Page 61 of The Texan's Secrets

“I trust plenty of people.” She thought about the answer, then moderated it. “I trust some people. But I’ve seen some of the underhanded things people try online. Maybe that makes me fear the worst.”

“Has it made you a cynic?”

“It’s made me a realist. Clients hire me to look after their security. And, believe me, you have to plug every single little loophole in your system. Because if you don’t, sure as heck, a bunch of people will exploit it for their own selfish gain.”

“That sounds cynical. I mean, there are millions of people who won’t exploit it.”

“True. But I have to worry about the ones who will. So does everyone else in network security. So, there’s no way I’m taking my hard-earned knowledge and accidentally teaching it to the bad guys.”

She took a drink and a final bite of her pizza, too full to finish the entire thing.

“Do you think people can change?” he asked.

“Go from being a black hat hacker to being a white hat hacker? Maybe a few. But the moral makeup that led them to black hat hacking in the first place is hard to alter. If presented with the same circumstances again—” She gave a shrug. She’d never trust her tools and knowledge to someone who’d proven devious once. It was way too much of a risk.

Finished his pizza, he downed his soft drink. “What about the opposite?”

“Opposite of what?”

“Someone with a strong moral makeup who did something wrong one time and felt guilty about it.”

She couldn’t help comparing the question to her own situation. If not for her cheating the Surprise Me! function, Nick wouldn’t be sitting here right now. She wished she dared come clean about that, but she wasn’t brave enough to take the risk.

“It depends,” she said.

“On what?” He seemed to study her as she framed her answer.

“Mostly on if anyone got hurt.”

“What if hurting someone was accidental?”

There was something odd about his expression, and for a second she wondered if he knew she’d hacked into k!smet and forced their match. But he didn’t look annoyed or even critical of her. It had to be something else.

She pondered the question.

If she took the position that accidental harm didn’t matter, she’d be letting herself completely off the hook. She wasn’t sure she should do that.

“Whoever took the unethical action should have foreseen the consequences. If they ignored them, then I’d say they should be held accountable.” She was prepared to face the consequences of her hacking. At least she would be someday.

“You’re a purist.”

“I wouldn’t call it that.” Although she did try to hold herself to reasonable standards.

“Are you done here?” he asked abruptly, gathering up his plate, cup and paper napkin. “We should get back.”

“Do you disagree with me?” She gathered up her trash. If he had a different perspective, she’d like to hear it.

He came to his feet. “Not necessarily.”

“What does that mean? Take a stand, Nick.”

He gazed into the distance. “It means sometimes situations get out of control and all you can do is ride out your mistake and make the best of it.” He paused. “So people don’t get hurt even further.”

“Are you thinking of a specific situation?”

“No.”

“Okay.” She didn’t have anything concrete to go on, but she couldn’t shake the feeling something more was going on under the surface.

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