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“The systems too?” I demanded. “Hux, is that possible?”
I could tell how upset Hux was, but now wasn’t the time to be defensive, and he knew it. “It’s possible. Remember when I told you one of my process daemons froze up a couple of weeks ago and I had to reboot?”
None of us knew what the fuck he was talking about, so I made a rolling hand gesture to get him to skip the technical jargon and give us the gist.
Hux huffed out a breath. “Long story short, yes. That could indicate an attempt to place surveillance in our computer systems. It’s highly unlikely they succeeded. It’ll take time for me to check, though. I’m only one person.”
Elvo’s forehead crinkled. “Can’t Carter’s cousin help? He’s technical, right? And we trust him.”
Hux scoffed. “Kev? Run cybersecurity scans? Pfft. Please.”
Riggs frowned. “You know he’s a genius—”
He was cut off by a disembodied voice that sounded like it was coming from a nearby tree. “I could out scan you anytime, anyplace, Huxley.”
We stared at the tree.
Hux hissed, “Please tell me you all heard that too, or I’m going to have to admit Kev has finally made me lose my mind.”
Elvo stepped closer and inspected the tree to see if he could find the speaker.
Kev’s voice came from the tree again, making Elvo jump. “This house is secure. Anti-surveillance scanning complete. You may enter and continue your useless prattle away from the winter chill. Besides, Mrs. Clayborn made cheesecake brownies, and they’re not going to eat themselves.”
Elvo immediately turned and started walking toward the house. Riggs jogged to catch up with him. “She makes the best desserts.”
Before following them, I glared at Hux. “Put your stupid gaming feud aside. We need Kev’s help, and you know it.”
Hux’s jaw flexed. “Fine. But he works for me. He does what I say.”
The tree laughed.
I rolled my eyes and turned toward the house. “Yeah. Good luck with that.”
He followed me toward the promise of snacks and security, muttering the whole way about nosy egotistical gamer imposters who fancied themselves real-world cybersecurity experts.
I didn’t pay much attention to him. I was too busy trying to figure out how worried we needed to be that the Cartel de la Luna was deep in our business on the hunt for the Horn.
I needed to contact Jacob Horn, and Jesus fuck I didn’t want to. I knew that Champion Security was already on thin ice with them, and this might be the last straw. But I also knew that we would need to bring in additional personnel if the cartel was definitely involved, including personal security for each of the company executives, as well.
Once we got inside, we set up around Carter and Riggs’s huge kitchen table… with Hux still protesting every step of the way.
“Kev, we need to be in the lair, for fuck’s sake. We need access to your dedicated internet. This system out here is practically a dial-up.”
“Only a poor craftsman blames his tools, Huxley.” Kev sniffed and studied his nails. “Besides, my lair wouldn’t be my lair if I let every Tom, Dick, and Huxley down there, now would it? May the odds be ever in your favor.” He grabbed a cheesecake brownie and prepared to depart.
“Kev.” I grabbed his elbow and pulled him into a front sitting room. “Let’s not be hasty. We need your help. What if I were to offer you a contract job?” I explained what was going on and the resulting need to assess the security of our computer systems. “Hux can only do so much himself,” I said.
Kev dipped his chin and let out a long-suffering sigh. “Especially with his… limitations.”
I bit my tongue against a laugh. He’d always made veiled comments about Hux’s slightly lower IQ even though both of them probably qualified for MENSA.
“Can you help us?”
Kev pursed his lips and finally nodded. “I could. But Hux works for me. He does what I say.”
I coughed to cover a laugh. “I can’t do that. He’s the one with longer-running knowledge of our systems.”
He tapped his foot on the floor. “Then we’re equals. I will not report to that… egotistical orc-hoarder for all the pips in Hornlandia.”
I blinked at him. “I don’t know what that means, but you’ve made your point. You’re equals.”
With that sorted, I returned to the kitchen to tackle our other problems.
I called Jacob Horn at home, which was every bit as ball-shriveling as I’d imagined it would be. After quickly calling some friends at other security companies to see if I could borrow some reinforcements for the next couple of weeks, we made a plan to protect the HOG executives and were finally able to get back to the business of trying to get into Tommy Drakes’s vault… which was going to be even more complex now that we would need to set up our operation here at Riggs and Carter’s place.
