“Tally, it’s me.”
“Oh, hi.I didn’t look at the number.”
Annoyance flashes across his features, and I bite back an amused smile.“Have you noticed any unknown number texts coming through?”
That’s an odd question.
He holds a finger up, gesturing for me to hold my questions.
“Unknown numbers are automatically forwarded to you for review.Have you seen anything odd today?”
“Oh, ah.Let me check.I usually check the spam folder in the morning.I don’t see anything… Just the normal phishing.”
“Do you see anything with a single word?”I ask, given she probably would look right over a single word text, interpreting it as a half-hearted scam.
“Oh.Yes.There’s one.It just says, ‘stop.’Do you want me to respond?”
“No,” he’s quick to say, but then he looks to me.“Do you need her to do anything with it?”
“Is it on your phone?”
“It’s on the messaging app in the spam folder, is that right?”
“Yes, sir,” Tally answers cheerily.
“I’ve got it,” he says to me.“Thanks.Have you seen Eddie?”
“No, sir.Do you want me to tell him you’re looking for him?”
“No.Thanks.”
The call ends and Adrien leans against the back of the sofa.
“How should I do this?Fire Eddie?You said you believe someone in security has to be in on it too?”
“Possibly others.”With a careful view over the photograph, I drop it and move to the windowsill in the kitchen.Chances are the intruder wore gloves.I’m not going to find anything.
“So what would you have me do?”
“KOAN’s still monitoring calls.You can fire him.Block his access.Watch to see who acts.If you want to bring charges?—”
“No.I can’t involve the police.I’ll call him into a meeting tomorrow morning.Have HR present to revoke his credentials, after I confront him.”
“We can take care of dismantling the servers.Ensure you have a closed loop environment.”I’m standing at the windowsill, when I consider our plans.“Are you sure you want to have the meeting tomorrow and not tonight?”
He doesn’t say anything at all, and when I look away from the windowsill, I find him studying me with an unsettling intensity.
“What?”
“The idea of something happening to you.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I stop myself from answering with the standardbecauseresponse my father used to give me as a child when I worried when he deployed.I suspect that’s the same response he gave my mom all those years when she was basically raising my brothers and me as a single mother.
“It’s not warfare.”
