The Hack, page 15
“Freeze,” Luke said urgently and Ari gulped, not daring to breathe. He didn’t even dare look at Raya.
“Hold,” Luke said. “Ten more seconds . . .”
Ari wondered how long he could hold his breath, because his lungs were already burning but he wasn’t sure if it was from the lack of oxygen or the cocktail of adrenaline and fear snaking through his veins.
“Okay, you should be good,” Luke said.
Ari exhaled a breath, as did Raya, and it was only then that he realized she’d been holding her breath too.
Ari awkwardly shifted his hand, waiting for a siren to activate, but it didn’t.
Raya clicked on the message from Higgins’s private email.
Derek,
As per recent discussions, you have violated the KinTech’s shareholder agreement by disclosing confidential information—whether willingly or not. Therefore, you forfeit all shares in KinTech and its subsidiary, HaloTech, and all owed dividend payments.
I wish there was a different outcome, however as you are unwilling to partake in the solution provided by Rossi, it has unfortunately come to this.
The termination of your shareholder agreement is effective immediately.
Gregory Higgins
Ari looked at the date of the email. It had been sent one week before Raya’s mother’s death.
Raya stared at the screen. “It’s not enough,” she said, her voice breaking. “I read this as Derek Lam somehow revealed HaloTech’s problems to my mother, and they silenced her. But this email could mean anything.”
Ari agreed.
“But hang on, this doesn’t make sense,” Raya said quickly, looking up at him. “Derek Lam is still a shareholder . . . he wasn’t terminated.”
Ari swallowed the lump in his throat. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but his first thought was that Derek had changed his mind after receiving this email and decided to go ahead with Rossi’s solution.
“I’m so sorry, Raya,” Ari said. If Thomas Rossi was responsible for Raya’s mother’s death . . . how was he supposed to sleep at night knowing this?
Raya searched for Derek Lam next but there was no further communication with him after this email. They could look at phone records, and Ari would bet there was a series of calls made between Higgins and Lam, but it wouldn’t give them the proof Raya needed.
“I don’t care,” she said, like she could read his mind. “I might not have proof of her murder, but I’ll make them pay in other ways. They’re all going down . . . all of them: Higgins, Lam, and your uncle.”
CHAPTER 29
Ari clenched his jaw. “I’ll make sure that happens,” he said like it was a promise.
She thought of the birthday cards Derek Lam sent her every year without fail. Was that his way of feeling a little less guilty? It was sickening, Raya thought. She knew this email wasn’t proof, but she felt it in her soul. She’d always known her mother hadn’t taken those pills voluntarily, and combined with the timing of this email . . . it was enough to convince Raya.
She looked up at Ari, his eyes swirling with emotions she couldn’t read.
Trust no one, Raya.
Did Justin make that assumption knowing the dirty secrets of the Rossi family? Or did he know something about Ari?
Ari’s phone vibrated and his eyes widened. “It worked,” he said quickly, his voice a whisper.
“What worked?” Raya asked, her eyebrows weaving together.
“We’re in the HaloTech system,” he whispered like he couldn’t believe it. “We need to go, my laptop is in the car and I can work from that.”
Raya’s eyes darted between the computer and Ari. She felt like she had so much left to see, but there wasn’t enough time.
“Raya, if you want to make them pay, HaloTech is the way to do it,” he said.
“Guys, you have one minute,” Luke said.
Raya blinked, looking to her phone. She’d lost track of the timer. “One more round,” she said to Ari. “You can go and I’ll stay—”
“No,” he said, cutting her off. “We stay together.”
“I’m not leaving,” she said. She knew she was riding on emotion and it was clouding her judgement, but she couldn’t walk away from this computer. Ari had gotten them inside the HaloTech site, so he could do it again if they got kicked out before they found what they needed. She might even be able to do it herself, given the malware he’d used. But she would not get back inside this house on her own.
“Freeze!” Luke said.
Raya’s heart lunged in her throat as her eyes locked on Ari’s. He didn’t look happy, but he had no choice but to stay exactly where he was.
“Hold . . .” Luke said.
Raya counted the seconds, her heart racing a little faster when she reached twenty and Luke still hadn’t spoken.
“It’s not working,” he said in a panicked voice. “There’s some kind of override going on, I can’t suppress the signal again.”
Raya’s eyes locked on Ari’s.
“I can’t . . . nothing is working. The system is shutting down . . . this is brilliant but not helpful right now! The second you move the siren is going to go off!”
Ari’s eyes darted to the door then back to Raya. She looked to the computer knowing she would need a few seconds at least to close everything down and eject the drive. They would need another minute to get out of the house, another minute to run to the car.
“Shit! The footage has reverted due to the system shutdown. Get out of there!” Luke yelled.
Raya moved fast, clicking the programs to close them. The siren wailed through the house at a pitch that was both deafening and piercing to Raya’s ears.
Ari grabbed the drive from the computer and they sprinted for the stairs.
Raya could feel her heartbeat whooshing in her ears as they ran down the path to jump into Ari’s car.
A neighbor from across the street looked at them and Raya knew they would call the police and give them the plate number for the car. They’d deal with that later.
Raya sprinted for the car, but even when she jumped inside she didn’t feel safe.
Ari planted his foot on the accelerator and the wheels squealed as they drove away.
“He’s seen us,” Raya said, wheezing from sprinting and the adrenaline spiking through her body.
“So we act fast,” Ari said. “Grab my computer. Send an email to Gregory Higgins and call his bluff. Tell him we know about Diane Lewis and that HaloTech is falsifying records. Tell them we’ve created a time bomb and if they kill us, everything will be released on the internet. They’ll figure out what a time bomb is very quickly.”
Raya looked uncertain, but she opened the email and sent it.
“Send the same email to my uncle,” Ari said, his voice tight.
Ari took the corner sharp and she grabbed the laptop to stop it from sliding off her knees.
Raya rapidly typed another email and sent it.
“Now, load the spyware software using the icon on the desktop,” he said.
There were only four icons on Ari’s desktop, so it was easy to find. She loaded the software and the black box appeared.
“Type . . .” he stalled. “I can’t do this while driving. I can’t memorize code like you can.”
“Drive a few more blocks then pull over,” Raya said, hoping that was a good idea.
Raya typed what she could—what she’d seen Ari use to create backdoors. She didn’t know if it was the correct code, but if it was, it would at least buy them a few seconds.
Ari pulled the car to a stop and Raya passed the laptop.
For a split second he paused, looking at her. He shook his head quickly and then returned to the keyboard. He opened his phone, using a screenshot of the code sequence, and added more code.
Raya leaned over, wanting to both see what he was doing and what would happen next.
At first the screen went blank and nothing happened. Raya opened her mouth to speak, but then the magic happened. An image of the HaloTech logo appeared.
“Holy shit,” Raya whispered under her breath.
Ari looked at her with the biggest grin she’d ever seen on his lips.
He all but threw the laptop back to her. “Go for it!” he said as he put the car in drive and accelerated.
Raya paid attention to nothing but that laptop.
She searched for test results and deleted emails first. While the search loaded, she manually browsed files, starting at the top and working her way down. Most of it was mundane documents that she expected to find on any business server. She quickly browsed through the employee contracts for the laboratory staff noting the head of clinical research had been replaced around the time of her mother’s death.
Raya flicked back to the search results, paying particular attention to Gregory Higgins’s deleted work emails.
She scrolled through the sent items, looking for any emails sent to the lab manager.
Raya found three emails around the time of her mother’s death, all notifying the manager of scheduled meetings but nothing more than that. Raya bit her lip, frustrated.
She changed course and checked Ari’s emails again. He had a response from Thomas Rossi. Raya opened it and read it aloud. “Your uncle has responded: Ari, don’t do this. We need to talk. Please call me.”
Raya’s eyes snapped to the rearview mirror as the car was suddenly flooded with light. The headlights from the car behind them were so bright they were blinding.
“Higgins hasn’t seen the email!” Raya said as Ari swerved lanes and the car followed them.
“Thomas will call him,” Ari said. But what if Higgins didn’t answer? He must’ve had a security car somewhere near the house, she thought, panicked. She’d been so focused on the laptop she hadn’t been watching for a tail and she wondered at what point they’d tracked them down.
“Focus on the files, Raya! I’ll lose the tail,” Ari said, picking up speed.
Raya’s heart raced and she hesitated, but she knew Ari was right. If they were going to survive, they needed the files, and anyway, she couldn’t do much to help from the passenger seat.
Raya focused on the files, opening the testing records. She scrolled through the folder looking for any inconsistencies, but everything looked in order.
Where are you hiding it?
CHAPTER 30
Raya tried to put herself in Higgins’s shoes—if she had to hide testing reports, where would she hide them?
Well, if Raya were hiding them, she’d delete them and then make sure they were deleted forever.
She paused—she needed an old backup, which they had not been able to access but since they were now in the HaloTech system she might be able to. The problem was, she didn’t know exactly how to do that.
Figure it out, now! she told herself.
Raya looked at the backup files on the server and worked backward, creating a code sequence. She waited, but nothing happened.
She shook her head, trying again.
But again nothing happened.
Raya ran a hand through her hair. “I need to access their online backup. I’m trying to work backward—” she stopped, realizing the error she’d made.
Her fingers fired over the keyboard, reworking her code and she held her breath as she waited. A second passed, then another. The image of another desktop flashed on her screen and she realized she’d done it.
Ari swerved violently but Raya fought the urge to look up. She needed to focus and she didn’t have a second to waste. She scrolled through the backups, looking for files that dated back to the year before her mother died. She scrolled through them, her hands shaking as she read the reports.
“Oh my God! I found it! I found it!” she said. “I’ve read the reports on the server for the corresponding times, they’re completely different! Ari, we have what we need!”
Ari didn’t take his eyes off the road. “Copy it over to an online storage facility, quickly!”
Raya was typing the code when she was thrust forward. She yelped, grabbing hold of the laptop as her head snapped forward. It took her a second to realize they’d been hit from behind.
The car swerved but Ari managed to right it just before they went head-on into another car.
“Copy the documents, Raya!” Ari said, his eyes bouncing between the rearview mirror and the road.
Raya’s hand shook so violently she had trouble typing, but eventually she entered the code sequence, and the blue bar began loading. “There’s so much data, it’s going to take—”
Raya squealed, ducking, as the back window shattered.
“I can’t lose these guys,” Ari said as Raya looked ahead to the lanes full of traffic.
Ari looked to the computer and then shook his head.
They didn’t have enough time. Raya knew that without him having to say it. But without these files, they had little chance of staying alive.
Ari craned his neck, looking ahead. “There’s a truck up ahead, doing road work. I’m going to try to get alongside it just as the light changes and the SUV won’t have time to cross over lanes. When I pull up beside it, get out of the car. Take the laptop and the gun and run, hide somewhere until the files copy over then make the time bomb.” He looked around, frantic, his eyes landing on the Ferris wheel, its orange and red lights glowing against the night sky. “Meet me at the Navy Pier Ferris wheel in half an hour.”
Raya’s heart lunged in her chest and she shook her head. “No, we stay together!”
Ari shook his head. “No, make sure the time bomb is created. That’s what we need to focus on. They won’t kill us if we can show them that, but without it—we’re dead.”
Raya looked to the rearview mirror. “Ari, they might kill us before we have a chance to tell them,” she said. Her throat felt like it was closing in.
“No, I’m going to call Higgins and tell him I want to talk. But we need those files, Raya—” Raya flinched as bullets hit the back of the car.
“I’ll be okay,” Ari said. “I’ll meet you at the Ferris wheel. Half an hour.”
Raya swallowed the lump in her throat. She looked ahead, seeing the truck. Her eyes dropped to the laptop, but the file transfer was only forty percent complete.
“Ready?” Ari said, his eyes on the traffic.
She inhaled a shaky breath as he passed her the gun. “Take it, just in case,” he said.
She shook her head. “No, they’re going to follow you. You need it.”
“Raya, just take the gun,” he said as he placed two hands on the steering wheel. “Get ready!”
Raya grabbed her backpack and the laptop and had her hand on the doorhandle, refusing to take the gun, and he was too focused on changing lanes at the last minute that he didn’t notice. She could barely breathe as Ari said, “Go!”
She jumped out of the car and sprinted down the side street, running toward the Ferris wheel. She didn’t dare to look over her shoulder, but she felt like any second the bullets would come. She sprinted as fast as she could, her legs and lungs burning. When she felt like she couldn’t breathe any longer, she darted into an alley and pressed her back against the wall, gulping in air.
She waited for the sound of footsteps, but none came.
When she could breathe enough to stand straight, she peered around the corner, but she didn’t see a black SUV, nor did she see any men in suits. Raya looked down the street and saw a coffee shop one block away. She inhaled a steadying breath and walked toward it, keeping her pace casual, blending into the crowd headed toward the pier for a night of fun and games. Raya and Ari were playing a game too, but it was game that might end with bullets in their backs.
She looked over her shoulder before she walked into the coffee shop. She would use it to boost her internet speed and transfer these files—files that would save both their lives. She sat down and opened her laptop, noting the time. She’d guessed about five minutes had passed since she’d jumped out of the car.
The waitress came over and Raya ordered a lemonade. The last thing she needed now was caffeine—her body was already loaded with adrenaline.
Raya checked the progress of the download. It was at seventy percent. “Come on, come on, come on,” Raya mumbled under her breath, willing it to move faster.
The bell on the door jingled as it opened and Raya looked up, holding her breath. But it was just a mother and her daughter rushing in.
Raya paused. She had so few memories of her mother, and she felt like they were fading with every year she was gone. Hot tears stung her eyes, the emotions of the evening finally catching up with her. But now was not the time to think about her mother.
Raya returned her attention to her computer, running one last search through the HaloTech system. There was one last thing that didn’t make sense to her—Justin’s warning.
Trust no one, Raya.
Raya’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, guilt slashing her chest. Ari had done nothing but protect her. He’d even let her run off with his computer. But the old saying, blood runs thicker than water, might hold true. She didn’t want to believe that was true, but Ari was the one person who could undo the time bomb, and therefore her safety—and while he might not want to, he might be forced to.
So she ran a search for any mention of him in HaloTech’s deleted emails. Raya didn’t know whether Ari would be referred to as Aureliano or Ari, so she typed Rossi hoping to catch any mention of him or anything else she could use against Thomas Rossi.
Raya checked the file transfer. Ninety-five percent.
She looked to her watch. She had fifteen minutes to finish and meet Ari, and she estimated it would take her about ten minutes to get to the Ferris wheel.
Five minutes, Raya.
Her fingers fluttered over the keyboard, typing the code she’d designed to create the time bomb in anticipation of this very moment. She didn’t look up from her laptop until the time bomb was complete, then she checked the transfer. One-hundred percent. Her jaw dropped open—it was complete.
