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“Well, I can make him or her think the company is asking for a priority service request at this address for medical reasons. Ah, look, the worker has just acknowledged the request. That’s good because the battery on my laptop won’t last forever. We should have the power on within an hour. Once it’s done, I’ll erase the history of service requests, and it will seem as if it never happened.” He turned to her. “I’m tempted to go to accounting and prepay your bills for about five years, but that would attract too much attention. Better to have a low profile.”
“Low profiles are good,” she said. “Although the offer is tempting.”
“Yeah.” He thought of his client. “I like the approach you intend to take in dealing with Brad for the same reason. Don’t get mad or push him to think of other nasty things to do, and just let it go. Make him wonder what went wrong with his scheme.”
“For now,” said Max, sounding doubtful
“For now.” Simone nodded. “Will you guys come to the bar later?”
“I doubt it. Getting the utilities back on is just the start. I’ll work on electric while Max is handling the water, but after that and the water is restored, we’ll need to put in some code that will alert us if someone tries to disconnect you again, and some protections. And I want to check out some other things that might have been attacked. I imagine that when you get off we’ll be right here, hacking away.”
She took out her phone. “I’ll call Gemma and warn her that you guys will be here when she gets home. I don’t want to scare her.”
“Good idea. Two big bikers at your table isn’t an everyday thing.” Rafe took her hand. “And just to warn you… when you get off work, you’ll probably see some big, ugly, terrifying guy lurking around your car. Not Max, though,” he said with a grin at his friend, “since I need him here. This guy will be on your side.”
Simone seemed hesitant. “How will I know it’s a friend?”
“I don’t know who it will be, but he’ll have a motorcycle, and if there is anyone else around who gives you a hard time, your new friend will beat the shit out of him.”
“So those are pretty good first clues.” She grinned, looking marginally relaxed for the first time since they’d arrived.
Max handed her a business card—another one from the club. This one was for Soren ‘Slash’ Beaumont. “If any other threats come up, like Brad comes in and starts causing trouble, or if that big, ugly guy is missing for some reason, call Slash immediately. You met him briefly the other night. He’s our threat central—and always on call.”
“Wow, that’s serious protection.” She grimaced. “You know, I train so I can take care of myself. Like the other night. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but when someone steps over the boundaries, I like being able to protect myself. So I was proud of that. And now I’ve got you arranging a babysitter.”
Max frowned. “We’re not trying to overstep.”
Rafe understood her frustration. “I know, but consider the computer stuff with the utilities—this is a real threat, but it isn’t the kind you trained to defend yourself against, is it?”
“No. I don’t know who to hit.” It seemed to cost her a lot to admit that.
Max patted her arm for a moment before his hand returned to his keyboard. “Got an emergency technician coming for water,” he said offhandedly.
Rafe nodded. “We know who to hit, or we will soon enough. We all have our strengths and vulnerabilities, and there’s always a faster gun out there. Everyone needs help and protection sometimes, in some ways. We all do. Refusing it would just be stupid.”
She kissed him and then Max, keeping both kisses casual. “I’ll see you here then—late.”
Gemma Durand was a sixteen-year-old,smaller, more delicate version of her older sister. She wore her hair in braids that made her look even younger than she was. She came in the front door. “You’re Rafe and Max?” she asked, her voice soft.
“I’m Rafe,” said Rafe, typing furiously. “And you must be Gemma. Hang on while I finish this.”
“I’m Max,” said Max as he looked up from his keyboard, typing just as fast as Rafe. “Nice to meet you.”
The girl looked over Max’s shoulder. “Wow. You’ve hacked the city water company order page.”
“You know it?” Max felt a niggle of concern.
Her soft voice still managed to convey her excitement. “I know it’s got a double password. You need both the system password and an employee number and that employee’s password to get in. How did you get that?”
“The system password is stupid simple. It was so easy even Rafe could’ve deciphered it,” said Max with a small chuckle that earned him an obscene gesture from Rafe that Gemma didn’t see, due to where she stood. “It’s the city manager’s last name. And once you’re in the system, the employee database is what… six mouse clicks away. And guess what’s in there?”
“Employee numbers and passwords!”
“Exactly. The IT types are forced to make them available for the human resources types.”
“And then what?” asked Gemma.
“A few hours ago this employee, who is out with the flu today, went into the dashboard and deleted all the change records that someone entered that caused your water to be shut off. Then he reported there was an accidental turnoff that had to be fixed before an irate customer filed a complaint.”
