Submission Impossible (Masters & Mercenaries Reloaded 1)

He was in so much trouble.

* * * *

Noelle sat in a chair in Hutch’s office and wondered about the man. The name plate outside simply said Hutch, Head of Cybersecurity. Not his whole name. Just Hutch. The office was surprisingly spartan given the fact that the man had worked here for a decade. That was what had thrown her off. Was he older than he looked? She thought he was likely in his early thirties. How had he gone from the military to college to head of a team for one of the world’s premiere security firms in a little more than a decade?

The math did not add up.

She looked at one of the three framed pictures he had in his office. This one wasn’t actually a picture. It was his degree from the University of Texas at Dallas proclaiming Greg Hutchins was a graduate with a Master of Science in Computer Sciences.

“He did that without an undergrad, you know,” a feminine voice said. “That’s why it’s his only framed degree.”

She turned and there was a young woman standing in the doorway. She was the quintessential geek girl in her miniskirt, black T, and combat boots, her purple hair in a high ponytail. There was a familiar laptop in the woman’s hands.

“How do you get a master’s without an undergrad?” She shouldn’t have asked, but she was pretty much fascinated with Hutch. Much to her own chagrin.

“You score so high on the GRE that they can’t not take you,” she said, walking into the office. She held out a hand. “I’m Mae Beatrice Vaughn, but everyone calls me MaeBe. And yes, I cringe when I say that sentence too. How that song is still popular I have no idea. I blame all the covers. Anyway, I’m working my way through the same program right now, though I do have an undergrad. I don’t have Hutch’s real-world experience, though. You must be the chemist. Nice system, though totally infected. Sorry about that.”

She handed her the laptop she’d bought for herself when she’d gotten the job at Genedyne. “I didn’t notice anything was wrong except that a file that I hadn’t touched in a long time was showing up in my recents.”

“Yeah, it’s funny what can trip a hacker up.” MaeBe leaned against Hutch’s desk. “You open the files you’re currently using by going to the recently opened folder?”

It was a habit. “Of course. What do you do?”

“I know where all my files are. I pull them up. I organize my own system,” she replied. “If you didn’t use the recents folder, you likely wouldn’t have noticed anything at all. Unless you typically check the dates on your files, which I would bet you don’t.”

“No. I’m more worried about what’s in the file than when I last used it,” she admitted. “I don’t think about security very much, but I noticed that file and thought it was weird. And there was a break-in at my building. The woman in the apartment underneath me got broken into, and the only thing they took was her laptop.”

“Why would that make you worry?” MaeBe asked. “I mean besides the obvious that you don’t want to get your stuff stolen.”

She’d put this in the file. It was one of the things that truly worried her dad. “Because when I first hired on, I mistakenly put the wrong floor number on my HR paperwork. 515 instead of 615. I’d just moved from a building in Austin where I lived on the fifth floor and it was ingrained in my brain. I’ve fixed it but…”

“So someone could have mistaken that apartment for yours,” MaeBe surmised. “Yeah. That doesn’t feel coincidental.”

“So now I’ve got a file I need to worry about. There was research on that one. I can see why a corporate spy would want to read it.”

MaeBe waved a hand. “Oh, honey, it was all your files. Like every single one. I’m almost certain they duped the whole thing then went back through and fixed the metadata, but they forgot one. It was kind of a sloppy job. I’ve got a few thoughts on who it could be.”

There was a brief knock on the door and then Kyle was walking in. He was all confidence and swagger as he looked Noelle’s way. “Good. I was afraid after Hutch’s performance that you would have run. He should be back in a few minutes and then we’ll get you to work.”

“Hutch performed?” MaeBe asked.

And then Kyle wasn’t so confident. His eyes flared and then softened. “Hey. I didn’t know you were in here. Uhm, everything okay this morning?”

MaeBe gave him a smile. “Yes. I’m good, and thank you for walking me to my car last night.” She nodded Noelle’s way. “I had a date go bad and he works in the building. He seems to think if he bugs me enough, I’ll go out with him again. Big Tag has a bodyguard walk down with me. Kyle got the job last night, and lawyer dude did not show. I think after Jamal stood over the guy and told him if he ever saw him near me again, he would be the one who needed an attorney, he got the message. Jamal has a foot on him and way more muscle.”