Page 1 of Let's Go To Camp!

Chapter One

“And that is how you do it!” Maisie Cooper yelled.

She hit the ENTER button on the keyboard, spun around in her office chair to face the opposite direction, and leaned back while a satisfied grin spread across her pretty face.

Across the small office, her co-worker, Daniela Torres, swiveled in her chair to face her. “Stop another entry attempt?”

“Uh-huh,” Maisie answered with a nod. “Third one this week.”

Before Daniela could answer, a man’s voice said, “What are you ladies so excited about? Big sell at your favorite store or something?”

Maisie rolled her eyes at the sexist remark. But even if he had said something else, she probably still would have rolled her eyes.

Derek Preston just had that effect on her.

He was tall, handsome, and always dressed nicely.

He was also a world-class jerk. That arrogant attitude of his negated all those nice points, causing him to be quite unattractive in Maisie’s eyes. Apparently, she was in the minority on that, though. A lot of women around the office swooned over Derek. Sure, he was nice looking and made a crap ton of money. But when you walk around like you own the world, it sort of overshadows everything else.

At least in her mind.

To each their own, though, she supposed.

“This is work stuff,” she simply said.

“Stop another cyber-attack?” he asked as he walked in. He got closer than she would have liked, leaning on her desk with his right hip.

Gross, she thought. She’d have to disinfect anything he touched just to clean “the jerk” off her workstation.

“Sort of.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “It’s not really an attack like you’re thinking. They’re not trying to do damage to our system or anything. In fact, their whole goal is to not be noticed.”

“Then why did they break in?” he asked.

She smiled. “Correction. Theytriedto break in. I stopped them.”

She reached out and put her hand in the air. Across the narrow space, Daniela did the same. They weren’t close enough to actually high-five each other, but the sentiment was there.

“That’s nerdy,” Derek said. “But seriously, why did theytryto break in?”

Maisie softened. Was Derek really interested? Usually he just came in there to make rude, misogynistic comments and imply that she and Daniela were nerds. And talk about himself. He loved doing that every chance he could, it seemed.

But perhaps he was turning over a new leaf.

“We call it passive reconnaissance. It’s when people park themselves in a system and just collect information. They might want it for themselves. But more than likely, they plan to sell it to others who will rip off people’s IDs, open fake accounts, and do all kinds of shady stuff. It’s really stinky.”

“Stinky?” he said with a laugh. “Watch your language!” He rolled his eyes and snorted. “Anyway, you thought I really cared. That’s cute. You two keep being nerdy so we can do the real workin there.” He jerked his head toward the wall that separated their office from his.

“Did you come in here just to be rude?” she asked him.

Used to, she remained quiet when he picked on them. Not now. She’d had enough.

“Gee, don’t be all…hormonal.” He shook his head in disgust. “Must be your time of the month.” He chuckled. “Just keep it down in here. I have a meeting with a client in ten minutes.”

With that, Derek Preston stood and walked out.

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