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Nicholas thought the look that registered on Ardelean’s face was sheer horror. Getting on the wrong side of the Security Services wasn’t a path for success; to have Radulov tied to the assassinations would be his downfall, whether he had anything to do with them or not. That Ardelean planned to go public with this breach was the smart thing to do, and would probably restore confidence.
Harry continued, “I see we’ve surprised you with this information.”
Ardelean sat forward, his hands clasped between his knees. “You have. Mr. Drummond, let me assure you there is no way our software could be hacked and used to spy on you. I wrote the code myself. It’s built to protect against that possibility. There’s no way.”
Nicholas said, “Yet it’s happened. Someone is inside the system and is tracking us. And, quite possibly, was tracking the victims who were assassinated, as well.”
He didn’t mention Adam was currently reverse-engineering the code to find where the spying was coming from. He wanted to see what Ardelean had to say first.
“Why would anyone do that? Well, all right, certainly there are nation states who would be very interested in the information in your servers. Everyone knows Russia and North Korea are pushing malicious code into every computer they can. But that’s why you use MATRIX, sir. We take every precaution to make sure none of the components of the software can be tampered with.” He paused. “The assassinations. You honestly think they’re tied together? That something in your servers was stolen and, as a result, these people have been killed?”
He was shaking his head, back and forth. “It is difficult to accept. I will personally start an investigation—another investigation—immediately.”
Harry said, “That would seem the proper course. You say you addressed the issue of the ransomware in MATRIX, Mr. Ardelean—”
“Roman, please.”
“Roman. How, exactly, did you address the breach that led to the ransomware attack? Because clearly someone got inside your code, or else they wouldn’t be able to hold all these computers hostage. And if they can see what’s inside them—”
“I’ll be honest, Mr. D
rummond. The ransomware, we already know that breach was the Russians. We were able to trace the upload to a flat in Kiev, and the hacker was arrested by the Russian authorities. We issued the patch the moment we saw the breach, and trust me, it’s secure as ever now.”
That’s not right. Why is Ardelean lying? Nicholas said, “If one hacker can get in, so can another.”
Or the same one. Temora, Temora. “No, no, we’ve locked it all down, pushed out a special update. And I’ve personally offered a bug bounty to my employees to see if any of them can penetrate the new software. And I have some of the best talent in the world on my team.”
Harry said, “I wish we were as certain as you, Roman. As it stands, the Home Office can’t take any chances. We’re going to have to explore the security of MATRIX and make recommendations on our findings.”
Roman looked over at Nicholas. “Have you found something else? Something in the code we’ve missed?”
“No. Not yet.”
Ardelean breathed out. “Good. That’s good.” He tapped his briefcase. “Now, if you’d allow me a few moments with the servers, I can update the software personally, and I guarantee, nothing will get through after that.”
Nicholas asked, “Do you need access to the mainframe?”
Ardelean held up a small thumb drive. “No, I have it all here. I can access the software from any terminal.”
Harry waved toward his desk, where Ardelean sat down, toggled the mouse on Harry’s computer, then inserted the thumb drive.
Nicholas watched Ardelean work. He was fast, smooth, but why had he lied about the Russian hacker? Another thing, he was too smooth, too deferential to Nicholas’s father. Nicholas’s personal experience with brilliant business moguls was the opposite—he would have trusted Ardelean more if he’d acted like a conceited ass.
Granted, losing the Security Services would be a massive blow to the proprietary software development Radulov was contracted for, because if he lost one government agency, he’d lose them all. And variations of MATRIX and other Radulov software were on practically every government computer in the free world. He couldn’t afford the blow to his company. Given that, maybe Nicholas would be as apologetic as Ardelean. What was going on here? There was something more.
Still, the Radulov reputation was stellar. Ten years of high-end security, tight as a drum, unbreakable. The world had turned to Radulov when Kaspersky and Norton failed them.
Until last month, when so many of the computers using the software were hacked. Strange, the attacks on the politicians had begun so soon after.
Mike had checked out entirely. For some reason, she was staring at her phone as if it held the Rosetta stone. But his father was watching Ardelean closely, too, which made him even more curious.
They met eyes, and Harry shrugged. What had his father seen?
A moment later, Ardelean was rebooting the machine when a knock sounded on the door and Adam came in. Nicholas knew it wouldn’t do to laugh, but he looked like he’d rolled around on the floor and stuck his hand in a socket—his hair was standing on end, his clothes were rumpled, and there was a big coffee stain right in the middle of his Star Wars T-shirt. Nicholas knew by the manic smile Adam had made a breakthrough.
“Can I interrupt? I’ve discovered a back door into the software you need to see.”
Ardelean’s head came up in a snap.
