Page 87 of Critical Alliance (Rocky Mountain Courage 3)

Mackenzie led him to the end of the hall and through the office door. As she closed it behind them, relief washed over her that the door wasn’t locked but probably should have been. “See, elevators here. Stairwell there,” she said, pointing.

“And a sign that says AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.”

“Uh-huh.” She moved to the elevators and tried the keycard. Nothing.

“What’s wrong?”

“This keycard doesn’t work. I thought it would.” Mackenzie’s heart rate kicked up. This was no time to panic. She took a deep breath. “It was worth a try.”

“Your attempt could have triggered an alarm.” Alex paced the small room.

“It could have.”

“And what about cameras?”

“Yes. That too. Time for plan B.”

“Glad you’re not giving up so quickly.”

“Never. I’ve come too far for that.” She was all in, and there was no going back now.

“I’m just along for the ride, but we should hurry.”

She led him back to the main elevators. Alex said nothing on the ride up to the third floor to her office. He followed her, and she closed the door and sat at her temporary desk.

“Care to share your plan B? If we don’t return quickly, he’s going to look for us.”

“I know. So shut up and let me work.”

“Are you hacking . . . I mean, using cybersecurity methods to—”

“Access the lower level with this keycard? Yes. And to fine-tune the cameras—loop them—for a few minutes. We have ten minutes before they loop back. I hope that’s more time than we need, but I didn’t want to take longer, or Tilden will come looking for us. My regular keycard wouldn’t work on the lower level. I already tried. But this keycard is different. If I’m right, and this is a master. I have to try to add permissions.”

“You seem to know a lot about the cameras.”

“It’s something I teach in class. Not how to hack into one but that security cameras are notoriously easy to hack. And the irony is that the cameras are intended to catch people committing crimes, but with the addition of the Internet and the software to run the cameras, cybercriminals can break into the camera itself.”

And here we are ... breaking all the rules to find a dangerous rule-breaker.

“Now to tweak this keycard.”

“So why doesn’t the company use biometrics instead?”

“I wasn’t part of that decision-making process. But no matter the access method, credentials data—biometric or otherwise—is sent for authentication in the same way. Keycards are easy to manage. Now, let me work.”

“Okay, okay.”

“Come on...” she mumbled, willing her codes to work. “There. I’m in the system and just gave this keycard the ability to take me to the lower level. Now, let’s go. We have one shot at this.”

And for Mackenzie to gain access to the air-gapped system. She could be using the exact same technique that someone else had used to allow a cybercriminal access. Nothing had been revealed to the cybersecurity team, and that made her even more nervous. If she was the hacker, if she was Nebulous 2.0, she would steal all the sensitive data and then set the system to crash before anyone was the wiser. He’d done it before.

She had to find out if it was him. And if it was Nebulous 2.0, he had to know she was here. Alex had brought up the idea at the start—she was a threat to his plans. That’s why she had been attacked.

They raced to the elevator and took it down to the first floor. Mackenzie hoped Tilden wasn’t waiting for them. The door whooshed open, and she peeked out. She didn’t see him. She and Alex hurried through the office doors to the second set of elevators. She pressed the button to open the door, and they stepped inside. Though the keycard should work, she held her breath as she thrust it in, then pressed the lower-level button.

The doors closed and the box started moving.

Down.

She hadn’t wanted to get on a Hanstech elevator again. Maybe she should have used the stairwell instead, in case the cybercriminal was watching and wanted to mess with her again. Prevent her from getting into the servers below deck.

She had to work quickly, gather what intel she could.

To save government secrets. To save Nora.

She mentally prepared herself to commit a crime.

Forgive me...