Page 24 of Wicked Sexy (Wicked Games 2)
And yet…
“Let’s talk about Miranda,” I say abruptly, gazing at the range of blue-purple mountains we’re headed toward. Their tips are lit fiery red by the setting sun as if they’ve been dipped in blood.
“Fine.” His voice is low, slightly rough, all the teasing gone.
“When did she first contact you about her situation?”
He clears his throat. “I’ve been on retainer with her for years—”
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“For security?”
“As a technical advisor,” he says, gripping the steering wheel so hard, I think it’s in danger of breaking. “Stunts, fight scene coordination, training actors in weapons handling, anything military related that needs an expert to add realism to a movie.”
“Oh.” I’m impressed. “That sounds cool.”
“It is.”
He says it flatly. I resist the urge to glance at his face to see what it’s doing.
“So what happened?”
He’s quiet for a moment, tapping a thumb against the steering wheel in a restless, staccato rhythm. “She received an email a few weeks ago. It said she was to deposit ten million dollars into an account in the Cayman Islands or there would be a serious data breach on her company’s network. One that would make the Sony hack in 2014 look like child’s play.”
“Blackmail.”
Connor nods. “What was unusual is that serious blackmailers already have the information they want to extort money for. In this case, it was simply a threat of a breach. One hadn’t actually occurred.”
“That fucking colossal ego,” I murmur, watching the craggy mountain tops fade from red to purple.
“Pardon?”
Feeling the beginnings of a headache, I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Søren. He wanted to give Miranda a heads-up that her system was going to be attacked so she’d close any holes there might have been in the network.”
“Why would he do that? It makes no sense to forewarn your enemy that you’re on the march.”
I smile, but it’s humorless. “Because he doesn’t want it to be easy. He wants it to be as difficult as possible, so that when he beats you after giving you fair warning, it will hurt twice as much.”
Silence as Connor digests that. I open my eyes and glance at him.
I say, “So let me guess how this went. You couldn’t trace the source of the email because an anonymous proxy server was used to hide the IP address. You didn’t think it was a credible threat because not only did he forewarn his intentions, his alias isn’t identifiable with any known hacker collective or has been associated with any prior hacks, high level or otherwise. How am I doing so far?”
“Pretty fuckin’ spot-on.” He sounds lethally mad.
“Right. Then, after you checked to confirm there were no network breaches and made the system tighter than a virgin’s asshole, you told Miranda she was probably dealing with an amateur and not to worry about it. And then he raped her network. And then the price doubled.”
Connor’s murderous expression tells me I’m right again.
“How long ago was that?”
“Four days.”
“How are you stalling him?”
“She’s saying she has to put together the money, she isn’t that liquid.”
“Has he given her another deadline?”
