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Accessing his personal email felt like crossing a different sort of line. It was a larger violation than simply making the lights in his condo flicker on and off and locking Owen in his closet. I was reluctant to do it.
Fortunately, I did have one way to use that access without abusing his privacy.
I had written down his email and password, and now I began trying it on various social media platforms. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Unfortunately, the combination didn’t work on any of them. Owen was smart enough to use a different password for every account he had. That was making things more difficult.
It just means it will be even more satisfying when I do get him.
An idea came to me, one that was small, subtle, and brilliant. But for it to work, I needed Owen to be away from his cell phone.
I pulled up my ACS work and waited. One task completed, then two. Owen hadn’t left his office once in that time. He wasn’t on any conference calls or meetings, either. What was he doing in there?
Eventually, I grew impatient. I opened the company chat program and pinged him.
Moltisanti, Amber: Hey. Can I talk to you a sec?
March, Owen: I’m busy.
Moltisanti, Amber: This will only take a sec.
March, Owen: My door’s always open. Figuratively, not literally. Right now it’s literally closed.
Moltisanti, Amber: I need you to come here.
March, Owen: So you can sneak into my office and play with my toys? No way.
Moltisanti, Amber: Don’t be dumb. Just come here.
I heard his office door open, then close again. Ten long seconds later—I counted—he appeared in my doorway.
“I locked my office, in case you’re forcing one of your code minions to run in there. Now what’s so important?”
I took a second to look him up and down. He was wearing a pair of black-and-orange sneakers, retro style. The plain gray T-shirt was also made to look simple and cheap, but the way it hugged his body spoke of its quality. Maybe even tailored specifically for him. The designer jeans were tight-fitting. They looked good on him. And it was obvious that he didn’t have anything in his pockets.
Good.
“Well?” he demanded. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to let you know…” I made myself swallow. “You got me good with the hack. My phone, and home network. I was wrong about you. I hate to admit it, but you know your shit.”
Surprise flashed behind his green eyes. Suspicion was there for a moment, but then his gaze softened. I must have been convincing.
“Thanks,” he said. “I didn’t mean for it to turn into a pissing contest between us. But I’m not just some figurehead. I cut my teeth in Notepad Plus Plus.”
We shared a long, appraising moment.
“That’s all I wanted to say,” I said. “You’re still an asshole for kicking us out ofMarcello’s, but at least you’re a legit coder.”
He nodded, seemed like he wanted to say something more, then turned away.
The moment he turned away, I was fast at work at my keyboard. I only had ten seconds or so before he returned to his office.
Where his phone was.
I had already launched LinkedIn in a browser, so all I had to do was hit the “Recover password” button, paste his email, and hit enter.
“A link to reset your password has been sent to the email…”
I switched to a new tab, where I already had his email open. Normally it wouldn’t allow someone to login to his email from a new device, but since we were on the same subnet, the two-factor authentication never launched. Instantly, the email asking him to reset his password appeared. I opened it and clicked the link inside, then hastily deleted the email and closed out of the tab.
