“Good morning,” said the three men in a sing-songy voice to the crusty receptionist.She slowly lifted her head, staring at the familiar faces.
“You again.I see you brought two new faces,” she smirked.“I’ll call TJ and Beanie.”
“That would be delightful,” said Wyatt.
He turned to Ben and Kiel, rolling his eyes.When the two young people came out again, they both looked nervous, twisting their fingers.Beanie was still sucking down energy drinks and her skin showed it.
“I see you didn’t take our advice,” said Wyatt.“You’re going to give yourself a heart attack drinking those.”She shrugged and gave him an inexperienced wink, trying to appear more confident.
“What can we do for you?” asked TJ.
“We’d like to see Marilyn Sanders,” said Kiel.
“I’m sorry but you’ve missed her.She came in early but left about thirty minutes ago.She said she had errands to run and was heading to the capitol to see someone.”
“I’d like her phone number,” said Wyatt.
“I can’t give you that.She’d kill me,” said TJ.“I mean, not literally.At least I don’t think so.She’s very private.But she’s a great boss.She gave us the day off tomorrow.She does nice stuff like that all the time.”
“That is nice,” said Ben, “but it seems to me you guys have more work than you can handle.Taking a day off doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.”
“I mean, we’re busy for sure,” said Beanie, “but we can handle it.In fact, just this morning one of our team members found a virus that was getting into people’s computers by just clicking an ‘opt out’ button on junk mail.I mean, you’re supposed to be able to click that and never see the stuff again but they were clever.They put the bug in the ‘opt out’.”She said it excitedly, almost seemed impressed by their work.
“And you think that’s clever?” asked Wyatt.
“Well, yeah.I mean, everybody wants to opt out of junk mail. If you click the unsubscribe or opt out, it’s the easiest way to get into their shit.I mean, stuff.”
“That’s not clever,” said Kiel.“It’s deceitful and forces people down a spiral they don’t know how to get out of.That’s what you’re supposed to prevent, or did you forget that?”
“We didn’t forget,” said TJ in a harsh tone.“I don’t know what your problem is but we didn’t do anything.”
“No.No, you’ve done absolutely nothing,” said Ben staring at the desks behind the two young people.“I’ve stood here for five minutes and watched people playing games, ordering clothes, ignoring warnings in their own damn system.How long do you think your boss can protect you before someone figures out that you’re fucking around.”
“Exactly sixty seconds,” said the voice behind them.
“General Billings, nice to see you sir,” smirked Ben.“What brings you here?”
“We thought about what you said the other day and had our team start tracking some of the noise we were seeing.This morning, someone in this office clicked on a link that allowed direct access to the Pentagon’s defense systems, shutting down the keypads that allow access to the building.Anyone could have walked through.
“Thankfully, our team was able to get it back up in minutes.But it could have been a disaster.”
“W-we didn’t do that,” said TJ.
“You did do it,” growled the General.“This office is shut down as of right now.Where is your manager?”
“That’s what we were here to figure out,” said Ben.“She seems to be missing.A lot.”
“I think we need to speak,” said the General.“Somewhere other than here.”
He waved his team in, rolling carts and cases to take all of the computer equipment in the room.The entire office would be an empty shell by the end of the day and Marilyn Sanders would be a wanted woman.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Marilyn!Nice to see you, darlin’,” laughed the old man behind the desk.
“Don’t fuck with me Cain.Billings and Peters sent some guard dogs after me and my team.Who are they and how do you stop them?”
“Oh, darlin’, they can’t be stopped and your team is no more.”She stared at him as he stood from the old, weathered oak desk.A congressman for the great state of Kentucky for more than thirty-five years, he was wearing his trademark seersucker suit.
