To Russia With Love (Countermeasure Series) by Cecilia Aubrey, Chris Almeida Read Free Book Online

where Trevor was already hard at work.
    It had been three days since the meeting with Paul Faber; Trevor had been up to his ears in infiltrations, research, and collection of data that would help them pinpoint the origin of the hack that resulted in the theft of MDS’s files. Trevor had scrutinized the contents of the disk received from Faber and they now understood the importance of the stolen data.
    They had learned that the files in question were actually decryption software that could crack anything encoded with a certain algorithm by exploiting a secret vulnerability. The kicker was that the algorithm in question was the one used by most financial institutions around the world to process inter-bank fund transfers. That meant it allowed access to any bank’s system with the pressing of a few keys. The reach and repercussion of the usage of such software was astounding. It could bring the world financial market to its knees. It was the subject of nightmares for anyone in the software development field. Something so powerful could never be distributed at large.
    The NSA itself would’ve loved to have developed such software, have full control of its reach. Instead, it had been the brainchild of a small company on the brink of stardom, and now most likely had fallen into very wrong hands.
    Cassandra spotted the cup left by her computer the moment she walked through the door. The addictive aroma of coffee filled her senses and almost brought her to her knees. “Thank the Irish Gods!” Lifting the cup for a slow sip, she gazed at Trevor across their desks.
    He raised an eyebrow. “Took you long enough.”
    Cassandra flashed him a smile as she walked to his side of the office and dropped a kiss on his lips before sitting at her desk. “Hey, you’re the one who let me sleep in.” She pulled up her notes from the previous day. “So, where are we? Do you have anything new?”
    Trevor frowned as he filtered through all the information they had collected about the job. Crossing his hands behind his head, he leaned back in his chair and began to outline what they knew. “Based on the information provided by Faber and George, the data was taken about two weeks ago. Whoever took it erased the data from the server. Thankfully, Faber had copies of the source stored off-site. We also know the potential of the program.”
    Cassandra nodded in agreement. “Any crook in the world would love to get their hands on it.”
    “The good thing is the development of the decryption software was not completed when they took it. Maybe they thought they could hire someone who could easily do that, making it functional in no time. Lucky for us, it isn’t that easy. I’ve analyzed the code. It requires someone with a high-level understanding of parallel computing—not a lot of programmers with that skill out there.”
    Trevor watched as she scooted back from her desk, grabbed her cup, and sat on his desk facing him. He could see from the somber look in her eyes that she was deep in thought as she took a sip from her coffee before setting it aside.
    “Okay. Who can we trust at this point? Faber is the original developer. We can assume he doesn’t want his creation in the hands of criminals, based on the results of the facial analysis. Devlin’s out, too. His company would be in financial ruin if the defrauded companies filed suit. Other than that, I don’t think we can be sure of anybody.” She captured his eyes with hers. “Trevor, we need to be sure what’s at stake here and who’s involved. We don’t want a surprise like France.”
    Silence filled the air as they both contemplated those ramifications. Cassandra and Trevor had met betrayal and unforeseen circumstances on the first case they worked together. Knowing the players in this technological game of hide-and-seek had become a must. Neither wanted to have to go through the pain of seeing the other hurt—again.
    Cassandra shook her head and continued, “Hey! What about the