Page 72 of The Honeymoon Hack
I made a noncommittal sound of agreement, still processing what I’d learned. The camera systems had their own power circuits, color-coded blue, with independent junctions for eachserver row. If Brie could identify the Fenix server location, I could disable the cameras for her.
And given the code Ronnie had shown me, security wouldn’t blink. And if they did question it afterward? The logs would tell them Ronnie was the culprit.
Chapter 28
Will
The heroin my spy thriller stood behind a pillar in a high-security Russian facility. The man he’d been chasing down through three hundred pages— I dropped my e-reader onto the nightstand. I’d already read that part three times.
I rechecked my watch. Was its battery dying? There was no way time was actually moving this slowly.
Brie had finished her shift thirty minutes ago. So where was she?
I pushed myself off the bed, running through every disaster scenario my overactive imagination came up with. Had security caught Brie accessing something she shouldn’t have? Were they interrogating her right now, demanding to know how she’d bypassed their security? Had they discovered Rav’s part and detained him with her?
If they’d been caught, there was no salvaging the mission. She’d confess to being a penetration tester, then they’d come for me. But if that had happened already, I wouldn’t be safely reading in my room, would I?
No one’s pounding on your door yet, Will. Get your anxiety under control.
In the hallway, doors opened and closed, the voices of employees who’d finished their shifts reminding me that Briestillwasn’t back. The hush from the white noise machine should have soothed my nerves, but instead, it was a reminder of my quiet strategy sessions with Brie.
As I reached for my phone to message her, the door swung open.
Brie burst in, her eyes bright with excitement, cheeks flushed. “Will!”
Without giving me a chance to respond, she launched herself at me, throwing her arms around my neck. I staggered back, catching her as she pressed a resounding kiss to my cheek. Her body practically vibrated with energy as she exclaimed, “It worked!”
She’d kissed me. This woman, who’d been carefully maintaining her distance from me for days, had just kissed me. The warmth of her against me after so much coldness felt like stepping into sunlight after weeks of rain.
“Everything went well with security?” I managed, reluctant to release her waist.
“I’ve been dying to talk to you,” she said, pulling back but keeping her hands on my shoulders. “I found the Meridian server’s location!”
“You did?”
“ATL-C57-R15-09,” she recited, her grin impossibly wide.
“Atlantic server room, Row 57, Rack 15, Server 9,” I translated automatically.
She shoved me back playfully, finally breaking our connection. “Iknewyou’d understand the code!”
“Ronnie drilled the naming convention into me on day one.” I smiled, caught up in her infectious enthusiasm. “But wait, start over. Rav’s plan with the security card worked?”
“Yes!” She grabbed her ID card from around her neck, holding it up triumphantly. Without losing any of her excitement, she said in a hushed tone, “I am now the proud owner of a white-level security badge.”
“Tell me everything,” I said, leaning against the desk, genuinely curious but also wanting to prolong this animated version of Brie.
“Scarlett was amazing,” Brie said, waving her hands as she spoke. “You should have seen her! She marched up to the security desk in this power suit, all cloaked in attitude, demanding her assistant—poor Malcolm—be allowed on the tour.”
Brie shifted her weight from foot to foot, clearly trying not to start pacing. “When the guard said Malcolm wasn’t part of the approved plan, she got this look—you know the one—like she was going to eviscerate him.”
A snort-laugh escaped her, the characteristic sound I’d missed these past few days. “Then she jabbed her finger into his chest—actually poked him!—and said, ‘Call your supervisor. Now.’ The poor guy looked terrified.”
She continued, describing how Rav had worked the card provisioning system so quickly, and how Malcolm had threatened to take their business to competitors.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the way she fanned herself with her hands.
“Then Malcolm signaled me to get in Scarlett’s way, so I leaned down to tie my shoe”—she acted out the part, kneeling, and standing again—“and when I got up, Scarlett slammed straight into me, sending me sprawling on the floor.”
