The pleasure of her skin against his was intoxicating, and again, he heard her name tumble out of his lips. “Lindsey,” he moaned, “Lindsey.” As he spoke, he felt her body begin to quiver beneath him, her nails digging into the skin on his back and neck. In a rush, he felt her body clench and shudder, her head thrown back with a look of terrible pain and pleasure. His hands gripped at her slender hips as he took her in, overwhelmed by the beautiful vulnerability of her face and body. He felt himself begin to lose control, but did not let up his feverish pace. With every stroke, he wanted his body to sing to her and tell her he loved her.
Lindsey trembled as she raised her head. Her eyes opened, and her beautiful face looked into his eyes and saw him completely. As rivulets of water dropped from her eyelids to her lips she spoke. “I love you,” she said.
Zach buried his head in her neck hoping the water would mask the water in his eyes. Without planning to, he began to speak. “I’ll think of this,” he said into her neck, “tomorrow and the next day. I’ll think of this moment, and your body, and the taste of your skin, and how it feels to be buried inside of you.” Then a primal impulse surged through him and he ground their bodies together, his manhood slamming into her rhythmically, again and again until their limbs began to shake and Lindsey moaned in a way he had never heard before.
As the exhilaration of their union throbbed full and fast, Zach screamed in agony, knowing as soon as this moment was over, he would long for her again.
Chapter 23: Lindsey
Lindsey walked the final steps to the lab, a constant tingling sensation mixing with the ache between her legs. She wondered absently if other women felt this way after a morning of love making, but decided no. How would anything ever get done, then? She could barely function or think and didn’t even care. Her body had sunk into a happy, vibrating bliss. She pushed open the door to find Cedric leaning against his terminal in a cowboy hat and chaps.
“Hey, girl,” Cedric called out from his desk.
Lindsey dropped her bag and grinned. “Hey, Cedric. Nice hat.”
“Thank you, little lady,” he said, swiping a hand across the rim. “I figure this is one crazy rodeo and we are about to see the clown, so why not?”
“Where do you get all these clothes?”
“This lil’ get up? I made it, of course.”
“No.”
“Oh, yes, sewing stops me from channeling my nervous nighttime energy toward more nefarious pastimes. I could make you something,” he offered.
“I’ll think about that,” she said, dragging her bag by the handle to her cube and sitting down.
“I see you spent the night with the professor again.” Cedric sang out.
Lindsey shot him a look. “How would you know, nosy?”
Cedric looked at her flatly. “You have a big old fuck-knot in the back of your hair.”
Lindsey’s hand shot up and touched a tangled section of hair above her neck. “Oh, jeez,” she said, combing her short hair out with the tips of her fingers.
“I told you.” He grinned, curling his thumbs into his belt loops. “Cedric sees all.”
“I’ll remember that.” Lindsey smiled. “Any sign of you know who?”
“Not yet.”
Lindsey sighed and drummed her hands on the desk. “What are you working on over there?”
Cedric turned his monitor her direction. “Entering to win a sweepstakes vacation.”
“Oh, yeah? Where to?”
“Everywhere. It’s a world cruise. I figure, why not enter? I’m an optimist.” He grinned coyly. “Also, I built a program that has entered me 2.3 million times. By my calculations, I should win 16.4 times.”
Lindsey stared wide-eyed. “Um, wow. That’s…” She smiled. “Good for you.”
“Yeah, it’s my graduation present to myself. I am going to look so good lounging on the deck, holding colorful drinks with tiny little umbrellas. Want to enter? We could go together.”
“Nah. I want to finish what I started, first. I’ll celebrate after,” she said.
“Well, like Buddha said, ‘The only constant is change, girl’.”
“I guess that’s true,” Lindsey murmured.
The door pushed open and in walked Zach, followed closely by James. Zach gave Lindsey a wink, then walked straight to his office, as usual.
James staggered toward his desk, reeking of last night's alcohol, bumping into Cedric’s chair as he passed.
“Hey, James,” Cedric called, “rough night?”
“You know it.” He snickered. “But she’ll survive.” Then he sniffed loudly, coughed, and turned on his system.
From behind James, Cedric tapped a long finger against his nose. Lindsey nodded then pulled up a clone of James’ screen. As James’ fingers worked on his keyboard, Lindsey watched the code he typed, then brought up a second window and sent an instant message to Zach and Cedric.
“He’s in,” she typed.
“Is he buying it?” Zach typed.
“I can see him,” Cedric wrote. “His face is as vacuous and obtuse as ever.”
“Wait…” Lindsey typed. “He stopped. He’s going online. I don’t know how he could have seen our trojan this fast, he—” A moment went by, then she added. “Never mind. He’s just downloading porn.”
“FROM MY SERVERS?!?!?” Zach typed.
“Let him. It’s all being saved in the same file,” Lindsey wrote.
“Dumb ass,” wrote Cedric.
“He’s done!” Lindsey wrote. “He took it!”
Lindsey hit a key and her boss screen flew up as James closed his terminal and stood, stretching his hands over his head with a yawn. He pulled up his pants then grabbed his bag before heading toward the door. “Later,” he called out, then walked into the hall.
Lindsey, Cedric, and Zach sat silently for several moments, then converged in the center of the lab.
“He bought it?” Zach asked.
“I think so,” said Lindsey. “Now we only need the dean to buy it. I bet you a dollar James is walking straight to her office.”
“I’ll send her the fake demo code now.”
“My malware is still installed on her system. I’ll remote in to see her reaction.” Cedric informed them.
Zach frowned, but then his face went slack. “Good idea.” He shrugged. “Can I watch?”
Chapter 24: Zach
Zach dropped the blinds as Lindsey and Cedric wheeled in two more chairs. “Check again,” he said.
Lindsey pulled out her phone. “James is still at the bar. Pics of shots were just posted.”
“Okay,” Zach said, stretching out his fingers then shaking his arms. “Cedric, you good?”
“Always,” Cedric responded, propping up his laptop and hitting a key. The dean’s office sparked into view. “But hold on, one more thing…” he said, pulling out his briefcase and propping it open against the wall. “A Mojito Sparkler seems fitting,” he said, cutting limes and squeezing them into three glasses, followed by bits of fresh mint. “We will either be celebrating or drowning our sorrows before this night is over. Either way,” he said, muddling the mint and pouring in the rum, “I knew cocktails would come into play.”
“I won’t say no,” said Zach, taking a sip. “Ooh, that’s good. Alright, let’s do this.”
Zach pulled up a copy of the ghost code, his eyes scanning the work one last time. On another screen he pulled up Dean Cruz’s email address. He wrote, “Here is your demo-program.” Then attached the ghost code to the email. His finger hovered unmoving over the send button as he took a breath and reached for Lindsey with his other hand. She gripped his fingers and gave him a little nod. He looked at Cedric, the three in silent agreement as Zach hit send.
Zach dropped back in his chair and stared at the screen. “Now we wait?”
“Now we wait,” agreed Cedric, clinking the rim of his glass against the others.
Zach stroked the back of Lindsey’s fingers with his thumb. She looked at him, her wi
de eyes glistening as she gave him a small smile.
“Here she comes,” whispered Cedric, leaning forward.
The three stared at Cedric’s laptop and watched through her camera as the dean rounded the side of her desk and sat on the edge of her chair. Her eyes beat down on the screen. Her red nails flew to the keyboard, opening the ghost file then scrutinizing its contents, her eyes scrolling left then right, her eyebrows straining to move as her eyes widened.
“Is she buying it?” asked Lindsey, her legs bouncing against her chair.
“Maybe,” Zach said. “I hope so.”
The three watched in silence as the dean leaned back, stroking the chain around her neck as she considered the file’s contents. She leaned forward, grabbed her cell phone, typed something, and then tossed it back on her desk.
“What is she doing?” asked Zach.
“She must have texted James,” Lindsey said, checking her tablet. “He just posted he’s leaving the bar. That can’t be coincidence.”
Cedric smirked. “She can’t read the file. She needs James to verify. Well,” he said, leaning toward the bottle, “refill, anyone?”
The three sipped their remaining cocktails in silence, watching the now empty chair of the dean through her computer camera. The crackling of an overhead light broke the silence, and every few minutes, Cedric would sigh and shift in his chair. A moment later, voices could be heard.
“This better be good,” said a man’s voice.
“Relax,” said the dean, coming into view. “You make sure this is good for me, and I’ll make sure your night is good for you.”
She stood behind her chair as James came into view, hoodie pulled up over his head. He sat down and peered at the screen. As he did, the dean lowered his hoodie and began stroking the back of his hair with the talons on her fingers. “You’re drunk again, you bad, bad boy.”
“Ew,” Lindsey said.
“Oh, my God,” Zach said.
“Told you,” Cedric said. “Freaky bitch.”
James rolled his eyes as the dean leaned over his shoulder and began running her nails over his chest. “Well?” she asked in his ear.
“One second,” James said, twisting his neck away from her lips. “Let me work.”
Her hands pulled back and rested above his shoulders on the top of the leather chair, her fingers tapping, and her red mouth curved into a hook.
“It looks legit,” James said. “But, I’d have to test it.”
“Shit!” Zach said.
“No, no, no,” Lindsey cried. “Is he that good? Can he tell it’s a fake?”
“Hold on,” Cedric said. “The freak is on the prowl.”
The three watched as the dean dragged her red nail across the top of the chair and walked around so she was facing James. “No time for that now,” they heard her say. With her back to the screen, the dean lifted up the back of her pencil skirt and straddled James, pinning him back against the leather of the chair.
Zach’s hand darted out and shut the laptop. “I—” He swallowed. “Sorry, I didn’t want to see that.”
“Yeah,” Lindsey and Cedric mumbled simultaneously. “Gross.”
Cedric reached for his case without a word and refilled their glasses. They sipped in silence as the moments went by.
“Do you think it’s safe to take a peek?” Cedric asked.
“No!” Zach and Lindsey said together, holding the top of the laptop closed.
“Fine,” Cedric said falling back in his chair. “Then we wait.”
Lindsey reached for Zach and caressed his forehead. “Don’t worry,” she said softly. “Everything will work out fine.”
“Do I look worried?”
“A little.”
“Well,” Zach said turning toward her. “I know how to fix that. I can just look at you.” He took her hand and planted a soft kiss on her palm.
“I guess that’s my queue,” Cedric said, standing to pack up his cocktail kit. “Let me know if you find out anything else. As for me, I’m going to take a hot, hot shower and try to scour the vision of the dean and James out of my head.” He turned to go when a ping was heard.
All three swung toward Zach’s computer. “It’s her,” he said, pulling his mouse over the message. “This is it...”
Chapter 25: Lindsey
Lindsey, Zach, and Cedric huddled close together to read the dean’s email. “Good work,” it read. “Your team may continue.”
The three stood without speaking, each blinking and re-reading the message in the dim light of Zach’s office. Lindsey looked from the screen to Zach and back again, her heart racing.
“So,” Cedric said, “she bought it? She bought it, right?”
Zach exhaled and put his hands on his hips. He squinted at the email as if he wanted to yank it off the screen and turn it over in his hands to examine it. “I think—I mean…I guess so.”
Lindsey swallowed. “So, crisis averted? The good guys win? And I get to graduate after all?”
Zach turned to her as a wide smile spread across his face. “Of course, you’ll graduate.” He beamed.
Lindsey jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him suddenly on the mouth. “Yeah!” she said, clutching his shoulders. “We did it! We did it!”
“Wait,” Cedric said. “There’s an attachment.”
Zach leaned forward and grabbed his mouse. “It’s a party invitation.” Zach laughed. “God, she really did buy it. Hey, Cedric, want to go drink with the dean?”
“Hell no,” Cedric said, his face twisted. “You go drink with her.”
“How about you, baby?” Zach said to Lindsey. “Want to drink with—Lindsey? What is it?”
Lindsey crossed her arms and began to bite her lip. “That seemed easy…”
Zach and Cedric stopped smiling. They scanned each other’s faces to find reassurance. For a moment, they said nothing, then Cedric laughed. “Of course it was easy,” he said. “She’s not us. She wouldn’t spot a hack if it popped up and smacked her like a fish.”
“True,” Zach said, his eyes darkening, “but it was pretty easy.”
“Right?” Lindsey asked. “I mean, how can we be sure? It is kind of a big deal, right?” she said. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid.”
“No,” Zach said, his jaw tightening. “You’re right. We can’t just drop it. We have to find out.”
“And how would we do that, Professor?” Cedric said, his arched eyebrows spiking. “Go ask her? Like, ‘Um, hello Freaky D, did you believe that bullshit we sent you was real? Just checking.’”
“No,” Zach turned. “We hack back in.”
Cedric’s mouth dropped open. “You…” he asked, “want to hack the dean?”
Zach shook his head. “It’s the only way. Then we can see if she’s unpacked it and sent it to Brenda True.”
“Seriously?” Lindsey asked, her voice rising. “What if she sees us?”
Cedric dropped his martini case and popped his knuckles. “I’ll reconfigure the root directory so only we can use it,” he said. “Even if she saw it, she wouldn’t know it was us.”
Lindsey reached out for Zach. His hand had balled into a fist at his side. With her fingers she unclenched his fist and held his hand firmly in hers. “That should work,” she said.
“Alright,” Zach said, “but do it carefully.”
Cedric sat, then swung his head from side to side until they heard his spine crack. Then he stretched his long fingers over Zach’s keyboard and began to type. As multiple windows flashed and dropped against the monitor, Zach and Lindsey stood behind him, their arms wrapped tightly around each other’s waists.
The screen flashed green and then black as Cedric built a new back door into the dean’s system.
“Wait,” Zach said as Lindsey’s fingers tightened into a fist at his back, “don’t leave any crumbs. Change the data file, use a different IP.” But as the words left his mouth the screen went still.
Cedric craned his neck to look b
ack at Zach and Lindsey. “I’m in,” he said. “That was fast. She doesn’t even use a two-step verification.”
Zach leaned forward and took the mouse, pulling up new screens. “Hold on,” he said. “She might not be as dumb as she looks.”
“He’s right,” Lindsey blurted, grabbing the back of the chair. “This is too easy!”
A flash of code appeared in the corner of the screen, a series of red boxes popped then disappeared, and a stream of data surged out. “Shut it down!” Lindsey screamed. “Shut it down now, they’re in the network!”
Zach pushed Cedric’s chair out of the way and lunged at the back of his system, ripping all of the cords loose from the wall. A spark lit the now darkened wall as the machine’s steady whir sputtered and stopped.
“No!” Zach cried, as he ripped the computer from the wall and tore the hard drive from the back. “Wipe everything,” he yelled, as he pulled open his desk drawer and removed a drill.
“Zach,” Lindsey whispered, reaching out to touch his shoulder. “Zach…”
“No,” Zach said shaking off her touch. He held the metal hard drive against the desk with one hand then forced a drill bit into its core. “No…” he repeated as he pulled the bit out and drilled in again.
Lindsey turned toward Cedric who had curled his long hands around the back of his neck, an anguished look darkening his face. When he saw Lindsey, he just shook his head. “It’s too late,” he whispered.
“No,” Zach said, running to the microwave. He put the drive inside and hit start. Within seconds the microwave sputtered, flashed, then shut down, smoke drifting from inside.
Lindsey walked up behind him. “Zach, it’s okay, we—”
“It’s not okay, Lindsey,” Zach said, whipping toward her, his eyes aglow. “It’s not. They backtracked us. They used a worm.”
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