Cassandra woke up early, already
keyed up for her appointment at EXClinic. Showered and dressed, she grabbed her external hard drive from her office and a banana from the kitchen on her way out.
She called Jessica from the car. “Hey, I’m on my way to EXClinic. Did Matt finish the incident report?”
“Still on it. He’ll be done before your meeting with Caldwell next week. Chillax. Anything else?”
Cassandra could picture Jessica’s smile. “No. I’ll see you when I get back.”
“Don’t hit anyone on your way!” she heard Jessica yell as she hung up.
Cassandra pulled into the EXClinic campus in Silicon Valley after surviving the gruesome morning commute. At the security desk, she checked in, received her visitor ID badge, and anxiously waited for her appointed escort to meet her. The wait was killing her.
Looking toward the turnstile, she saw a man, around five-foot-ten with sandy blond hair, heading her way. He was sporting geek wear: a button-down shirt, blue jeans, and Chuck-style sneakers. His appearance, which screamed IT, coupled with the tight look around his eyes and grim set of his mouth, told her he was her escort.
As the man approached her, he extended his hand. “Ms. James?”
“Yes. Please, call me Cassandra.”
Shaking her hand he responded, “Hi. I’m Joe. Joe Carter. We were told to give you secure access to Bristol’s dedicated server and the associated files. If you’ll come this way, I’ll take you to the data center where the server is located.”
Joe led the way through the turnstile as Cassandra followed, falling into step with him.
Joe turned to her with a questioning look. “Why do you think Allison did it? She was such a hard worker.”
“I’m not sure. You can never tell what drives people to do what they do. Maybe she needed money. Maybe she had an argument with another employee. Who knows?”
“So if we know who did it, why are you here?” Joe asked.
Cassandra glanced at Joe and explained, “I am here to double check the protocols you have in place with regard to clearance to the server room. Allison Davis wasn’t on the list of authorized employees who had full access, but she still managed to get her hands on credentials. I need to verify where the protocol failed so that I can add that to my report.”
After a moment of silence, Joe commented in a stressful tone, “It would be great if you could provide us with a copy of the report once you’ve finished so we can adjust our protocol accordingly.”
Giving him a knowing look, she responded, “Yeah. Sometimes you are too close and can’t see what’s right under your nose.” She totally understood where he was coming from. She could relate. She knew she had missed something, and it was probably under her nose also.
This was an important project with huge ramifications, and now EXClinic’s reputation was on the line. Bristol had done its best to keep it from the media. Nothing had been publicized. Amazingly, no word had leaked to the outside world so far. She understood why Bristol was keeping it under wraps—their reputation and profits were also at stake.
Reaching a non-descript door, Joe entered his user ID and password into a keyboard. When the door unlocked, he held it open and indicated that Cassandra should precede him.
Inside the cold room, he led her to a terminal. “You can use this station. I’ve already set you up,” he said, handing her a binder with a printed copy of the confidentiality agreements, terms and conditions, and security protocols that every employee had to agree to and sign at the time of their hiring. “Do you need anything else?”
“No, I’m good. Thanks,” Cassandra responded, getting settled.
“Okay, let me know if you do need anything. I’ll be right over there,” he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the workstation across the room.
After an awkward pause, he left her. Cassandra watched him walk away before she turned her attention to the screen in front of her. With a few keystrokes she used her root access to initiate a download of the system log files to the external hard drive she had brought with her.
While the files downloaded, she scanned through the documents contained in the binder, looking for flaws in the protocols used for physical access to the building, and took notes of possible ways to improve them as she went along. Once she was done, she confirmed all files were saved on the hard drive, grabbed her things, and walked over to Joe.
Noticing her approach, he stood. “Finished?”
“Yes. Done here. Is Steve Baylor back from his vacation?”
“As a matter fact, he is. Do you need him?”
“Yeah, I need to talk to him.” Cassandra wanted to meet with Steve directly to get a feel as to whether or not he had played a part in the theft.
Following Joe, Cassandra recognized the hallway from the surveillance video. Coming up to an office, Allison’s name caught Cassandra’s eye. She stopped in front of the name placard and the open office door to step inside. The office exuded emptiness, no sense of Allison’s presence was left behind. Stepping back into the hall, Cassandra caught up with Joe, who was waiting for her. “Everything okay?”
“Sorry, I saw Allison’s name and was curious.”
“It’s weird, you know. One minute she was there, often late at night, and then it’s like she never was,” Joe spoke softly. “Anyway, Steve’s office is one more door down.”
Cassandra’s first thought when she caught sight of Steve hunched over, his elbows on his desk and head on his hands, was that he was a nervous wreck.
Clearing his throat, Joe called out, “Steve? I have someone here who wants to talk to you.”
“Jeezus! I just talked to about fifty people already. I don’t want to talk to anyone else.” Exasperated, Steve looked up at them with tired eyes hugged by dark circles.
“Mr. Baylor,” Cassandra said walking further into the room. “My name is Cassandra James, with the James Security Agency. I’m sorry to bother you, especially since you’ve probably talked until you are blue in the face, but I’d really like discuss Allison. I promise I’ll be quick.”
Steve scrubbed his hands over his face. With a deep sigh, he sat back in his chair, motioning her forward to take a seat.
“All right, Ms. James. What would you like to know?”
“Please, call me Cassandra.”
Cassandra wanted to establish a baseline from which she could gauge Steve’s emotional responses to her questions. By doing so, she could then tell whether or not he might be lying or truly as torn as he appeared. It would also allow her to eliminate him from the puzzle. With that in mind, she opened up with some basic questions.
“How long have you been with EXClinic?”
“Nearly seven years. Seven years of total loyalty, I must add.”
“Have you always worked in this department?”
“No. I moved into this position about two years ago.”
Sensing his nervousness, Cassandra stuck to the easy questions. “Do you like your job?”
Startled, Steve looked directly at her, “That’s a new one. No one asked that one yet. Why?”
Cassandra shrugged her shoulders. “Just curious.”
“The hours suck and being a new father doesn’t help matters, but yes…I love my job.”
“Steve,” she used his name purposefully to ground him. “When did you leave on vacation? Did Allison know you’d be gone?
“Damn. I’m beginning to wish that I’d never taken the blasted vacation. But the baby has been teething and driving my wife and me crazy. It was a chance to get away. My mother offered to babysit, you see…hell. Sorry. You don’t want to know the state of my family life.” Glancing back at Cassandra, Steve took a deep breath. “Anyway…I left two days before Allison copied the project and just returned yesterday. I had no idea what had happened until I got in to work. I can’t tell you how shocked I was. And yes, she knew I would be gone for a few days. In fact, I told her about the trip the day we met here in my office to go over some project data. She didn’t have access to the database we use to house the results so we were going over them together on my screen.”
Studying him, Cassandra could see his shoulders had relaxed a little and he was more at ease. His responses had become calm and clear. Now that she had her baseline, she pushed him a little harder. “How long have you known Allison?”
“I met her about a year and a half ago, when she joined the department. For the past five months we’ve been working on projects together.”
“Projects? Was one of them the Morrígan?”
Startled, Steve locked eyes with her. “No. Allison isn’t part of the team on that project. We were working on another one associated with thermal heating pads.”
“What was your impression of her? Was she a friend? Did you hang out together?”
Looking thoughtful, Steve frowned. “I don’t think Allison has any friends at work. She keeps pretty much to herself. I do remember a conversation where she told me she did a lot of hospice and charity volunteer work. Allison also told me she supports a number of humanitarian groups. I remember her mentioning AmeriCare once.”
“Did you ever talk to her about the Morrígan?”
“We weren’t supposed to talk about it. I signed another letter of confidentiality specifically for that project,” he said, looking away from Cassandra and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
Watching him carefully, Cassandra could tell he was withholding something. He looked away too often in order to hide his face from her. The set of his raised eyebrows and cheeks coupled with his slightly turned-down lips said it all.
“Yes, Steve. I get it.
But
—did you ever discuss the Morrígan with her?”
Steve’s head fell back against his chair and he sighed. “Yes, but I only mentioned to her that the trials were going well and that she would have enjoyed working on it because it was right up her alley—something that could benefit millions.”
“Did you ever think that she would steal the formula? I mean, you said yourself it was up her alley.”
“If you had asked me that question the day before yesterday, I’d have said no. But now…geez, yeah, she was constantly asking me questions about it. Especially just before I went on vacation. I told her mum was the word and we couldn’t talk about it.”
“Steve, do you write your credentials down? Store them somewhere?”
“Hell, no. That’s against company policy.”
“Bear with me, Steve. I am just trying to figure out how Allison may have secured your information.”
“To be honest, those days leading up to my vacation were hectic. Allison and I were working late nights trying to finish up some analysis for an Executive Decision board meeting and I was running on empty due to late nights up with my son. I don’t know how she figured out what they were. I’m very careful.”
Cassandra studied his face. Based on his expressions and responses, she could tell that he wasn’t trying to hide anything. She had stayed longer than anticipated and gotten everything she could from him. There was no point in dragging out the interview any longer.
She stood and extended her hand. “Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, Steve. I really appreciate it. Can I call you if I think of anything else?”
“Yes, please do,” he responded, walking with her to the door. “Do you know your way out or do you need me to take you?” he asked.
“No. I’m cool. I remember where to go. Thanks again for your time.”
Cassandra left, confident that there was no way Steve could have purposely given Allison his credentials. Her hunch was that in his exhausted state, he had not been as diligent as he thought in securing them.
Back at her car, Cassandra called Jessica. “Hey Jessie, how is everything?”
“Cassie, your father has been in here every fifteen freaking minutes. Matt is about to have a stroke. Bob is making him twitchy.”
“Damn. Okay. There’s nothing we can do at the moment. Send Matt for a Red Bull or something. I am on my way back. I have the system log files. When I get there I want Matt to do a file size comparison scan. Something doesn’t feel right.”
“Did you find anything new?” Jessica asked.
“Not really, just going with my instincts at the moment. They’re screaming someone assisted with the job. Can you run another check on the employees? We know Allison made the physical copy, but maybe others were involved. Also, to be on the safe side, use your mad skills and check Steve Baylor’s bank records. Based on my interview with him just now, I don’t believe he was involved, but we need to be extra cautious.”
“Hmm…a challenge. Love it,” Jessica joked. “Run. See you in a bit.”
****
Cassandra pushed back from her desk, rubbed her neck, and rolled her shoulders. She had been reviewing the log file from the day before the theft, matching it against the log from the day Allison copied the files. Comparing them was a tedious task and it was driving her crazy. So far, she was only a quarter of the way through and nothing of significance had popped. Nil. Zip. She would need to dig deeper.
“Damn,” Cassandra mumbled to herself, standing. Looking at Matt, she could see frustration shining out of his eyes. “I take it you’re also coming up empty?”
“Yeah. It’s pissing me off. I honestly think I’ve lost my Boy Wonder touch. I could sure use a vulnerability detector right now.” Gamer to the core, Matt was always coming up with some wish list of gadgets that tickled Cassandra’s fancy, since she was a bit of a player herself.
“I might just have to steal it from you if you find one,” she said.
A small twitch of a grin lifted the corner of Matt’s mouth. “Yeah, whatever.”
Hearing a snicker from the other side of the room where Jessica was seated, Cassandra smiled, but it slowly faded when she noticed the IM message that popped up on her screen. A glance at the clock proved they had been working way too long. Based on their current state of mind, everyone was getting punchy. They all needed a quick break.
“Regroup in fifteen. Get outside. Walk around. Get an energy drink, a snack, whatever, I don’t care. Just get some air.”
“Yes, sir,” both saluted jokingly as they filed out of the room.
Instead of heading out with them, Cassandra turned down the hall and knocked on her father’s door.
“Come in.”