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“Yes, Chad. How can I help you?”
I drummed my fingertips on the cool surface of my desk, glancing at the forgotten hard drive I’d been working on as I contemplated my answer.
“Monica Stuart. I need her laptop, and have her bring in her home desktop too. If I’m going to figure this out for her… I need all of it.”
“You’re not as smart as you think you are, motherfucker,” I muttered as my fingers flew over the keys, easily bypassing the attempt that had been made to keep me from seeing the exact method that had been used to breach Monica’s computers. I wouldn’t call it amateur work by any means, but the hacker – probably someone hired from more obscure, less than legal reaches of the internet – definitely wasn’t elite.
That mademyjob a little easier.
I’d taken Monica’s things to my home office with me and gotten comfortable, knowing that there was little chance of me getting any sleep – my default setting these days. Instead of setting myself up for frustration, I’d made my way straight here after my workout and shower, and settled in. The room was dark, my music was cranked up loud in my ears, and I was making progress.
Whoever hacked her wasallthe way up and through Monica’s business.
The corrupted files were hidden in innocuous places, and all had innocuous names, so the chances that a typical user, or even the typical computer repair guy, would have found them, were slim. What they lacked in sophistication, they made up for by not being messy. I still had no idea who inserted the flash drive that did all the heavy lifting, but Ididhave my doubts that the hacking was personal.
As I navigated through everything in front of me, I realized that even her company’s cloud server had been infected, and I had a suspicion that it had been the target in the first place. Production schedules had been downloaded, and in some cases,changed, so that they’d been over- or under – producing certain products, leading to shortages or surpluses, both of which could affect company goodwill and bottom line. And from what I could tell, more than one formula from her skin care products had been changed – by the system, not by one of her scientists – which meant that some products weren’t even being produced as intended.
“But quality control should be catching that,”I mumbled to myself. That thought was barely out of my mind before I found the bundle of quality reports that had been suppressed from view by anyone other than the System Administrator. Someone, somewhere, had been giving those products the go-ahead to be sent to select clientele – online beauty influencers, celebrity spokespeople, and a few specific salons.
No wonder Vivid Vixenwas getting trashed on social media. Monica thought the beauty vloggers or whoever were being paid to lie about the products, and say bad things. But… they weren’t lying. The problem was in the production chain itself.
I backed out of that without touching anything, to avoid tipping anyone off. Eventually, I would take over the system and add better security measures, but for now, gathering information was key.
I navigated back to the laptop itself, and into the last folder I hadn’t checked – labeledRecipes.A love of cooking was something Sandy… no,Monica…had mentioned to me on many occasions, but having such a folder on her work laptop rang an alarm bell for me. And sure enough, once I had clicked a few levels deep into the folder, I found something that made me frown, and lean a little closer to my screen.
A gateway for surveillance feeds.
The first one didn’t surprise me very much – it was Monica’s house. The front and back doors, her kitchen, her living room, and office – two angles of all points that could be used for entry. She’d probably turned them back on after the break-in.
Next was theVivid Vixenbuilding, which was full of security cameras. The building was dark now, and quiet, but I could easily imagine those screens filled with action. It wouldn’t be any trouble at all for someone to watch every single detail of a day atVivid Vixen, from the comfort of their computer screen.
The last one though… I didn’t understand it. It was a single camera, aimed at an empty, unfamiliar living room. From the angle, it had to be up in a corner or something, and the view was partially obstructed. But everything thatwasvisible was crystal clear. As I watched though, brow furrowed in confusion, it slowly became clear that I wasn’t looking into someone’s home… I was looking into a hotel suite.
A chill crawled up my spine as Monica came into view, illuminated by the glow of the TV. Her nose was red, and her glossy eyes were rimmed in a similar hue – obvious signs that she’d been crying, which pained me. Hearing it had always made me want to punch a hole in something, butseeingher pretty face so clearly distraught made my chest feel tight. She dropped brusquely onto the couch, an action that pulled her barely-tied robe open even more, almost revealing her obvious nudity underneath. My eyes narrowed as I thought about someone else – someone sinister – watching her in this state.
I can’t just ignore this.
As I wracked my brain trying to remember what hotel Renata had said Monica was in, the subject of the surveillance lifted a wine bottle from the coffee table to her mouth, tipping it back. Once she’d gulped down whatever she determined was enough, she practically tossed the bottle down, then dropped her face into her open hands.
There was no audio, but it was obvious that she was sobbing.
Fuck.
I got up from my desk, searching for the client card Renata had given me, with all of Monica’s contact information. I frowned when I saw, in neatly printed letters, that Monica was staying atVeil.
They weresupposedto be known for going the extra mile in discretion.
Back at the desk, I used my own laptop to open a private chat window to send a message. I wanted to protect Monica’s privacy, but in her current state, alarming her didn’t seem like a good idea. I didn’t have the firepower here at home to do anything about a camera in a hotel room across town. But, I knew someone who might.
[open secured chat with user_ grimreapher]
[norestforthewicked: yo. u around?
grimreapher: only if your big sexy chocolate ass has something good for me.]
I chuckled, shaking my head as I typed back a response.
[norestforthewicked: stop playing. heard you’re laid up with a hotel magnate now.
