I jump at his words.
“Sorry, I was miles away,” I say, earning myself a harrumph.
Pulling up my chair, I sit down, motioning for Elijah to do the same.
“We don’t want anyone to know you’ve uncovered their plot,” I say, my fingers flying over the keyboard in front of me. “Whatever it is. Someone removed the change files from themain backup and meticulously deleted or redirected all email notifications for your login. There must be a backup for them to reinstall at a later date if they want to set you up. If it’s there, we’ll find it.”
Elijah’s fingers drum on the desk, his tell that his brain is up and running as he processes all the information he has to date. Sorting, trying to make connections.
“Your program found malware on my computer. They’ve been watching me through my own fucking camera.”
“It looks like we’re not dealing with an amateur. Whoever it is means business.”
Elijah grips the back of his neck.
“There’s a secondary backup. It’s where I got the data download.”
I smile. “I taught you well.”
His lips twitch. “Only a handful of people know about the secondary backup.”
“We can’t discount them. If that was deleted too, then we’d be able to narrow our list of suspects.”
“We don’t even know what the code changes do,” he tells me. “I’ve looked. They all seem innocuous, scattered with no pattern.”
“That’s why there are so many changes. That’s what they want you to believe. A mass of small, pointless code changes hiding the dangerous changes among them. It’s what I would do. It’s why there are so many. If we didn’t know about the bugs and camera, this would definitely tell me we’re not dealing with an amateur. This is someone who knows how to cover their tracks and go undetected. They want it to look like you were tinkering to anyone who notices your changes. Who’d challenge the boss over minor code tweaks?”
His eyebrows fold inward, and his nose wrinkles as my words sink in.
“I’d hope my coders would call me out on it,” he says before pausing as my words sink in.
“Shit!” He spins to face me. “What do you mean?It’s what I would do.”
I press my lips together. Things that have remained hidden are unravelling. I made a promise, one I cannot break.
“If I were to sabotage a system. I’d bury it in a mound of harmless changes. Make it near on impossible to find.”
I spin to face my screens, unable to answer the unspoken questions I see on his face.
“That’s not what you said.”
I ignore his pressing and continue what I’m doing.
“Fine,” he huffs. “But this release goes live in a matter of days. There are thousands of lines of code changes. There’s no way we can uncover what they’ve done. If I delay, the consequences...”
“Get it into your head. You’re going to have to delay the release. What we’re doing here is damage control. Giving you the facts to go to the board with. For your information, there’s no way Todd is involved. I’d bet my mother’s life on it. As for working out what’s going on. They’re not me.”
I crack my fingers and flex.
“Let’s get to work,” I say.
“What do you mean? We can’t do anything from here. We won’t be able to get through the firewall.”
“Oh, ye of little faith,” I say, turning to face him. “I’m already in. What do you think I’ve been doing all afternoon? Painting my nails?”
CHAPTER 17
ELIJAH
