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She didn’t flinch. Most people jumped when he spoke in that manner.
“Was this work related?” His sister, Julia, was a cop. Worrying about something like this happening to her singed his stomach lining day and night.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” The same steely determination she’d had on the mountain crossed her face. “I want to go to your cabin and forget everything but the hot tub, the fireplace, and us.”
“So do I.” God, did he ever, but the doctor in him burned to discover how she had sustained the injury. The man in him wished for five minutes with the son of a bitch who’d torn ajagged hole into her back. “Why would someone hurt you like this?”
Her muscles bunched beneath his hands. A ringing sounded from his pocket, and she relaxed. “I think you’d better answer that.”
“Only if something is on fire.” Karl’s number flashed across the screen. “Shit.” The chief information officer he’d recently hired never contacted him outside work hours. “Sorry, I need to take this.”
“Sure.” She backed up a step. “I’ll get us coffee and hot chocolate before the café closes.”
As he watched her walk away, he prayed her skittish reaction to his questions about her scar didn’t mean she was zipping up their night.
He brought the phone to his ear. “This is Dr. Ford.”
“We have a big problem.”
Cannon pinched the bridge of his nose. He should have known even a one-day vacation from his responsibilities would fuck things up. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ve been hit with a ransomware attack.”
Cannon opened his mouth, but only a grunt escaped.
“Did you hear me?” Karl’s grave tone dropped an octave. “A cybercriminal has seized the hospital’s network.”
Cannon stepped off the gravel path and into the trees. “Yeah, I heard you.” The alarm bells in his head muffled the music from the lodge’s bar. “How bad?”
“Every piece of data in every department is locked and inaccessible. It’s all down. Medical records. Imaging. Schedules. The cancer drug trial files.”
“What?” If their network remained compromised, it wouldn’t be a suitable host for the upcoming trial. That scenario was unacceptable.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Ford. I know you’re worried about your sister, but whoever attacked us knows how to cripple a hospital. It’s going to take time to get all the data back.”
Cannon cursed. He didn’t have time.
Julia didn’t have time.
Being a cop wasn’t the only thing that had the potential to send his baby sister to the morgue. The cancer trial had to be at Red Snow Hospital, and it had to start on schedule. The drug had the potential to suppress an abnormal hereditary gene that causes recurring cancer.
The gene his sister carried.
The one he didn’t.
He stuffed his hand in his pocket. “Have our contingency protocols been activated?”
“Yes, but you know the workarounds are just a Band-Aid. The ER is backed up. We’ve been rerouting emergency patients and walk-ins to Grand Pines, but the locals don’t want to travel fifty miles to a hospital they aren’t familiar with. Working with the paper files we have on hand is inefficient. There’s already been a medication error.”
His breathing reduced to short pants as Karl recounted the incident that could have been avoided if their network wasn’t being held hostage by a criminal. “Dammit. Is the patient okay?” Cannon held responsibility for everyone in the hospital. Any needless suffering or death fell on him.
“He went into anaphylactic shock and had a heart attack. He’s in the ICU.”
“When did the attack happen? How?”
“About an hour ago. One of the finance managers was working from home and clicked on a malicious email about pay raises. He activated the virus, and it spread faster than any I’ve ever seen.”
Cannon kicked the gravel. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
