Page 72 of Soaring Free
“Unfortunately, the code on this wasn’t written by an amateur hacker. They’re really good, and it’s going to take some time. But I promise you guys, I have some of my best contacts on this and they will crack it.”
“Can the outage of the auto shop incident help somehow?” Ryan asks.
“No, they didn’t have the additional measures that I had added to Savannah’s system to record the coding in real-time in an off-sight server. Even though I have the recording of the code, the malware itself isn’t transferred to my server, think of it like a tape recorder, it just captures the sound of the music, or in this case, the characters written in the code.”
“And would they be aware this was happening?” I ask.
“Nope. They wouldn’t have any idea that their code was getting copied, and that may work in our advantage because they won’t know my crew will be ready for them if they try again. If someone remotely accesses the system in the same way again to force it offline for a supposed routine update, thinking their malware is still in place, it will actually launch our own malware on theirsystem and feed as much information back as possible before it’s discovered, if they discover it at all, but judging on the skill level involved here, they’ll know about it pretty quick. But my contacts said they only need an open door to get what they need, so hopefully that’s enough.”
“Doesn’t that mean we’re waiting to use Savannah as bait?” I hate that thought, and that’s not a good enough plan for me.
“I wouldn’t say we are using her as bait, I would say we’re planning for different scenarios. Which brings up another suggestion I was going to run by you, but I know it’s going to seem a little … extreme.”
“Pretty fucking sure we passed extreme when someone was breaking into her house and getting into her damn underwear drawer, Liam,” Jack says.
“Honestly, I don’t think there is much I wouldn’t do to ensure she and her daughters are safe,” I admit.
“That’s what I was hoping you would say because there was something that bothered me about the timing of the pillow incident. How did they know when Savannah and the girls would be out of the house? How did they know to get out of there before they were caught red-handed?” Liam asks the room.
“You think this person is tracking her movements,” Ryan responds.
“I think it’s possible,” Liam answers. “But I think we can use that to our advantage as well. Anything we can find out about whomever is behind this—without them knowing we’re gathering that information—could contribute to us identifying and stopping them.”
“Sorry I’m late,” Walker calls out from the foyer. Liam and Jack share a look, and Liam shakes his head slightly, to which Jack nods.
“Perfect timing man, I need help setting up the table and getting the grill going,” Jack says to Walker and all but ushers him out the back door when he walks into the kitchen.
“I’m not an idiot,” Walker calls out over his shoulder as Finn arrives, walking into the kitchen to join us.
“It’s called plausible deniability, Walker!” Liam shouts back. “Finn, go help distract our FBI Agent brother-in-law, will you?” Not missing a beat, Finn nods and heads out back. “Ryan, you can head out too if you don’t want to hear this.”
“Nope, I’m good. What’s the plan?” Ryan takes a long pull from his drink while Liam assesses his brother.
“Alright. So, if this asshole has some sort of tracking device on her, that should be easy enough to identify, and I have the necessary equipment to do a sweep of her home and car to find it.”
“That doesn’t seem sketchy. There has to be more,” Ryan says.
Liam growls. “Of course there is more.”
“No one should be following her, and if anyone should be tracking her, it should be me.” The words escape my mouth before I consider the audience, but instead of judgement or anger in their eyes, when I look to Liam and Ryan, I see … respect? Understanding?
“Hm.” Ryan nods once.
“Hm indeed.” Liam leans back and looks to make sure the rest of the guys are still out back. “I’m not worried about Jack, but I don’t want to put Walker in an uncomfortable position with his job. But I think we are all on the same page here.”
“And Finn is … well, Finn. He’s a good guy,” Ryan explains. Does that make us not good guys? No, not necessarily. I think we’re just men that are willing to do whatever is necessary to protect the people we care about, despite what some may consider fair or legal. I don’t really give a shit about the method so long as it gives Savannah back control of her life.
“So tomorrow, I’m going to come over and explain most of this to Savannah,” Liam says.
“But not all of it?” I ask.
Liam slowly shakes his head. “No, not all of it. I want her to continue to act as natural as possible, and if she’s aware of what I want to do, she could subconsciously make it obvious to anyone observingher.”
“What’s the plan?” I ask.
“The reason I’m waiting until tomorrow is because I have a piece of equipment getting overnighted to me. There are actually two pieces coming. They are tiny, smaller than a fleck of salt really, but they’re high-tech trackers.”
“You want to track your sister?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
