Page 20 of My Secret Snowflake
The rest of the information security team mutter “morning” as I return to my desk. A small wrapped gift sits on my chair. I’m not feeling the Christmas spirit right now. I stick it in my drawer.No bonus. No job.
The room is now buzzing with activity.
Hank, his baseball cap on backwards, stops by my desk. “I heard New Mexico was hacked. So much for Raphael saying you were one of the best. He should’ve assigned the integration to me.”
Justbrilliant. Instead of being concerned about our company security, he’s happy I failed. But then, Hank was hired by Colby as a favor in return for the use of his father’s apartment for a shoot. Apparently, Hank’s dad said that Hank spends so much time glued to screens that there must be some useful computer skills he can learn. Unfortunately, we were the ones who had to teach him.
“It’s always a question of when, not if.” I nibble on my thumbnail.
I work on putting in additional controls and shoring up any weak spots. It’s a triage challenge, and figuring out this kind of intricate puzzle is one of the things I love most about working in cybersecurity. And it manages to stop my brain from looping on the hamster wheel of thoughts about whether I’m about to lose my job.
Jazminepopsbymydesk. “You’ve been head down all day. The little siblings are arriving soon. Are you eating dinner at your desk tonight?”
I look up from my monitor. It’s dark outside already.
Does Jazmine know about the closure possibility? She’s in HR, so she should be one of the first to know. She seems way too cheerful if she does.
Maybe Kevin was just making it up as an excuse. He probably doesn’t want to admit to France that we were hacked—and that we don’t know what they stole. Kevin is trying to scare us. He did ask Raphael for bonus best-case scenarios, so that’s still a possibility.
I shouldn’t panic yet.
We’ve mitigated the attack as best we can. Raphael’s still trying to figure out what was taken. I send a memo detailing my countermeasures to Raphael. At least I finished that.
“I can’t. I have to help my parents decorate the bar. You’re welcome to come if you want. Some other friends are coming.”
“I have plans, but I saw a gift on your chair when I passed by to see you earlier. What did you get?”
“That’s right—I forgot to open it.” I unwrap my secret snowflake gift: hand-knit fingerless gloves in a dark green. Wow. That’s a great gift for me. I look around the room. Was it just a lucky guess by my Secret Snowflake? Seems too coincidental. The gift has to be from someone I know.
“Those are really nice. They look handmade, so someone who knits must be your Secret Snowflake,” Jazmine says. “I sent my secret snowflake gift via interoffice mail, and I want to pop by Accounting to see if Aaron has any reaction to it.”
I really need to figure out a gift for Ernest. Not boxers. I was just teasing Sebastian.His face. I almost laugh out loud. “What did you send?”
“I found him an accountant mug, like you suggested.” She shows me an image. Written on the mug is:An accountant: the person in the business most likely to know what is actually going on and least likely to be able to do anything about it.
She continues, “I want to see if it’s out on his desk. But I might need cover because he sits in the back of the room, so you need to come with me. I have a good excuse: I can promote the ice skating at Rockefeller Center with our little siblings next week.”
“Okay.” I stretch. “Do you have a plan for how to check out his desk?” And maybe this will give me a chance to talk to Ernest.
“Nope,” she says. “But two heads are better than one. And I do my best work under pressure.”
“Did you guys get a chance to chat in the canteen?”
“Not really. We talked for a few minutes, and it seemed to be going well, but then Kevin came in.”
Kevin really was on an anti-Cupid mission that day.
Not that Cupid should be aiming any arrows at Sebastian or me.
As we leave the Cybersecurity bullpen, I spy the box of snowflakes we’re supposed to hang up as holiday decorations later. “Why don’t we also say we’re there to hang up the snowflakes? We can ask Reggie if we can help him.”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” Jazmine says. “See? I knew you’d come up with something.”
We go down the hall to Maintenance. Jazmine explains her mission to Reggie, even admitting that she has a crush on Aaron. Reggie is happy to support our scheme.
We hurry across the floor to the Accounting bullpen. The only thing distinguishing their space from Cybersecurity is that Accounting doesn’t have a Nerf basketball hoop set up over the supply closet door.
We enter, and a bunch of people look up—including Aaron and Ernest.
