Page 74 of Wild Fever

"What were you doing when the system went down?” I asked.

"I wasn't doing anything."

"I don't mean to pry, but were you searching any adult sites? Sometimes those are full of malware and can download viruses.”

His eyes rounded, he went stiff for a moment. "Why don’t you see what you can do before I call my boss."

I nodded. "I think that’s probably a good idea. Don't worry. We'll fix this, and you won't have to say a word to anyone.”

He exhaled a relieved breath. "That would be ideal." Haskins grabbed a key card and handed it across the counter to me. "That will get you anywhere in the building, even the most secure labs. All I ask is that you don't touch anything, don't disturb anything, and don't leave a trace of your presence. Let's get this resolved as quickly as possible."

"Affirmative," I said. "I'll take my team, and we’ll start scanning each system."

"How long do you think that will take?”

I shrugged. "The faster we can get to it, the faster we can finish.”

It was all BS, but he bought into it.

Piper stood up and stepped around the counter. Haskins took a seat in his chair. He stared at the screen that flashed the ransom demand. Fear drenched his eyes. “What happens if you pay the ransom and they don’t release the network?”

“It happens,” I said in a grim tone.

Haskins swallowed hard.

We hustled across the lobby, bypassed the security scanners, and made our way to the elevator.

I pressed the call button, and the bell chimed. The door slid open a moment later. We stepped aboard and vaulted up to the seventh floor.

Dr. Malcolm led us down the hall to SRL #7. I swiped the key card at the door, and the light flashed green. We pushed into the room, and Dr. Malcolm made a beeline for one of the refrigerators.

The high-tech lab was filled with microscopes, beakers, burners, chemicals, etc. Stainless steel cabinets contained more test tubes, chemicals, and accessories. The place was spotless.

"We've got a problem," Dr. Malcolm said, a tense look on his face.

45

The refrigerator required keypad access.

It wasn't that big of a deal. Keypads were notoriously easy to hack. I loosened the screws on the faceplate just enough to slip the blade of a pocketknife underneath. I bridged the connection, making sure not to trip the anti-tamper device.

The locking mechanism released, and I pulled open the glass freezer door.

Dr. Malcolm scanned the contents, then grabbed a few vials and peeled off the stickers that contained passive RFID chips. Without those, there would be no way to track them. He stuffed the vials into a small cooler we had packed with ice. It would be enough to regulate the temperature until we got back to theAvventura.

Isabella had been monitoring comms and network traffic, or lack thereof. Her voice filtered through my earpiece. “Slight hiccup. Since you guys crashed the network, QTS’s remote monitoring system hasn’t gotten regular status reports from Zonatrex.”

I cringed. “That’s bad, isn’t it?”

“It triggered an alert. Someone at QTS just called the front desk. I kept the call from ringing. But if they don’t get an answer soon, they will likely alert the authorities. When they call again, I’m going to transfer it to your burner. Handle the guy.”

“Will do. Thanks for the heads up.”

Sure enough, my phone rang a minute later. "Zonatrex Pharmaceuticals, can I help you?"

"Yeah, this is Brad at QTS. We’re getting an error message when we try to connect to your server. Is the network down?”

"I need your security passcode.”