‘If it makes you feel any better,’ Ed said. ‘My wife is a doctor – a bone specialist actually – and I’m a trained medic and up until a year or so ago we worked with ski patrols all around the world.’
‘That’s amazing,’ Soren said. He turned to Sylvie. ‘So they’re professional skiers who are also doctors – I’m sure that Mama and Papa wouldn’t say no. How could they?’
Sylvie frowned. It was nice to see that she could make a proper expression.
‘We promise to have him back whenever you say,’ Ed said. ‘And, honestly, I can’t imagine we’ll be up there for more than a few hours. We’re all a bit rusty.’
‘Okay,’ she said quickly, as if saying it any slower would make her reconsider.
Soren launched himself at the woman and hugged her tightly then stepped back, his face a little pink.
‘We were thinking of taking the gondola and then the cable car up to the Klein Matterhorn,’ Max said. ‘Is that okay with you?’
Soren nodded.
Ed glanced at his watch. ‘What say we meet you at the lift in forty-five minutes?’
‘Great. It’s close to our chalet,’ the boy said.
Anna wondered if this was the best way to approach their mission – befriending the boy. He was likely to be in terrible trouble if his parents were to find out, but then again that would give her and Ed the perfect excuse to properly make their acquaintance and invite them to dinner to apologise. She pushed the thoughts from her head. Why was she thinking like a spy again? That wasn’t supposed to happen and she certainly wasn’t about to enjoy any part of it.
The group walked along together past the Climbers’ Museum, which Soren duly pointed out and the pretty church of St Mauritius with its green spire sitting atop an unusual clock tower. It was there that they parted company, the Spencers turning left to head over the river and Soren and Sylvie going straight ahead to their chalet on the opposite hillside.
‘Well done, Kensy,’ Ed said as they crossed the bridge. ‘That was a very fine move.’
‘I think we got lucky with the parents and Axel leaving,’ Kensy replied. ‘He seems like a really nice kid.’
‘I’d have to agree,’ Ed said.
‘I wonder where the parents and Axel have gone,’ Max said to his father.
The man fiddled with his watch. ‘Fitz was tailing them so I expect wherever he pops up on the GPS they won’t be far away.’ He waited a few seconds and saw Fitz’s location on the other side of the village nearer to the station.
The family reached the chalet and Kensy punched the code into the pad beside the front door. They hurried inside, where they were met by a blast of heat. Jackets, scarves, hats and boots were peeled off immediately.
‘Excuse me, young lady,’ Anna called out to Kensy who was halfway up the stairs. ‘Come back here and put all of this away please.’
Max had already hung up his belongings and deposited his boots into the specially built heated rack.
‘Sorry,’ the girl said sheepishly. ‘I thought we had to hurry. We don’t want to be late meeting Soren.’
Anna eyeballed her daughter. ‘I’m sure he’ll wait.’
‘Who’s here?’ Max asked. There were voices coming from upstairs. ‘Is that Granny?’
Anna and Ed looked at one another. During the briefing on Friday evening there had been no mention of Cordelia joining them.
The twins charged up the stairs.
‘What are you doing here, Granny?’ Kensy asked then realised that Song was standing in the kitchen, but there was no sign of Cordelia. It wasn’t until she spun around that she realised the woman was on the television screen on the opposite wall.
‘Hello, darlings,’ Cordelia said. They could see that she was in her office at the Beacon. ‘I heard that you’ve been staking out the targets.’
‘We’re going skiing with Soren in half an hour,’ Max said, glancing at the oven clock and realising they’d better get moving. ‘And Fitz is tailing Fox, Heike and Axel.’
‘Good work,’ the woman said.
‘Is something the matter, Mother?’ Ed asked.
Cordelia shook her head. ‘No, I was just checking in. But please be careful.’
‘Of what?’ Kensy said.
Anna had been about to ask the same question when she stopped herself.
‘Just look after yourselves. I’ve got a bad feeling about Fox Van Leer and that wife of his.’ Cordelia rubbed her hands together.
‘Thanks for the ski gear, Granny,’ Max said. ‘It’s amazing.’
The woman smiled. ‘Lovely, I’m glad you like it.’
‘We’ll check in with you this evening, Mother,’ Ed said. ‘Unless there’s something else you need to tell us?’
Cordelia was momentarily distracted by the eyes on the brass monkey paperweight on her desk that had begun to glow. Something was up. She needed to get downstairs immediately.
‘Mother, are you all right?’ Ed prodded.
‘Just remembered I have a meeting,’ she said, logging out before anyone had time to say another word.
Although Cordelia didn’t know it yet, she had much bigger things to worry about than social niceties.
Cordelia Spencer stood up from her vast oak desk and spun around to the bookshelves behind her. She pulled out her favourite copy of Pride and Prejudice and waited until there was a click, after which the wall slid open to reveal a small elevator. She stepped inside and looked directly into the iris scanner. Almost immediately, the chamber rocketed downwards from her eagle’s nest on the thirteenth floor, stopping briefly before it speared sideways and travelled for another few seconds until it came to a gentle halt. The door opened to reveal a large white space containing a bank of computer screens and other technology.
The woman smoothed some invisible creases from her plaid skirt and strode into the Pharos Control Room where several employees tapping away on keyboards instinctively straightened their backs, suddenly aware of their boss’s arrival. Her youngest son walked towards her.
‘You’ve only been home five minutes and there’s already a major problem?’ Cordelia kissed Rupert’s cheeks.
‘I thought you’d be glad to see me, Mother,’ the man said, giving her a grin.
‘Of course I am. But what’s so urgent?’ the woman softened.
‘The Beacon’s been hacked,’ he said bluntly. ‘We have no idea how, or who the perpetrators are, but it would appear they have taken control of the entire system.’
‘What? Why didn’t Peter tell me immediately?’ Cordelia demanded. Peter was the editor-in-chief of the paper and also a long-time agent whom Cordelia considered her right-hand man in the office.
‘We’ve only just learned of the breach,’ Rupert said.
The lift doors opened again and Peter hurried into the room. He was as dishevelled as ever with his mismatched clothes and hair combed over in an attempt to disguise his thinning grey pate.
‘Ma’am.’ He gave Cordelia a nod. ‘Is there a problem?’
‘We’ve been hacked,’ Rupert said.
‘Pharos!’ the man recoiled. ‘That’s impossible.’
‘Not Pharos – at least not that we know of. It’s the Beacon,’ Rupert replied. ‘Whoever got in has now acquired the details of all our subscribers, their credit card numbers, our suppliers, our contacts and the archive, amongst other things.’
‘Well, what the heck are they planning to do with all that information?’ Peter asked.
‘Fraud, identity theft, blackmail,’ Cordelia blanched. ‘There’s any number of probable outcomes. Right, you need to shut it all down. The whole place, until we can work out how they’ve infiltrated the system.’
‘What about the paper today, ma’am?’ Peter asked. ‘We have several greenlit missions with agents who are relying on us.’
While the Beacon provided daily news for the residents of the United Kingdom, up until now it had also been a fail-safe way to deliver coded messages to agents working on missions around the
world, via advertisements, death notices and, more recently, photographs.
Cordelia sighed and looked at her son. ‘Is it possible to continue operations at a trade level and close down everything in the background? How much further can we be compromised?’
Rupert shrugged. ‘The technicians are on it, but if whoever has access to the Beacon files gets a whiff that there’s anything deeper, who knows what might happen. It could be the end of everything.’
‘That’s not possible, Rupert. The two are completely separate,’ Cordelia snapped.
‘Not if whoever has control is any good at cracking codes, Mother,’ Rupert replied, a terseness in his voice.
A woman with dark braided hair stood up from a curved computer desk and hurried over to the group.
‘Excuse me, ma’am, I think I may have found something,’ she said, twitching nervously.
Cordelia raised her eyebrows. ‘Yes, out with it, Bibi.’
‘We know that our systems are impervious to hackers from outside the organisation. So this has to have happened from within,’ she said then licked her dry lips.
‘Please, while I’m still breathing, Bibi.’ Cordelia wasn’t known for her patience at the best of times.
‘Well, we think whoever has planted the bug did it from a USB stick,’ the woman said. ‘We have too many controls in place if employees are silly enough to open phishing emails. There are warnings and, with the amount of training they have, no one would dare.’
Cordelia’s shoulders slumped. ‘A USB stick! So you’re telling me that there’s been some tainted USB that has now spread throughout the servers and is compromising the entire organisation. It’s almost laughable.’
The woman nodded. ‘Staff aren’t allowed to bring their own devices – they have to use the ones provided. In fact, I thought we’d had something built into the code to deny access for anything that wasn’t Beacon approved.’
‘Absolutely,’ Peter said. ‘So there must be a rat in the ranks then. Someone with insider knowledge and superb skills.’
Another technician was running through security footage from the offices.
‘Ma’am,’ he called out. ‘I think we have our perpetrator.’
He transferred the recording to the large screen in the centre of the room.
‘There, the fellow in the baseball cap,’ the man pointed out.
Cordelia, Rupert and Peter stared at the screen. The technician rewound the vision to where the fellow entered the building and was given a security pass. He was carrying a toolbox and wore overalls with the name ‘Knightsbridge Plumbing’ on the back. He seemed very careful not to look directly at any of the security cameras, as if he had knowledge of exactly where they were. They followed his trail to the third floor where, as he passed by an empty workstation, he swiped a laptop from the desk and dropped it into his oversized bag with the ease of someone who had been trained to do exactly such a task. Then he disappeared into the staff bathroom, but not before placing an ‘Out of Order’ sign on the door. He was inside for exactly ten minutes before emerging and dropping the device back onto the desk, without drawing the attention of a single soul.
‘Who sits there?’ Cordelia demanded.
Peter racked his brain, but it was Bibi who provided the answer. ‘The last person to occupy that space was a copyrighter called Evie. But she was only with the paper for a month and she left the day this happened – her exit interview said that an opportunity had arisen closer to her home so she had to take it.’
‘Well, that’s just perfect.’ Cordelia shook her head in disbelief. ‘Since when have we been so lax with our processes? It’s pretty darn obvious what happened – she was a plant. That computer wasn’t docked so it was able to be removed without any trouble at all. Right, I want a picture of his face. Now! And I want the mysterious Evie found too – though I can forecast that her name’s not Evie and she won’t live anywhere near the address she gave on her employment forms.’
Within minutes Bibi came up trumps with a photograph of the fellow looking directly at a camera on the street outside the office.
‘I’ve got him, but . . .’ she hesitated as the data ran through again. ‘He’s not in the system, ma’am. He’s not in any system,’ the woman said.
‘What do you mean?’ Cordelia demanded.
‘He’s a ghost,’ Bibi said.
‘Two in one week,’ Cordelia huffed. ‘That’s rather convenient.’
‘I think you’d better fill me in,’ Rupert said.
Peter looked perplexed as well.
Cordelia nodded. ‘Let’s go to my office. Bibi, call Sidney and ask him to bring tea. We’ll be in Pharos One.’
Max hit the ramp and executed a perfect star jump, his arms outstretched and legs spread wide. He landed with ease on the downslope and spun around to watch his sister who was stamping her skis up and down, eagerly awaiting her turn. Kensy was really showing off when she flew high, flipping over backwards and thankfully nailing the dismount. The girl high-fived her brother as she skidded to a stop, showering his pants with powdery snow.
‘That was a touch ambitious.’ Max grinned at her, dusting off his trousers.
Kensy grimaced. ‘I know. But I couldn’t help myself. I’m sure that Mum will have something to say about it.’ She looked over Max’s shoulder at her parents who were watching the children’s antics from further down the slope, having stopped to see where they were and realising with some trepidation they’d discovered an impressive launch pad.
‘Here comes Soren,’ Max said, pointing his stock as the lad sped down the runway. He hit the jump and helicoptered three hundred and sixty degrees, landing the stunt perfectly before he crunched to a stop beside them.
‘That was awesome.’ Max high-fived the boy.
Soren’s grin couldn’t have been any wider. He was laughing now too.
‘What’s so funny?’ Kensy asked.
‘Do you know how many times I’ve chickened out on that move when I’ve been up here with my parents? Papa is always pushing me to go harder and faster and higher, but he and Mama sap my confidence. I always think I’m going to crash and then Papa will make fun of me. My parents think they are professionals, but they are average at best. Your parents are incredible and so are you two. I’m not sure what it is, but I must be feeding off your confidence or something.’
‘That was impressive.’ Kensy grinned at the boy. The way he smiled back at her caused a strange feeling in her stomach and she felt a hot flush rise to her cheeks. She’d noticed he had the cutest smattering of light freckles across his nose and the longest eyelashes. Kensy quickly turned away and took off to where their mother and father were waiting.
‘I’m glad you’re all in one piece after that little exhibition,’ Anna said, shaking her head.
‘Come on, Mum, we were amazing and you know it,’ Kensy replied.
Anna reached out and hugged her daughter, glad that she wasn’t having to deal with any broken bones.
‘How cool was Soren’s helicopter?’ Max said as the boys caught up too.
Anna and Ed both praised him for his skills.
‘I am relieved that worked out for you, Soren,’ Ed said.
‘Yeah, me too,’ the boy replied, biting his lip.
As the sun began to sink in the sky, long shadows crept across the snowfields and Soren looked at his watch.
Max noticed. ‘We should get back.’
‘Yes, it will take about half an hour from here,’ Soren said.
It had been a fantastic afternoon with excellent snow, no crowds and glorious sunshine. It helped that Soren was super likable and good fun. At times Max had almost forgotten they had another agenda. Anyway, their main goal for the afternoon was to get to know the boy and build trust and he thought they’d managed that in spades. Hopefully there would be an opportunity for a few probing questions before they parted ways.
This time Ed and Anna were in the lead with the children behind them. The five skiers reached the botto
m, out of breath with thighs burning, but keen to do it all again tomorrow. While Soren could have skied straight to his lodge on a higher trail he elected instead to walk back with his new friends.
They had to take their skis off as they reached the roadway – given there was only a thin dusting of snow. The group thudded along the pavement towards their accommodation before Soren stopped. ‘That’s me up there,’ he said, pointing at the spectacular timber chalet that they’d been spying on through the telescope the evening before.
‘What a gorgeous lodge,’ Max said. ‘Do your parents own it?’
Soren nodded. ‘They have quite a few places in the village, but they’re all rented. This one is our home. No one stays here except for us.’
‘What does your father do for a job?’ Kensy asked. She hoped it wasn’t too soon to be digging, but Max’s question had prompted her to make another query.
‘Papa spends a lot of time on the computer, he’s a bit of a genius – at least that’s what he tells me – and I know he has real estate investments,’ Soren said. ‘My mother is his partner in everything so they’re always talking about deals. They just bought a skyscraper in New York and an airport in England.’
‘Wow, that’s impressive,’ Kensy said.
This wasn’t in the information they’d received from Pharos, so the girl had done well.
Max remembered there had been several stories in the Beacon recently about Heathrow being on the brink of financial collapse following a hacking incident that had brought the company that owned the airport to its knees. ‘That would be cool – having your own airfield,’ he said, hoping to extract more information from the lad.
‘Oh no, it’s a proper airport. Heathrow,’ Soren said, confirming Max’s suspicions. There had certainly been no mention of Fox and Heike Van Leer as prospective buyers in anything Max had read.
‘Thanks for joining us today,’ Ed said. ‘Your knowledge of the mountain was very helpful.’
Soren grinned.
‘Maybe we’ll see you tomorrow,’ Max said.
‘I would like that, but my parents are very strict,’ the boy said.
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