“It’s already done,” she said.
She couldn’t help laughing as Moses gaped in surprise.
“I told you. I’m your secret weapon.”
39
IN THE HEART OF THE Doubt Factory, a series of alerts began popping up on the company’s central servers.
One by one, notifications appeared on cell phones and workstations in a variety of offices around DC, and people whose job it was to pay attention began paying attention.
At Williams & Crowe’s regional office, a nondescript building in Arlington, Lisa Price checked her phone as a message arrived.
Five minutes later she was pushing through glass doors emblazoned with the words Data Integrity Monitoring. A Williams & Crowe computer-security technician was staring at a slew of warnings and alarm messages.
“What do we have?”
“Not sure yet. Something running on the servers at BSP. Cerberus flagged it and sent the alert.”
“Do we know who did it?”
“Cerberus diagnostics says it came from… a Mr. Simon Banks’s workstation. It’s also under his login.” He pointed as a new window opened up. “Now Portcullis just flagged it, too.”
“Call and get me a rundown of everyone who’s in the building.”
The technician picked up his phone and started making calls as Lisa scrutinized the rest of the diagnostic information their security alert had sent.
“This is a pretty sleek virus,” Lisa said.
The tech hung up from his calls. “Sneaky as hell, for sure. We’re running pattern matching now. It looks a little like code that was used to go after online commerce sites a couple years ago. Estonian, we think.”
“What did we ever do to Estonia?”
The tech smirked. “Decided not to use the chip-and-pin system?” He popped open another screen. “And here we go… Beltway Properties is sending us their K Street building’s access data now. Let’s see who went up to Banks Strategy Partners… tenth floor.”
They both scanned the names. Lisa frowned. Under VISITORS…
“Oh, Alix,” Lisa murmured. “What have you gotten yourself involved in?”
“Do you want me to shut this down?”
“Yeah. Kill it.”
The tech nodded. “We don’t have remote access, all we’re getting is the radio SOS from the system. I’ll have to send a team to go over everything.”
“No! Wait!” Lisa gripped his shoulder. “Don’t do anything yet. Let it run. Send someone over to pull a copy, but let it run for now. There’s no way Alix is working on her own. Maybe there’s a way we can use this to our advantage.”
“What about BSP?”
“Get a team to analyze just how bad this is. After that, I’ll talk to Banks myself. With his daughter involved, he’ll need some convincing.” She grimaced. “But call George Saamsi. He’ll understand the client situation. Bring him up to speed on everything. After that, I’ll decide how to talk to Banks.”
Lisa wasn’t looking forward to the conversation. Banks would have to be notified that he had a serious breach and that his daughter was the source. And that there were more interests involved than just his personal family issues. He’d be in denial.
Why couldn’t you just leave well enough alone, Alix? Lisa thought. You had such a bright future.
“You’re sure we should let this run?” the tech asked.
“The system’s cut off from the outside, right?”
He nodded reluctantly.
“Then it’s harmless as is. I want to talk to people up higher, first. Until we have a strategy to protect our clients permanently, I don’t want to frighten off our little secret mole. Let her think she’s succeeding. If we play this right, we have a chance to wrap up 2.0 once and for all.”
Tonight, she’d need to talk to Mr. Banks and explain to him the situation with his daughter. Maybe Saamsi could help him understand the gravity of the situation.
Lisa paused. Or was it Banks himself? Could he be compromised as well? She considered the possibility, because she was trained to follow paranoia down to the worst possible outcomes, but she decided it was unlikely.
Banks wouldn’t need a sneaky little Estonian program to grab anything he wanted. The man could do anything he liked and cover his tracks, easily. No, it was his daughter who was the security threat. And behind her…
“Hello, 2.0,” Lisa murmured. “This time, I’m not going to miss.”
40
“JUST FOLLOW MY LEAD,” MOSES murmured as they rode the elevator from the parking garage level.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Alix asked as she tried to keep her mop and yellow bucket from banging against the elevator doors. They were both dressed in good approximations of the gray jumpsuit uniforms that Beltway Properties cleaning staff wore, purchased at a supply store in the city that afternoon. “This seems risky.”
Moses grinned at her, and for a second the seriousness that he’d been carrying lightened. “Trust a uniform, Alix. People love to trust uniforms.”
“Then they shouldn’t make them so easy to buy.”
Moses lifted the security badge that he’d pickpocketed off another custodian in the parking garage. “They also trust badges.”
“Well, they better not look too closely, or someone’s going to notice you’re not the same black dude as the one on the tag.”
“They won’t look,” Moses said. “They’ll know they can trust me.”
“I hope you’re right.”
The elevator doors opened, revealing the polished lobby of 609 K Street. Across the lobby, a security guy was sitting behind the central desk pulling his own night shift.
They pushed their mops and buckets across the open lobby, ignoring the guy. Alix suppressed an urge to whistle innocently.
Just two custodians pushing their mop buckets, just two people getting their job done and heading home. No need to think about us. No need to worry.
As they got close to the elevators, Alix had a horrible urge to look over at the security guy.
Moses seemed to read her mind. “Try looking sleepy and bored and like you wish you weren’t here. And keep your head low. You don’t want the cameras to see your face,” he advised.
“I know,” Alix whispered back. “I’m the one who told you where the cameras are.”
“My girlfriend thinks she knows about surveillance.”
“Your girlfriend knows how to study up.”
She realized what he’d done as they reached the elevators. He’d completely distracted her as they made their way across the lobby. Forcing her to forget the audaciousness of what they were doing.
She swiped her father’s key card in the elevator, and the doors opened. “Floor ten,” she breathed. “Going up.”
To Moses, it felt claustrophobic, standing in the elevator without any buttons or controls. Just polished stainless steel, a little prison box like the one his uncle had ended up in. Their reflections were distorted, both of them looking bloated and alien in their uniforms, with their yellow plastic mop buckets. He reached to hold Alix’s hand and felt a jolt of comfort from the contact. He stared at their polished steel reflections, trying to calm himself and stay focused on the job.
As the elevator rose, carrying them to the place that had become his obsession, Moses wondered if he was making a mistake by risking Alix in this way.
Is that where this ends? Moses wondered. Am I ending up in jail?
Even if it worked, what was supposed to happen next? Another heist? Was he supposed to go all WikiLeaks and end up as a hunted whistle-blower? The FBI already wanted him. How long before the wrong people decided to devote real energy to finding him?