“Wait a minute. I’m not an idiot. I work with coding languages and complicated UI all the time.”
“I promise, as soon as we finish with our search for Sibella’s murderer, I will show it to you whether or not it’s finished.”
“You said she provided you documentation. Did you develop this software for Dunlevy?”
Dothan hesitated.
Think of something. Think of something.
“No. Sort of…not exactly. I created it on my own and skirted around the non-disclosure by using my personal laptop to run the software through a secure environment I set up on an unused server.”
“You should have been more careful,” she said. “Those NDAs can be tricky when there’s lucrative code involved.”
“It’s cool. I read through the agreement, and as long as nothing is created on their servers or data is left on their systems, they can’t get me. Since I developed the software on my laptop, the code is mine.”
“Conscentiam makes you initial every single paragraph to prove you’ve read it and understood it. They don’t play games.”
“I get the impression they’re nothing but bullies.”
“A lot like Agnes,” she said.
Dothan nodded. “She pissed me off today, barfing the same stuff she always does. The company is dangerous, you’re dangerous, everyone who breathes the air at Conscentiam is dangerous.”
“What made you even speak to her after the other day?”
Dothan shrugged. “I wanted to find out what she knew about blackballing and that Gilmore dude, but it didn’t work. She just blanked me.”
“Jesus,” said January, covering her face. “Why do you keep telling this woman everything? If she confesses to Dunlevy, you could lose your internship, and if Conscientiam gets wind of you asking stupid questions, there could be real trouble for both of us.”
He scowled as he grabbed his laptop from the floor. “There’s no way Agnes will tell the higher-ups at Dunlevy without it biting her on the ass, and she won’t contact anyone at Conscentiam. I can swear blind she has no connection to your company at all. In fact, I don’t think she’s had any kind of social interaction for thirty years outside of those boxes of files in the basement.”
January shook her head. “I feel certain she’s hiding a lot more than you know.”
“If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ve already dug around for info on Agnes, but everything comes back squeaky clean. Not even a parking ticket. Unless she’s a top secret mega-spy in her spare hours, I don’t think she’s any more dangerous than you are.”
“I know this will sound a bit…a lot paranoid, but have you checked her work area, or looked through her things?”
Startled, Dothan said, “Have I…what? Hell, no. What would be the point in that?”
January laid her head on Dothan’s shoulder and rubbed his arm. “I don’t want us to fight over this. I guess I’m just scared of everything and everyone right now. If you think Agnes is harmless, then I’ll drop it.”
Dothan lifted her chin and gazed into the dark eyes. Why was he being such an asshole to her? If January needed reassurance Agnes was just a crazy old bitch, then going through her stuff was the least he could do. “Tell you what. If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll grab the data on her hard drive.”
“No, please. I’m being stupid. You’re right.”
He pressed a quick kiss on her lips, “Let me do this for you. When you see she’s nothing but a basement troll, we can drop it, okay?”
January nodded and smiled.
***
Lost in thought the following morning, Dothan entered the Dunlevy lobby. He passed Bekkii without a word, but remembered to turn and wave as the elevator door opened. She grinned and lifted her thumb to her ear, mouthing “Call me.”
He descended to the basement, formulating his plan to dig through Agnes’s laptop. He would see how the day played out. Either there would be time enough to hack into the old harpy’s data and bring January back a load of junk files, or, if no opportunity presented itself, he could always lie and tell her he found nothing of interest.
Agnes was writing at her workstation as he settled at his makeshift desk. As usual, she ignored his presence, which was fine with him. He had no plans to be civil after the prior day’s events.
At three o’clock she would head upstairs for her daily departmental meeting. She never took her laptop to the get-togethers, and he would have a full thirty minutes before she returned. With luck, her password would be an easy one and the brute force cracking tool would detect it in a matter of seconds. After he logged in, copying the files would be a breeze.
There was always the possibility things would not go to plan. The password might be too strong to break, or, if he got into her laptop, there could be too many files to copy in the short time-span.
Was doing this worth the risk just to appease January’s paranoia?
Agnes threw a box to the floor, and the crash echoed throughout the alcove.
You just made my decision for me, he thought.
***
Dothan rolled his neck. The unending tension as he awaited her departure had given him a headache. He checked his watch. Two-fifty-nine. Agnes’s chair squealed, and he watched her pass his desk through the corner of his eye. When the elevator door shut and the familiar ping of the bell showed it was in motion, he opened his backpack and removed a thumb drive.
The last two pills in the side pouch rattled, and his body reacted in its desperation to extinguish the torturous anxiety. There was no time to consider it, though, as the minutes were ticking away. He had to move now. Dothan jumped from his chair and stepped to her desk.
He opened her laptop. Her desktop background displayed a sepia photograph of a smiling group of people standing before a cactus. There, in the middle of the image, was a pretty, young woman, whom he recognized as Agnes, entwined in an embrace with a tall, bearded man.
Is that her family? Huh. I could have sworn she was the by-product of a dinosaur egg.
He initiated the crack and continued to stare at the picture, wondering how long ago that sweet smile had been replaced by her usual sour expression. Was this man responsible for ruining her life?
The algorithm should have located her password in a matter of seconds, but there was nothing after a minute. He waited three, then four minutes more. He would have to quit if it continued much longer.
The elevator made a weird metallic squeal. Dothan flinched and ran to peer around the alcove corner, relieved to find the movement of the mechanics had caused the noise. Why had he not taken that pill? It was ridiculous to jump at every creak and groan.
He returned to the laptop, delighted to discover the cracking software had pulled her password. Reuben1993. Weird. Agnes memorialized a man’s name and a year. Was Reuben the guy glued to her in that picture? Maybe she had married him, and the man had died.
I have to get this copy started. Who cares if she kept a record of the only time someone was crazy enough to have sex with her?
With the thumb drive in the USB slot, Dothan ignored any obvious work-related directories and selected those which appeared to be personal. He had less than fifteen minutes to complete the task. It would be close, but he was sure there was time. With the copy procedure underway, he stood, pacing between the workstations, and listening for the elevator in case he had to grab the tiny drive before it finished.
Twelve minutes elapsed. He watched the files race by in quick succession as each copied to the drive.
He caught a flash of a name as it flew through its duplication.
Whoa. Was that a subfolder called Conscentiam?
Ninety-eight percent complete. He needed only a few seconds more.
The elevator bell announced its arrival to the basement.
Shit, shit, shit.
The d
oor whooshed open just as the progress bar attained one-hundred percent and the process cleaned its files. Dothan grabbed the stick, slammed the laptop shut, and dashed to his own desk. The chair gave a loud squeal as he eased into it, and he leaned his head back, attempting to give an air of not having left his workstation.
Agnes turned into the alcove, averting her gaze from Dothan as she dropped the box of files onto her table. Grateful the sounds of his heartbeat were not audible, he tried to breathe.
***
Dothan found January lying half-reclined on the sofa as he returned to the apartment. Her face lit up as he entered the room.
“Did you get anything on Agnes?” she asked.
He uttered a loud, dramatic sigh. “Oh, hello, Dothan, I’m so happy you’re here to help me release my desperate sexual longings for you.”
January laughed. “I was going to say that next.”
“It’s all right. I can live with a damaged ego. Yeah, I copied Agnes’s files from her laptop to a thumb drive. I haven’t gone through any of them yet. I figured we’d do that together.”
“Let’s go have a look.”
“Now?”
“Yes,” she said. “I thought about our talk last night. If we find nothing on that drive, I owe you a huge apology for being so stupid.”
“I like the sound of that. Let’s have a peek.”
Dothan grabbed the thumb drive from his backpack and placed it in the USB slot of his laptop. “I thought I saw something earlier. Let me do a search.”
A subfolder appeared named Conscentiam.
“Oh my god,” said January. “Open it.”
He clicked on the folder icon. There were at least fifty files inside, identified by numbers. He highlighted the first, and it opened to a nonsensical collection of letters, numerals, and symbols. “Rats. I think we’re fucked with this. She’s encrypted the files.”
“Is it possible to decrypt them?”
“If the key is long enough, then no, I can’t. Trying to use the same tool I used on her laptop might take hundreds of years to make its way through zillions of combinations.”
January was silent for a moment. “Seems to me then,” she said, “there’s no choice but to hack her phone and work email.”
“I won’t steal her cellphone on the puny possibility she’s using it for world domination.”
“She’s doing something with Conscentiam. We need to know how deep her involvement has gone. You must see how important this is to both of us.” January took his laptop from him and straddled his lap. “You’re so smart. You’ll figure out something.”
As before, she was using seduction to have her way, but this time he intended to take full advantage of it, whatever her motive.
“I still don’t think she knows jack, but, fine, I’ll try tomorrow.”
Dothan pulled her body against his.
If you make it worth my while.
Chapter Eleven
Ten o’clock and there was still no sign of Agnes. She liked to brag she had never used a sick day and had only taken vacation time when Human Resources threatened to drag her from the building.
Where is she?
There again, why did he care? She was only a couple of hours late. No doubt she would fly in on her broom at any minute.
Bored with the unending influx of code changes imposed on him by Nilesh, Dothan pulled the thumb drive containing Agnes’s download from his backpack. With the old bat a no-show, it gave him an opportunity to further inspect the files he had taken from her laptop.
He opened the Conscentiam folder and stared at the vast array of random letters, numbers and symbols. Why had Agnes encrypted those files? She was too honest to be involved in something as shady as corporate intrigue, and with that big mouth, she was no spy.
The elevator dinged. Dothan shut the cover of his laptop and grabbed the thumb drive.
It’s about time she got here, he thought, surprised by his relief.
He leaned back in his chair, ready to berate Agnes for being so late. To his surprise, Bekkii turned into the alcove.
“Hey you,” she said.
“Um, hi. What are you doing down here?”
“I just wanted to see for myself if it was true.”
“What was true?”
“That Agnes didn’t show up for work.”
“That news spread fast.”
“Yeah, everyone upstairs is, like, losing their shit.”
“I wonder if the old crow is okay. She didn’t call to say she’d be out?” he asked.
She shook her head. “There’s been nothing. I think a few people tried to reach her, but she never responded. Patricia in HR said if they don’t hear from her by the end of the day, they’re sending out the cops for a wellness check.”
“I’m sure she’ll show up soon. She can’t go twenty-four hours without tormenting me.”
Bekkii twisted Dothan’s chair toward her. The old chair creaked as she straddled his lap and placed her hands on either side of his face, pressing her lips against his. His body ached with desire as he wrapped his arms around her waist, moving his hips in time with her rhythmic motions.
He broke free from the kiss. “Bekkii,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “We have to stop. I can’t risk someone finding us, especially Agnes. She’d be creepy enough to end my internship by reporting it.”
Bekkii wriggled against his lap and pulled his palms against her breasts. “It’s been so long, though, and just think how exciting the chance of getting caught makes it.”
Dothan groaned, lost in her lush, soft body.
She lifted her shirt and continued to gyrate against him as she pressed small kisses over his face.
I can’t. I shouldn’t. Fuck, she’s making me crazy.
He pushed her away and got to his feet. “No, I can’t risk screwing up my entire future.”
Bekkii blushed and straightened her top. “I…I just thought
you wanted to. ”
Dothan pressed a quick kiss on her cheek. “It’s cool. You can see for yourself what you do to me. I just can’t take the risk Nilesh will find out about us doing what I’m pretty sure we were about to do. I’m already up shit creek with him.”
“I hope you’re not mad.”
“Mad? No. I’m more worried about how I’m going to make it through the day in these jeans.”
Bekkii smiled and embraced him.
“You’d better get back upstairs,” he said, “before they think both the file dragon and their favorite Director of Customer Interaction are AWOL.”
“Yeah. Hey, do you want to head to the third floor for a coffee?”
He smiled and nodded. “Let me get my backpack and we can go.”
Dothan packed up his laptop as Bekkii smoothed her rumpled top. As he watched her hands drift over her curves, his resistance crumbled. He grabbed her hand and led her, giggling, into the tower of file boxes. As he undid his jeans, she threw off her shirt and bra. Her fingers gripped his shoulder, and he closed his mind. There was nothing that mattered so much as this moment, not even January.
***
Dothan tried not to meet Bekkii’s eyes as she dressed. He smoothed back his hair and walked to the end of the metal corridor.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I thought I heard something.”
She pressed against his back and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m glad you’re here to protect me. This place gives me the creeps.”
“We need to go.”
“Why are you so grumpy?”
“I’m still a bit jittery. That was such a dumb thing for us to do. I’m just glad we lucked out, and no one came looking for you.”
Bekkii laughed and kissed his cheek. “No one would come looking for me. It’s all good. Stop worrying about it.
I’m starving now, and it’s almost eleven. Let’s get an early lunch. I’m pretty sure I can con Mary into keeping watch of the reception desk for another half hour.”
He lifted his backpack over his shoulder and Bekkii clung to him as they walked to the elevator. As they ascended toward the Lobby, a loud ping notified him of an incoming text. He untangled himself from Bekkii, and grabbed his phone, surprised to find dozens of messages from January.
Text from January Kinsie:
Where are you? Come home right now. Apartment trashed.
As the elevator door opened, Dothan bolted into the Lobby. “Shit. I’ve got a family emergency. I’ve got to leave. Can you let Nilesh know?”
“What’s happened?”
He ignored her question and called for a ride-share as he ran from the building. While he waited for the car, Dothan dialed January’s phone. No answer. Where was she? He tried again, but it went to voicemail. He wrote a text, begging her to write back.
Please be okay, please be okay.
A small Toyota pulled alongside the curb. He told the driver to hurry. The young man grinned and gunned the engine. He twisted through side streets and wove through interstate traffic with the skill of a stunt man. The tires squealed as he brought the vehicle to a halt in front of the apartment.
Dothan raced up the unstable metal stairs two steps at a time. After unlocking the deadbolt, he burst through the door.
January stood in the middle of the kitchen, her face pale. He dropped his backpack and hurried to where she stood, taking her trembling body in his arms.
“Are you okay? Why didn’t you answer your phone?” He kissed her forehead. “I’ve been calling nonstop since I got your texts.”
She pushed him away, her eyes flashing with anger. “Me? I’ve been here trying to reach you for the last two hours.”
“The stupid basement has no phone signal, and the wi-fi—”
Dothan stopped and surveyed the small apartment. Whoever it was, they had done a thorough job of it, throwing open cabinet doors and tossing the contents over the floor and countertops. His desk drawers were in pieces on the floor with papers scattered everywhere. The floor grate was lying on top of a sliced sofa cushion.
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