Chapter 2

The alarm brought me out of a dream that I do not really remember. I got out of bed and walked over to turn the noise off. It had been too easy to turn the alarm off and then go back to sleep when it was on my night table, so I had moved it across the room. My wife had further to go to shut it off, but I was the first one out of bed these days, so it did not really matter.

I headed for the bathroom to take care of my morning absolutions. Visions of Luci from the night before had me hard before I finished putting cream on my face. I needed to focus or I was afraid I would slit my throat. That caused my erection to subside and I managed to get shaved without any damage to my body. Of course, thinking of shaving brought me back around to Luci's email which got me hard all over again. At least there would be lots of cold water I reasoned as I turned the shower on.

I had sent Luci an email before I left last night. I did it on the workbench rather than on my production machine because it was easier to blow away the evidence later on if I needed to. She had not responded by the time I went to bed so I turned off my unit and put it in my briefcase. I finished showering, thinking about her body, and dried off. I guess I would have an erection all day. I pulled on my underwear and looked through my closet. I do not normally wear a suit two days in a row, but I thought I would today. It gave me an excuse to wear slip on shoes as well. Straightening my tie, I kissed my wife good-bye and headed into the early morning chill. Forty-five minutes later, I was behind my desk, the building already a full boil and it was barely seven in the morning. Luci was not in yet but Nikki was.

"You two have fun last night?" Nikki was leering at me as she stood in my door way.

"No, we didn't," I tried to sound hurt or bored or something other than anticipating. Nikki laughed as she walked over behind my desk, spun my chair around and put both hands on the armrests and leaned down towards my face. She paused for a second, then leaned in and kissed me. Her lips were petal soft, but her tongue was like a viper striking out and pinning mine like she had me pinned to my chair. She was strong and there was no question that she was in charge. The kiss was quick and deep. Nikki pulled back and my eyes refocused.

"That was from Luci. She said she would be in around 8. She also said you should give me one of your little toys."

My head was doing flips, but I did not take my eyes off of Nikki as I reached down and grabbed another box. She still had me trapped as I tried to put the box on the desk to record the numbers. With a smirk she leaned in and kissed me again. This time with less force, our tongues dancing back and forth like old friends as I reached up to stroke her cheek and run my hands through her hair. I was rewarded with a low moan and a tremble from Nikki as she pulled away. Her eyes, as dark as any I had ever seen, were bright and slightly lidded. Without letting go of arms of my chair she sunk down to her knees and put her head in my lap, rubbing her cheek against my thighs in a very cat-like way. I responded by tracing along the ridge of her ear and her jaw. It lasted only a moment, her skin was so soft in contrast to the wirelike quality of her hair. With a little sigh she stood up and released me.

I turned slightly in my chair and recorded the numbers while she rested a hand on my shoulder, the nails on her fingers stoking my neck ever so slightly, raising the hairs on the back of my neck and making my pants fit just a little tighter than they had a moment ago. I looked back up at Nikki and she leaned in and kissed me once more before taking her unit from my hands.

"I will see you later," she said with more than a little promise in her voice. As she walked out of my office I had a chance to internalize what she was wearing. Grey flannel pants that highlighted her very tight ass, and a close fitting mock turtle neck sweater in a brilliant emerald green that flattered her small chest and waist. At almost six feet, Nikki was a presence in a room. Dressed as she was today, she would be drawing every eye in the building to her as she walked by. She had certainly gotten my attention.

I was attempting to regroup when my phone ran.

"This is Gary," I said, picking it up on the second ring.

"Gary? Bob Norton here," Bob was one of our lead accountants, a sharp man with numbers and even sharper when it came to technology. I had tried, unsuccessfully, for six months to get him to join the IT staff. We had philosophical differences when it came to the exact technology we favored, but in the end, he recognized that the company needed it and I was willing to let him promote his opinion up to the point of the actual purchase. Since my teams had to support the stuff, I usually got my way.

"Morning Bob, what can I do for you so early this morning?"

"Two things actually. First, what is up with our database? I can't seem to find Paul. Second, how many of those little email gadgets do you have and how do I get one?"

I knew there was a method to his madness. "As to question 1," I responded while pulling up the management console for our database, not happy to see the red lights and warning messages. "Bob the database is not good. Initially thoughts are that it tanked in the middle of the night. I will see if I can hunt down Paul and find out what the skinny is. Give me 20 minutes to do that. As to question 2, I have about a dozen of them, but we are still running rough on them. I only got the gateway installed yesterday and I don't know that I have even sent any messages successfully yet. They are not connected to production even."

"Oh," he seemed disappointed. "Edward led me to believe we were up and operational and they were ready for distribution."

I was going to hurt someone. It would just depend on whom.

"Sorry, you got bad information. Or Edward did. Or I did." I was quietly grinding my teeth and thinking unclean thoughts about the head shed.

"I will tell you what, Bob, give me a couple of days to actually figure out how these things are supposed to work with our system and I will send one down and you can help us break it. How's that?"

"Sounds good to me. I will let you get on to the database. Keep me posted."

"20 minutes. Talk to you later." I hung up the phone and let my annoyance build a little before I let out a bellow.

"Alex!" I had some stage training and when I was annoyed I could really reverberate through the section, even from the back of my office. I was up and moving before the last of my yell had dissipated.

"You hollered, O wise one?" Alex asked, sticking his head in my office before I reached the door. Alex was our intern. At 50, he was a little old to be an intern, but he was transitioning careers. Only Jerry and I knew that he was transitioning from prison. I had no problems with him. He was a hard worker and was picking up the stuff we threw at him. Since he shared space with Paul, he was where I started my search. I had never learned to use the intercom. The phones were too complicated for me.

"Do we know where Paul is?" I asked indicating the general direction of Paul's desk.

"Nope, I haven't seen him yet this morning, and his screen is dark. Why?"

"Database tanked overnight and accounting is already ringing my desk, which means we have about 10 minutes before Jerry's phone starts ringing. He show you any tricks yet?"

"Only some basics, but not enough to recover anything if is serious."

My bellow had drawn a crowd. I have three direct reports; the head of Network Operations, Pete Mannor, the head of Communications Steve Thoms, and the head of Support, Janice Williams. We all think of Janice as our mother, even those of us who are the same age as she is. She had served in the military and could give orders with the best of them. She was also a genius. What the artillery lost in a range engineer, we gained in a woman who could whip the best out of her staff. Nikki was her lead tech and was a step or two behind her.

"Has anyone seen Paul in the last two days?" I asked. I couldn't remember seeing him yesterday, but I had been distracted.

"Two days ago was Sunday, Gary," Janice said with aplomb.

"Oh, right," I did not even look chagrined when I said, "he wasn't here Sunday, I remember that. So, did anyone see him yesterday? Pete?"

He was part of Pete's team, but I knew Pete had been out at a training session yesterday. I was looking for something sort of report.

"No. He wasn't here?" Pete looked a little confused. I pinned everyone in the hall and was getting blank stares from everyone but Nikki. Nikki was giving me a look of lust. I tried to ignore it as my blood pressure climbed.

"OK, battle stations. Pete, get on the phone and find him. I will go and brief Jerry. Nikki, could you and Alex start sifting the log files. Maybe we will be able to fix this quick. Janice, accounting is going to need soothing. Questions?" People were already in motion as Jerry came through the door.

"Anyone seen Paul this morning?" he asked taking in the little crowd in the hall.

"No, but we were thinking of painting the walls pink, what do you think skipper?"

He paused briefly then laughed. "I take it you know about accounting's problems?"

"I was just on my way to brief you," I responded.

"We'll use your office," he said.

Jerry closed the door behind him. This was not good.

"Have you seen Paul this morning?" he asked me quietly.

"No, I haven't and no one seems to remember seeing him yesterday either."

"He was out Friday as well." I had taken Friday off to catch up on some things around the house which is why I was in briefly on Sunday. I was saved a response by my pager going off. An epithet slipped out as headed for my chair. I slid around to my system, fingers flying over the keyboard coaxing the system to life.

"Pete, Steve, Janice, Nikki, Eric, we have a problem," I said, hitting the intercom. OK, so I did know how to use it, I just chose not to most of the time. Three years ago the company had almost gone out of business when a virus got loose in the network. We spent the better part of a month rebuilding systems and another six months making sure it would never happen again. Now the intrusion detection system had indicated we had a worm loose in the network again. I had a crowd in my office as I was evaluating the data in front of me.

"Back seat the database, we have a worm. Steve, pull the connections from the world and the isolate us from the WAN, Pete, IDS says it is upstairs, so let's isolate the VLANs and shut down the switch up there. Keep your ears open I may shut down other switches. Janice, I hope to have a target for you soon, but as soon as Nikki gets the latest virus signatures, you can put your folks to work. Then we will get back to the database." Everyone knew what they had to do. All three lines on my phone started ringing and Jerry was reaching for the handset before I could even move.

"Gary Preston's office, this is Jerry. Yes, we are aware of it." I started tuning him out as people started moving to their assignments. Nikki was trying to catch my eye and I knew what she needed. I tried to make my fingers move faster, almost willing the commands into the network.

"Grab a floppy of the shelf and stick in Pedro," I said into the air, but Nikki was already moving. Pedro was one of my workbench machines, a poor step-child of a box that I had beefed up with more spare parts. He was where I had a second line to the outside world and I was already pushing commands down to him to start dialing up as I was coming out of my chair to pull the network connection. I had opened my router up yesterday to enable the gateway to talk out to the WAP and now it might come back to bite me. I was hoping my systems had not been compromised. I pulled the LAN cable connecting my system to the network as Nikki was connecting to our anti-virus provider for the latest software and signatures. There was a flurry of activity in the backroom that morning and into that chaos walked Luci. Everything seemed to slow down for a moment as she smiled at me, took one look around and became all business. She was wearing a grey pleated skirt and a jacquard purple silk blouse. It was a stunning combination as the blouse seemed to flow over her body, highlighting every curve while the skirt swished this way and that. Grey patterned stockings and black pumps finished off the ensemble. I did not even get my mouth open when Nikki brushed past me, disk in hand and Luci followed her out. Luci was not normally a desktop technician, but at a time like this, everyone was a desktop technician and I knew that once Nikki had a copy made of the disk, they would crank out a half dozen and descend on the offices that were closest to where the worm had originated. Something was nudging the back of my mind as I returned to my desk to review the logs again.

"We will have someone up there in a few minutes," I do not know who Jerry was talking to but there were only two lines lit, one on hold and the one Jerry was talking to.

"Network is isolated boss; I am on the phone to the field sites to get them up to speed. Anything I need to tell them?" Steve said sticking his head in the door.

"Thanks Steve. Yes, tell them we had an outbreak and we think we have it contained. Get the admins to check EVERY machine. Backdoors are authorized for fetching new virus signatures." Every site maintained a secondary link to the Internet. Most, like me, had a simple dial-up connection. Corporate policy forbids them. Jerry and I knew better and had implemented as a security policy a backdoor connection policy that allowed them for things like this. As long as they did not cause issues on the network and they were secured, I was not going to get upset what they used them for otherwise. Occasionally I would wander the network and see what was exposed and slap a few wrists, but it was not often that I had to do that. I really was not listening to what Steve said as I stared harder at the log files.

"Steve, wait a minute. Where is Pete?"

"At his desk."

"Ask him to locate a MAC address for me." I rattled of the hex number, then wrote it down because there was no way Steve was going to remember it. Heck, I did not remember it and I had just recited it.

"OK. Funny looking address."

"I was thinking the same thing." Steve took the paper and slipped out of the office as Jerry hung up the phone.

"Damage control is in full swing. Anything else we know?" Jerry was a heck of a manager. At some point he would put his CIO hat back on and have to report to the President, but at the moment, he was running point for us so we could clean up the problem. There would be some very unhappy users in the morning, I was betting.

"Know? No. Suspect. Yes. I suspect I have the vector. Janice, when you get a moment." Pete beat her by a half-step, but gallantly let her go first through the door. My office was beginning to resemble a hotel lobby. Was it only yesterday that Luci had accused me of hiding in my office?

"Pete, you're first," I said looking up at him. Pete was on the far side of 30 but looked 25 and when he was working he positively vibrated. He was almost bouncing, so I knew he had something.

"You are good," he said shaking his head. "It isn't one of ours." Janice looked confused.

"Where is it?"

"Fifteenth floor, north side. I bet it is a laptop."

I had guessed that. As part of installing the intrusion system, I had standardized on a network interface card for all machines. This meant that any alien card would jump out like a sore thumb and light up the intrusion system. Purchasing had complained all the way up to the CEO. Jerry had managed to convince him that it was a good thing. I had just proven my point. Score one for the good guys. Janice put the pieces together.

"Can you narrow it down?" she asked. That was still two dozen offices, many of which had laptops. We were going on a hunt and needed to be sure.

"Once I get on the switch up there, I should be able to tell you which office. I've cut it off from the network already," Steve responded.

"So why are you standing here?" I asked as the grin split Steve's face. Janice was right behind him as he left my office.

"Shall we?" Jerry asked.

"Right behind you. Let me tell Eric and Nikki where to start working," I responded as I walked towards the door and grabbed my jacket.

"I will meet you up there," Jerry was already turning for his office on the public side of our spaces. I walked down to Nikki and Luci's office and stuck my head in.

"I have a target for you, Nikki."

"Already? That was fast."

"We got lucky. 15th, executive. Hose the whole area. Steve is up there now looking for our Typhoid Mary and Jerry is on his way as well." An infected alien laptop on the network was going to get someone suspended for a week if not fired outright. Both the President and the Chairman of the Board had made it very clear after the last out break what would happen. I was happy we had managed to catch it so fast.

"Good morning, Gary," Luci smiled at me when she said it and I had to resist the urge to grin like a schoolboy. Nikki was giggling.

"Good morning, Mrs. Phelps. How are you this morning?" Nikki lost it, pounding her desk as the tremors rolled through her. Luci started giggling as well. I had called her Mrs. Phelps less than a handful of times. Today it seemed not only appropriate, but a little silly, too. We were all wound tight this morning. Eric came up behind me and wanted to know what the joke was. That set Nikki off again and Luci joined her.

"I don't get it," Eric said behind me.

"It would take too long to explain. Nikki has your marching orders," I turned to look at Luci, "Luci, while I go find this machine, can you get with Alex and look through the database logs. It has been one of those mornings." I rolled my eyes.

"Should we start building an ark?" she asked.

"Keel is already laid in my office. Attach the ribs when you get a moment," I responded and turned to leave.

"Hang on Gary, we will go with you." This came from Nikki as she gathered up a pile of floppies and passed some over to Eric. We made our way to the elevator and Nikki through her arm around my waist and pulled me into a hug, laying her head on my shoulder briefly.

"Do I get one too?" Eric asked.

"You haven't earned one yet," Nikki replied. "He didn't even get his coffee this morning before the roof fell in."

It was true. The day was well on its way and I had not had my morning coffee yet. Nikki had sandbagged me before I had finished turning on my machine and then the issue with the database followed by the worm. What a way to start a day.

There was a posse waiting in the elevator lobby when we go there. Nikki and Eric headed to the Executive area while I sized up the group standing there. Jerry and I had grabbed our jackets, but the rest of the men and some of the women were in shirt sleeves. Edward, our CFO was there as was Patricia, the CEOs lead assistant. She was standing next to the CEO and Chairman of the Board Craig Kelly. Patricia was as much Craig's wife as she was his assistant. Craig had lost his wife to cancer and Patricia's husband had died in a car accident about the same time. There was little question as to who ran the company, although officially, Mark Williams, the COO was in charge of the day-to-day operations. He was in Asia but his lieutenant, Paolo Sanchez was part of the group waiting for something. Turns out it was Pete they were waiting for. Pete caught my eye and Jerry's and we huddled for the details while the rest of posse talked among themselves. I was glad they were not about to visit my office.