by R A Wallace
“There’s this guy, a guy that worked for Gallagher. His name is Jesse.”
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. What about Jesse?”
“Before it happened. Before Dad found the owner of Gallagher’s in the pool. Jesse said something to me.” The caution was back in his eyes.
“What did he say?” Callie held her breath.
“That I’d better worry about my job.”
Callie drew her brows together. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. But he also said maybe I could work for Guy Gallagher after Dad’s business went under.”
“Is that it?”
Blake held his hands up in a helpless gesture as he shrugged. “Yeah, I think. Wait, no. He said something else but I don‘t think I caught it all and I didn’t understand what I did hear.”
Callie crossed her arms and waited.
Blake lifted his hands again. “It probably isn’t important. It was just something about families.”
Chapter Seven
It did it again. If she didn’t know better, she’d think the combination printer scanner hated her. Ariana lifted the lid and took the document from the glass. Not sure what to do next, she unplugged the scanner and plugged it back in again. It came to life with a vengeance and immediately pulled all of the paper from the printer tray through. Holding her breath as the device made unbelievable noises, she watched as it eventually churned a few inches of the paper wad out before grinding to a halt with even louder noises.
At least it was better than having the paper get stuck all inside. She firmly grasped both sides of the thick wad that had been churned out and pulled. Nothing happened. She tried again, this time with a lot more force. The printer made a grinding noise in protest as it finally gave up its hold. The thick wad of papers in her hand were ruined. Not only were many of them bent at odd angles on the edges, they were also ripped in several places in the middle and there were dark ink streaks everywhere on the top pages.
She dumped the wad of ruined papers into the trash and opened her desk drawer to get more. It was empty. She must have used all of the papers in the last ream and hadn’t replaced it from the stock in the back yet. She started to walk toward the storage area in the rear then stopped and went back to her computer. She could hear Michael’s voice in her head reminding her to lock her screen before walking away from her computer. Anyone could walk into the office and gain access to their computer records if she didn’t.
Since she was in the back near the small kitchen anyway, she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before going into the storage room to get another ream of paper. While she was there, she decided to get another folder from the old archives to begin scanning it in. She was digging through the filing cabinet when she heard the phone in the front of the office begin to ring.
She tried grabbing the folder, the ream of paper, and the bottle of water before running back to the front but ended up dropping the bottle of water. When she bent down to pick it up, the folder slipped from her hand. By the time she got everything under control again, she heard a voice. Moving as quickly as possible, she ran to the front. She found Mrs. Brzeski standing behind her desk with the phone in her hand.
“I know Mr. Divine will be sorry he missed your call. I’ll be sure to get the message to him immediately.” Clara flashed a smile at Ariana. “You have an appointment scheduled with him on Monday of next week?” Clara motioned to Ariana.
Ariana stepped around and unlocked her screen before pulling up the scheduling software. She switched to Monday.
“Yes. I see it. The appointment is for ten in the morning. Sounds wonderful. Mr. Divine will see you then.” Clara hung up the phone.
“Hoo, thanks. I didn’t expect to be away from my desk that long.” Ariana opened her drawer and put the new ream of paper inside while Clara moved out of her way.
“Not a problem. I used to answer the phones for Corky sometimes too.”
“You did?” Ariana removed the lid from her bottle of water. “What was he like?”
“Corky?” A sad look crossed Clara’s face. “He was so full of life, that one was. He had a way of looking at things differently. He was always trying to help other people. Made me feel like I should too, you know? Sometimes he was too smart for his own good though. In the end, that may have worked against him. He was really good with history, but he didn’t keep up with technology very well.”
“Like not using the two letter designations for states? Sounds like he must have been an interesting person,” Ariana said as she fed more paper into the printer scanner.
“That he was. I still miss him. I liked helping him out with his work. Oddly enough, it made me feel like a better person.”
Ariana put the document she’d been trying to scan back on the glass. “If you want to help with this, I would really appreciate it. The scanner doesn’t seem to hate you as much.”
Clara laughed. “Like with most things, I’ve discovered that you just have to let it know who the boss is.”
***
Simon waved as he left the pool area. Everyone seemed happy now that the showers were working again near the pool. He climbed into his golf cart and disengaged the break as he turned the key. Nothing happened. He checked the battery indicator. There was no activity. The needle was all the way down in the red. That shouldn’t be happening. He’d just charged it. He pulled his phone out and called Kevin at the office.
“Have you been having any trouble with the golf cart?”
“No, but I don’t use it as much as you do. Why?”
“The batteries are dead.” Simon waved as a couple went by on a cart.
“Has it been keeping its charge the way it should?”
Simon thought about it as he pulled the keys out and pocketed them. “No, I guess I have been charging it a lot lately.”
“A couple of weeks ago you let the charger run all night. I wonder if it overcharged and boiled everything out?”
Simon closed his eyes for a moment as he thought about it. It was possible. He couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d really checked the battery or added water to it. He began walking back to the office as he disconnected with Kevin. By the time he reached it, he was feeling the full afternoon sun. The air inside the office was a welcome relief. Kevin handed him a bottle of cold water as soon as he stepped inside.
“Thanks. I definitely have to get the cart fixed. There’s no way I can walk all over this place on a regular basis at this time of year.”
“I called the company you use and asked them to put a rush on it. They had a truck in the area already and said they can be here in less than an hour.” Kevin returned to the chair at the front desk.
“I wonder how long they’ll have to keep the golf cart to fix it?” Simon sat in the visitor’s chair and took a long drink.
“The woman on the phone said he has batteries in his truck. He’ll have them swapped out in no time right here. No need to take it.”
“Oh, excellent.” Simon felt better already. He flashed a smile at Kevin. “Thanks.”
***
“It did it again.” Lily turned to the others. She tried to keep her voice low but, because of the noise in the large room coming from the hundreds of other students around them, it was almost impossible to do and still be heard.
“Are you sure?” Aiden leaned over to look. Frustrated that he didn’t have his hands on the keyboard, he knew his words had come out sounding harsher than he’d meant. “Sorry.”
Lily shook her head. “No, it’s okay. Here. Look.” She pulled up another window that allowed her to enter computer commands at a prompt rather than rely on a more user-friendly graphical interface.
“Run the command to show your open ports,” Aiden said.
Lily frowned as she entered in a command. “This will show us a few things.”
“But not as much as I’d like to see,” Aiden said.
Xiang tapped Aiden on the arm. “What about using a network protocol analyzer?”
Lily shook her head. “I don’t have one of those installed on my computer.”
“I do. Hold on.” After keying in some commands, Angelina flipped her computer around to show her screen to the others. “Look. Right there.” She pointed at one of the data packets that she had just captured. “If I follow that conversation, I might be able to figure out what it’s doing.”
“I can install that same program on your computer too if you’d like,” Xiang said to Lily as he ran the same scan on his own computer.
Lily rolled her eyes at him and quickly installed it herself as the others either scanned their own computer or downloaded the same software as Lily so they could run the scan too.
“Bingo,” Angelina said as she looked over Alejandro’s shoulder. She pointed at his screen. “You have it too. That packet right there.”
“That’s messed up,” Alejandro said. “How’d they get into our computers?”
“And what are they doing?” Aiden asked. “It has to have something to do with the contest.”
“Why else would we all have it?” Xiang agreed. “This is the only network we have in common, when we all brought our computers here.”
“The question is, what are we going to do about it?” Lily asked.
They all looked around the group.
“We could all do scans and save them to a file,” Angelina said.
“What good would that do?” Alejandro asked.
“We would give the packet capture files to Sierra and Michael.” Lily looked around the group for support. “They’d know what to do, right?”
Everyone in the group nodded agreement as they began typing.
Shane stopped in the doorway to the large meeting room and looked around at the students inside. “You ever wish you’d gotten into computers?”
Bailey scanned the room. “Hey, I know how to use a computer.”
“Yeah, but not like these fanatics. They spend every waking moment with a computer attached to their fingers.” He paused in his scan of the room to check out a group talking a little louder than the others. One of the kids stood up from their chair and pumped their fists in the air.
Bailey followed his gaze to the group. “Gamers.”
“Do you believe it?” Shane asked. “They’re all excited because they just won some stupid game.”
Bailey thought back to her time on the police force. “It’s a better hobby than what some have. At least they aren’t out hurting people.”
“We should check the perimeter of the building.” Shane turned to leave the room. “You don’t get into that stuff, do you?”
“I definitely don’t know as much about computers as these kids do,” Bailey said as she followed him out.
“Who would want to?” Shane muttered under his breath.
***
Greyson wondered what everyone else in the Indigo Investigations team was doing. If it weren’t for the pulsating music and loud, obnoxious people who’d already had too much to drink, he might actually be enjoying himself. He was, after all, standing on a large yacht. Unfortunately for him, so were a lot of other people. Of course, most of them were dancing.
He looked across the crowd of swimsuit clad people. Many were young, like Makayla, but not all of them. She was in the center of the crowd dancing with several people at the same time. Greyson noticed that she kept a smile on her face but, from where he stood, it didn’t really look like she was having a good time. He also noticed that she’d opted not to wear her recent bikini purchase.
As soon as the song ended, he pushed his way through the crowd and handed her a bottle of water as he guided her out of the crowd. “You should stay hydrated.”
She stared at him with deep blue eyes for a moment before turning away from him to lean on the railing.
He did the same as he waited for her to drink some of the water. When she took only a few sips, he nudged her. “Drink more. It’s good for you.”
“You’re not my babysitter.” Her waist-length hair blew in the breeze. She gathered it together with one hand and held it.
“I feel like I am.”
“Why are you complaining? Daddy is paying you well enough.”
“To watch you have a bad time,” he said as he stared out at the water.
“I’m enjoying myself.”
“You’re bored.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She turned and slammed the water bottle back into his hands before returning to the others.
Greyson watched as the group opened up to allow her inside then closed again around her. Makayla turned toward him when she reached the center, her deep blue eyes shooting darts at him as she began to dance again.
Chapter Eight
She parked her car in front of the main office for Gallagher Aluminum and Roofing. She knew that her father was often in the office at the end of the day to monitor the daily progress of the teams he had assigned to various jobs. Not only was it important that they keep to schedule, he also needed to know when he’d be able to move them from one completed job to begin the next contract. He would need to have the materials in place for all of the next jobs in order to ensure his teams could begin work immediately.
She entered the small modular home the Gallagher employees used for their office. A woman sat at a desk with a computer. There were piles of paperwork scattered around her desk. Callie recognized them as job orders, receipts, and invoices. On the other side of the room, a man about her age stood staring at her.
“Can I help you?” The woman at the desk didn’t look happy to have a customer in her office. No doubt, she was accustomed to offering vague responses on the progress or schedule of a job before hanging up the phone.
“I’m looking for Jesse Dixon.” Callie watched the woman’s eyes shift to the man across the room.
“Who’s asking?” He had a deep voice. He kept his dark hair short with a buzz cut and wore a pair of faded blue jeans and a tight tee that hinted at a wiry frame.
“Callie Indigo.” Given the smirk he now sported, she assumed she’d found him. She motioned toward the door. “Got a minute?” She stepped outside without waiting for his response.
He followed her down the steps and stood next to her in the blazing sun. Callie slid her sunglasses back into place. Jesse didn’t have his with him. He squinted at her in the blinding sun.
“Looks like business as usual around here,” Callie said.
“I have a business to run.” Jesse shifted his weight. “What about it?”
“I didn’t know you were the second in command. My condolences for your loss.” Callie watched the emotions cross Jesse’s face from behind her sunglasses.
“Unlike some companies, Gallagher’s has a lot of business. We need to keep up with our jobs.”
“Yeah, about that. I understand you spoke with my brother recently.”
“So?”
“So I was wondering what you meant when you told him that he’d better worry about his job.” Callie watched as his eyes shifted to the side for a moment. “And that maybe Blake could work for Gallagher’s when my father’s business went under.”
Jesse’s eyes snapped back to her. “I never said any of that. If your brother claims I did, he’s lying.”
“Why would he do that?”
Jesse shrugged. The anger appeared to have drained out of him. “Maybe he’s just making that up to cover for the fact that your father is the prime suspect for Guy’s murder.”
Callie’s face remained impassive. “I believe what my brother told me. Maybe you aren’t telling me the truth now?”
Jesse’s face twisted into a smile just as a voice called out to him. He looked past Callie.
The woman working the desk in the office was standing at the open door. “There’s a call for you about a problem at a job site. I think you should take it.”
“I think you’ll find that’s not the case,” Jesse said to Callie before moving past her on his way inside.
***
Sierra leaned over Michael’s shoulder. They could hear a constant hum of voices from the students, the program advisors, and building staff as they all went about their business. They’d managed to find an unoccupied corner to work together on the files the students had brought to them. They spent nearly two hours combing through the packet capture results.
“We’ll need to look at these longer,” Michael muttered to himself.
“It looks like there’s a lot there to find,” Sierra agreed.
Michael brought his hands up and rubbed at his head as he thought. “We know for sure the students were right.”
“Agreed. But we need to confirm everything that’s going on,” she said.
“We should run our own scans and capture some more packets. Maybe even run a few penetration tests in addition to vulnerability scans. Might be more going on than what the students thought.”
She nodded slowly. It was certainly possible. “Technically, we should get permission to do that.”
He expelled a breath. He knew she was right. “Yeah. We definitely shouldn’t do any pen testing on a network without the company’s permission.”
She straightened. “Okay, so what do we have so far? Definitely eavesdropping attacks.”
“Definitely. Someone is getting access to the packets that are being transmitted on the network in the building.”
“That means they’re able to see what is being communicated.” Sierra put her hands on her hips.
“There’s also evidence of at least one watering hole attack.” Michael scrolled back through the results to look at them again.
“They’re luring the users on the network and infecting their computers with malware.” Sierra narrowed her eyes as she considered it. “That would have to be something pretty ingenious to lure in people at this level.”
Michael nodded slowly. “It would have to be something that the students trust.”
“Like the web site for the facility?” Her eyes looked around the room without seeing. “Or maybe the web site for the contest?”
“Either one is a good option,” Michael agreed. “These are pretty tech savvy students. They wouldn’t easily be duped into clicking on something they shouldn’t.”