No Strings Attached: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Eight by Julie Moffett Read Free Book Online

ISS.”
    ISS stood for Information Systems Security. It would be Charlie’s job to oversee the installation and implementation of security software to prevent cyberattacks, as well as respond to successful attacks with appropriate countermeasures.
    “Hey, Charlie,” I said, and he nodded.
    A middle-aged man with black hair sitting next to me held out a hand. “I’m Sam Nelson, Vulnerability Analyst.”
    “Hey, Sam. I’ll be interested to hear your analysis of the hack.”
    He grinned. “Happy to provide it.”
    The introductions continued around the table. Marek Krupka from the Office of Security Investigations was next. A handsome African-American man named Shawn Moore, the Lead Facility Security Officer, or FSO, rounded out our group.
    Slash didn’t introduce himself.
    When the introductions were finished, Grant leaned forward on the table, folding his hands on top of his laptop. “So, Ms. Carmichael, can you walk us through exactly what happened?”
    I figured they’d already heard the short version from Slash, so I reviewed the entire chain of events, providing as much level of detail as I could. Several of the men jotted notes as I spoke.
    “So, you had no prior knowledge that this exchange was going to happen?” Sam, the vulnerabilities guy, asked me.
    “Nope. I was just in the wrong place, right time.”
    “You never saw either of these individuals before?” Shawn asked.
    “Never. They might have been conference-goers or they could have used the busy spot as cover to pass off the hack. But we’d never met and I don’t recall either one being in my seminar either.”
    “We’ve already pulled the attendance records for HACK CON,” Grant said. “We’re running them now.”
    Marek, the guy from the OSI, tapped his pencil on the table, studied me intently. “So, how did you know it was a hack?”
    “I didn’t at first. I examined the code and even followed it a little way on my laptop. It didn’t take me long to figure out where it was headed. Taken in context, I had a dangerous virtual trail toward the NSA and a lot of money in cash. It all pointed in one direction.”
    “So you just decided to stop it?” Sam asked. He looked surprised.
    “Well, I tried. Obviously, she didn’t buy it. She knew I’d gotten a look at the code, so she tried to kill me.”
    Slash tensed beside me and I resisted the urge to reassure him with a pat on the arm.
    “Why didn’t you keep the code?” Grant asked.
    “By the time I’d realized what it was, it was too late. She was already there and had snatched it from me.”
    Shawn tapped something on his keyboard and a picture appeared on the overhead screen. “We’ve retrieved security footage from the hotel. There is no hotel surveillance footage in the bar, but the hotel does have security cameras on several of the hotel entrances. Our team has reviewed the past twelve hours of footage so far. At this point, we’ve only found the time of arrival and departure of the young man who gave you the money.”
    A grainy picture appeared on the screen. Shawn tapped a few more keys and the footage magnified. Sure enough it was the guy with the T-shirt who had handed off the money and code. The oversize sunglasses and cap obscured his face, but the T-shirt was unmistakable.
    “That’s him,” I said.
    “Are you sure?” Grant asked.
    “I’m sure. He seemed young, nervous, inexperienced. I think he really was just a courier. And a bad one, at that.”
    “It’s not enough for the facial recognition software,” Slash mused.
    I glanced down the table at Shawn. “Did you get any footage of the woman?”
    He adjusted something on his screen. “We’re not sure. We need you to look at the possibilities. Can you go through the footage with us?”
    “Sure.”
    We spent the next fifty minutes reviewing the video from the hotel entrance stopping on females who generally fit her profile. None were a match.
    I leaned back in my chair. “She’s not there.”
    Trevor