Page 36 of Girl, Empty
The irony was that, in a way, they were.
He had become a master of the physical world because he understood the digital strings that made it dance.It was a language he’d been forced to learn after the real world’s systems of justice had proven to be their own kind of illusion.At the other end of those strings sat the gatekeepers who wrote the code, and who were never held accountable when it broke.
These were the men and women in corporate ivory towers who had decided that the concept of ownership no longer mattered.They were the ones who took the things people held dear and locked them behind a paywall, thus holding the soul of the universe hostage for a monthly fee.They were the assholes who scraped every book and painting created by man and fed it all into a plagiarism machine that churned out soulless parodies of real art.It was a machine that ran on zero foresight and a blind faith that there would never be a reckoning.Consequence was a line item someone else would have to pay.
And while they preached about connectivity and convenience, they engineered a world of planned obsolescence and digital prisons, all while they hid away in fortresses where the people they screwed couldn’t reach them.
Fortresses with locks and cameras and security chiefs.Fortresses he was about to prove were just as illusory as the products they sold.
He couldn't go after the main villains, of course.If a mega CEO wound up dead in his office, the cops would connect the dots in a day, and the narrative would be simple: a disgruntled Luddite with a vendetta.His message would be lost.
The targets represented something else.They were the people who helped build the walls of the digital prisons but didn’t run in.
And really, what mattered, what was really going to blow people's minds, wasn't thewho.
It was thewhere.
This was the lesson.Not just for the gatekeepers, but for everyone.Nowhere was safe.No one could hide, not behind a million tons of impenetrable steel, not surrounded by guards and guns.All of that was just brawn.They were physicals lock waiting for digital keys.Brain beat brawn every single time.He didn't have to break down their gates.He didn't even have to pick the lock.He was the key they willingly put in the hole with their own hands.He was the malicious code they installed on their own systems in the name of convenience and progress.
He was the human Trojan Horse outside the gates, and two people had already let him in.
Tonight, a third would do exactly the same.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ella’s office now consisted of two women and several mountains of paper that were growing fast.They’d requested all of the security documentation for Morrison & Associates and First National Bank, and had indeed confirmed that all of the measures for both buildings had been installed by Sentinel Tech Solutions.
While they waited for the CCTV footage from the First National Bank to come back, they needed to sort through the individual names on the documents to see if any appeared on both.
‘Gavin Goodwin,’ Ella said.‘Systems analyst, helped with the security panels at Morrison.’She was doing things the modern way with spreadsheets, Ripley was doing it old school with big words on a big whiteboard.
Ripley took a step back and stared at her block-capitals list.‘Nope.No Gavins.Do you have Sam Greaves or a Joe Vernon on your end?’
She consulted her spreadsheet.‘No.Closest I’ve got is a Joe Bergnon.Network administrator.’
A pen flew in Ella’s direction.‘God, I’m getting real sick of this technological crap.Biometric this, encrypted that.I just want good old fashioned human terms.Ritual, signature, M.O.’
‘Those were simpler times.’
‘Damn right they were.You know what the murder weapon was in my first case?A tire iron.You know how we caught the guy?His prints were on the tire iron.Case closed.’
The frustration radiated off her partner.Ella felt it too, but she picked up another file and carried on anyway.‘Terry Jackson, Senior Penetration Tester.’
‘Senior what now?’
‘Penetration Tester.I guess it means he tests the strength of the security.’
‘If two people weren’t dead, I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face.No way is Penetration Tester a real job.’
Ella pushed the file across her desk to show her partner.Ripley was right.It did feel like the universe was laughing at them right now.‘It’s right here in black and white.’
‘Jesus.So our killer could be someone whose job is to literally break into buildings.’
‘Maybe, but I’m not finding any overlap at all.None of these people worked on both buildings.Morrison and First National used different Sentinel teams for their installations.'
‘Sentinel’s a big company, it seems.’
‘Yeah.I devoured what I could about them online and it looks like they have specialist teams depending on the industry.Corporate offices get one team, financial places get another.’
