Page 32 of Secret Revenge

Which I had.

I dressed quickly and packed a small bag for the mission. I kissed the hard drive that contained the program Michael needed to access their systems, then threw it into my bag as well.

I dashed out of my house and got into a cab, the better for my frayed nerves. Up to this point, I had only entered the server room with one of the tech boys with me. Now it was way past office hours, and I hoped no one would be around when I went in.

If I was caught in that room alone, there was nothing I could possibly say to explain myself.

The cab ride was a smooth one. In just under an hour, we pulled up outside the Ross building. I could hear my heart slapping loudly against my chest as I paid and stepped out of the cab. I walked up the stairs toward the front door and found Taylor standing guard.

He looked at me with a baffled expression, and I waved. “Silly me, forgot my phone in my office,” I said, trying my hardest to look embarrassed. “Quite a stupid mistake, don’t you think?”

Taylor smiled. “Not at all, Ms. Skye. Happens to the best of us. Would you like some assistance?” he asked nicely, and I had to resist the urge to bolt out of the building.

“No, thank you,” I replied, clearing my throat. “I think I know where I left it. I’ll be out shortly.”

He nodded and returned to his post. I let out a sigh of relief and rode the elevator to the second-highest floor in the building. The server room was a floor below the executive suite, and it was shared by some administrative offices. Fortunately, every office I passed in the hall was dark.

I listened quietly for voices, then put on the glove that Michael had designed for me. It fit perfectly. There was a smallsilicon pad on top of the index finger, and Travis’ fingerprint was etched into it using some kind of 3D printing technology magic.

I took a deep breath, then walked as confidently as I could toward the server room. I placed my finger on the biometric scanner. My heart stuttered as the light flashed green. The door could only be opened from inside with a key card, so I had to be careful not to shut it after me.

I rushed toward the server rig at the far wall. This was the main network of computers that received data from the entire building and all of Ross Industries before feeding the information into the servers. Michael had drilled me extensively about what to do, using pictures I had secretly taken of the computers.

I pulled off the silicon glove, then took out the hard drive. I plugged it into the right hub and powered on one of the computers by tapping a keyboard. I glanced up at the door, fearing that I’d heard a noise, holding my breath as I watched. My heart thundered in my chest and my whole body was rigged with fear, ready to explode.

When I was certain I was alone, I fed in the codes Michael had written down for me, giving him remote access to the systems. If I fed the correct codes, he could access the files in the server. But if I made the tiniest mistake, the server would shut off all processes and send breach alerts throughout the network.

Sweat beaded my forehead as I typed the details as carefully as I could. My hands shook violently and by the time I finished keying in all the characters, I felt too afraid to click ‘enter’. There was no time to second guess, and I surely didn’t have time to retype all the codes again.

I pressed ‘enter’ and closed my eyes. I waited a few seconds, then heard three beeps. The signal that remote access was granted. Michael was in.

I slumped into the chair and watched as his cursor danced around the screen, selecting folder after folder of files we would never have had access to from the outside.

While the PR project shared some files with the journalists, I didn’t trust the versions of the documents they’d shown us. It would be the easiest thing in the world to cook up a fake version of Ross Industries’ books and showthoseto the “unbiased” PR team, while keeping the truth secret. That was why I’d had to sneak in here and get on the real employee servers.

The display on the screen showed that Michael had started downloading files onto the external hard drive I had plugged into the CPU. It would take fifteen minutes to fully download, and those fifteen minutes felt like several lifetimes pressed together. The download moved as smoothly as I could have hoped, and when there were less than two minutes to go I allowed myself to believe I could escape safely.

I hoped too early. With under a minute to go, I heard a voice in the hallway. I prayed that I had heard wrong, but I hadn’t. The sound of footsteps approaching was unmistakable. I looked down at the screen with wide eyes.

Forty-five seconds. Forty-four.

I glanced at the crack I’d left in the door, propping it open with a doorstop. Whoever was passing by was bound to see the blue light from the screen inside. Michael said I couldn’t turn off the computer before the download finished, or the entire file was useless. The footsteps grew closer. I didn’t have anything close to a legitimate reason for being in the server room alone at night.

If it was Taylor, I was bound to get into a lot of trouble. There was a world of difference between my cubicle downstairs and the company’s secure access server room. I glanced at the screen again.Forty seconds. I felt like time was moving backwards to spite me. I needed a plan.

The footsteps stopped outside the server room, and the voice quieted. Whoever was out there had been on the phone and found it weird that the server room was unlocked. In a stroke of genius, I tossed my purse to the floor, then ran my hand along every keyboard I could reach to light up all the monitors.

I waited to hear a security man’s voice and decided to sell my lie. “Ugh, where the hell are you?” I said, feigning frustration, as I pushed chairs around.

“Who’s there?”

I froze in surprise, realizing the voice was Travis’s. I poked my head out from the side of the desk and acted startled. “Oh, Travis,” I said casually. “I thought you were a security guard.” I glanced carefully at the screen.Twenty seconds.

“Oh,” he replied, somewhat awkwardly. “It’s just me. What are you doinghere?” His question was obvious.

How the hell did you get in here? I’m sure we didn’t give you the credentials for it.

“I was in here earlier with one of the IT people and I left my purse behind.” Fortunately, I didn’t have to fake an embarrassed blush as his intense eyes studied me.