Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
MATEO
Unfortunately, the problem with the terminal was a security issue, and Mateo got the feeling it wouldn’t go over well when he mentioned that to the researcher who was pretending not to watch him work while anxiously sneaking glances every few minutes.
He sighed, pulling his phone out of his pocket, and sent a message to Roz.
She said she wanted to be informed about any attempts to access their systems first, and he knew he’d be in a world of trouble if he didn’t tell her immediately.
Mateo: Got what looks like a hacking attempt on Medical Innovation’s Research floor.
Roz: Unplug it and bring it upstairs. I’ll look at it.
Mateo: Researcher looked ready to faint when I mentioned doing that. Any chance you can look at it here?
She didn’t respond, which made him think she was either going to come down or send someone down for him. She had a few communication issues that made his eye twitch sometimes, but at least she wouldn’t ignore him. Someone would show up if she wasn’t responding.
“Is everything okay?”
The researcher looked concerned, glancing between Mateo and his phone like he was worried he’d be delivered bad news. Unfortunately for him, the news wasn’t good.
“It looks like a security issue. I’ve informed my boss to see if she can do anything about it from here, but if not, I’ll have to take it upstairs.”
He visibly slumped, his despair was a little cute, honestly.
He was a good looking guy, with short aqua blue hair, eyes the color of liquid silver, and dark blue tentacles that had been writhing almost absentmindedly while he worked but were now kind of droopy now that his mood had plummeted.
It kind of bugged Mateo to be the one to make him look like that, he didn’t love being the bearer of bad news, but what else was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just ignore the issue.
Tension pulled across his forehead, making his whole head ache.
The exhaustion was starting to get to him.
He’d been looking forward to coming back to work, thinking the time away from his new living situation and getting back into his routine would help him relax, but dealing with stuff like this wasn’t helping him relax.
He picked the short straw in doing face-to-face checks today, and he almost wished he’d have called in sick just to give himself a real break.
“Uh… You alright?” the researcher asked.
Mateo hadn’t even noticed he was rubbing his forehead until the guy said something.
He dropped his hand, forcing himself to smile politely.
“I’m fine. Someone should be down shortly to– Oh, there she is.
” He paused when Roz flitted off the elevator, looking around the room and heading his way once she noticed him, ignoring the receptionist completely.
It was possible she hadn’t heard the woman, she was deaf after all, but he also knew she purposely didn’t look at people sometimes when she didn’t want to deal with them.
She wasn’t malicious about it, just busy, and liked to cut corners in social interaction in favor of getting the work done.
Landing in front of them, she demanded, “What’ve we got?”
Gesturing to the system, he told her, “Looks like someone tried to hack it. The system locked after a bit, but I’m not sure if they grabbed anything before it did.”
He made sure to face her and enunciate since she relied on lip reading to understand. She let him finish before turning her focus to the terminal, ignoring the researcher who stood from where he’d been working, fidgeting with the button of his white coat as he tried to look over her shoulder.
“I’ve been working on this computer for weeks without issue. What changed?”
He’d asked Roz, unaware she couldn’t hear him, so Mateo answered for her.
“There are a lot of ways a hacker can get into a system. Did you plug anything into it that’s been connected to other computers?
Click on any links from senders you weren’t familiar with?
” The researcher shook his head slowly, his brows scrunched like he was trying to remember every interaction he’d had with electronics in the past few days.
“When was the last time you changed your password?”
That one made him hesitate, and Roz happened to have looked over her shoulder to say something to Mateo right when he asked.
Her eyes narrowed, and she spun around, crossing her arms over her chest. “Let me guess. You added a one to the end of your password when we sent through the full reset instead of making up something harder.”
The guy’s expression turned sheepish, one tentacle coming up to rub the back of his neck awkwardly. “No… I capitalized it…”
“That’s worse!” Roz snapped. “I knew I should’ve made the password reset requirements harder!
Jonah said it’d be overkill, but obviously he’s too trusting!
” Jabbing a finger at the researcher, she scowled at him.
“Taking away the terminal is your punishment for lazy password resets. Mateo will bring it back once he’s fixed the issues you caused.
I swear, I’m about ready to assign passwords to people.
How is it that adults, usually hundreds of years old, don’t know yet how to make a good password?
” She kept grumbling to herself as she stomped away, only pausing long enough to demand, “Bring it upstairs, Mateo. Then you can work on figuring out who was stupid enough to hack in.”
She left Mateo to deal with the dejected researcher and the faulty system, taking the stairs so she didn’t have to wait around for the elevator. He sighed.
“I’ll do my best to have it back to you as soon as I can,” he explained to the researcher.
He produced a card from his pocket, given to him when he started the job because apparently Spellbound was fancy enough that even cyber security got cards with their emails on it.
He handed it to the researcher with an apologetic shrug.
“If you email me the research you need, I can see if I can pull it and send it to you while I’m working. I’ll do my best to back the rest up.”
The researcher took the card dubiously, glancing between it and Mateo. “You really think you can save it?”
Mateo didn’t like to make promises he couldn’t keep, so he kept it vague when he said, “I’ll do my best. In the meantime, you might want to change your passwords.
Make it more complicated than what you’ve been using.
And don’t just add a one at the end unless you want Roz back down here for another confrontation.
Or for her to send you a five hour cyber security course before she allows you back online. ”
Blanching, the guy nodded rapidly. “I’ll think of something harder. Thanks, uh…” He looked down at the card, then back at him. “Mateo. I’m Dax.”
He stuck his hand out for a shake, but Mateo had already squatted down to deal with the tower, so he took it back with an awkward smile.
Mateo tried not to let the relief show on his face.
He didn’t have hand sanitizer on him like usual and didn’t love the idea of shaking hands with a stranger without it.
“Nice to meet you. I’m going to take this now.
The sooner I work on it, the quicker I can get it back to you. ”
He took a minute to unplug the tower, leaving the wires behind since they had plenty in the security office to use. He hefted the thing into his arms, nodding politely to Dax as he headed for the elevators. “I’ll put in a ticket for them to bring you something else for now.”
“Nah, that’s okay.” Dax waved him away. “I’ve got a laptop. I’ll just use that for now. It shouldn’t take that long, right?”
Unfortunately, it took as long as it took, and he knew Roz would put the computer through the gauntlet before allowing it to be connected to the system again. Mateo didn’t say that, though. He didn’t want to upset the guy even more. “I’ll make it a priority and keep you updated.”
He gave the guy his back, blocking out the distressed look on his face that made Mateo wish he was some kind of techno mage that could find the issues in electronics and fix them instantly. That wasn’t a thing as far as he was aware, but still.
Dax was… persistent when it came to updates about his computer.
He’d emailed Mateo within an hour of having the tech taken away with a list of what he needed but since most of it was constantly processing data, there was only so much Mateo could send him before the terminal had been shut down and the data streams were cut off.
He did send an email walking the kraken through how to access the streams outside of the terminal he’d been working on, but it was kind of a pain when not using a company device.
Roz was careful with outside devices accessing Spellbound research and the hoops you had to jump through to get into the system were kind of ridiculous.
Not that he’d ever say that to her face. He didn’t have a death wish.
Without easy access to his data, Dax emailed at least three times a day asking how things were going.
Not only that, but any time he saw Mateo in the lobby or cafeteria, he’d sidle up and not-so-subtly poke around for any new information Mateo might be able to give him.
It got to the point where Mateo was actively avoiding the cafeteria just to get a break.
Stacking that on top of his roommate situation, Mateo was starting to feel wrung out.
His thoughts were sluggish, overloaded, like a computer running too many programs at once, and he was starting to feel like he had a low-grade fever from pure exhaustion.
The new guy that moved in on Monday had such an odd schedule and zero awareness of how loud he was that Mateo was barely sleeping.
Three days of this, and he was starting to reach his limit. It hadn’t even been a week yet.
He was doing his final scans of Dax’s computer when Jonah appeared at his desk, physically manhandling him toward the elevator when Mateo denied joining him for lunch. “You look ready to keel over. You need food at the very least. Let’s go.”
He didn’t have the energy to argue. Honestly, he was starting to feel close to tears. Who would’ve thought moving into a free luxury condo would cause him so much stress and so many sleep interruptions that he’d miss his crappy, expensive, too small apartment in the human part of town?
Thankfully, Jonah didn't pester him to talk about what was going on. He stuck one hand in his pocket, the other scrolling through his phone, leaning casually against the back wall of the elevator as he waited to reach the lobby floor. Mateo could only slump next to him. What were the chances being this exhausted would mean he’d sleep through his neighbor’s noises tonight?
He didn’t even need silence. Just no weird buzzing or beeping loud enough to startle him awake would be nice.
Jonah took his arm again when the elevator doors opened onto the lobby floor and Mateo didn’t immediately follow the crowd. He led him around the bank of elevators and down the hall to the company cafeteria that was so crowded and noisy, it made Mateo flinch.
“Mateo? Are you alright?”
His stomach sank when he realized who was speaking. He didn't have the energy to placate Dax right now. His voice held just a tinge of a whine when he replied, “It’s going through the last scans. I should have it back to you today. I just need a little more time.”