Savannah pats his hand. “Just sit there and look pretty.”
Rory pouts. “I should take offense to that, but I won’t.”
Hunter and I watch the hacker bypass the honey pot for something else. “Why is he poking around HR files? There’s no client information there,” Hunter observes.
“But there are employee files,” I point out.
Rory sits forward. “Whose file is he trying to access?”
I watch as a specific file is opened on my screen. “Shawn Winthrop.”
Rory tilts his head. “Why look into Shawn?”
Hunter grits his teeth. “I don’t think he’s an intended victim.”
“Maybe he’s the man on the inside,” I pose.
“Shawn?” Rory lifts one brow higher than the other.
“It’s not a stretch to believe he’d want to hurt us. We rejected that awful idea of his that proposed we fire Hollis Calder and give Shawn the department,” I return.
Savannah’s brows draw together lightly. “Who’s Shawn?”
“He’s the head of cybersecurity,” Rory answers her.
Savannah’s hands still for a moment, and her mouth turns downward. “But why not just steal the information from inside? Why the whole charade of hacking?”
“We would’ve caught him much easier and much faster,” I respond, then the fake file on my screen opens. “He’s downloading the honey pot.”
Hunter leans in closer. “Can you start the trace?”
I shake my head. “No, not until he has the whole file.” The progress bar fills slowly, indicating the download's progress. When the bar fills, I type again, activating the secret software upload. “Complete and starting the trace now.”
Rory nervously taps his fingers on the table, and Savannah shifts in her seat. We all know how important this is.
Hunter keeps his focus trained on my screen. “He won’t be able to see what you’re doing, right?”
“Do I look like an amateur?” I scoff comically, trying to bring some light into the moment. When he doesn’t respond, I look up at him and find his face unamused. I drop the humor. “He shouldn’t, but there’s always a possibility.”
When the location comes up on my screen, I know Hunter sees it too. Savannah and Rory go still, making me think they figured it out as well.
“Is that right?” Hunter’s voice is tight. “How accurate is the program?”
“Very…” I trail off as I dig deeper. “Son of a bitch. He’s masking his location by routing it through other servers. Assuming he’s not too smart, I’ll have his real location in…” I type a few more commands and my computer beeps. “Got it. He’s here. It’s him.”
“Calder!” Hunter shouts.
Hollis Calder hurries into Hunter’s office. “Yes, boss?”
“Check and see if Shawn Winthrop is in his office on the fifth floor. If he’s there, bring him up here,” Hunter directs.
Calder nods. “I’ll send Emmett.”
We sit in silence as we wait for Calder to return with our guy. My mind whirls as I try to make sense of everything.
Thinking out loud, I say, “If John gave Shawn the code, a lot about this would make sense.”
“Like what?” Rory asks as he rubs his forehead.
