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“Okay, what did you do to the phone?” I ask, my nervous energy tunneling down into something pointless. “It keeps giving me security alerts. It keeps doing shit, even when I’m using it. It’s getting annoying.”
Sophie’s face changes quickly. The vulnerability between us is destroyed by my bubble of anxiety. Whatever she was about to tell me is gone. “Oh, well that’s what I was telling you about the other day. I connected our accounts. So we can keep track of one another and, well, if anything happens, you know …” she trails off under my stare.
“As long as nothing is affected you can do what you want,” I say, aware that Marco is watching me.
Sophie looks at me, like I’ve slapped her. “I needed permission then?” she asks.
Marco is still looking at me, I burn up slightly. “No, not like that, just—look, we don’t need to do this in front of Marco.”
“And what is that exactly?” Sophie says. “It’s just a security app. It’s so we can track each other. So I can keep tabs on you—”
I snort, before I can ever stop myself.
Sophie exhales a quick breath, puts the glass down and gets up from the couch. Marco looks away and she walks past us both. She goes to the fridge and takes out a tupperware meal and pops the lid. She puts it in the microwave and turns it on. She stares out of the window. I’ve literally just shit the bed I was trying to fix.
“Uh maybe, I should—” But Marco falls silent under my stare.
My phone pings again. Another security alert. “See. It’s going now. You’re here. So what’s causing it?”
“I don’t know, Luca,” Sophie says. “I just want to know you’re alright. Is that a problem?”
“Never,” I say.
Marco still edges to leave and I still give him a stare not to go. I feel like I’m pushing both away. The blackmailer is getting to me. Getting into my head. Making me think they’re all against me…
It pings again. Then again. A whole barrage of them come through then an urgent message from one of our supply warehouses. The one where we’ve had all our stock ready to send out after the fashion parade a month and a bit ago. My heart picks up a few beats. I call them immediately.
The guard on the other end is nervous. “Luca,” he begins, his voice shaking. “Uh, you might want to get down here.”
“Why? What happened?” I ask. The nervous energy within me transforms. It’s time to be calm.
“Uh well, um, have you looked at the stock recently?”
“Why?” I say, taking the phone away from my ear and crossing over to our systems reporting application. I log in with a scan of my fingerprint and soon I can see our reports and stock levels. Or lack of them.
My jaw drops.
A line of items has just been wiped off the board. More than that, a whole batch of other things have disappeared. All products and accessories for the Piovere brand which equal drugs and quantities. There’s tons missing.
“Shit …” I mutter. “What the fuck has happened? When—”
Sophie and Marco look at me with curious eyes.
“What the fuck happened?” I repeat. “Is it there?”
“Uh, well you gotta come see, it’s a security thing. Some alert keeps blocking us.” I stare at Sophie. Is this thesomethingI don’t know? “And well there’s another thing, the trucks that had that stock were all diverted …” he fades out. “They’ve disappeared."
“Diverted where?” I ask. “Diverted where? What do you mean disappeared? Why were they being transported in the first place?” But he says nothing, so I hang up on him and stare at Sophie with my anger boiling to explode.
“What?” she asks, fright coming to her face. Her whole body tenses. “What's wrong?”
“Is this thesomethingI don’t know?” I ask, showing her my phone.
She looks at me, then at Marco as if she’s embarrassed. She doesn’t even look at the phone. “What’re you talking about?”
My heart is vibrating. My hands are beginning to shake. “Well, whatever has happened, your app has compromised us,” I say. I stay controlled and focus on finding out the truth. Meanwhile Sophie’s eyes bulge. “Someone’s most likely hacked into our software and changed stock levels and delivery routes … they know everything though. More than that, it’s missing because the deliveries have been diverted. It’s all gone.”
“Someone changed where the trucks were headed?” Marco says, his eyes wide. “Like what do you mean?”
