Page 10 of Butterflies and Hazel Eyes
“Black hat?” Mathias asked, glancing between us.
“A black hat hacker is someone who will break into computer networks with malicious intent. I’m what you call a white hat hacker. I fix what the black hats destroy. You’re lucky. We aren’t dealing with a black hat here. If you were, they’d already have your research. Whoever is working your system is good but not that good. If you change the password every week and never use the same one twice, that’s going to make it incredibly difficult for them to get in.”
“Every week?” Gulliver asked with nervousness. “That’s a lot to remember, Charity.”
“It won’t be forever,” I promised. “We need to lock them out and buy time to find out who it is. Once this is cleared up, you’ll only have to change the password once a month. Understood?”
Both men nodded.
“Good. If you don’t do this, you’re going to lose this precious research to someone trying to screw you over. Now you have someone hacking into your servers and someone running you off the road. That tells me the situation is escalating. Do either of you have any idea who this might be?”
“If I had to take a guess, I’d lean toward a competing company longing to be the first one to rush it to market,” Mathias said.
Gulliver pointed at him in agreement. “That’s the most likely scenario, though it could also be a conservation group that wants the formula to be public domain so no one makes money off the sale of it.”
Mathias snorted with heavy sarcasm. “I don’t know any conservation groups that are going to resort to this kind of violence to do that.”
I waved my hand in the air. “Either way, the time is now to protect yourself before all of this implodes on you.”
Gulliver kept constant eye contact with me while we talked, and his caramel globes sparked in the low light of the room every time his emotions flared. Most women would have gone gaga the moment Mathias walked into the room. He was handsome in a traditional blond, blue-eyed, sharp dresser, catch-every-woman’s-attention kind of way, but Gulliver was handsome in the boy-next-door kind of way. His eyes were what drew you in, but his dark, curly hair made you sigh a little inside. He reminded me of Antonio Banderas if Antonio Banderas had short, curly hair. I’m a sucker for tall, dark, and handsome, but I’m also a sucker for depth of character. What I’d learned about Gulliver today was simple. Under his layer of overinflated fake ego, he was a sweet guy who believed in what he was doing, both with the pesticide and trying to protect the creatures he loved. I respected his devotion to both. I’d met so many guys who didn’t care one way or the other about working for the greater good, especially at the expense of their personal lives. He could make fun of himself, and me, without sounding jerky or arrogant, but most importantly I’d learned that his ego was nothing more than a defense mechanism. Thus far tonight, I’d seen anger and fear in those globes of gold and copper.
“There is more work to do, though,” I said, motioning at the computer. “I need to know how far you want me to go.”
“All the way,” they said in unison.
“How long can you stay and help us get this figured out?” Gulliver asked.
I let a smile work its way back to my lips. “I have until the end of July, but it won’t take me that long. This is only the end of May. You’re lucky, most businesses call me after it’s too late, so you’re ahead of the curve. What we need to do is shut this whole website down and rebuild a new one from scratch.” I paused. “On second thought, I would suggest taking down everything but the front page. We can say something about the site undergoing maintenance and leave contact information to reach the business by phone or email. If we take the entire website down, we could tip whoever is behind this off that we’re onto them. Before we rebuild it, I’ll need to close all the holes in the security for your server.”
“How long will that take?” Mathias asked, his eyes revealing a heavy dose of anger.
“I can get most of the security breaches done tonight, at least the most important ones. The rest I’ll have to finish tomorrow night. Encoding all the research data to protect it will take much longer. Gulliver, you’ll have to work closely with me on the website rebuild when we’re ready. I can write code, but I don’t know a thing about bugs.”
“Done,” Gulliver assured me.
I tapped the desk twice. “How long has Honey been here?”
Mathias shook his head before I finished the sentence. “No, she’s beyond reproach,” he said angrily and adamantly. “She’s been my best friend for twenty years.”
Gulliver grasped Mathias’s shoulder to calm him. “She’s been here about a year, but all she does is answer the phone and process orders, nothing more. She doesn’t have access to the research lab either.”
“Honey has nothing to do with this,” Mathias said, a dangerous glint to his eye.
I held my hands up in defense. “I had to ask considering what we’re dealing with. Is there any way she can work somewhere else for a week? I could sit at her desk during the day to work. I’ll even answer the phone. By week’s end, I’ll have the research data encoded. When Honey returns the next week, Gulliver and I can work on putting the website back together again. That will take a bit of time as well. I’ll want to make sure there are no vulnerabilities in the site before it goes live.”
Mathias glanced at Gulliver and then back to me. “She can work from my condo. I have some other business she can attend to for the next week. I’ll tell her, though. I don’t want her to think we’re accusing her of any—”
The front doors flew open, and Honey ran in. “Mattie!” she exclaimed, running over and nearly pushing Gulliver out of the way to get to him. “Oh my God, are you okay?” she asked, frantically checking him over. Her hands started to shake when she encountered the blood on his shirt, and several fingers on her right hand pointed straight up to the sky.
Mathias grasped her hand carefully and massaged the fingers while he spoke to her quietly. “I’m okay,” he promised, running his fingers through her hair to straighten it out. He’d obviously rousted her from a deep sleep when he’d called her. “I have a few stitches in the back of my head and a concussion, the doctor said. He didn’t want me to stay alone.”
“Oh my God, a concussion?” she asked, her hand shaking again. “What happened?”
Mathias stood slowly, making sure his feet were under him before he spoke. “I’ll tell you on the way to the condo. I need to put my head down for a little bit. It’s starting to pound. I have the keys to the van in my pocket.”
She hooked her arm through his and grasped his elbow to keep him steady. “I’ll bring the van back when I come to work tomorrow,” she said to Gulliver.
“About that,” Mathias said, listing a bit until Honey pulled him tight to her side again. “I need you to work from the condo for the next week or so. I have some business I need you to look at that’s not related to Butterfly Junction.”
