Page 18 of Secret Revenge
I looked at Michael in confusion and opened my arms. Everything he said sounded like crazy talk. I said as much to him, and he looked at me as if I was the biggest idiot he had ever seen.
“It’s cyber warfare, Emily,” he said finally, drawing out the words as if he was talking to a child.
“Huh?” I said, still confused. “You’re going to have to speak English, Michael.”
He groaned loudly and pinched the top of his nose. He let out a long, exasperated breath. Quietly, I wondered why most tech experts needed to speak with strange words and terms. It was almost as if they had agreed upon a particular language, andinsisted on using it around normal folk to show how intelligent they were. I rolled my eyes.
“Look at it this way,” he said. “Think about a castle from an epic movie, right? Right. Now, there’s the Ross’s castle, and we have it under siege, basically. We have ladders up against the wall, and we’re trying to climb the wall to breach this castle. Are you following so far?”
I nodded, and Michael continued. “The owners of this castle, in this case, Travis and his brothers, mount a defense against our assault on their castle, right? They pour oil down the walls, set ladders on fire, and rain boulders and arrows down on our army as we try to take the castle.”
I nodded thoughtfully, raising a finger. “So basically, they burned us… right?”
“Exactly.”
“Ah…” I sat on the couch beside him, I felt a sense of panic flood through me. I needed a breakthrough with his investigation. I had just taken an advance from Jonathan with the promise of turning up with something tangible. Soon.
“Were you…able to save the files?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
“No, Emily. They’re all gone. Whatever this was, it was time-delayed. I thought I was fine so I hooked the phone up to the computer I was using. Then the bug fried both of them.”
My stomach dropped. That meant that we were back where we started. Ground zero. I had nothing to turn over to Jonathan, and I had effectively put myself in his debt. I considered the possibility of appeasing him with a different scoop, but discarded the thought as quickly as I picked it up.
The only reason Jonathan had been so helpful and supportive was because I presented him with an opportunity to tear down the Ross family. They were huge, controversial, and slowly becoming beloved. Which meant more controversy andgratitude if he could be the one to reveal their misdeeds. For me, it was the only reason he got into journalism at all. He was probably the only person who had a bigger desire than me to see it all crashing down.
“So, what do we do?” I asked..
“Oh, I am not letting this slide,” Michael said, getting up and pacing in a straight line. “I intend to retaliate. Immediately.”
“That sounds noble,” I replied dryly. “But how? How exactly do you plan to do that? From where I’m sitting, it looks to me like we would have to start again. From scratch.”
He pointed at a sheet of paper on the coffee table, still moving. His pacing unnerved me, and I did my best to ignore him. I picked up the sheet and saw it was an application for journalists. The same application Travis’ assistant had sent me. I almost smiled when I remembered how offended Travis had been by my scorching reply where I refused to work with him or his organization.
“I’ve seen this before,” I said, setting the application form back down on the table.
“I know you have,” Michael replied immediately. I perked up at that, narrowing my eyes at him.He has all but admitted to tracking my mobile phone. Does he check my emails as well?
“The list of invitees had already been approved,” Michael continued before I could ask him any questions. “I was able to hack their systems, however. I added your name to the list of journalists who accepted the invitation and were approved. Congratulations! You will be going to work at Travis’ company.”
I looked at Michael with wide-eyed bafflement. “Hold on Michael, I think you stepped over several things here…”
“Look, everything we have been doing so far is illegal, okay?” Michael said, cutting me off. “Everything we have been doing is stuff that could get us prosecuted or worse. So this isn’t all that big a deal, alright?”
“Not a big deal?” I asked, exasperated. “You’re sending me into the company now, the proverbial belly of the beast. This is different. And can you stop moving for two seconds? You’re driving me nuts with that pacing!”
“Well, yes.” He sat down in an armchair across from me. ”Truth is, it’s going to be practically impossible for us to get into their juicy, dirty secrets from the outside. I need you to find a way into their servers from the inside,, and then give me access to their network remotely. It’s a good thing they’re hiring journalists or we might have had to have you pose as a janitor.”
I would almost rather that than risk Travis recognizing me after what we did a few nights ago. My stomach flipped over at the thought of seeing him in person, my face and stomach flushing with heat that was part shame. And part something else.
“Couldn’t we have me do that anyway?”
“No. Reporters get access to otherwise confidential files.”
I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling in desperation.
“But,” Michael continued, “we still have Travis’s fingerprints. The physical copies of them.. I could put them on a silicon pad for you, to make them easier to carry. That should give you access anywhere in the building. And I do meananywhere.”
“This is crazy Michael! Do you have any idea how dangerous what you’re asking me to do is?”