Kyle strode into the living room from the back of the house. There was no way to miss the big gun in his hand. Kyle had been tense since the moment Hutch had pointed to that red light on her television. She’d tried to tell him it was normal. She’d seen it before. He’d shushed her and then he’d faked his phone call and she’d realized he thought someone was listening to them. Or watching them. He’d been careful to put a wall between himself and the TV.
It sent a chill down her spine. She’d thought he was paranoid before when he’d explained he’d turned off all the monitoring functions of her home hub. She knew in the back of her mind that the virtual assistant “listened” and learned. It was how it knew her voice commands and anticipated certain needs. One of the reasons she’d selected her apartment building was how high tech it was, and it offered a wide range of innovations in smart home technology.
Now she wondered who’d been watching her before. How long had she had eyes on her? How long had the mysterious “they” listened in on her conversations?
“Yes, I’m sure,” Hutch continued. “I’m sure because I’m the one who went in and turned them all off. I turned off the monitoring functions on every smart appliance she had. They were connected like a smart house should be. It’s how her hub system can control everything from the lights to her streaming services to filling out a grocery order for her. No, yours is not the same. I hooked up yours myself and I built in a code that lets me know if anyone fucks with it. I swear, Ian, it’s fine. I’m not coming over to do something that I already did. Yes, if someone has hacked your hub, you can absolutely pull my lower bowels out and feed them to your dog. I’ll help you.”
Noelle gasped. “Who the hell is talking that way to him?”
Kyle seemed to relax, putting his gun down on the TV tray that sat between the two loungers. He sagged down onto one. “Ah, that would be my kindly uncle Ian. You met him, right?”
She had, but she’d spent most of that time thinking about Hutch during her meeting with Taggart. “I don’t like the way that sounds.”
Hutch had moved into the kitchen, and she couldn’t hear him anymore.
“Don’t worry about Ian,” Kyle assured her. “His bark is worse than his bite. He’s softened up with age and a whole bunch of children. Once he was a pretty ruthless bastard. He was a legend.”
“In the security business?”
“In the…military,” Kyle replied. “He was in the Army. I was in the Navy, but we still knew about him. Mostly because his brothers, Case and Theo, were in the Navy, too. But like I said, he’s not the same Ian Taggart. Hutch is calming him down. He can get upset when things don’t run smoothly. You understand what happened, right? Hutch used a whole lot of professional terminology. I didn’t get about half of it, but I do know the basics.”
She’d gotten the gist. “Someone turned on functions of my smart home that Hutch had turned off. They were the functions that allowed the system to monitor things. Someone could watch me through the TV.”
“Not just the TV. Pretty much anything with a screen,” Kyle corrected. “And that includes your fridge. They could watch and record.”
“Why would anyone want to watch me?” It was what she still hadn’t figured out. She was boring. Even her research was considered boring.
“Because you work for Jessica Layne, and I fear she’s involved in some dangerous things,” Kyle replied.
“Like what?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
“What could she possibly be involved in?” Noelle sank down to the seat beside Kyle. She sagged back because it was pretty comfy. “I know she’s harsh and she’s quick to sue, but she’s had to be. It can be hard to be a woman in STEM, much less a woman at her level.”
“There are plenty of women in STEM who don’t screw over everyone that they come in contact with. You heard the rumors about her former partner, right?”
“Of course. And I don’t agree with how Jessica treated her, but I figure it’s a lot like Jobs and Wozniak. Jobs screwed over his chief engineer so he could take control of the company.” The fight for control of Apple was legendary in the world of high tech. “That’s what Jessica did. It’s not right, but it happens all the time in business.”
“I don’t think that’s what’s happening here,” Kyle admitted. “What do you know about Jessica’s plans to take Genedyne public?”
“I don’t think she wants to. She’s got investors, but it’s not the same as having a board to answer to. If she went public, she would have far less control.”