I knew the moment he started countering me.
“Oh, he’s good. He’s starting to anticipate my moves. How about you?”
“Yup. I’m seeing that too. Are we sure we’re not dealing with a super computer here?”
“I guess that’s possible, but my gut instinct says no. This is a person, a very stubborn and dedicated one. That fact that he is only going after the Raglan file bothers me more than anything.”
“You think it’s them?”
“Yeah, I do. They must have finally found the bug I hid on their system. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“They want to know what we know about them,” he said speaking my very thoughts.
“That’s my fear.”
“As soon as we’re done here, I’ll work on reconfiguring this data. No more basic file names. We were idiots for even calling it this.”
“I couldn’t agree more. We need a new full naming convention change and nothing obvious. That will at least buy us a little more time the next time he tries to hack us.”
“You think there will be a next time?” Archie asked.
“I would guarantee it. Whatever this guy is after, he’s now on the hunt for. It’s like his prey has been spotted and he’ll do anything he can to reach it. We definitely haven’t seen the last of him.”
“How much longer on that location?”
I pulled up my app to check and frowned.
“Redirects. This guy is good. It’s pinging all over the place. Just keep him busy. My tracer is saying five more stops. We could be here a while.”
For the next few hours Archie and I worked without ceasing. I had to pee so badly my back teeth were likely floating, but there was no way this guy was going to win.
By the time my alarm on my phone went off signaling the start of my day, we were still at it. It had been a long night, but my adrenaline was still holding strong.
There was little in this world more exciting than the chase. I understood this guy even without knowing anything else about him. He’s tasted his victory and that was a powerful and addicting thing, but I was still better.
Suddenly the guy stopped.
“Where did he go?” I yelled. “No, no, no, where the hell is he?”
Archie’s fingers were flying over his keyboard.
“I think he’s gone.”
“No way.”
“I’m telling you, Tarron, I can’t detect him anywhere. I think he pulled back.”
“Why? Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know, but he’s gone.”
“Wait, check the firewall, his hole has to be there still.” There was no way this guy would just give up like this not after the hell he’d put us through all night.
“It’s clear. The only hole I’m seeing at all is Patrick O’Connell’s secure line and the tracker you still have running.”
“If my tracker’s running, then he’s still out there somewhere.”
I pulled it up and watched. It beeped and flashed up an address.
I let out a whoop. “I got him. I got that bastard.” I stared at the screen. “Idaho? What’s in Idaho?”
“I don’t know but I’ll have my team on it immediately. They’ll make the changes we already discussed, and I’ll get a research unit to start investigating any Raglan connections in Idaho. You should probably try to get some sleep.”
“Afraid not. I’ve got PT in twenty minutes. If I move quickly I just might be able to grab a cup of coffee after I change.”
Archie frowned and shook his head.
“Like you ever sleep,” I muttered as I packed up my stuff.
My mind was reeling in a million directions. I knew exactly where to find this guy and I was ready to hop in the car and go put an end to this right now.
Susan
Chapter 4
I’d been up all night, but I was so close I could taste it. Whoever I was dealing with was a professional. That much I was certain of.
I had just managed to open one of the files within the folder I’d found when my alarm had gone off. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t slept, but there was no way my mother was going to just let me get away with oversleeping for another day of work.
It was going to be a long day, but I had one thing to fuel me—I had a name.
I hadn’t gotten much before I was shutdown again, but I’d clearly seen the name Westin Force. It wasn’t much, but it was a start in hopefully the right direction.
My door burst open.
I jumped.
Shay poked her head in. “Just checking. Snap to it Susan. You don’t want to be late—again.”
I didn’t know why I allowed that woman to get under my skin, but she always did. In my frustration, I got up and stomped off to the shower. I was going to need a lot of coffee to get through this day.
The hot shower relaxed my stiff shoulders and neck. Until then I hadn’t realized just how tense I was. It had certainly been a long and stressful night.
I was still searching my brain for anything I had learned or read about to explain the barricades I kept seeing. At first, I thought it was an actual person I was battling, but that didn’t make sense because if someone knew I was in their system they would have just kicked me out. I would have just come back in and tried a different route. That had happened a few times over the last few days, but not last night.
When I started getting attacked from different angles at the same time, I knew they must have seen my breach and added a new series of bots to combat me. I could beat a bot. I had come close tonight.
One thing I had learned about hacking was that programs could learn and anticipate my moves, so I had to vary things up some. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I vowed that after several days in a row of pressing and finally making some progress that I would take a reset. Tonight, I would try to do some research on Westin Force. Hopefully, there was more online about them than the Raglans. At least it was a lead to follow.
The break would hopefully confuse their bots too and make access a bit easier when I came back to it. Plus, I knew my break point and I was going to need to sleep. I certainly wouldn’t have the time to even nap today.
I got out of the shower with a smile on my face. I had a solid plan and was ready to tackle the day so I could start initiating it.
I dried off and dressed for the day. I even managed the basics of my makeup routine. Sapphire would likely notice the bags under my eyes, but I doubted anyone else would.
As I was leaving my room, I noticed the dim light from my laptop. “Crap!” I muttered quickly closing the lid knowing it would disconnect the connection I likely still had to the mysterious server I was hacking. That was a rookie mistake, but Shay had just caught me off guard and I hadn’t been thinking. I didn’t have time to freak out over any possible implications of such a mistake. I was certain it was fine, maybe even a good thing as it started confusing the bots early.
The house was still quiet with the exception of Shay fumbling around in the kitchen as I tiptoed through.
“Susan, is that you? I need coffee,” Shay yelled out.
I crept from the house carefully shutting the door behind me as I pretended I hadn’t heard her demand.