotted a way to render the keystroke logger ineffective by having it hash and encrypt the data, so it routed it through Ken’s hands first so he could scrub it before bouncing it on its way.
And this software was one-way—data out only. They couldn’t use the software they installed to remotely access and send data or instructions to her laptop.
Phhpt. Amateur.
He tuned out the other men as he worked, setting up a hidden partition on her hard drive so the spyware wouldn’t be able to see Ken’s software, and simultaneously cutting off swaths of her hard drive to its access while shifting it to a hidden guest function.
It would look like it was still accessing the drive, but not be able to get to the partition she was actively using.
Unfortunately, the keystroke logger was a different beast, and to silo that completely would likely look suspicious to whoever had infected her laptop.
She still had the thumb drive plugged in, so he quickly mirrored its full contents, including all the metadata included when it was formatted, to another encrypted cloud drive he was using for this. Then he could go through it and not worry if she logged off her computer.
He sat back when, thirty seconds later, she did just that.
“Whew.”
“What was it?” Peyton asked.
That’s when Ken realized they were all staring at him, and his face heated. “Um… Short version is she inserted a thumb drive with files on it, and someone added a bug to send her information to them.”
Peyton scowled. “Who?”
“I don’t know yet.” He went to the cloud drive to look at the mirrored data. “There are a bunch of spreadsheets and PDFs, and the metadata on them comes from the same computer that bundled the software.”
“Like someone gave her the drive on purpose to infect her computer?” Trevor asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Do any of the spreadsheets have to do with the corporation?” Peyton asked.
“I. Don’t. Know.” He safely copied those files, encrypted them, then sent them to Gillian before calling her.
“Ken?” she sleepily answered. “What’s wrong?”
“Shit, sorry. I didn’t check the time.” He quickly filled her in, and she sounded far more awake. “Let me get my laptop.” A moment later, she said, “Yeah, they’re here. I’ll get to work comparing them to the business records we have. But…” She went quiet.
“But what?” he asked.
“I’m seeing references to things that I believe I’ve seen in the files we’re pulling from the cartel’s computers.”
“Hang on.” Ken put his phone in speaker mode and set it on the table. “You’re on speaker and Peyton’s here, too.”
“Hey, you rat bastard hubby of mine.” She laughed. “Love you. You haven’t disappeared again, right?”
Peyton chuckled. “You realize I’m going to let you get away with a lot over scaring you, don’t you, baby?”
She laughed again. “Damned right you are. Anyway, here’s what I’m seeing…”
Five minutes later, Peyton looked pensive. “You think these might be records dealing with the cartel?”
“Maybe. But these are different.” They heard her typing. A moment later, she gasped. “Son of a bitch!”
“What?” Ken and everyone else asked from their end.
She laughed. “Someone gave her cooked books.”
“Are you sure?” Peyton asked.
“Reasonably. Nothing I’m seeing here adds up, and I know we’re getting good data from our end. It’s like someone took the data, changed it, and then uploaded those files to this drive.”
“Along with the bug they dropped onto her computer,” Ken said.
“Exactly,” Gillian said. “Like she doesn’t have direct access to the data the way we do.”
“Can we get Alvarez to contact our guy inside to see what he knows?” Peyton asked.
“I’ll talk to him,” Gillian said. In the background, they heard the baby fuss. “Oops, I need to go take care of the princess.”
Peyton suddenly looked distraught. “Love you, baby. Kiss her for me, please?”
“Love you, too,” she gently said. “And I will.”
When she ended the call, Ken retrieved his phone from the center of the table. Peyton slumped back in his chair, his gaze unfocused, staring at the table.
“You okay?” Ken felt certain he was tuned in to his fellow new father’s current mood.
Peyton sighed. “Yeah. But whoever I get my hands on, I will take great pleasure in choking the life out of them for taking me away from my family.”
That’s when something else in the data caught Ken’s eye. “Shit.”
“What?” Peyton asked.
Ken skimmed the data. “She’s researching personnel affiliated with the Russian embassy in Mexico City.”
Peyton scowled. “Russians? What the hell? Jesusfuck, that’s just what we need.”
Jake peeked over Ken’s shoulder. “Bet she’s trying to get intros to the Russian mob to offload the cartel. Obviously, I’m not in the loop, but I do know that even in the backwater shitholes, the mobs have reach. That country runs on vodka, bribes, and spite.”
Peyton grumbled. “Ken—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ken said, fingers flying over the keyboard. “I know. See what I can find.”
An hour later, he had grim news. “She’s researched not only Russians, but North Korea.”
Peyton scowled. “Da fuq?”
“I think Jake is correct,” Trevor said. “She’s looking for people to contact to possibly sell the cartel to.”
“Because the Russians and North Koreans can’t shit-stir all on their own,” Peyton groused.
“As much as I’d love to fuck up her plans on general principles, we don’t have the resources to do that right now.
We’ll have to stick a pin in it and monitor her movements.
I’m primarily worried about her interest in Manuel’s obsession. ”
“Agreed,” Trevor said.
“Good,” Ken said. “Because I’m already juggling too many plates and don’t need to add taking a crash course in fucking up a drug cartel without it coming back to haunt us.”