Worthy of the Billionaire
***
Sunlight streamed in through the open windows and woke me. I had fallen asleep on my keyboard, and I could feel a funny red pattern of a space bar and several letters etched onto my face. Mr. King walked into the room with two cups of coffee and a box of doughnuts. The look on my face must have been priceless, as he nearly spilled the coffee giggling at my disheveled hair and keyboard face.
He of course looked perfect, his blonde hair spilling across his forehead with boyish charm. I scowled and grabbed the coffee as I headed to the bathroom to clean up. I heard Ms. Aloutte knock on the door and announce Mr. Thayer. I hurried back out to find Ed Thayer bouncing anxiously in Mr. King’s chair as he pulled up information on his computer. His eyes were too bright
and his hair stuck out at odd angles. He was pointing animatedly to the computer screen, his voice cracking and rising an octave as he spoke.
“I found the virus! It was hidden in the back subcode...” Thayer beamed as he showed Mr. King how and where he found the virus. “My team already has a patch made and is administering it to the network. His virus won’t do a damn thing now!”
Mr. King clapped him on the back, a smile growing on his face. The two of them continued to speak in computer code as Thayer showed him the virus. From what I could understand, it was a pretty piece of work that would have caused the entire building’s computers to think they needed a restart, and that they would then be frozen in the reboot, effectively shutting everything down. I sat down and listened to them speak in their foreign computer language as I began sifting through the financial files next to my laptop.
“The best part is that he had to make it so that there was a remote switch to activate the virus. If he tries to activate the virus, then he has to communicate with the computers here to do it. I have a software program that I have been working on, that can help us trace his source when he does this. Unfortunately, it isn’t really finished, so it may not be perfect- especially if he is smart and tries to deflect us through mirrored servers...”
“Wait,” I cut him off as I finally understood part of the conversation not completely in computer-speak. “Would knowing what part of the world he is in help?”
The two of them stared at me for a minute, Thayer’s mouth working but no words coming out. I took that as a yes and displayed a couple of files to them. “Between the accounts that he deposited his paychecks in, the bank that he wants the money deposited, his recent credit card usage, and a couple other things, I have a pretty good idea what part of the world he is hiding in. I actually think he is still in the country, which seems strange to me.”
“The firewall to the company for the files he hid the virus in will only allow United States access... How do you have his credit card information?” Mr. King looked a strange combination of proud and concerned.
“That was easy enough- he never cleared his cookies off his laptop. It is company property, so when I was looking through it, I was able to access his account,” Mr. King’s face contorted still further into a concerned look. “I just realized that what I did may not be terribly legal, but desperate times right?” I looked back and forth at them as they continued to just stare at me.
“He didn’t clean out his cookies? The financial person thought of a computer answer before the computer people. I knew I liked you!” Mr. Thayer’s face broke out in a grin as Mr. King nodded incredulous at my computer savvy. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued to show them what I found.
“He hasn’t used his card for a couple of days, but based on this information, I would put him in the southeast US. Probably Florida as it will have easy access to the Bahamas to get out of the country quick once the money comes in.”
The two of them beamed at me. Mr. King gave me the special smile that he only gave me when we were alone at his home and I basked in it. I suddenly frowned as a cold thought popped my sunshine bubble.
“So we have stopped the virus and can track it back to where he is, but how is this going to keep him from leaking the source code- if he hasn’t already?” The two of them surprised me with smiles. Mr. King motioned for Thayer to tell me the answer.
“The code he took is from last year- since he didn’t get to keep his work computer he had to use what was on his personal one. The sample he sent us is older code. It looks a lot like the current code, but as I looked at it I recognized it from the stuff Cirrus helped develop. When I was put in charge, we revamped much of the code. Most of the stuff made off of this source code would be stopped or easily patched in with the newer code I wrote.”
He tried to keep the pride out of his voice, but he knew that his innovations were saving the day. “It would still be pretty awful for the press to find out about this though, so we want to stop him before he can do any real damage. It isn’t quite all sunshine and roses- we need him to activate the virus but not the press.” He leaned back into the leather chair, his eyes still bright but some of the energy fading out of him.
“His version of the source code could still do some serious damage, especially in the PR department. We still have some serious work to do. Claire, see if you can’t pinpoint his location further and Thayer, I have a couple of ideas I want to run.” Mr. King’s smile was gone as he leaned back towards the computer, and started us back to work.
***
Wednesday arrived. The three of us had worked non-stop to prepare for the 5pm deadline; I never left the office during those three days. It was now 3pm and everything that could be in place was. I felt a nervous energy pouring through my system, and I couldn’t sit still or concentrate on my other work.
Unfortunately the crisis didn’t stop my other job responsibilities, and I had neglected them for the past couple of days. I filtered through my emails and to do list, trying to find something productive to do that could distract me from the tedium of waiting.
I found a note I had made towards the beginning of my career at King Enterprises. Some of the accounting numbers didn’t look right to me; I had worked with finances and bookkeeping for my entire adult career and as I looked at the books for King Enterprises something in my gut growled. I decided that this was as good a time as any to look for what was bothering me, as I couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything anyway, so I sat down at my desk and began loading the files up on my screen.
“Vanders.” A sharp female voice accosted me. “Why haven’t you emailed me the budget for next quarter? You missed the last two meetings and I need this done now. Good lord- what do we pay you for?” Olivia Robertson glared at me. I sighed and turned to her. She was always angry at me for some reason or another. The first time I had met her she had glared at me through my introduction to the board. I didn’t know what I had done to make her so angry then, and I still had no idea why she seemed to hate me so vehemently.
“The proposal will be in your box tomorrow- I emailed you the original options and Mr. King still hasn’t approved them. I can’t make him do this any faster.” I tried to stay calm and put what I hoped passed for cheery on my face. She rolled her eyes and stormed off, her blonde hair swishing as she walked. She was quite pretty, I thought. Pretty awful. I looked over at the clock to see it click to 4:30. Finally, time for something to happen. I closed my computer and headed up to Mr. King’s office.
Mr. Thayer was already there, tapping his foot nervously, but confidence plastered across his face. He grinned up at me as I entered the room, Mr. King’s smile following right behind. I sat at my spot at his desk and waited.
Mr. King’s email pinged as a new message hit.
Where is my money?
Mr. King calmly hit reply and typed, It’s not coming. Send.
Ping. Your funeral.
Mr. King nodded to Mr. Thayer, and we stared at his computer screen. The screen flicked as Cirrus attempted to activate the virus. Thayer’s tracking program initiated and dominated the screen.