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They watched him go, then Nicholas knocked on his father’s inner office door. “I want my father to know where we stand on everything before Ardelean arrives.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Nicholas was briefing his father, Mike listening with half an ear, when a cryptic text came to her phone from DI Griffith.
Confirmation on what you found, coated with E. HDs on their way.
The drone needle was coated with epibatidine. The victim’s computer hard drives were coming.
Three in three days confirmed. And Nicholas could have easily been the fourth. Whoever they were dealing with wasn’t messing around. So who was next? Or would they try for Nicholas again?
Surely, the White House would cancel the president’s trip once they relayed this information to Savich and Zachery.
She was about to tell Nicholas when Ian appeared in the door.
“Sir? Mr. Ardelean is here to see you.”
Harry stood, nodded to both Nicholas and Mike. “We will finish this when you’re through meeting with Ardelean. Ian, please show Mr. Ardelean in.”
Nicholas looked down and read the text on her mobile from Griffith.
“Want me to go call her?”
“No, wait, Mike. This is more important. Stay for this meeting.”
He watched Roman Ardelean come into the room. His first impression was this man is smart and clever. He looked shrewd, as arrogant as an ancient warrior prince who gave no quarter, who reveled in his own strength, his own power. He was as tall as Nicholas, with dark, wavy hair and a hawk nose. He looked like the Romanian hacker he was, from his Chuck Taylors to his dark, heavy eyebrows. Nicholas hadn’t even seen the man in anything but a black turtleneck and dark jeans—à la Steve Jobs, a personal hero. Did Ardelean believe imitation was the sincerest form of flattery?
Ardelean was smiling, his hand outstretched, all bonhomie. “Mr. Drummond, what a pleasure.” He shook hands with Harry, then turned to Nicholas and Mike. “Roman Ardelean.”
“Nicholas Drummond, and this is my partner, Agent Michaela Caine. It’s good to meet you. I’m a fan.”
A dark brow went up. “You’re a fan of mine? You’re the ones getting all the headlines these days. Saving the American president and vice president, and I heard about that nifty piece of code you pushed into the Air Force One mainframe, Drummond. Rather amazing stuff. Not to mention the work you did helping the Israelis with Stuxnet. Rumor has it the code was of your own design.”
Nicholas stiffened. How in the world did Ardelean know that? Or was he fishing?
But Ardelean waved a hand. “I know what you’re thinking, but never fear, your secrets are safe with me. You know what I do. A number of people were quietly contracted on that job. I couldn’t help but notice your signatures in the code. A beautiful piece of work, that. And if you ever need a job—”
Harry laughed, but Nicholas and Mike merely smiled politely. Then Harry said, “Mr. Ardelean, may I get you anything or shall we begin?”
“No, no. I’m fine. Let’s begin. I’m sorry to be meeting under these circumstances. I know you have a lot to do today, after the horrific news about Alexander. I rather liked the old codger. I can’t imagine why anyone would want him dead.”
Mike said, “Did you know Heinrich Hemmler and Chapman Donovan, the other two murder victims?”
“I knew of them, only. Terry was always a friend to Radulov. Had me in to do security for the Ministry. Something like we’re about to do here. You’re having problems, I take it, with this ransomware attack?”
Harry said over his shoulder as he closed the door, “You could say that. All of you, please sit down.”
Mike and Nicholas took a seat on the couch, Ardelean sat opposite.
Harry pulled up a chair. He looked at them all, steepled his fingers, and waited. “This situation is perturbing and unexpected.” He said nothing more. It was one of his father’s favorite tactics, one he’d used on Nicholas as a boy when he’d committed a sin. Sure enough, he’d always jumped into the silence and confessed.
Right on cue, Ardelean splayed his hands and started talking. “I know this breach has been a disappointment to you, but I will remind you that MATRIX is still recognized as the best cybersecurity system on the market. It’s Radulov’s flagship, and I’ll stake my life on it.
“You’ll be relieved to hear we’ve located the issue internally, and it’s been addressed. I have a press briefing this afternoon to explain how we’ve answered the breach.
“In the meantime, we’ve pushed a new software update to our servers. I’m happy to put the update into your system myself, so you can be assured everything is safe and working properly again. Collectively, we apologize for any issues you may be having, and we would like the chance to make this right.”
“All well and good, Mr. Ardelean, and we appreciate your willingness to hurry a patch.” Harry sat forward. “However, I’m sorry to say a simple update won’t do the job. We believe someone has gotten inside your software and is spying on the Home Office. After the incidents of the past few days, we must conclude this is much larger than a ransomware attack. We’ve had three assassinations on our soil, the attempted murder of my son here just today, and now we find out all our servers are infected.” He paused. “As a matter of fact, we are investigating the MATRIX software attack as the link among all these things.”
