Page 4 of Indecent Demands

“If you’re really a security agent, you’ll know that there’s only so much computers can do. There’s a human element that you can’t eliminate. We’ve tried to eliminate it, but it’s impossible. In fact it makes the system worse. So if you’re trying to get in as an employee and keep people from being spooked, that means you think there’s someone who needs spooking.”

Seth glanced over my shoulder, like he was checking to make sure there was nobody listening in, then slid his gaze back to mine. “If thereissomeone who needs spooking, then I’d like to keep it as under wraps as possible. So how about we just get you level four clearance, and you keep going about your job as usual.”

I desperately tried to push down the panic trying to find its way to the surface. “What if your investigation lands me in hot water?”

“I won’t let that happen,” he said, looking and sounding sincere.

If I was a law-abiding employee maybe that would be less of a concern or problem, but I wasn’t. If my account got flagged because someone thought I was the one snooping where I shouldn’t be, they might look deeper into it and see what I’d really been up to all this time.

“You say that, but I can’t afford to get fired.” I was definitely going to have to look into my system after this and cover some tracks. Maybe even put in a dummy network to throw this guy off the scent.

“You won’t get fired. Trust me.” Seth smiled warmly at me, and I suddenly felt like my spine was melting. He just had to be charming and have a panty-dropping smile, didn’t he? Damn it.

I sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to change his mind. “Well, I’ll talk to Tony. Let me finish giving you a tour of what I can do with my level three clearance, first, and then we’ll see if you really want or need access to level four documents. Sound good?”

Seth nodded, a pleased look in his eyes. “Sounds good.”

Great. This was just what I needed.

Chapter3

Seth

Ariana Kent was gorgeous.

The moment she appeared in the doorway of the conference room I knew I was in trouble. She had creamy, porcelain skin and big brown eyes with long, sweeping lashes, and a lush mouth that put dirty thoughts into my head, as did those long, slender legs of hers extending from the tight pencil skirt she wore. Her rich chestnut hair fell to her shoulders in soft waves, and the way she held her shoulders back drew my gaze to her full breasts and spectacular cleavage, along with the peek of lace where the first button on her blouse had been left undone.

She also didn’t trust me. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand it showed that she was smart and knew something was up, more than just a basic security check on the system. On the other hand, it could mean that everyone else would figure out my real purpose for being here—or that she had a reason to be on edge and suspicious. Could be anything at this stage.

Tony—the department manager—had assured me she was the best in the department, and I needed her. I planned to figure this system out on my own, but having access through an employee’s account would be helpful to double-check things. You always had to have a double blind. You couldn’t take any chances when dealing with a computer system or a complicated network. It was like a labyrinth where people could feasibly block up the pathway behind you.

Ariana seemed suspicious of me from the start, though. I might have to come clean with her, which would be a hell of a problem if she was part of the scheme somehow, which I hoped wasn’t the case. But I wouldn’t put it past whoever was stealing the money to rope an actual tech expert into it with promises to share part of the wealth. And then, when they inevitably got caught, the perpetrator would make the techie the fall guy, and try to walk away clean.

Which meant I needed to tread very carefully during my “inspection”, and keep my own cards close to my chest.

Ariana gave me a tour of the entire system, and she leaned closer when I navigated parts of the network myself, so she could see what I was doing. She was warm against my side and smelled like vanilla musk, and it was more distracting than I’d thought it would be. I hadn’t been distracted by a woman in… well, ever. I trained in the military and always kept my focus on the job. Until now.

Ariana was right, though—Smirtech seemed as equipped to deal with crypto as any company could be at this juncture with so much still uncharted territory for the new form of currency. I would have to look at the numbers for the accounts to see what Damien had dug up when he realized that someone was stealing from him, but I suspected that part of why he’d been targeted was what I’d mentioned to Ariana earlier—a crypto transaction was insanely difficult to undo, thanks to the blockchain technology on which it was built.

Which was perfect for a thief. The money would be theirs and unretrievable by Smirtech the moment that the crypto dropped into their wallet, and from there into a traditional bank account and converted to cash.

“Could you show me the code that tracks transactions within the company?” I asked.

“Sure, but you’d have to talk to accounting if you want to see things like the budget,” Ariana replied. She easily maneuvered back into the system and pulled up the information I’d requested. “You can see various transactions from company accounts here, but unless you want to figure out the budget yourself transaction by transaction, you’ll want to talk to accounting. They’ll have already done all that for the various reports to the shareholders.”

They would, but how accurate were those accounts? It would be easy for someone in accounting to adjust the books, or for a C-level executive to get the real report, then fudge the numbers in a fake report, and turn that in to everyone else. It was going to be a mind-numbing process, but I would have to go transaction by transaction as Ariana said, and compare that with the reports to see if it added up.

I scrubbed a hand along my jaw and stifled a groan. I had a lot of work ahead of me.

Ariana glanced at me as I scrolled through the code and accounts, getting a feel for things. “Do you need any assistance?”

That surprised me. “You want to help? That would be an additional workload on you.”

She shrugged. “I’ll be honest, I don’t have to do too much. I’m on call for software glitches and other issues but I don’t build the code myself. I’m familiar with it though,” she added quickly. “I’m just more of the fix-it guy.” She grimaced. “And the ‘explain why we can’t make the site do what you want it to do’ guy.”

I knew all about that. Executives wanted their brilliant new idea realized without thinking about if it was actually logical or feasible. “Well, if you really do have the time, I’d appreciate having someone who knows this system from the ground up to lend another pair of eyes. And I’ll make sure that any trouble that might arise from using your login will fall back on me. I don’t want you to get in trouble because I was the one poking around.”

She bit her bottom lip for a moment, then said, “I, uh, I hope you’re able to strengthen whatever weak spots you find in the system.”

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