Page 40 of Slap Shot
Their hacker.
But they'd stopped the breach. They'd locked down the systems, traced the attacks, shut them out completely. How had someone gotten Coach Vicky's files?
She pulled up her security logs. The honeypot she'd set up, the fake personnel files designed to trap whoever was hunting for sensitive information, had been triggered overnight. But instead of falling for the trap, someone had used it as a roadmap to the real data.
They'd been played.
Hours later, Heather was deep in damage control when her office door opened without warning.
"My system's been compromised," Oliver said, his face flushed with panic and exertion. "Someone's using my credentials to access our network. They're in right now, Heather. They're..."
"Oliver, what are you doing here?" she hissed, moving quickly to close the door behind him. "If someone sees you—"
"I don't care," he said, his breathing already elevated. "My entire setup has been hijacked. They're using my access codes, my digital signature. If anyone traces this back..."
The panic in his voice, the way his hands were shaking, broke through her concerns. Without thinking, Heather moved to him, wrapping her arms around his rigid frame.
"Hey, it's okay," she murmured against his shoulder. "We'll figure this out."
"Heather?" Stephanie Ellis opened the door. "Sorry to barge in. but— Oh."
Oliver jerked away from Heather's embrace, his face burning with embarrassment and residual panic. Charlie looked between the humans with concern.
"Stephanie," Heather started, but the PR director held up a hand and closed the door.
"Relax. I'm not here to lecture you about HR policies. After all, I was dating Marcus all last year."
Heather frowned. "Then why does Ivy have such a problem with players dating staff? I mean, everything worked out fine with you and Marcus."
"Because Ivy's been gunning for any excuse to cause problems ever since Dmitri turned down her dinner invitation last month," Stephanie said with a wry smile. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and all that."
Oliver's breathing was still too rapid, his eyes darting toward the door.
“But that’s not important now,” Stephanie said. “I’m hear about the hatchet job someone is doing on Coach Vicky. What’s going on?”
"Someone's hijacked Oliver's personal systems," Heather said, pulling up her security logs. "They're using his digital signature to access our network, making it look like he's behind the breaches."
"But we stopped them," Oliver said, his voice strained. "We locked them out completely."
"Apparently not well enough." Heather's jaw tightened as she studied the data. "They used our own honeypot against us. Made us think we were trapping them while they mapped our real security."
“Shit,” Stephanie said. "I need to get ahead of this from a PR standpoint."
"What can you do?" Heather asked.
"Damage control. Create some positive distractions, maybe get Mateo to help with some fun YouTube content to shift focus away from the crisis." Stephanie paused, considering. "Actually, Oliver, would you be willing to have Charlie featured in another video with Lauren? The dog adoption content always does well."
"That's a great idea," Oliver said, managing his first genuine smile since the crisis began. "Charlie loves working with Lauren, and it would give people something positive to focus on instead of all the negative press about Coach Vicky."
"Perfect. I'll coordinate with both of them." Stephanie moved toward the door. "You two figure out how to stop this digital nightmare, and I'll handle the public relations side. Between Mateo's charm and Charlie's natural camera presence, we should be able to generate some feel-good content that drowns out the controversy."
She opened the door, then paused. "And for what it's worth? Ivy Hodges can stuff her workplace relationship concerns. Some things are more important than corporate policies."
OLIVER
After Stephanie left, the office felt smaller, more claustrophobic. Oliver moved to check his secure communication system, and his stomach dropped as he saw a new message waiting.
The sender ID made his pulse spike: HexAngel.
