Page 36 of Angel's Whisper

“Come on,” he breathed, gritting his teeth. “Come on, come on.”

Giuseppe found the part of the system Ricardo was trying to block and jumped in on his effort. They both simultaneously stroked their keys faster than their fingers could fly.

“Did you ever tell my brother on whose behalf you worked,” Giuseppe asked in the heat of what they were doing.

“What?” Ricardo inquired, momentarily losing focus.

“Did you ever tell my brother who paid you to input the RAT?”

“I don’t remember,” Ricardo replied. His fingers flew across the keys, inputting code, decoding code, and implementing countermeasures all at the same time.

“Who put you up to it?” Giuseppe asked, his fingers moving equally as fast.

“Why does that matter now?” Ricardo inquired.

“It matters because they are obviously aware of your efforts to lock them out. Did you tell them?”

“No! No, I haven’t spoken with them.”

“Who is them, Ricardo?” Giuseppe inquired. “Tell me, or I’ll make sure you’re dead before your next round of pain meds arrive.”

Ricardo’s fingers stopped moving for a millisecond. Giuseppe looked up from his computer and glared into Ricardo’s eyes, reinforcing just how serious he was.

“Esposito,” Ricardo uttered. “The Esposito family.”

Giuseppe’s hands froze in place, and he looked up at Ricardo. He couldn’t believe what he’d said, but he didn’t have a choice but to believe it. Ricardo was in no position to lie.

“Well done,” Giuseppe answered, returning his full attention to the keys. “Thank you for sharing.”

Ricardo felt like his life was already over. Still, he hoped that by telling Giuseppe, maybe, just maybe, his life would be spared. He started to feel a certain kind of way about what the Esposito’s made him do. His life was fine prior to their approaching him. It was under the guise of benefitting the Ricci’s. That’s how they first drew his attention. Sending email correspondence, cozying up to him, and making him believe he was the greatest computer scientist in the world. When they offered new technology that would aid in his work and make it stand out, Ricardo’s curiosity was piqued. He thought maybe if he brought new technology to the company, they’d reward him financially.

After he and the Esposito’s met in person, he discovered that the new technology they were offering was not what he’d been promised. Then, the money was offered to him to install the RAT technology.

“They’ll never know it was you,” he was promised. “All you have to do is upload this program, and we’ll do the rest.”

Ricardo wasn’t convinced. He fought against the notion of betraying his employer. But the Esposito’s had something in mind for that, too.

“Well, give you $150,000.”

Ricardo initially denied the offer. Then, the tone of the meeting shifted.

“You will do what is being requested of you. We will pay you the money as a courtesy,” Alessandro insisted, with the backing of Carmine, his father. “If you don’t,” Alessandro took a decisive step forward, “we will make your life a living hell. Better yet,” he bore his eyes into Ricardo’s, “we will kill you.”

The threat he felt was sincere and real, and Ricardo had no choice but to do what the Esposito’s insisted.

Ricardo refocused his attention on the task at hand. He was a dead man either way. Might as well correct what he had broken. Then, at least when he faced the Creator, he could at least say that he did what he knew was right and hopefully be accepted past the pearly gates. Ricardo’s eyes pierced as he scanned the screen. His fingers typed furiously, and he piggy-backed off what Giuseppe did.

“Got it!” He exclaimed. Ricardo dropped his head back on his pillow, ignoring the dull ache that emanated from it.

“Got it,” Ricardo sighed. “Now, all I have to do is reinforce the cyber walls that I’ve established, and the system is corrected.”

“And I will watch every additional keystroke to make sure you do just that.”

Chapter Seventeen

Massimo made sure that Isotta was settled in before he left for the office.

“I’ll see you when I return,” Massimo advised, kissing Isotta on the cheek.

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