Page 89 of Decoding Emma

Emma

I watched the data scroll over my screen and pumped my arm in the air as I jumped from my chair and danced to an old rock song.

“Emma,” a loud voice called.I turned to see Asher leaning against the wall next to the office door, arms folded across his chest, his expression a mix of curiosity and amusement.

I continued with random dance steps as I pulled my headset down, grinning in my triumph.

I punched my fist in the air.V.I.C.T.O.R.Y.

“I got the sucker.”I hadn’t felt a high like this since…well…thatnight.Who knew victory could feel almost as good as sex?

Elation filled me.I’d not only found the asshole who was trying to get into FI’s system, but I’d figured out what that lowlife was trying to do.

“Who?”

“The hacker and what they were looking for.”

“What?”

“I set a little trap, and he took the bait.”I spun around and pointed to the right computer monitor.“It’s all here.It was actually pretty genius.He hid his actions in plain sight.”

Asher moved closer to look at the monitor.“That’s the archive files.”

“Yep.Probably the last place we’d ever look.”Taking a deep breath, I continued.“I also found traces of Hugo.”I wanted to dance some more, but a very subtle change in Asher’s expression held me back.“You and Ben find something too?”My happiness dipped a little bit.

“We did.Sit.”

I plopped down onto my chair and turned off the music still blaring from my headset.“How bad?”Damn, I was hoping this was the end of it, and we could turn everything over to law enforcement.

“Worse than we knew.Ben and I have been interviewing the night crew.”

“Right.Someone knew something?”I wanted to be so wrong about this being an inside job, but all the evidence pointed there.

“Doug.”

“I haven’t met him.”

“You would have next week when he rotated off the night shift to day shift.”

I nodded.“What did he say?”Everything in me tensed up.How much damage had been done that we hadn’t seen?

“Doug told us the file hidden in Hugo’s folder is ransomware disguised as ghostware.”

“I know.Hugo’s the author.His signature was nearly impossible to find, but it’s there.”I grabbed my pencil and pointed to the lines of code on the screen.“Look.There’s the proof.”

“Fuck.”

“The best part?It hasn’t been triggered, and I’ve neutralized it and walled it off so they can’t do any damage.Not only that, I’ve tagged the hacker with my own ghostware, so they’ll be easy to find, but the tag is invisible on their device.”

Asher rubbed his forehead.The lines of stress on his face hit me hard.I cupped his cheek, hoping to ease some of his concern.“Hey, we’re about to hand the cyberspooks the entire case.Why do you look like you’ve lost your best friend?”

Asher took my hand, entwined our fingers and squeezed.“I’m afraid there’s more.”

His tone was so serious I suddenly felt like the floor had tilted, and whatever excitement I’d been feeling to that point dissipated like smoke in the wind.

“Ben and I didn’t understand why Doug would help Hugo and his cohorts do this.Turns out, he’s got a juvie record, and they threatened to expose him.”

“You said cohorts, who else did Doug name?”