Page 33 of Slap Shot

Page List

Font Size:

He found Heather in a converted conference room that looked like a computer store had exploded, multiple laptops open, cables snaking everywhere, the blue glow of screens casting harsh shadows on her face. She was typing rapidly, completely absorbed in whatever she was hunting.

"What's the situation?" he asked, closing the door behind him and immediately moving away from it. If anyone came looking, he needed to be able to get Charlie into the adjoining storage closet.

"Someone's been using tonight as cover for a massive breach." She didn't turn around, but he could hear the anger in her voice. "They've been inside our systems all evening, but this time they got cocky. Left evidence."

Oliver moved to stand behind her, close enough to see the code scrolling across her screen. Charlie settled at his feet with a soft huff, reading the tension in the room.

"How bad?"

"They accessed Coach Vicky's personnel files, contract negotiations, private emails with Jack about player evaluations." Her knuckles were white on the mouse. "But that's not the worst part."

She pulled up another window, and Oliver's stomach dropped. The code structure was familiar in the worst possibleway, not his techniques exactly, but someone who'd studied his methods, learned his patterns, then twisted them into something more vicious.

"This is personal," he said, recognizing the signature style. "Someone who knows how I work."

"And they left us a message." She highlighted a section of metadata buried deep in the attack code. Oliver read the embedded text and felt sick:How's your coach's job security holding up?

The taunt was bad enough, but the way it was embedded made Oliver's hands shake slightly. The message was nested in a recursive loop that served no functional purpose except to hide the text, something he'd developed years ago and shared with exactly one person.

Kai.

Oliver's mind went immediately to their last conversation, the friendship that had defined three years of his life before it all went to hell. The split that had torn apart everything they'd built together. The final fight when Kai had screamed that Oliver was a coward, that he'd pay for abandoning their partnership, that everything Oliver cared about would burn.

But Kai was in federal prison. Had to be. Oliver had obsessively followed the case, two years for cyber terrorism, no early release possible. There was no way Kai could be behind this.

Unless...

"They're escalating," Heather said, turning to face him. Oliver saw worry in her green eyes, and something else that made his stomach hurt. Doubt. "Oliver, I need to ask you something, and I need complete honesty."

"Okay."

"Is there anyone from your past who might want to hurt you by going after people you care about? Someone with the skills to pull this off?"

Shame rose in his throat. He should tell her about Kai. Should explain about the partnership, the betrayal, the threats. But admitting that his former best friend had once promised to destroy everything Oliver cared about would only confirm her worst suspicions about getting involved with him.

And besides, Kai was locked up. Had to be.

"Maybe," he said finally. "I had... colleagues. People I worked with who might hold grudges."

The lie tasted bitter. Not a complete lie. There had been others, but he couldn't make himself say Kai's name. Not when she was already looking at him like he might be the danger instead of the solution.

"Anyone specific?"

Oliver watched her expression, saw the way she pulled back slightly, creating distance between them just when he needed her trust most.

"It's possible," he admitted.

Sharp voices in the hallway made them both freeze. Oliver recognized Jack's voice getting closer, along with someone else.

"Closet," Oliver whispered, already moving toward the storage room door. "Now."

He grabbed Charlie's harness and guided the dog into the small space, pulling the door nearly closed just as footsteps stopped outside the conference room.

Through the crack in the door, Oliver could hear the conversation.

"Everything running smoothly back here?" Jack was asking.

"So far so good," came another voice. It was Jack’s assistant Travis. "Heather's got the tech side locked down."