“Good! I’ll make us dinner. I make a mean seafood and pasta dish!” she exined and enjoyed how Henry’s face flushed hot pink.
“Th-that sounds yummy!” he stuttered as he nced at the message on his cell. “Seven it is.”
Letting him off the hook, Siobhan stood and walked to his door. “See you then, and thank you!”
He just nodded as his cheeks felt like they were glowing.
Siobhan left his office, closing the door behind herself, and looked to Marisa’s curious gaze.
“So?” her friend asked, her need to be filled in evident in her tone.
“You’re right,” Siobhan said.
Marisa’s curiosity red. “About what?”
Siobhan headed for the door and nced over her shoulder with a happy little smile. “Heisthe sweetest man.”
She grinned as she left Marisa with a frustrated look on her lovely features.
As Siobhan walked to the elevator, she felt the tingles of anticipation run up her spine. She wassolooking forward to their first date.
Carl de Bellisle sat brooding in his study. He was a big man, slightly taller and broader of shoulder than Roy Duncan, the man he was brooding about. It irritated Carl beyond measure that his extra size wasn’t enough to force Roy to submit.
As the leader of his pack and president and chief litigator for hisw firm, Carl was used to calling the shots. His current ns were being hindered by a ghost from his past.
He looked to the spot before his desk once more as he recalled the corpses of two men he’d left cooling on a carpet he now missed. Normally, he wouldn’t have dirtied his hands with such business, but they’d disobeyed him and had taken steps which seriously jeopardized a very delicate n. He’d had to put that n on hold to see if it was still salvageable.
The idiots had had the gall to tell him they’d killed the agent he’d infiltrated Roy’s team with and had broken into the home of one of VRL’s executives for somemagic blood?!? All Were blood was magic! And a Satyr? Seriously? Why not Santa us? Wasn’t he supposed to be magic too?
He’d felt no remorse for putting a slug into their brains. He did miss the rug, though.
Carl considered how he was going to salvage his n. Back then, he’d been testing the waters when he offered hisw firm’s services to VRL. He’s heard about Walter Zhao’s death and saw a perfect opportunity to make an introduction. He knew Roy Duncan was part of thepany’s executive team, so he thought he might be able to gauge their satisfaction with his work at the same time. Unfortunately, the CEO was a little too canny and gave nothing away during their call. He’d been unable to read her and now regretted not arranging a face to face meeting. He was going to remedy that mistake soon, even at the risk of meeting Roy as well.
Carl had wanted a toe hold on the east coast since he’d solidified his position in New Orleans a century before. This was his third attempt to expand into this market. His previous attempts had met with sabotage. He’d dealt with the culprits of the first one, and the Dean pack no longer existed.
The second failure was more of a catastrophe and involved a very personal loss for Carl. The fire which destroyed his NY office also cost him his son. Roy’s security firm worked the buildingplex and caught the firebug as he fled, but the fire was already out of control by then.
Roy managed to pull Carl’s wife and daughter from the burning building, but it copsed before he could get to his son. Carl couldn’t bring himself to forgive Roy for choosing so poorly that night. They’d fought, but they were too evenly matched. Truthfully, had Roy not been injured and tired from the rescue, he might have bested Carl.
Following the disaster, the fire marshal imed the fire’s rapid esction was due to Carl’spany’s negligence to bring the building up to code. Damages to the surrounding buildings led to awsuit that set hispany back decades and pushed him back to New Orleans.
Then, on the cusp of his third attempt, those idiots attacked the home of one of VRL’s chief execs. He wished he could bring them back to life so he could see the lights go out in their eyes when he shot them again.
ording to Dwayne’s ount of Billy’s confession during his interrogation, Roy had be some kind of evolved Werewolf. An Uber Were. Carl cursed under his breath.
Being cautious, Carl had pulled back to New Orleans, temporarily. He’d bided his time, and during that interval, he’d assigned some investigators to confirm Roy’s new state. If they determined hehadbe an Uber Were, they were to find out how it really happened.
A Satyr. Really.
Carl’s patience had run out. He was no longer willing to wait, and the bloody investigators had proven to be useless. He would take steps to get the answer he needed himself. It was time for action.
An email arrived, and Carl’s mood swung upwards. The spy he’d sent into VRL emailed him an image of a young man with Roy and a note which contained a delightful bit of information. It seems Roy might have a son of his own.
Perhaps Carl would be able to bnce the scales of justice for the loss of his son after all.
Henry sat in his usual seat in the boardroom by himself. Hisptop was connected, and he was watching traffic flow on thework through his private external connection. Everything was optimal for today’s meeting.
He’d isted all of thework ports in this room from VRL’s internalwork. They had external ess to the Inte, but that’s it. WiFi was locked down as well. The test server was scrubbed clean and ready for the install.
He nced at the clock and saw it was time. He stood and faced the door.
Momentster, it opened, and he saw Cam enter with a smile for him. She held his eyes for a moment, and he could almost feel her question. He smiled and nodded gently and saw her smile widen slightly.
Behind her, Henry saw three men wearing expensive suits, and two of the men were watching her ass. Henry understoodpletely. Her bottomwasspectacr.
There were two men and a woman in less expensive suits following their bosses. These were the techs, the people who would be judging Henry’s application to see if it was worthy of their eptance.
Cam led the group over to stand before Henry. “Gentlemen anddy, I’d like to introduce you to Henry Gable, the man who wrote the firewall applications you will be reviewing today. Henry, this is the new Director of the NSA, Wace Granger,” Henry shook the man’s hand. “Director of the FBI Charles Starkley,” Henry shook his hand as well. “And Director of the CIA, Maurice Hall.” Henry noted he was thergest of the three men and felt the man’s grip to be a little excessive. He managed not to flinch, and Hall had a slight grin on his face as he released Henry’s hand.
Cam caught but ignored Henry’s subtle flexing of his hand to return its cirction. She addressed the next three individuals. “The Directors have brought with them today their Network Technology Leads. From the NSA, Robert Miller. From the FBI, Yasmin Brooks, and from the CIA, Laurence Franklin.
Henry shook the hands of the techs, then Wace Granger raised an immediate point. “Ms. Vimor, may I ask for a little rity?” Cam nodded with a curious smile. “You just said Mr. Gable wrote applications, not an application. That was just a slip of the tongue?”
Cam just turned to Henry, who saw he was up.
“Actually, it was not. While the bulk of the code sharesmon modules for look and feel, resource management, biometric signature integration, and such, the actual engine of the application each agency will use is distinct from the others.
“What?” Wace asked. “Why would you do that?”
Henry blinked at the man. “Well, in the unlikely event one of the agency’s firewalls is somehow breached, the others wouldn’t fall victim to the same attack. Isn’t that… something you’d want?” He looked at the techs, who were nodding thoughtfully.
“We were told you didn’t have the source code for the firewall Stanley Garin wrote for VRL. Our tech department has been trying to decrypt the source archive you gave my predecessor unsessfully for months. Now you’re telling me you’ve written not one but three distinct firewall applicationsparable to Mr. Garin’s?” Wace pushed.
Henry held the man’s eyes. “Comparable? Yes. They behave almost identically to the original, but it’s new code, and I believe I’ve optimized some areas to make it more modr. That’s how I can give each of you a distinct application. Thereisa depth to the original that is not included in these, but I believe you’ll find them to be as secure.”
“Unless someone knows the back door ess code,” Maurice said with a smirk.
“Mr. Hall, like Stanley, I don’t include back doors in my application code. Additionally, if the code detects the hardware attempting to circumvent the security rules of the app, a clear indication of a hardware back door added in the manufacturing process, it notifies you then shuts thework interfaces down.”Content ? copyrighted by N?velDrama.Org.