Double Deception

by Desiree Holt

  Tomorrow morning they’d begin the move, a process he wasn’t looking forward to, but he could do it with that pressure gone. Plus, Taylor’s assistant was working with Rosalie and had told her Mrs. Cantrell insisted he get a large enough crew that everything would go smoothly. Everyone would be in early, including the tech specialist Arroyo was sending him. Max Something. He hoped the guy knew his stuff.

  He called Rosalie after he left the Hoffman offices. “I’m done for the day.”

  She was silent for a moment. “Before midnight? You don’t think the world will stop spinning?”

  He laughed, and the laughter felt good. “It might, but today I don’t care. Tell everyone else they can quit at five.”

  “Wait! I have to alert the media.” Then she chuckled. “Do something nice for yourself tonight. You’ve earned it. But don’t forget you told everyone this morning to be here at seven sharp tomorrow. The big move. Someone from Taylor Cantrell’s office called while you were out and said the crew was ready and they’d be here at seven sharp.”

  Liam nodded. “I’ll even be early.”

  “And I’ll arrange for the coffee and pastries.” She chuckled. “Go have fun.”

  As he rode down in the elevator, he was already texting Sydney. They had communicated every day since that night at his place. She was concerned about his shoulder and also his situation. She always asked if there had been any other out-of-the-ordinary incidents. Had anything happened to trigger that sense of uneasiness again? And how was he feeling?

  He always wanted to say not as good as if she was with him, but he knew her situation. She expected the jury in her trial to return a verdict today. Hopefully, they’d both have something to celebrate.

  Dinner and a sleepover tonight? Today went well.

  Jury still out and I’m hand holding. Will let u know.

  K

  Damn! He’d sure hate to have to spend tonight alone, but he understood her situation, just as she understood his. Maybe she could at least meet him for a sandwich or a drink.

  Do you think u can steal a half hour later?

  He was at his car behind the wheel before she answered.

  Ten-thirty. Too late?

  His thumbs flew over the keys.

  No. I’ll take whatever I can get. Where?

  Hotel DaCosta. I have everyone staying there. Meet you in bar.

  I’ll b there.

  He had hoped for a sleepover, but he understood her circumstances. Probably just as well, since he had such an early call in the morning.

  He showered and changed into khakis and a soft collar shirt. Made sure to strap his special watch back on. He’d designed it with an engineer when he began designing software for defense contractors. Unknown to his staff, the last thing he did before delivering new software was embed a warning alert. He trusted the security of the code, but he never left anything to chance. Just in case some outrageously smart and clever hacker tried to hack into the program, the alert would go off and send the warning to his computer at work, his laptop and his watch.

  Then he sat in front of his television icing his knee until it was time for him to leave for the hotel.

  “Are you in disguise?” he asked when she walked into the bar. She’d exchanged her power suit and heels for slacks and an embroidered T-shirt. Her thick ebony hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore very little makeup.

  The corners of her mouth turned up in a tired smile and fatigue was in every line of her body.

  “As a matter of fact, yes. I left Sydney the lawyer up in my room. For a few hours, I can be just plain Syd.” She studied his face. “That okay?”

  “More than.” He reached across the table and took one of her hands in both of his. “I hate to see you killing yourself like this. No verdict today?”

  She gave a tired shake of her head. “I wish. I don’t know what they’re waiting for. We refuted every bit of evidence the prosecution presented and even gave them some alternatives.”

  “So, he’s not guilty?”

  “Not as far as my case is concerned, and, at the moment, that’s all I care about. I just want this done and over with.”

  A waiter came to take their order, interrupting them for a moment.

  Maybe a drink will give her a lift.

  “So why are you staying at the hotel tonight?” he asked.

  “Because it’s the better alternative to locking my client up in my house with me. He’s going absolutely nuts. His friends and business associates are keeping their distance until a verdict is in and his wife and teenage kids took a powder until this is over. I’m holding his hand over the weekend.”

  “Nice support system,” he snorted.

  “Yeah, no kidding.” She rubbed her forehead. “I am going to be owed so many favors when this is over.”

  The waiter delivered their drinks and Liam touched the neck of his beer bottle to Sydney’s glass.

  “Here’s to a verdict of innocent delivered early tomorrow.”

  “Amen to that.”

  They each took a swallow of their beverage.

  “So, let’s forget about my trial for a minute.” She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. “I know you delivered the Hoffman software. That has to be a huge relief for you.”

  “It is. We beta tested that sucker six ways from Sunday. If there’s someone who can break through it, I want to hire him.” He winked. “Right after he gets out of jail.”

  “And the move?”

  “We’re launching at seven tomorrow morning. Arroyo hired the crew for us and sent their head technical engineer to help with the electronics.”

  “What about your shadow?” She took another sip of her drink. “Any more off-the-wall incidents? Or funny feelings?”

  He shrugged. “No incidents, but that damn feeling just won’t go away. I guess I’m just becoming permanently paranoid.”

  “I never shrug off or discount feelings. Maybe once you’re moved and settled in, new quarters, it will go away.”

  “One can only hope.”

  He had just taken another sip of beer when his watch beeped at him and a red devil on the face flashed at him. Every muscle in his body tensed and he felt as if all the blood had drained from his body. For a moment he actually thought his heart had stopped.

  No. This is just not possible.

  “I have to go, Syd. I’m sorry, but I have to leave right now.”

  Her eyes widened at his reaction. “What’s wrong, Liam? What’s happening?”

  “I have to go right now.” He threw money on the table and strode toward the lobby.

  “Okay, okay. I get it. But what happened? I thought you were going to keel over dead.”

  “I might yet.” He stopped and turned to face her, resting his hands on her shoulders. “An attempt has been made to breach the Hoffman security software. I built in an alarm that alerts me if anyone tries. This has never happened before.” He planted a quick kiss on her lips. “Good luck tomorrow. I’ll call when I can.”

  He raced into the garage, thankful the elevator came right away and he was in his car in less than two minutes. As he headed down to the street, his cell rang.

  “Benedict, what the fuck is going on?” Robert Hoffman’s voice was gravelly with anger.

  Liam had also installed software on their head tech engineer’s computer that would signal him if a breach had been attempted. He was sure the man had been in touch with his boss the minute the warning sounded.

  “That’s what I’m on my way to find out right now. Call your security and tell them to let me in.”

  “You’re supposed to be the best at this,” Hoffman growled. “If you or your people fucked this up, there won’t be a place on this planet you can hide.”

  True that, Liam thought to himself.

  “I’ll be there in less than ten minutes, Robert. This could just be a one in a million glitch that I can fix on the spot.”

  “You damn well better. I’m on my way, too. I’ll see yo
u there.”

  “Good.”

  Not good.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  The night watchman at the lot at Hoffman’s building had obviously gotten the word, because he passed Liam right through. Ditto the guard on duty in the building.

  “They’re up on three, Mr. Benedict,” he said. “I held the elevator down here for you.”

  Liam just nodded as he stepped into the elevator car and pushed the button for the second floor. The ride up took mere seconds, but to him it felt like hours. When the doors opened, he strode down the corridor to the big central IT room. The building was divided according to specialties. The top floor was all office. Below it was the huge technical section, with cubicles for the individual computer specialists, large spaces for the actual project engineers, and a huge room where all the servers were housed. The door was open, light spilling out into the corridor and he could hear angry voices.

  “…as soon as he gets here.” Robert’s voice, loud and angry. “Ah. Here he is now.”

  “I’m here,” Liam acknowledged.

  “You’d damn well better be. What the fuck is going on?”

  Liam let out a breath and looked around. Besides Hoffman, there were three other men in the room. He’d met George Eisner, the project engineer, and Barry Felton, their technology guru whose job it was to see that shit like this did not happen. Nobody introduced the other man and at the moment Liam didn’t care.

  “Just give me a minute here,” he told everyone.

  He sat down at the computer Barry routinely used to troubleshoot and check everything running on the servers. His fingers flew over the keys as he typed in commands. At once code began scrolling on the screen. He watched it as he typed in more and more commands. He never looked at anyone else, keeping his focus just on what he was doing. Finally, he sat back in his chair, his shirt soaked in sweat, his head throbbing. He took a minute to massage his aching temples before turning to his client.

  “Okay. There’s good news and bad news.”

  “The first thing I want to know,” Hoffman ground out, “is if someone actually got into this system and into the files. Shit, Liam. That would be a fucking disaster, in a whole lot of ways.”

  “I know. And no, they didn’t get into anything. The alarms and failsafes I built in just before I delivered it to you worked and set off the alarms. They also locked out whoever is doing this.”

  “Explain, please,” Hoffman demanded. “In language I can understand.”

  “I know what he’s talking about,” Barry Felton said.

  Hoffman held up his hand. “I want Liam to tell us.”

  “Think of the security system as a big fence around your design software and your actual plans, those completed and those in progress. There’s a gate in the fence. A visible one and one that can’t be seen. Someone tries to breach the fence. They might get through the visible gate, but then the invisible one drops down and slams them shut.”

  “Would they know that?” Hoffman asked.

  Liam shook his head. “We don’t want them to. They might regroup and try a different hacking software, one that’s so new we don’t even know about it yet.”

  “But they get a message, right?” Stan obviously couldn’t help himself.

  “Yes. One that says the system is down, please try again later.”

  “So, then they’d wait,” Stan jumped in again. “Give it a while to reset and try again, right?”

  Liam nodded. “And that’s where they are now. So, we have some decisions to make.”

  “I want to know how the fuck this happened,” Stan demanded. “You’re supposed to be the best in the business. Everyone sings your praises. No one ever said they had a glitch like this.”

  “That’s right,” Liam agreed. Only extreme self-control was keeping him from tearing his hair out or banging his head on the desk. Hoffman was right. This had never happened before. One of his hallmarks was his ability to create unhackable software. Usually by the time hackers got to the first gate, they gave up and went to work on something else.

  “So?”

  “There’s a first time for everything. But the very good news is they didn’t get through the invisible barrier. Didn’t get into the system and nothing was disturbed.”

  “But we have to start all over, right?”

  Liam shook his head. His breathing had finally returned to somewhere east of normal and ideas were spinning in his head. “Not at all. We know the software holds, right? So, let’s see if we can set a trap.”

  George jumped in. “We can’t afford anything that’ll screw up this project. We’re on a tight timeline and the Department of Defense isn’t going to be happy if we have to give them a bunch of excuses or ask for more time. Don’t forget once we’re satisfied with the design, we still have to build the prototype, test it and work out any kinks.”

  Liam nodded. “I understand. This will not interfere with the project at all.”

  “So, what do you propose?”

  “I’d like to install a ghost program. A false design. I can tweak the security protocol so if someone tries to hack in, it will send them to the phony plans. That will give me time to get a forensic data specialist in to take apart the program on my end and see if there’s a problem.”

  Hoffman quirked an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize there were people who did that.”

  “You bet. Like forensic accountants, only they dig through coding instead of accounting.”

  “So you think there’s something wrong with the software that I just paid you a fortune for?”

  Liam’s headache was building in force again. “No. I beta tested it multiple times. Then tried to crack it again when I installed it here. But that’s the logical place to start.”

  “Can we keep working or do we have to stop?”

  “Can you hold off until noon tomorrow? I know time is tight, but that will give me a chance to create the ghost.”

  “Better to take the time and make sure we’re foolproof,” Barry told his boss. “We’ll make the time up. No sweat.”

  Hoffman looked at each of them in turn before he nodded.

  “Fine. But only until noon tomorrow.”

  “I’m going to fix this, Robert,” Liam assured him. “I’ll find the problem and take care of it.”

  “You do that.”

  Anger, shock and fear coalesced inside Liam as he left the building. He was so uptight he almost forgot to keep an eye out for any strange cars following him, easy to spot at this time of night. And oh, yeah, that feeling of being impaled on a virtual sword managed to stick itself into the mix with everything else.

  But nothing caught his attention or made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Still, he did his best to check both the rear and side view mirrors on the drive to the office. He hoped like hell whoever this was, if in fact there was someone, would leave him alone while he tried to solve a problem that could kill the Arroyo deal and destroy his young company.

  Chapter Eleven

  “I’m sorry to bother you so late,” Liam apologized as soon as Taylor Cantrell answered the phone.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. One of the first things I told you was emergencies don’t run on a clock. And I’m assuming this is an emergency.”

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  He took a hit of the strong coffee he’d picked up on his way to the office. He was too wired to go home. He wouldn’t sleep anyway and he itched to get started tackling this disaster, so he’d called from the car as he headed for the office. And shit! He remembered tomorrow was the big move. How the hell was he going to get everything taken care of?

  “Okay, let’s have it.” Her voice was blessedly unruffled. “And tell me want I can do to help.”

  Her steady voice and quiet words did more to calm his jittery nerves than anything else could have. One of the reasons, he realized, that she ran a giant conglomerate as well as she did. He kept his recitation brief but made sure he gave her the complete picture.


  She was silent for a moment and Liam’s gut knotted. But when she spoke, there was no censure in her voice.

  “Do you think someone on your staff could have manipulated the security program you wrote after the beta testing? I thought it was foolproof.”

  He swallowed a sigh. That was the first thing that had occurred to him, also.

  “Like I said earlier, this program is like a concrete barrier. Any hack would bump into it and be stopped. No further progress. I only put the alarm in as a failsafe—I never thought would be tripped. It means someone got through that first barrier. So yes, to get that far someone would have had to build in a backdoor. And that would have had to happen after the beta testing.”

  Damn! His staff was like family to him, especially those who had been with him since the beginning—Teri, Sy and Pete. If it was anyone it had to be a newer hire, someone who did not have personal loyalty to him. But even considering that made him sick.

  And what the hell would have happened if he hadn’t put that failsafe in with the alarm?

  “It has to be one of them, Liam. No one else would have had the chance. Or even the skills.”

  “God, Taylor. I just hate to think so. A couple of these people have worked with me for a long time. And everyone’s been vetted carefully.”

  Or maybe not as carefully as I thought.

  “All right. We can go over personnel records after we get this problem fixed.”

  Just like that. No yelling or finger pointing. Just right to the heart of the matter. Not that the other might not come later.

  “Right. I’d like to get a top-notch forensic data specialist in to go over every line of code in the program. That’s top priority. He or she can find the aberration, if there is one. And hopefully where it came from.”

  “Where it came from?”

  “Yes.” He swallowed another hit of coffee. “I have everyone’s computer tagged so I know who writes which code.” He paused. “Uh, Taylor, they don’t know that.”