"The grumpy part?"
"The sweet part. The grumpy part is just entertaining."
I catch her wrist as she reaches for another chip, pulling her hand to my mouth and biting gently at her palm. "Entertaining?"
"Very." Her eyes go dark. "We really should get back."
"Probably."
Neither of us moves.
I lean across the console, kissing her slow and deep. Taking my time because we have fifteen minutes before we need to be back and I'm going to use every second.
When we finally pull apart, she's flushed and breathing hard. "You're going to get us in trouble."
"Worth it."
We head back to the conference room a few minutes late. Rivera takes one look at us and shakes her head but doesn't comment. The briefing picks up where we left off, diving deeper into the digital forensics.
The cyber analyst pulls up more code, explaining how someone manipulated not just the inventory system but also the audit logs. Every time Gwen pulled a report, the system was feeding her accurate data because the hacker couldn't alter everything without raising red flags. But the automated reconciliation reports that should have caught the discrepancies were being doctored.
"Walk me through that," Gwen says, moving closer to the screen. "The reconciliation reports run automatically every night, cross-checking physical counts against database entries. How did they manipulate those without triggering security alerts?"
The analyst zooms in on a section of code. "They created a secondary validation layer. Basically inserted themselves between the physical count input and the final report generation. The night staff would input actual cabinet counts—which showed shortages—but the hacker's code intercepted that data, compared it against what the theft operation needed to hide, and adjusted the numbers before the final report compiled."
"So the night staff was entering accurate counts," Gwen says slowly, "but the system was lying to itself about what those counts were."
"Exactly. And they did it selectively. Only touched entries that would have flagged the stolen equipment. Everythingelse stayed clean, which kept the overall system appearing functional."
Rivera leans forward. "How long would it take to set that up?"
"Weeks. Maybe months." The analyst pulls up more screens. "This wasn't a smash and grab. Someone spent serious time learning the system architecture, testing access points, building the intercept code piece by piece. They knew exactly which protocols to bypass and which to leave alone."
I watch Gwen process this, see her making connections. "The equipment tracking interface," she says. "It's always been terrible. Clunky, slow, half the time it doesn't match what the newer ordering system says. Is that part of the problem?"
The analyst blinks. "The old tracking protocols don't integrate cleanly with the current platform, yeah. How'd you know?"
"Because I've been fighting with that system for almost a year." Gwen crosses her arms. "The tracking side feels like it's from a different decade than everything else."
"That's exactly the problem. The old tracking protocols and the modern reporting system don't talk to each other properly, so there's a gap. The hacker exploited that gap." The analyst looks impressed. "Most people just complain about the interface being slow. You connected it to a security vulnerability."
"So we're looking for someone with deep knowledge of military medical inventory systems," Rivera says. "Specifically this base's implementation."
"More than that." I point at the screen. "Look at the timing. They only manipulated counts on nights when specific personnel were on duty. That's not random. That's someone who knows the staffing schedule, knows who pays attention and who doesn't."
Gwen catches onto my point immediately. "Night staff rotates on a two-week cycle. If they're only hitting certain shifts?—"
"They're avoiding the thorough checkers," I finish. "The ones who'd notice if numbers felt off even if the system said everything was fine."
The analyst pulls up access logs, starts cross-referencing timestamps. "Captain's right. The manipulations cluster around three specific overnight shifts. All three have a junior enlisted on inventory duty, less experienced, more likely to trust the system over their instincts."
Rivera's expression goes hard. "That level of operational planning suggests military training. Someone who understands both the technical systems and the human factors."
"Whoever did this knows military systems," the analyst says. "The architecture, the security protocols, the audit structure, the personnel patterns. This isn't some script kiddie. This is professional level work."
"Military background?" I ask.
"Or defense contractor. Someone with clearance and access." She pulls up more files. "The problem is the trail goes cold. They used VPNs, proxy servers, the whole nine yards. We can trace it back to the base network but not to a specific terminal or user account."
