Page 65 of Butterflies and Hazel Eyes
She grasped it to her stomach in a sad display of pain and fear. “Which is what they did,” she whispered.
Mathias cursed again and grasped her other hand tightly. “I’m so sorry this has been going on, and I didn’t realize it. Damn it,” he whispered, lowering his head. “We have to end this, even if it means the research is leaked.”
“No!” Honey said emphatically. “I haven’t fought tooth and nail to protect it just to give it away! No.”
Gulliver held up a hand. “I think we can manage to find these guys and still protect the research.”
“I don’t understand what the big deal is,” Honey said as she shook her head. “I know why you guys want this formula, it’s for the environment, but why all the violence for something that’s being created to help us?”
“Because while we want it for the environment, others want it for money,” Mathias explained patiently. “If we can take a product like this to market, we’re talking about billions of dollars lost from current pesticide companies and funneled down into one company.”
“Butterfly Junction,” Honey finished.
Gulliver tipped his head in acknowledgment. “We’ve always expected pushback from some of the other companies who stand to lose money on their products if ours goes to market, but we didn’t expect violence against our friends. I don’t find their behavior acceptable, so we’re going to change it this morning. Understand?”
Honey nodded and I noticed her spine straighten at his words. “I’ll do whatever I can, but they know where I live, and they’ll get to me if they want to. I’ve made peace with it,” she said, her voice breaking on the last word.
That told me she hadn’t made peace with it. At least not when faced with the man she loved.
Mathias put his arm around her and let her rest her head on his shoulder. “You aren’t going home, honeybee. I’ll keep you safe until we can end this blackmail. Gulliver and I are going to the police.”
Honey struggled to sit up. “No, no, no, no, Mathias. They told me straight up if the cops got involved, it wouldn’t end well for any of us.”
“They can’t get to us here, sweetheart,” he reminded her patiently.
Honey stomped to the door that separated us from the research lab. “What’s in there, Mathias?” she yelled, pointing into the glass-encased room. “Tell me, what’s the lab filled with?”
Mathias sat like a deer in headlights, so I was the one to answer. “Chemicals,” I said slowly.
“Exactly,” she cried, her hands up in the air. “Extremely flammable chemicals, even if they are eco-friendly. They’ll still go boom, won’t they?” she asked, her arms dropping to her sides.
Mathias’s lips were tugged into a thin line. “They will, but first they’d have to get down here. We have to trust someone, Honey. If we don’t, then we’re giving them exactly what they want. I’m not willing to take all the money I’ve put into this, and the blood, sweat, and tears of our researchers, and hand it over without a fight. I’ll fight to protect it, but I’ll also fight to protect you.”
Gulliver tapped the table with his fingers. “Honey, if what you’re saying is true, these three guys can’t be the brains behind this. When you communicate in the chat room, is it with one of them or someone else?”
Honey trudged back to the table and sat. She looked exhausted and I felt terrible for her. “I don’t know, Gulliver. All I know is, none of them are Einstein. As for the chat room, my guess is whoever I’m communicating with is the person behind all of it. Whether he’s one of these three guys or someone who sends them, I don’t know.”
Mathias rubbed his temple, confusion and frustration etched on his face. “Then the person you’re giving the information to isn’t a scientist or chemist. If they were, they’d know what you were feeding them was bad information.”
Gulliver leaned forward on the table. “From what I read in the documents Charity decoded, they don’t want to formulate their own product. They want ours. Meaning they’re constantly asking her for information for two reasons. They want to make sure she hasn’t told anyone what they’re up to, and they’re keeping tabs on our research. They may not understand the chemical compositions, but they can grasp the basics. When she sends them simple formulas like she’s taking off the bottles, they take it at face value. They think it’s the real thing. She tells them it’s the latest one we’re working on, and they file it until she contacts them with the new one.” He addressed Honey with his next question. “Are you the one hacking into the server to steal the research?”
Honey glanced between Gulliver and me in confusion. “What? No, I don’t know how to hack.”
“The reason Gulliver hired me in June,” I said, jumping in, “was to find any holes in the security of the server. What I found was fully open doors.”
She held up her hands, and I noticed a tremor in her bad hand as they hung in the air. Mathias lowered her hand and absently rubbed at her fingers that were twisted against her palm. Something must have happened when she was younger because while she could use her hand with no problem, when it was at rest, her fingers curled like a claw into her palm. Whatever she’d been through in life, it hadn’t been kind to her. “Trust me, what you’re describing is way above my abilities. Hell, getting the formula is way above my ability to comprehend. I’m not that smart. You can ask Mathias.”
“Honeybee,” Mathias said, his tone pointed. “We don’t expect you to understand the formula. You aren’t a scientist.”
She nodded her head several times. “Which is why I’m giving them the stuff from the store. It was a chance I took not knowing if they’d realize it was bogus, but after the first time I did it and they were giddy, I decided to keep going.”
Gulliver frowned as he tapped the pen on the paper. “Do you think we have two different groups on our hands then?” he asked me.
“That’s possible, but remember, you found the evidence of a hacker before I came into the picture. It could still be them, but since I fixed the security issues, they haven’t been able to get through. Whoever is behind the hacking didn’t hire a black hat, I can tell you that. If they had, all your research would have been stolen long before I got here. If their skills were limited, then it could still be the same group threatening Honey. A black hat would have gotten everything on the first try.”
Mathias ran his hands through his hair. “They’re not going to find anything if they hack us now, right?”
I leaned back, a confident smile on my face. “Every door has been boarded over, nailed shut, and then bricked for good measure. Your cloud is empty too. I check every day. No one has attempted anything since I arrived at Butterfly Junction.”
