Chapter 11 #4
“I know,” I interrupt, because Andrew might be a big kid sometimes and might like to push boundaries, but deliberately using his charisma to take away someone’s will is not his style.
He was protecting me and the others—they could have taken me down physically to give me the shot, but that would likely have ended up with someone—me—getting hurt.
“You left all my memories intact, Andrew. I know exactly what happened, and it was the best option.” Vampires have the ability to wipe memories, but they can’t replace them.
So if you haven’t been drinking or drugging and suddenly find yourself missing time, there’s a good chance a vampire’s been messing with you.
“Okay, good. I’m glad you’re back to yourself.”
I lean forward and prop my elbows on my knees. “What’s happening at the office?”
His expression turns hard. It’s an unusual look for him, and it makes me want to shiver. Suddenly I’m reminded that he’s an old vampire and very powerful.
“It’s bad shit,” he says grimly. “I was just telling Gideon. Someone hacked our case files for the kidnappings, and the only reason we knew was because they dumped the whole lot into the printer queue—probably accidentally.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t one of us that did it?” I know they would have checked that, but still… “I’ve accidentally hit the print button a few times. It might even have been me, this morning.”
He shakes his head. “No. The time on the printer puts it at eleven forty-three this morning.”
Which was when everyone who had access to those files was in Percy’s office, not accessing them.
“Fuck.” I wrack my brain, trying to remember the protocols for this situation.
It’s literally never happened in the five years I’ve worked there—not for case files, anyway.
There’s some inter-team rivalry, so occasionally people will hack another team’s vacation roster or something, and everyone tries to hack the fantasy sports league, but case files are sacrosanct.
Hacking a case file is cause for prosecution, and prosecution in the community is a little different from in the human world—for one thing, most judges are vampires, and they’re legally permitted to use charisma to ascertain the truth.
“Candice on reception found the files. She told us she was pissed at first that someone was tying up the printer for so long, and then she got curious because nobody had come to check on how it was going, so she looked at some of the documents. As soon as she realized what they were, she pulled them all together and made sure nobody else saw them.”
I frown. “She thought it was an accident?”
He nods. “Yeah. Or that one of us had sent them to print before going into the meeting.”
“No way. This case is top-level confidential. If we wanted to print anything for it, we’d use the secure printer in Percy’s office. Or at least the printer on our floor.” Not the massive printer that services reception and everyone else.
“She thought we’d picked the wrong printer—that’s why she waited to say anything.
She wanted to slip the files to us quietly so nobody would get into trouble.
” He grimaces, and I can’t help but agree.
That’s really sweet of her, but the fact is, she should have flagged it immediately.
The longer the delay after a hack, the less chance there is of catching the culprit.
“As soon as she came in with the trolley-load of paper, we saw the time stamp and locked down the building and the system.”
I rub my hands over my face. “I’m trying to remember what the procedure is for this, but I’m coming up blank,” I admit.
Gideon comes over to sit in an armchair. “First, lockdown. Then identify the point of entry and the hacker, if possible.”
I look at Andrew. He shakes his head. “We managed to find out that the hacker gained entry to the system using a clone of Lily’s account.
There’s a definite digital fingerprint on the clone, but it wasn’t one that’s been identified before.
When we ran a check through the system, we found that same fingerprint on about a dozen other cloned accounts dating back for the past six or so months. ”
“How did they even manage to clone the accounts? Aren’t they supposed to be protected against that?
” I shake my head and hold up a hand before he can reply.
“Never mind.” My tech knowledge is limited to what I actually use to get through the day, plus I know that the community tends to interweave sorcery among regular practices—like genetic modification and network security.
It makes things work differently than what I was used to and also opens up options that wouldn’t be available “the human way.” “So somebody with advanced sorcery and hacking abilities has been basically walking through what is supposed to be the most secure system on the planet and looking at whatever data they like for half a year?” This is not good. “And we have no idea who they are?”
Andrew shakes his head.
I search for a silver lining. “What are the chances that it’s some bored college student who’s doing it just because they can and who we can recruit?”
“This isn’t a movie, Sam,” Gideon snaps, and it’s like a slap. Even Andrew looks surprised.
Awkward silence blankets us until Andrew clears his throat and says, “That’s something we might have considered, but the files that have been accessed were all highly classified and quite specific. There wasn’t any of the aimlessness we would have expected if this wasn’t deliberate targeting.”
I look between them. “I feel like I’m missing something. Can we guess who it might be by the files they accessed?”
“Yes.” Gideon’s the one to answer. “The others should be here soon. They’ll hopefully have some more information.” The firm way he says it tells me I’m not going to learn anything else right now.
“Okay. What does this mean for the office? Are we offline until we can work out exactly what we’re dealing with?”
Andrew shrugs. “Basically. Everything’s been shunted to backup servers, and now that we know what we’re looking for, we’ve been able to ensure they’re clean and secure.
We’ll keep checking them, too. But there’s a strong possibility that the access is coming from within the office—either a member of staff or some kind of remote device that’s been planted. ”
“Like a camera or a keystroke reader so they were able to get a password into the network and then jump around from there?” I’m trying to understand how it would work but basically just guessing.
“Yes, but with sorcery in the mix, it doesn’t have to be electronic and they don’t need to be able to read or see the password.
The ‘device’ could be literally anything that can hold a sorcery weave.
” Which means almost anything. “A team will go in and sweep for both electronics and sorcery weaves. Every member of staff will undergo the same sweep before they’re allowed into the building for the next few months at least, and there are going to be some more background investigations. This is going to cause chaos.”
“And cost a lot of money,” I add. A thought strikes me. “How sure are we that sending the files to the printer was an accident?”
They both stare at me.
“Think about it,” I say defensively. “They’ve been in the system without anyone noticing for six months, and then suddenly, when they’re in what’s currently the most sensitive file we have, they get clumsy?”
Gideon expels a sharp breath and stands, pacing back and forth.
“You’re right. We’re in the middle of an urgent and time sensitive case, and now we can’t access the office, our network access is limited, and we’re distracted by the intruder.
” He looks around, then heads back to the kitchen and opens the pantry.
“This is a distraction?” Andrew asks incredulously. “Fuck, whatever they’re up to must be big if they’re willing to sacrifice a hidden mole. They’re losing their access to our systems.”
“Unless they have another access point? But there would be too good a chance of us finding it now that we’re looking. You’re right, it’s safe to assume they’re going to do something big.” I scrub my face with my hands. I can’t believe how long this day has been, and it’s not even close to over.
My front door opens right then, and we all whirl toward it. A snarl I didn’t know I was capable of tears from my throat, and my hands tingle painfully.
“Whoa!” Elinor holds up her hands. “It’s just us. Sorry, I didn’t think how on edge you’d be.”
I exhale in relief as Andrew comes out of his half crouch and retracts his fangs from bite-ready. Damn shifters and their ability to ignore locks.
Oh, hey, that’s me now! I’ll never have to worry about forgetting my keys again. At least something good came out of today.
My hands are still aching, and I glance down at them—and shriek.
“What?” Andrew barks, head whipping toward me. The others swarm in through the doorway, searching for the threat.
“My hands!” I hold them up so everyone can see.
I have claws.
Like… actual claws. They’re two inches long, look razor sharp, and protrude from the ends of my fingers. The skin is a little bit torn and bloody, but not as badly as I would have thought—I seem to be healing around the claws.
“Wow!” Elinor bounds forward and takes my hand to examine it more closely. “A partial shift. That’s way cool, Sam. Not many shifters can do this.”
“Great. Um, I’ll get a bit more excited about that after you tell me how to undo it.” The achy feeling is starting to fade, and yeah, this is way cool and feeds my inner superhero geek, but hiding claw-tipped fingers from the human world is not something I want to dedicate my life to.
She shrugs. Shrugs , like this is no big deal!
“No idea—like I said, this is something not many of us can do. Aidan was right behind us, though. Even if he can’t talk you through it, he can probably force them to change back.”