The Housewife Assassin's Killer App by Josie Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

earns him a few grudging nods.
    “Here’s the final clue,” Ryan says, as it appears on the wall: Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.
    “This quote is directly from the Duchess,” Dominic declares.
    I notice that a couple of fivers are handed around. Those who get them must have bet correctly that Dominic could go three for three.
    Emma pats him on the shoulder. “How did you do that?”  
    Dominic shrugs. “It’s nothing, really. Every student at Ludgrove has memorized the entire text of Alice in Wonderland by his second year.”
    “Ludgrove? What?…And all this time, I thought you’d gone to Hogwarts,” Arnie mutters. He turns to Emma. “Isn’t that what you told me?”
    She sighs. “I didn’t have the heart to tell you Hogwarts isn’t a real place.”
    “Yes, well, I’m sure Princes William and Harry were also disappointed,” Dominic sniffs. "But they got over it soon enough. As is the case with the rest of Ludgrove’s alumni, eventually they learned to appreciate its academic excellence sans wands and motorized broomsticks. What one must tolerate if the swish of ermine and the rattle of sabers is in one’s blood.”
    “Back to the matter at hand, please.” Ryan scowls, warning them that he’s got a lot more to say. “We are now also aware that government contractors with access to these files were hacked as well.”
    Dominic raises his hand. “Does that include Acme?”
    A ghost of a smile rises on Ryan’s lips. “As a matter of fact, we are the only contractor who wasn’t infiltrated. I attribute that to two things. I’m sure we’re on the hacker’s radar, but Arnie Locklear’s crackerjack intrusion software, doubled with his other tech security initiatives, have kept us safe. The second is that Acme had nothing to do with the IC projects with access to the breached data files.”
    For once, Carl’s hatred of his old employer has done us a favor.
    “That being said, POTUS feels that Acme is the logical choice to conduct the security audit. It’ll be all hands on deck. Finding the perpetrator assures Acme’s status in the intelligence community will once again be second to none.”
    “Yet one more thing that puts Carl on POTUS’s shit list,” I murmur to Jack.
    “Don’t kid yourself,” he mutters back. “They’ve got some sort of bromance going on.”  
    I hold up a finger to my lips, to shush him.  
    He must have noticed that it’s my middle finger, because he snorts.
    Abu raises his hand. “Ryan, is there any reason to believe it may be an inside job—say, a disillusioned government employee, or a government contractor with security clearance?”
    Or more to the point, the IC director himself, since his own ties to the Quorum are still very much in question.
    Ryan shakes his head. “Good question. In answer to the first scenario, our illustrious intelligence director insists not, but we won’t presume anything. Anyone could be the Mad Hacker. Of course, Director Stone would prefer the second scenario. In fact, if the culprit was found here at Acme, it would make his day.”
    An uneasy chuckle can be heard through the room, but no one is really laughing. Ryan’s answer has bound us to a singular mission: to prove our former colleague and current nemesis wrong.
    Ryan nods toward Arnie and Emma. Both begin to make their way through the room, distributing the stacks of file folders in their hands.
    “Each and every one of us in this room is to play an important role in assessing the damage, and identifying the hacker. The majority of you—those working in tech-ops and systems analysis—will report to Arnie Locklear. You’ll be placed on a team with specific audit duties, such as looking for security exploits—bugs, viruses and Trojans—packet sniffing, or doing rootkit detection. Your team’s mandates are spelled out to you in your individual mission folders.” Ryan scans the faces in front of him. “The rest of you will be conducting personnel