Rich: Benson Security 5

by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

  “I’m getting more coffee,” Harvard said with an amused shake of his head. “Want some?”

  “Totally.” Elle bounced in place.

  “It looks like you’ve already had too much caffeine. And this dress is Chanel, not Gucci,” Rachel felt the need to point out.

  “My mistake.” Elle didn’t sound contrite. “Anyway, I’m going to ignore the fact you’ve sent me about a million texts—some of which were pretty damn insulting—asking why I wasn’t here catering to your every whim. For your information, I got in at five this morning and spent the hours before the IT department turned up checking their protocols. After that, I was given a tour of the facility as part of my orientation. I didn’t complain as it was a good way to scope out the place. And now I’m here. Not playing video games, as you so rudely suggested.”

  Rachel sat down in her desk chair again. It was like sitting on rocks. Slippery, jagged rocks. The shiny leather meant her backside kept shifting forward, while hard little lumps under the cushion made it painful to move. Or stay still. The chair had to go. She could put up with everything else—the furniture that looked like it had been used in the production set for the movie Wall Street, walls painted a delicate shade of vomit green, and overhead lighting that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a government building. But she could not sit on that damn chair a second longer.

  She grabbed her phone and stood while she opened the website of a reputable office supply company. “One second,” she said, as she ordered a top-of-the-line desk chair—in red. “Okay, carry on. What were you saying?”

  “It’s good to know I have your full attention. I was saying that TayFor’s head of security has a bug up his butt the size of a VW Beetle.”

  “Terrance? He seems capable enough. What’s the problem with him?”

  “You mean apart from the fact it’s Terrance and never Terry?” Elle was saying as Harvard came into the room and handed her a coffee.

  “Terrance King knows what he’s doing,” Harvard said. “He’s just an asshole about it. He thinks he could have handled this situation in-house and sees bringing in Benson Security as a slight to his ego. Big-fish-little-pond syndrome.” He looked around for another chair, but there wasn’t one.

  “Have mine,” Rachel told him and watched carefully as he sat. He didn’t appear uncomfortable. “Don’t you feel like you’re sitting on rocks?”

  “Nope.” He sipped his coffee.

  “Well, you can keep the chair. I’ve ordered another one that should arrive later today. Sitting on that is agony.”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about; this feels fine.”

  “Either Rachel has a really boney backside—” Elle piped up.

  “Rachel’s ass is perfect,” Harvard interrupted.

  “Or,” Elle carried on, “this is a case of The Princess and the Pea. Which I could totally see, because if ever there was a princess…” She trailed off and glared at Harvard. “Stop looking at her backside. There’s no place for flirting on this job.”

  His grin was wicked. “If I don’t flirt, how will I tease her into giving in? There’s a bet to be won.”

  “Could we please focus on the reason we’re here?” Rachel snapped.

  Harvard’s wide smile seemed far more intimate than it should have. “Tell us what you found on the servers, Elle,” he said.

  Elle looked up from her laptop and reached for her drink on the small glass and steel box that served as a coffee table. “To cut a long story short, there’s been no tampering with the main backup server in the basement. It’s locked up like Fort Knox. Someone would need access from security and one of the tech team at their side to get in there. Any hacking of research files must have been done in the labs.”

  “And we’re sure we can strike the IT department techs off our suspect list?” Rachel asked.

  Ever since accepting the job from her father, Benson Security had been hard at work investigating the staff and eliminating them from the suspect pool. Unfortunately, all the clues they’d uncovered so far had led the team to believe that a senior staff member of TayFor must be selling secrets. And most of the senior members were family.

  “The IT department isn’t involved.” Elle took another gulp of her coffee and followed it with a blissful sigh. “The way things are set up, they wouldn’t recognize the pertinent information in order to sell it. All research files are encrypted before storage. The only way you’d know what they were would be if you knew the research and went in looking for particular information.”

  “In other words,” Harvard said, “the IT team has the ability to steal from the system but can’t read the files, so they wouldn’t know what was worth stealing.”

  Elle nodded. “The only thing they could do is copy everything and sell it in bulk, hoping whoever bought it could crack the encryption and find something useful.”

  “It would narrow down the search for the thief if we knew whether they were selling encrypted files or ones they’d already decoded,” Harvard mused.

  Elle’s attention snapped to him. “If they were unencrypted before they were sold, that would mean someone had to have read them here. The encryption key is localized to this complex. But all TayFor files are automatically encrypted when they’re saved or copied…”

  Elle stared at Harvard, but it was clear her mind was elsewhere. It was fascinating. You could almost see her brain working.

  “We need to run a search for anyone who might have acquired a copy of the encryption key. That would be damn hard to get. It’s coded into the system. I doubt even the IT guys know what it is. But…if someone has one, there would be a ghost trail on their computer. With the right program, we can find it.”

  “All I’m hearing is blah, blah, blah computers,” Rachel complained. “Which makes me think we could have run this investigation from Benson Security, so I didn’t need to come here in the first place. Surely you could have hacked the system from there?”

  “Rachel!” Elle sounded shocked. “Please tell me you know that most of the computers at TayFor aren’t connected to the internet.”

  “I haven’t been here in ten years; how would I know that?” Now she was definitely losing patience. She paced her office, feeling the walls close in on her with every step she took.

  “Each building is a standalone network with its own server that backs up everything in an encrypted format. And that’s backed up by the server in the basement. Even the connection between that server and the others is a closed system. In other words, no way to get into it from the outside.”

  “How on earth do the research scientists communicate with the outside world if they don’t have internet access in their labs?” Rachel asked.

  “The office building has internet access.”

  “So, all the thief needs to do is download the research onto a thumb drive, take it to the office building, and email it out,” Rachel said. “Shouldn’t we check those computers and get this over with?”

  “No.” Elle shook her head, making the bright red waves bounce. “Apart from the fact most computers have all unnecessary USB ports disabled, every machine in the building’s fitted with a program that records downloads. If one occurs, both security and the section boss are sent an automatic notification. Even if they did somehow manage to download the files without being noticed and email them from their office, there are firewalls upon firewalls to stop anything like that getting out. It just isn’t possible.”

  “Could they have transferred it to their phone and sent it that way?” Rachel said.

  Harvard answered, “Phones, smartwatches, any personal devices are left at the security station in each building. Staff then go through metal detectors and scanners. No form of electronic storage is allowed into the labs—including thumb drives.”

  “Okay, but they must have laptops they take home to work on.” Rachel’s parents had often brought work home, some of it sensitive.

  “Any data that’s taken outside the building has to be
approved by department bosses, and it’s only allowed out on TayFor’s own encryption-enabled laptops,” Elle said. “Each of which is examined by the IT division when it’s returned, to check there’s been no unusual activity. No personal laptops are allowed within the facility.”

  “This is impossible.” Rachel threw up her hands in disgust.

  “No, but it’s going to be hard. The thief is hacking the system from inside, somehow. We just need to figure out how.” Elle’s voice had lowered as though she wasn’t even aware they were in the room with her anymore. “I need Harry’s help. He literally writes the code to catch ghost programming. I’ll shoot him an email and see what time zone he’s in, maybe set up a meeting.”

  “He’s in Scotland,” Rachel said. “They’re busy setting up home in Invertary. I’m not entirely sure he’ll be available to help. He has other priorities now he’s sold his share of Benson Security.”

  Elle blinked at her. “Harry will make time. This is your family’s company we’re talking about.”

  “I don’t see what that’s got to do with it.”

  Elle and Harvard shared a look that Rachel couldn’t quite interpret.

  “You really don’t, do you?” Elle said. “Harry cares about you; you’ve been friends since uni. You’re the reason he was able to set up his programming company in the first place. Before you guys bought into Benson Security. This will be important to him because it’s important to you. That’s how friendship works, Rach.”

  Rachel arched an eyebrow at her. “It astonishes me just how naïve you are. The world doesn’t work like that. Harry’s moved on. He’s busy with his own life, and he has no interest in mine.”

  “Wow,” Elle said. “What happened to make you this cynical?”

  “What happened to turn you into such a Pollyanna?”

  “Honey,” Elle said, “I was born this way.”

  “Hello,” a voice called. “Anyone in there?”

  “Remember your covers,” Harvard ordered as the door opened, and he moved to stand slightly in front of Rachel.

  “Oh my, you do take your responsibilities seriously, don’t you?” Cousin Samantha purred as she eyed Harvard’s protective stance. “I swear I don’t intend Rachel any harm. There are no weapons on my person, but you’re welcome to frisk me if you’d like.”

  Harvard just gave her a polite smile. Sam smiled back before turning to Elle, and that’s when her jaw dropped. The sight almost made Rachel laugh.

  Putting on her best boss voice, she stepped around Harvard. “That will be all, Elle. We’ll go over my schedule later. Samantha, this is my new PA, Elle Roberts. HR sent her up. Elle, this is Samantha Talbot, director of marketing.”

  Elle gathered her things and stood, beaming at Samantha. “It’s lovely to meet you. I’m so excited to be working at TayFor. My last job was behind the reception desk at a local cat rescue place; this is going to be so much more fun.” With that, she left the room, closing the door behind her.

  “I don’t know what to say.” Samantha seemed genuinely stunned.

  “Are you here for a reason?” Rachel asked, letting her impatience show.

  Not that it bothered Samantha. “Yes, I came to get you for the board meeting. I wasn’t sure if you’d remember where the conference room was located.”

  “Unless it’s moved in the past ten years, then I remember fine.”

  “Has it really been ten years since you were here last?” Samantha hooked her arm through Rachel’s and led her out of her office. “Do grab her bag,” she called over her shoulder to Harvard. “Oh, I remember. That was the summer you interned for your father and I worked on the PR for the new drug launch. We had fun then, didn’t we? I miss those days. Even now that you’re back in London, I don’t see you nearly as much as I did when we were still students, and that says a lot given that we studied in different cities.”

  “People get busy,” Rachel said as they walked down the corridor to the corner of the building where the conference room sat.

  “Well, get unbusy because I’ve found the most delightful little boutique full of bridesmaid dresses that are to die for. And, of course, wedding dresses,” She added, almost as an afterthought. “We are going to visit it. No excuses.”

  “You found the perfect bridal shop between Saturday night and this morning?”

  “I might have started looking last week as soon as I heard the news of your engagement.” Samantha pouted. “Don’t be mad at me. We both know you need me for this.”

  What she needed was some serious counseling to help her assess her life choices.

  Harvard stepped in front of them to open the conference room door, handing Rachel her handbag as he did so. “I’m going to familiarize myself with the building while you’re in the meeting. Text me when you’re done, and I’ll escort you back to your office.”

  “I hardly think that’s necessary,” she said. “I can practically see the door from here.”

  “Just humor me until I’m confident you’re protected while inside TayFor.”

  Even though she knew it was all pretend, Rachel couldn’t help the little flip her heart did at his words. Especially seeing as she was very much aware of the photo tucked inside her bag, and the fact that she hadn’t felt truly safe since the night it was taken.

  It seemed the all too observant man read something in her demeanor that bothered him, because he leaned in to whisper, “I can stay if you need me.”

  She stepped back with a jerk, holding her head high. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

  “Oh, oh,” Samantha said. “I suspected you two had had a falling out. It’s all in the body language.”

  “We haven’t had a falling out,” Rachel snapped.

  “Well, you don’t look like a couple in love.” Sam cocked her head and studied them. “There’s something that isn’t quite right, and I can’t put my finger on it. But as soon as I do, I’m going to sort the two of you out.” She patted Rachel’s arm. “Don’t worry, I’ve had many relationships. You can trust me to help.”

  “You haven’t had any relationships,” Rachel told her. “You’ve had affairs. There’s a difference.”

  “Rachel!” Her cousin Rupert elbowed his way past his sister. “It’s fabulous to see you back in the fold and congrats on the engagement.” He wrapped her in a quick, hard hug before pumping Harvard’s hand. “Welcome to the family.” He turned back to Rachel. “Can you believe I’m on the board now? And I work here.”

  “Sometimes,” someone barked from inside the room.

  Rupert looked sheepish. “Preston’s mad because I went to Paris on Friday instead of coming to work. Apparently, I have to be here every day. Who knew?”

  Rachel shook her head at her cousin. Even though there was only a year between them, she often felt decades older than him.

  “Look at us.” Rupert wrapped an arm around her shoulder and his sister’s. “The gang back together again. We should go clubbing. For old times’ sake. We haven’t done it since you two were in uni. Let’s do it. What do you say?”

  “I say,” his father, Charles, shouted from inside the room, “let’s get on with this blasted meeting, shall we?”

  “I’m in trouble again,” Rupert whispered, before giving her one last squeeze.

  After running his fingers through the blond hair that matched his sister’s, he tugged at his tie as though he wasn’t used to wearing one and entered the room.

  “Come on,” Samantha said as she took Rachel’s arm. “Let’s go save Rupert from the wolves.”

  And then the door closed behind them, leaving Harvard on the other side. And Rachel feeling strangely alone.

  Chapter Eight

  Rachel took one look at her disabled car before turning to Harvard. “You got Ryan to do this, didn’t you?”

  Harvard scratched his chin and made a mental note to have a quiet word with his teammate. “I thought he’d be more subtle.”

  “That fool doesn’t know the meaning of the word.” She glar
ed back at her car. “The wheels better be back in place by morning. This is a travesty. That car is a classic and he’s propped it up on common garden bricks.”

  Okay, now she’d lost him. “Should he have used gold bars?”

  She ignored him. “Do you know what this means?”

  “That Ryan had too much time to think about this?”

  “No, that his infantile sense of humor has returned. Months of brooding, and now he’s back in puppy mode.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Make it stop.”

  “How?” Ryan had lost his sense of humor after being conned and abandoned by a woman in South America. And if he was coming out the other side and joking around once more, Harvard didn’t plan on making him miserable again. He wasn’t that kind of guy.

  “You honestly don’t know?” Rachel tapped on the iPhone that never seemed far from her hand, then held it to her ear. “Ryan, my car will be in one piece by first thing tomorrow, or there will be consequences. This is exactly the sort of juvenile thing you did before that woman in Peru used and abused you. What was her name again? Oh, yes, you called her Essie, didn’t you? It was terrible the way she walked all over you like that. A lesser man would never have forgiven and forgotten as easily as you have. But still, I’d prefer it if you didn’t use your newfound lightness to mess with my car. Sort it please.” She hung up. “That should have him brooding again by the morning.”

  Harvard folded his arms. “That was a crappy thing to do.”

  “And necessary. I can’t cope with him bouncing all around me right now.”

  Yeah, other people might let her get away with that sort of shit, but he wasn’t one of them. “Rachel, behaving like this is beneath you.”

  “No, this is who I am. Which makes me wonder if you even know the woman you’ve been trying to woo for months. And I use the word trying in every sense of the word, as your efforts have been seriously trying my patience.”