Chapter Fifty-Two
February flew by as they were each immersed in their work. They called each morning to start their day and occasionally ate breakfast while they video-chatted. They talked for at least an hour every evening before dropping off into dreamland. Several times, they fell asleep before they ended the call. Long distance wasn’t ideal, but they made it work.
The papers were signed, making Enrique the managing partner in Azure Waters Retreat. He joined Gabe and the design team in discussing the final finishes and motif before the construction started, so he felt he had a bit of himself in the project.
Plans were made for him to go on-site the first week of March to check that everything was going as planned, which lined up perfectly with his plans.
He and Julio met with the legal team to finalize the merger of their two security firms. The groundwork had already been laid since this was the plan all along; they had just needed to wait for Julio to separate from the Marines before closing the deal.
Julio was surprised when Enrique made the request for him to be CEO.
“What? We were supposed to be equal partners, each running our own divisions, keeping the two sides running smoothly in tandem, but keeping a glass wall between the two to prevent anyone from knowing too much. Why the sudden change of plans?”
“The glass wall still needs to be in place, but only for the highest security risk jobs. I will still work on those and oversee a team of my top security agents. Managers can be used to run mixed teams on all the lower-level jobs, the ones that wind up in the paper. You are the war hero. You can be the face of the company without raising any eyebrows. I need to stay in the shadows, now more than ever.”
“What does that mean? You’ve been weird since you got back from vacation. Did something happen?”
“You will have to wait for New Year’s Eve to hear that story. But yes, something happened. When I returned home, I had visitors waiting for me… in my house.” Enrique looked at his brother pointedly. “I keep my identity a closely guarded secret for a reason. The fact this information breach happened was a problem. The fact it was one of your secret codes was a bigger problem. My friend Tom and his brother-in-law, a scary ex-ranger, wanted to make sure that the breach was contained and that no information about their family was included. ”
“Wait, these two dudes got the jump on me back in January and wanted to know about the security breach from me, too. One of them was a bear of a man. Was that your friends?” Julio was incredulous and still annoyed by the whole situation.
“Yes. Tom is the other shadow hacker who runs the Brothers Satellite Network with me to make sure that servicemen like you and his brother’s ranger team never lack overwatch support due to bureaucratic red tape. He reached out to me after he almost died on a mission. He already knew about you because we had worked support for your team together on a couple of occasions, and I let it slip. I was always comfortable with him, but he put me in my place... hard. Said I needed to guard my family at all costs. We set up a protection system and launched the satellites. Kinda nice that the government can’t keep us out of space. There’s a lot more stuff floating around up there than people realize,” Enrique commented, more to himself than to Julio.
“So, you set up this satellite system and created secret codes to give to folks like me when my team was in trouble. How did that lead to this shadow hacker showing up in both our homes with an enforcer by his side? I’m telling you man, walking into my house one second and waking up tied to my kitchen chair the next was not an experience I ever want to relive. That guy was seriously pissed...the big one, the little one seemed oddly calm,” Julio noted, thinking back on the situation.
“Tom has survived a lot and learned some skills. Eric was angry because the code that was used was yours. ”
“I never had that code. The last one you gave me was Delta, seventy-four, Foxtrot, eight. I never used it,” Julio announced defensively.
“I know. That is why Tom and Eric left you in one piece and came to visit me. It was obvious you had nothing to do with the breach. The merger hadn’t started yet, so Tom had no reason to think you were involved in my security business. He wasn’t so calm with me.”
“I don’t understand, so someone got some free intel from a private satellite network. What am I missing? That big guy looked like he wanted to rip me apart when I first woke up,” Julio questioned, confused.
“Each code has a different level of security attached to it and is assigned to a particular person. The higher the code, the higher the security level, the more sophisticated and secret the hacker involved. Delta codes are tier four codes. You, Eric, and a very small number of extremely high-ranking special ops commanders had those codes. They are pushed to the highest hackers with the best covers in place, and no questions are asked. Whatever the request is, they get it. It’s not until after the mission is done that the security team goes back and processes it all to make sure we understand exactly what happened. A checks and balances, if you will. Well, I was out of town, and my birds were out of range, so Tom’s team took the call and shared the intel from his satellite feed. It was your code. After it was all said and done, it turned out that it wasn’t your voice authentication or your facial recognition. That made them dig deeper. Long story short, someone got one of your advance codes that shouldn’t have even been live yet and used the overwatch intel to kidnap a politician’s family. Tom’s guys got it all cleaned up, and I owe him big time for it. But the bigger concern was how it happened and how much information they had access to when they stole the code or codes.” Enrique scrubbed his face with his hands.
“Tom is the only person on the planet who knows my hacker identity, and I’m the only one who knows his. We have had each other’s backs for years. We keep a constant eye on each member of our family so we know where they are at all times. If either of us disappears, the other will protect the family. We took an oath to protect each other when Tom went on a mission that he almost didn’t come back from. I know every detail about his sister Sarah, his two moms, and his little sister Charlotte; even his worthless father has dedicated satellite time. And Tom knows every detail about my brothers. When your code was used to do some bad stuff, he wanted to know if we had rats in our house because rats invade quickly, and Tom sort of shares a roof with us. Eric is now married to Tom’s sister, Sarah. He wanted to know if his family was in danger when he heard we had a breach. They are amazing allies to have, but I would not want to cross them. Tom is the only person I know, besides a Russian terrorist, who is better than me. We need him on our side. That glass wall has to be in place if we are going to take on the higher-risk jobs. The grunts you have as boots on the ground cannot have access to my team’s digital information. My highest tier has to stay off-site and speak directly to you or me, so their identities stay hidden. My contract work with the government takes up a lot of my time, but those private jobs are important, too. I want us to still do them, but I can’t be here to keep track of the day-to-day workings of this office anymore.”
“Okay, no problem. You tell me the structure your geeks need, and we will make it happen. I had no idea you were working with another hacker on the BSN project. Did you really name it Brothers Satellite Network? So lame, dude, but Fernando would love it. Speaking of which. I finally decided on a name for the firm. Remember years ago when Fernando was pushing so hard to rename us from Bad Boys Club to something else, and he suggested Brave Brothers Coalition or something like that? Well, I figured to honor him, we could call it Braveheart Securities.”’
“That’s nice man. He will appreciate you using his idea. So, get the name on the final document, and let’s get them signed. I need to be in Florida in eight days. Love ya, talk soon. ”
“Hey, wait!” Julio shouted before Enrique could kill the connection.
“Yeah?”
“What happened with the breach? Is everyone’s information safe? Do we need to come up with a security plan for all the families?”
Enrique laughed, “No worries. I knew there wasn’t a breach. Our system isn’t hackable. We test it regularly. It took my best guys and Tom’s a little while, but they figured out what happened, and Eric and his guys took care of the men who abused the system.”
“So, are you going to tell me what it was? Those men were in my house too and I don’t appreciate being taken out, ever! But not in my house. If I ever see that dude, I may punch him in the face as pay back.”
“Let’s not. He’s a friend. Because you’re my partner now, I’ll share this with you. We have since canceled all the codes and changed the system, which I will brief you on a different day because we are still committed to protecting Tom’s family and he ours. The numbers were transposed. We knew it had to be someone with Delta-level clearance, and if it wasn’t you, then who? You are Seventy. I’m Eighty, and Tom is Ninety in the numerical system. I have never used my code, so mine was D81F1. Tom used his once, so he was on D92F1. You used your code three times, so you were on D74F8. One of my team was tracking down all the codes, used or not, and realized that D40 had retired after an injury. His code should have been deactivated, but it was a hush-hush thing. Eric did some digging since that code was given to one of his old ranger teammates. His second in command was a piece of work that no one liked, and he had been given the codes to call in for help twice, so he figured out that only one number was changing. He made a good guess, but when he called it in, he said seventy-four instead of forty-seven. He’s getting several years in a very dark hole for his troubles. ”
“Nice. Eric sounds like my kinda guy. We will have to meet under better circumstances. Tell Gabe hello for me. We keep missing each other. Later.”
Enrique hung up the phone and set about making arrangements for his trip to Florida in a few days. He couldn’t wait to see his girl. She was going to be so surprised. He almost slipped and told his brother his good news, but this was one cat he wanted to keep in the bag a little longer.