I felt sick at the thought of it. “God, no. We are not discussing balls any longer.”
“Too bad.” Gregg frowned. “It’s one of my biggest assets.”
“Yeah, ass being the key phrase here.” Eldrick snorted.
I held up a hand. “Okay, moving on. You’ve all heard what he had to say in the manifesto. What’s your interpretation?”
“Ray is right,” Truman said. “The dude has issues so he’s on a mission.”
Ray sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Don’t we all?”
“‘Each of us, human or not, is the result of a series of unique lifetime experiences.’” Barnaby wagged a finger. “Ab’Jona to Cypher in ‘Dispersion Conversion.’”
“Well, we know he likes the movies,” Anson pointed out.
“Possibly,” I replied. “He references The Matrix in the manifesto.”
Eldrick frowned. “How can that prove anything? We all like The Matrix.”
“Well, maybe he’s got a background in film.” Truman considered a moment. “Or writes movie reviews. Or considered a career in acting but it got derailed because he was too ugly, untalented, or seriously misguided. Probably all three.”
Ray pursed his lips. “That just about sums up every person in Hollywood, except for the ugly part.”
I felt a headache coming on. I needed to get some sleep and let things percolate a bit more in my head.
“Okay, keep mulling over it and let me know what you come up with.” I stood. “I think it’s good enough for now. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me this week. I want to be ready for our cracker by the next round of voting. Just remember, you see something or hear something that seems off, I want you to tell me. No matter how strange it seems.”
Gregg stood as well and sauntered toward me. “Speaking of strange, baby, would this be a good time to tell you I’ve been told I have the cool sexual prowess of the Zindi?”
Chapter Twelve
The week passed slowly. The IT staff and I spent a significant amount of time strengthening the firewalls, putting protocols in place that would spot and eliminate swizzles, and overhauling the entire system of voting. I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked everything. I had meetings with Cartwright to update him on the progress, called Finn a few times about work-related issues, and went to dinner twice with Tony and his girlfriend.
The contestants had been mum as well, with the exception of Gregg, who sauntered into the IT room one day to invite me over to the mansion to watch an overnight marathon of Battlestar Galactica. I respectfully declined after informing him I’d already streamed all the episodes and watched them in order to celebrate my twenty-first birthday.
Our cracker remained silent.
No manifestos. No intrusions. No pictures of me. No nothing.
I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or worried.
On the night before the voting, I was reading a book in my hotel room when my phone binged. I’d forgotten all about it and had left it at the bottom of my purse. It took me a minute to dig it out. It was almost out of charge. Crap.
I checked the text messages.
Cara?
I didn’t recognize his number, but that was Slash for you. I typed a response.
Slash?
Si. I’ve been out of the country. I’ve missed you. Where are you?
Hollywood on a case for X-Corp. I’ve been thinking about you, too.
Good to hear. Everything okay?
Sort of.
My phone beeped steadily now. Jeez. It was about to die. I typed quickly before my phone gave out completely.
Just a sec. I need to plug into a cock.
I set it in the dock and then re-read what I’d typed. I gasped in horror. I yanked the phone out of the dock.
No, no. Not cock!
OMG! Cock.
Deck.
Dick.
Dock.
I quilt.
My phone died. I stared at it in mortification.
Holy crap.
I would never ever text again. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to look Slash in the eye after talking about dicks and cocks all in the same freaking text. Just to be on the safe side, I decided to wait a bit before plugging it in. I didn’t think I wanted to see his response in this lifetime.
Exhaling a deep breath, I stretched out on the bed to read another chapter. The next thing I knew, I woke up with the Kindle smashed in my face and slobber all over the screen.
I’d fallen asleep, fully dressed, and with all the lights on. I checked the time and saw it was already seven o’clock in the morning.
Sighing, I plugged in my Kindle and set my phone in the dock. While it charged, I hopped in the shower, got dressed, and went downstairs to the hotel lobby for the continental breakfast.
Despite Tony’s warnings about LA, I decided I to walk to the studio. I needed some fresh air to clear my mind. I retrieved my purse and phone. Now that it was charged, I saw one text message from Slash had come through. It simply read, Cara?
My face heated as I stuck the phone in my purse. I’d have to figure out how to fix the texting disaster later.
The walk and air felt great and I arrived at the studio completely unmolested. Noah came in shortly after, his eyes half-mast.
“Hey, Lexi. Do I look as crappy as you?”
“Well, good morning to you, too.”
He tossed his backpack on his desk. “We’d better catch this guy tonight. I don’t want another repeat of this week.”
“We will.”
“You know he’s going to be expecting something. A trick or a trap. How can we be sure we’re going to get him?”
“We will. We’ve only got a four-hour window to cover. We’re mostly counting on our new firewalls, isolated server, and anti-swizzle traps to keep him out and prevent a repeat of what he’s already done. He would really have to think out of the box to get past us this time.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“She is.” Melinda came in, followed by Carlos. “We are tight as a drum. We all know what to look for during the voting tonight, not to mention, we know and understand what he’s already done. He may not even know we’re on to him, so we’ll have that advantage.”
Noah turned his chair around and sat down. “But is our goal to catch him or stop him?”
I shrugged. “Both preferably, but either option is desirable.”
“Okay then. ‘May Shangra guide us and lead us into everlasting enlightenment.’”
“Oh, jeez.” I rolled my eyes. “Not you, too. You like Repercussions?”
“I’m not obsessed like Knipple, but I know of no better show on television right now, with the exception of Doctor Who.”
“I’m in full agreement,” said Carlos.
Since I couldn’t argue with that, I didn’t.
The day passed agonizingly slowly because we were ready for the cracker. We’d done everything we could and had only to wait for the voting to begin. Melinda and Noah talked me into taking a stroll with them around the studio at lunchtime. I had frozen yogurt with Kyle in the afternoon. I was literally jittering with impatience when the show finally started to air.
Thank goodness it wasn’t a live show. None of the contestants or stage crew were present, and the studio remained fairly quiet. The show was pre-taped, the clips already chosen and the conversations stitched together by frankenbiting, which made them about as fake as you could get. The contestants were at the mansion, presumably watching it. Cartwright was probably in his office, and I had no idea where Lucy or Stone watched, but I was glad it wasn’t with me. I could barely stomach the show as it was.
The show started with clips of Lucy and three of the guys at Disneyland. I almost felt sorry for Lucy because the guys
were way more into the rides than they were into her. Lucy’s boobs—or the promise of seeing them—were no match for Space Mountain. Still the crew had managed to find (or create) plenty of horrible bits of conversation to highlight and exploit.
Next up, Lucy and the remaining three guys went to Venice Beach. They ran around like idiots on the sand and stuck their feet in the water. Lucy laughingly made Gregg, Truman and Anson take off their shirts. Their skin was so blindingly white, I wanted to cover my eyes. More idiocy followed, ending with Gregg and Truman tossing Anson into the ocean.
Every single one of their conversations was beyond painful until finally, thank God above, it was finished.
Kyle let out a deep breath. “Okay, voting starts after the next commercial. Everyone to your stations.”
I sat down at my spot in front of the three monitors. I was multi-tasking, but would be keeping an especially close eye on the webserver statistics console. I’d set up an algorithm to map the graph of votes as they were tabulated electronically. If I saw any unusual spikes, it might indicate our cracker at work. The problem would be if our hacker picked the busiest moment to load any fake votes because then they would be harder to detect. But unless he could also monitor the graph, he wouldn’t know when that moment would be and would have to rely on common sense and luck. It was possible he could slip them in, but statistically improbable.
Stone came back on the television, urging everyone to vote for the guy who should win Lucy’s heart.
“Incoming,” Kyle shouted as the voting opened.
The next three hours and fifty-five minutes went fairly smoothly. No spikes, no blips, no evidence of our cracker. I almost felt disappointed.
“Five minutes until closing time,” Melinda called out.
Then I saw it. Small consistent spikes on the graph, timed six seconds apart.
“Code Red,” I shouted. “All hands on deck. I’ve got something.”
Kyle dashed over, peering over my shoulder at the spikes. “Melinda, you got something on the network?”
“Negative.”
“Noah?”
“I’ve got nothing, boss.”
Kyle hurried over to Carlos. “Come on, tell me you’ve got something.”
Carlos shook his head. “I’m looking, but I’ve got nothing.”
Kyle returned to my side. “Shit. Where is it coming from, Lexi?”
My fingers flew over the keyboard. “I’m tracing it. Come on, come on.” My mind raced as quickly as my fingers.
“Two minutes,” Melinda shouted. “Move it.”
“Come on, Lexi.” Kyle squeezed the back of my chair. “The voting’s going to close. Faster.”
“I’m right behind him.”
Melinda gulped. “Fifty seconds. Hurry.”
I kept my gaze steady. “Noah, I need some help here. Where am I?”
I heard him pounding on the keyboard. “Russia. No. Shit. India.”
“Come on, come on,” Kyle urged me.
Carlos leapt from his chair. “Lexi, it’s almost time. Hurry up.”
My fingers were still typing when Melinda said, “Voting closed. Now.”
Kyle leaned forward. “Did you get him?”
I shook my head. “No, damn it. He got past me.”
The room was silent.
I blew out a breath. “I was really close. He was better than I expected.”
Noah swiveled around. “Looks like he used a series of IP addresses in Russia and India.”
“I figured he’d be too smart to stay stateside. But he was fast...almost as if he was anticipating my every move. No blips on the network, Melinda?”
“Not a one. But the good news is that at least we can look through the server logs and wipe the votes that came at the spiked intervals.”
I sighed. “Yes, there’s that. But this isn’t about the legitimacy of the votes anymore. Our cracker is still getting in. He’s a serious threat. What if he decides manipulating the votes isn’t enough? He could do SWM serious damage, if that’s what he wants to do.”
Kyle sat down. “So, we’re toast. Back to square one.”
“Not exactly. Tonight’s incident confirmed one important thing.”
Noah looked up. “What’s that, girl boss?”
“It’s definitely an inside job. He came through my door. Now it’s just a matter of elimination.”
“So what do we do?” Carlos asked.
“First off, we wipe his votes. It will piss him off, but he’ll stay invested. I’m not giving him his way this time.”
Kyle looked at me in surprise. “But you just said he could do serious damage. Do we really want to tick him off?”
“Actually, I do. I’ve got a plan.”
Chapter Thirteen
I had just walked into the IT room the next morning when Kyle waved me into his office. He looked white as a sheet.
I dropped my purse in his visitor chair. “What’s up?”
To my surprise, he walked around me and closed the door. He was visibly agitated.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Not really. I’m not sure how to tell you this, Lexi.”
“Tell me what?”
“I think we more than pissed off our cracker by wiping the votes.”
“What do you mean?” I noticed he was not making eye contact with me. Dread niggled at the back of my throat. “Kyle? What happened?”
Kyle sat behind his desk, resting his elbows on the desk, his hand against his chin. After a moment, he closed his eyes. “There is no easy way to tell you this. You’re just going to have to see for yourself.”
My legs felt weighted as I stood and walked around his desk. I took one step toward his computer and then stopped, staring in horror at his screen.
He had, on full screen, a picture of me completely naked in my hotel shower. From the angle of the camera, you could mostly see just my boobs, or what little of them there were, but it was no less mortifying.
I blinked. For a moment, I couldn’t comprehend how it had happened or if it was even real. I couldn’t speak or breathe. Then Kyle pushed a button and I realized it was a video. For the longest twelve seconds of my life, I watched myself take a shower and start to shampoo my hair.
I was going to throw up.
Kyle clicked once and the video vanished. “Lexi, I’m sorry.”
I reached out and braced myself against the desk. My legs shook. I’d never felt so violated. I wasn’t a prude, but I was an extremely private person. That someone had the audacity to film me at one of my most vulnerable and private moments—and then post it online for everyone to see—was beyond my worst nightmare.
Anger helped me find my voice, but when I spoke, it sounded like I was someone else. “Where’d he post it?”
“Company website and the studio social media. He mailed it to the entire studio staff. I’m not sure where else. I took it down everywhere I could find it. But that didn’t stop other people from taking it and posting it elsewhere. I stopped it where I could, I swear. But you know how it goes online, Lexi.”
Oh, I knew how it went. And so did whoever posted it.
“He planted a camera in my hotel bathroom,” I whispered. “I should have thought of that.”
“How the hell could you think of that? How could anyone even fathom something so degenerate?”
“He was in my hotel room the first night I got here. He planted sniffer software on my laptop here in the studio. He took stalker-style pictures of me on my laptop.” I swallowed hard. “At least in those pictures, I was dressed.”
Kyle looked at me with wide eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I was silent.
He stood and swore. “You didn’t trust me.”
�
��I didn’t know you, and I’m dealing with an insider threat.”
“But you know me now. You know I would never do this. You have to know that, Lexi.”
The look of sheer disgust on his face made me feel better. I inhaled and closed my eyes. “Truthfully, I don’t know what I think, Kyle. Not yet. I need time to process.”
“Well, Cartwright wants to talk to you right away.”
“I’m sure he does.”
Kyle blew out a breath. “Lexi, what are we going to do?”
I felt like crying, but instead I straightened. “We hold the course.”
“What? How can we do that? What if he escalates? What if he does...something worse.”
“That’s just it. He’s trying to scare me and it won’t work. But it also tells me something else.”
“What?”
“He’s scared, too.”
I strode out of his office. I saw Melinda, Noah and Carlos huddled together whispering. They stopped and stared at me as I walked through the IT room. No one said anything as I yanked open the door and marched down the hallway. I rounded the corner when Lucy stepped out from her dressing room and nearly collided with me.
“You!” She shook her finger at me. “Why haven’t you caught that wacko yet? And why is he sending a naked video of you to everyone?”
“Shut up,” I growled. “I’m not in a good mood.”
She shook her head, her blond hair falling around her shoulders. “What the hell is taking you so long?”
I grit my teeth. “Well, Lucy, maybe you haven’t heard that cyberspace is quite vast. Or perhaps you are unaware that plugging a hole from the inside on a compromised vulnerable remote access application is pretty complicated.”
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