Page 82 of Decoding Emma
“Emma, as convoluted as it—”
Three raps on the door and I turned to see Ben poking his head in.
“What’s up, Ben?”He looked at me then at Emma.I followed his gaze.Her head was up, watching Ben as he stepped into the office, his hand still on the doorknob.
“Need you both downstairs.”Judging by his vibe, this wasn’t going to be good news.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Emma
“Give us a minute and we’ll be right there.”
Ben turned with a curt nod and left, closing the door on his way out.As soon as I heard the latch click, Asher turned to me.I raised my hand.
“Look, Asher, I get it.What you don’t seem to get is the list of grudges would include people my father messed with, people I went to school with, worked with, who think the only way I’ve made it this far was on my father’s coattails.What can I say?Pick a name in tech.If it’s not the person you pick, it’s probably someone who knows someone.You know how incestuous tech is in the stratosphere not to mention how cutthroat it can be in some circles all the way down to sea level.”
I locked my box and turned off the monitor.What more was there to say?I tucked my laptop under my arm, intending to head for the elevators, when Asher gently grasped my upper arm.I glanced from his hand to his face and back to his hand.He released my arm.
“I realize the possibility is very likely zero, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask the question.You said it yourself: The profession is interwoven and—your word, not mine even if true—cutthroat.Just think about it, okay?”
“If it’ll make you happy…” I didn’t look back to see if he was following me.
***
Ben, Will, and Tim were already seated on one side of the conference table.One guy, probably John Boyd, the president, was at the head of the table, and another guy—Nick Costanza from Legal?—sat to his left.Before we took our seats, Asher performed the introductions, confirming my assumptions.
John spoke first.“Miles is on his way.Nick has confirmed that access to the personnel records is permitted for the purposes of this internal investigation.Access by any outside entities will be by warrant only.Ben has brought us up to date with all of the latest information.”
“We’re making some progress on identifying who’s behind the creds.They’ve covered their tracks pretty well, but at first glance, not a single person stands out.”Ben slid what looked like a list across the table to Asher.He picked it up.“This is the list of those who’ve left and circumstances.”
“All the signs are pointing to inside help.Access attempts indicate purpose.Are we any closer to figuring that out?”
Ben, Tim, and Will shook their heads.
Someone tapped on the door right then, and I heard Miles before he took the seat next to Asher.“Sorry I’m late.”He passed a thumb drive to Asher and another to Nick.“Those drives have the HR information you requested, Asher.Nick, the drive I gave you is a duplicate.”Nick nodded, but didn’t speak.
Miles opened his laptop.“As you may be aware, Asher requested the records of anyone who had left IT for any reason since its inception.There were eight departures.”
The information on the first five was benign.The employees had left for family or were poached.Not at all unusual, and Miles stressed that the exit interviews were positive on both sides.
While Miles briefed the group on the former employees, I was multitasking: listening to Miles and looking over the search results from the sniffer.After we’d offloaded the preliminary findings, I reset the search parameters and left it to run in the background.The data collected overnight were interesting, particularly in regard to the intruder’s activity pattern, but I wasn’t ready to say anything just yet.
Then I realized there had been a very subtle change in the room vibe as Miles dropped both shoes.
“Which brings us to Tate Riser, Baylor Moore, and Hugo Wayne.All fired for cause.”
Asher picked up the thread.Tate tried to hack into the time tracking app.Baylor was fired for harassment.Turns out Hugo had seriously mad skillz; Asher had assessed them as outstanding, definitely high praise, but the guy was eventually fired for insubordination.
“Do we still need to look internally?”Miles asked.
“The current employees in IT have the expertise, and while I don’t believe any of them would do this, we have to be thorough.”
“Asher’s right,” Tim said.“Due diligence.”
“Yeah.”Ben ran his fingers through his hair.
I raised my hand and felt seven pairs of eyes on me.Chill, Emma.
