“I thought this couldn’t happen to the computers at the center,” she said on a trip past Walter’s office.
He leaned forward and clasped his hands together on his desk. “That’s what I was told,” he agreed.
“By the board?”
“And the team that wrote the programs for the center. They said no hacker could take it over.”
“How long ago did they say that?” she asked as she paused by his door.
“Why would that matter?”
“Because when it comes to computers, one you buy today is outdated before you take it out of the package. There has to be an IT team keeping the system running smoothly, right?”
“You’re asking the wrong guy,” he said, giving her the palms up gesture. “I would have to assume the investors employ someone who keeps things running. We’ve never had a problem before.”
“Before today,” Bec added, starting her pacing again. “All we can do is hope Secure Watch can fix this disaster before we have a bigger problem. I still think you should notify the board, Walter. We don’t want to blindside them if a ransom comes in.”
“A ransom?”
“What do you think that is?” she asked, motioning at the message on her computer. “That’s ransomware. At some point, 4C3 will request money in exchange for unlocking our systems.”
Walter shook his head with an exasperated huff. “I don’t understand a thing about this stuff, Bec.”
She walked into his office and leaned on the edge of his desk. “Understand this, Walter. If we don’t pay a requested ransom, we will never be able to use these computers again and will have no way to access or control what’s behind those doors!” Her arm flung out to point at the labs behind her.
He held up his hands as though to ask for calm. “Okay, as soon as nine o’clock rolls around, I’ll reach out tothem. I don’t have home numbers, only the office number.”
“I can accept that,” she said, leaving his office to return to her computer. The message on the screen hadn’t changed.
Secure Watch was on the way, but they’d be a few hours yet, and Bec was on edge since she hadn’t heard anything more from the faceless person who had taken their data hostage. Walter didn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation, but that didn’t surprise her. His computer skills were second to none with the programs necessary to run the lab, but computer science wasn’t his forte. He was never on the ground floor of computer science as it developed, which is why they’d hired someone to protect their system from hackers. Fat lot of good that did. Her opinion was that no amount of money was too much if it meant keeping the viruses inside their lab from reaching the general public.
What scared Bec the most was that she’d been working at the research center for months and had been led to believe that their cybersecurity was second to none. She was told a cyberattack could never happen to them due to the highly contagious viruses housed in the facility. She was angry that the man who was supposed to be in charge of the center didn’t know a hill of beans about it. If she survived this, she’d be rethinking her employment here. Part of her worried she’d accepted this job with her ego instead of considering it from all angles. It may have been about proving that herlifestyledidn’t mean she couldn’t make massive contributions to the world. She may have left the Amish community two decades ago, but there was that little girl inside her who still feltlike she had to prove she was worthy of being loved and respected even though she was gay. Those were the words her parents had used. They said she could remain in the community even though she was gay as long as she didn’t tell anyone else.
She blew out a breath and forced her mind back into the game. Before she took the job here, it was confirmed that few people knew this building in the middle of the North Dakota plains was anything more than a facility for common scientific research, but now she couldn’t be sure. The fact that this hacker had hit them with a computer virus told her they knew where to look.
A door slammed, and she spun around on her heel, only to be thrown backward into the glass from the force of something so deafening the world went silent other than a ringing in her ears. All she could see were bits and pieces of the room around her, and she realized the bright light had partially blinded her.
A man. A mask. A gun.
Barely able to see through the lacelike haze across her vision, she watched the man put the gun to Walter’s head. He hooked his arm around her boss’s neck and hauled him from the chair, leading him backward through the office and down the hallway. She tried to stand, but the glass behind her shattered and she hit the ground, sure a bullet had slammed into the glass. Her neck was wet, and she swiped at it, stumbling to her feet when she saw the blood covering her palm. She tried to run but felt like she was moving through quicksand, bumping and falling into tables and chairs as she tried to make it down the hallway to save her boss. Her head hurt, and her arm burned, but she had to get to Walter. When shereached the hallway, no one was in sight, which told her it was too late. All she could do was lock down the facility and pray.
* * *
THE CHOPPER’S SKIDStouched the ground, and Iris’s anxiety ratcheted down one notch as they arrived safely. She’d taken a dose of diazepam before they left since there was no other way she’d ever get into the death trap despite knowing she had to get to the research center. She had to help Dr. Roth get control of their systems before things got worse than they already were. That didn’t mean she wanted to make the trip to do it. The fear of unknown places was just one of the things she dealt with after her traumatic brain injury. Traveling didn’t bother her as long as she knew what she’d be facing and was traveling in a way that didn’t terrify her. Neither was the case today. When she got the job at Secure Watch, she’d been surprisingly excited to move to the property. Within a few weeks, she knew why. The energy there was accepting. No one was better than anyone else, and they understood that everyone had different physical and mental idiosyncrasies that they needed to play to for the team to work cohesively. Somehow, Cal and Mina made everyone feel they were imperative to the team, and today’s events showed her why. Sometimes, lives were on the line in this business, and specific team members needed to step up. Today, she was that team member, and because they’d fostered a give-and-take relationship with her over the years, she could trust them and do just that.
After releasing a pent-up breath, Iris grabbed her bag and tossed it over her shoulder, knowing Zac, Declan and Cal would unload her equipment and bring it to thecenter. Once everything was unloaded and jobs were defined, Cal would head back and leave them to do their work while Mina offered support from Secure Inc. Despite trusting their skills, Iris could tell Cal was nervous about leaving them. Who wouldn’t be? In this situation, he was dropping off team members he may never see again if something terrible happened. All the more reason for him not to stay. The fewer people here for her to stress about the better when trying to fix this situation. Besides, she worked better and faster when she was alone. Considering what happened to the other doctor here, time was definitely of the essence.
She tumbled out of the old behemoth of a helicopter and glanced around. There was nothing but pastureland as far as the eye could see, and a mountain range was visible in the distance. The summer wheat blew as a light breeze swept across the stalks, and the rustling of the grain was a reminder that life went on around them, even if they were faced with their own little hell. Something told her Dr. Roth felt that way after what she’d been through this morning, and Iris just wanted to get to the center and help her. She walked around the back of the chopper where Zac and Declan were loading bins and equipment into a UTV. She knew for a fact some of those bins held hazmat suits, but she also knew those wouldn’t be enough to protect them from what they’d be dealing with if something from inside their home away from home managed to escape.
Cal spoke to three men in a smaller UTV before he waved as they headed across the field toward the mountains.
“Where did you get these?” Iris asked, staring at the ground. “Who were those guys?”
“A couple of army friends of mine,” Cal answered as he approached her. “They loaned us the UTVs for the duration of the stay.”
“I don’t think we’re in the right place. There’s nothing here, Cal.”
His laughter was gentle when he patted her back. “We’re about five miles away from the facility, Iris. We couldn’t land close to it and draw attention there. It’s better to take the UTVs in. They’re so common around here it won’t seem out of place.”
