“Oh yeah,” she says seriously. “He’s been shouting on the phone for a while.”
“Yeah,” he says, surprising me with his quickness. “My specialty is cybersecurity. We got talking, and Morgan thought I could help.”
Clarissa frowns. “I thought you were a doctor?”
Where Jasper has been lingering out of some sense of politeness, now his grip on my hand firms up, and he matches my pace as we head toward Ezekiel’s office.
“It’s kind of a hobby,” he says.
“Medicine is a hobby?” she asks, bewildered.
I wince because Clarissa is going to have so many questions when I arrive at the lab tomorrow, and I don’t have time for that right now. Though I guess if I do make it to the lab tomorrow, you could really say I have all the time in the world. But my track record on that front has not been awesome lately, so better to not get my hopes up.
Give me awkward dating debriefs or give me death.
When I push open the door to his office, Ezekiel’s on the phone. His eyes widen when he sees me, and he promptly tells the person on the other end he’ll call them back.
“What are you doing here?” he says.
“I, uh...” This isn’t good. I didn’t think this through. Ezekiel and I don’t have many secrets. But he’s an intelligent rational man of science, so how am I supposed to look him in the eye and tell him the very irrational thing that’s happening?
“We’re here about the data breach,” Jasper says, walking confidently across the room, leaving me to trail after him.
“Who are you?” Then Ezekiel’s gaze goes back to me. “How did you know about the data breach?”
Right. Because on this version of today, I didn’t go home to find out this particular bit of information. But also, I didn’t go home to have Indigo pulverize my insides, so I think I’ve come out ahead.
“Clarissa called me,” I lie.
“I’ve got some experience in cybersecurity,” Jasper says at the same time. “Have you managed to lock them out yet?”
Ezekiel still looks confused—and rightfully so—but he says, “We keep thinking we’ve closed the system, and then they find another way in. It’s like Whack-A-Mole.”
Jasper comes around the desk to look over Ezekiel’s shoulder, and I swallow hard.
“We were on a date,” I say, cobbling syllables together slowly. But I speak so softly and they’re both so intent on Ezekiel’s computer that neither of them hears me.
“So they got in. Did they get out? Did they take anything?” Jasper asks. Wait, when he said it was a hobby, did he mean hacking? Or is that part of what he does for Walter Wolfe? He’s never said. Not specifically. I assumed henching meant driving the getaway car and terrorizing witnesses so they won’t testify. But digital henching has to be a thing too.
“No, not that we can tell. But if we can’t keep them out, it’s only a matter of time.” Ezekiel gazes at me pleadingly. “We’re so close to launch, we can’t have someone taking this from us.”
Since we started the project, we’ve had a number of government agencies and tech companies offer to buy us, partner with us, or flat out take us over. They’re threatened by what we can do and by how much Ezekiel doesn’t care about making more money than he already has.
“Tell your IT team to run a search for a funhouse worm,” Jasper says. My pulse is thumping again, but we’re back to fear. Maybe this is it. The why of the time loop. They’ve sent Jasper to steal the Ziro Machine. They duped Clarissa and suckered me into believing this handsome man had any interest in me so they could get inside the facility and take everything we’ve worked for.
“Funhouse?” Ezekiel asks Jasper, who is still frowning at the screen.
“It’s like a hall of mirrors. Odds are good there aren’t as many points of entry as you think. They’re reflecting off each other, so it looks like more than it is. Really hard to tell which worms are genuine.”
“Stop looking at that!” I finally blurt.
Ezekiel and Jasper both look up from the computer in surprise.
“What?” Ezekiel says.
Shit. Now what do I say? I just lead the Trojan horse through the gates?
“I... I realized he doesn’t have security clearance.”
