Page 16 of Left of the Slash
“Like I said, I don't know, man,” I reply. “I've been caught off guard by the craziness up here, and the way they treat Olivia just set me off.”
“Butwhythough? Because you like her?”
“Well … it’s deeper than just that.”
“But that’s part of it,” Rob says as a statement instead of a question.
I sigh and frown at him. I can't do too much, though, because he's right. “A small part of it. The bigger part is that it’s a trio of men ganging up on a woman. Would you stand by and watch three dudes talk shit to a single woman?”
“Well …”
“What if the woman was Sandra?” I ask, making it personal to him.
Rob’s brows raise. “So, now we’re comparing the new CEO to my wife?”
I suck my teeth. “No, I'm comparing her to a woman you know personally, which I shouldn't have to do just to get you to understand that a woman shouldn't be treated that way by men. But whatever works, I guess.”
Rob scoffs. “Okay. I see what you're trying to do. I get it, but there's a big difference between the woman I'm married to and the woman you just met. I'm just saying.”
“Of course there is … but there isn’t. Men shouldn't gang up on women. Full stop. So, I did something about it, and I’ll take it even further if they do it again. I'm not fucking playing.”
Rob shakes his oversized head in disbelief.
“Wow, bro. So your way of handling it is to fight them for her?” he asks with entirely too much amusement on his face.
“I don't care if it makes sense to you. That’s just how I feel. She says she can't fire them because she needs their expertise or whatever. I disagree, but since I can't make her fire them, I’ll just check them all. If she doesn't want to step on toes, it’s fine. I’ll stomp their fucking necks.” I say without a care. I stare across the table at my friend and wait for him to say something slick. Usually the words are right on the tip of his tongue, but he just shakes his head at me, and I'm not sure which is worse. “Stop judging me, Rob.”
“I can't,” he replies with a chuckle. “Does she know you're feeling her like this?”
I shake my head. “I'm not feeling her like anything. It’s just the right thing to do.”
“It’s right to risk your job for a stranger?”
“To me it is.”
“So this is a situation where you're willing to do the right thing in order to achieve the right goal.”
I nod my head and point at Rob. “Oh, you're finally getting it.”
“Bro, she's going to think you're crazy.”
“That’s fine. I don't care about any of that. They pissed me off, so now they have to deal with the effects of that. That’s why I need you to help me with this fucking breach. I can't sit back and watch Obsidian burn to the ground with all of us still inside. We have to figure this shit out, and I know your department has been working on it but I want to get my arms around this myself.”
“Of course you do,” Rob says with a roll of his eyes. “Alright, what do you need?”
I pick up the papers on my desk and show them to Rob. “This is Annette’s report from the finance department. It really doesn't give us anything to go on in the way of the hack itself.”
“What makes you think it’s a hack anyway?”
“Just a gut feeling.”
“Ah, a gut feeling from the son of a hacker. Okay, if the finance report doesn't help, what else is there?”
I drop the papers—still annoyed that they're useless—and lean back in my chair, exasperated. “Well, that’s the problem. I don't know. Without doing something illegal and hacking our own system, there might not be another way to find out anything.”
“Well shit. You're not thinking of doing that, right? That's the type of thing that got your dad caught up.” I cut my eyes over to him, and he immediately responds to my demeanor. “Q. Come on, man. No way.”
“My dad got arrested for credit card fraud, not breaking into a cybersecurity system to access information.”
