Chapter 12

The alarm said five thirty, and my body said I needed to pee. Jenny was still deep asleep, surprising me. After peeing for a few minutes, I made some coffee, took a shower, and shaved. The coffee was just done, so I poured some coffee for me and took a cup to Jenny.

It took a couple of kisses to wake her. "Oh, Sal, that was as good as it gets. That incident wore me out and I think my friend is here. I feel all squishy. Let me up, Honey, I'm afraid I'll stain your sheets."

Jenny went into the bathroom and I heard her say, "Oh damn." She came out in a few minutes and told me, "Yep, my friend is here for a couple of days, so I'm out of the game."

I made the suggestion, "You know, I've heard of couples who shower when it's your time and have some great sex. No muss as everything washes down the drain."

Jenny looked at me, "You're already showered. You would do that with me?"

"Come on, Sexy, let's see if it works."

Our loving was special. Jenny loved the loving and seemed to become more loving every minute. When we were drying off, she said, "I'm going to tell all of our women about that. They are going to be here every time they are bleeding. You, my man, are a wonder. Darn, you fuck so well and make me feel so good. Now I'm all happy even though I have to put up with the mess."

I told her, "The alternative isn't very nice unless you were pregnant. I could live with that." Jenny gave me a very nice kiss for saying that.

She told me she would see me on the patio in a few minutes. I grabbed my laptop and rode to the patio. I wasn't the first there to visit with Glenda and Steve, but almost. It is neat to be a part of the new day and watch everyone come in to start the day.

Dennis came over and told me, "The company that is supposed to put the racks and equipment up is a little embarrassed and will be sending about five guys today. We have their names and personal information, and are running them right now. If you want to check them out on your own you can do that too."

"That's okay, Dennis. It has to be something off the wall for the guy to try to get our stuff here and break in at home."

Steve asked, "Have you ever shot a handgun?"

"Oh yeah, I shoot a lot but haven't here yet."

"What kind of piece do you have, Sal?"

"Don't laugh, but I have two, a single and double action remakes of the real Colt forty five."

"Really? Can you hit anything with them?''

"Sure, I do quick draw competition and that includes shooting and hitting a small steel target at twenty-five feet."

"I'd like to see that," Steve mused, "Want to go target shooting this morning?"

"Sure, Steve, I'll let the men do their thing today and not bother anyone. When and where?"

"Eat breakfast, Sal, and we'll drive to a gun dealer who has a range. We'll go around seven forty-five. I'll bring a couple of pieces to see how you like to shoot them."

I asked Dennis, "Did you find many snooper devices?"

"We sure did, Sal. There were listening devices and some very sophisticated cameras throughout your office suite. We will do a scan at noon and another this evening. We want to be sure we keep our ideas to ourselves."

I went home after eating something and getting a smooch from a couple of the women I have adopted. Or maybe it's closer to say they've adopted me. I pulled out my belt and holster and checked to make sure the piece was serviceable. I got the pistols, the belt and holster, a box of rounds, and rolled them all up into a gym bag before going back to Steve's.

We left at seven forty-five and arrived at the gun dealer's at eight. You had to be buzzed in and we were soon in front of an older guy with a little bit of a belly. Steve said, "Arnie, this is Sal Feeny. He's working with me now, and I found out the guy shoots in quick draw tournaments. Can we use your range to watch him shoot?"

"Hell yeah, Steve, I have the rig for quick draw. I'll set it up. I have a tree with six plates on it and I can turn back as many as you want. Let's start with one and go from there."

I got my belt and holster out from the gym bag and strapped it on. I was about to use my loads when the store owner said, "Use reloads, I'm cheap on these, about twenty-five percent of what you paid for those and mine are all good. I guarantee them."

The guy was eager to watch me shoot as he said, "I'll push the bell and you draw and shoot the bottom plate. You'll need some warm up before you really show off."

I was set when the bell went off. I had a round on the metal plate and the gun back in the holster while Steve and Arnie were still thinking about me shooting.

Arnie exclaimed, "Holy Mother of God that is fast. You did that with a single action, didn't you?"

I nodded, "It was only one target."

Arnie asked, "Can you shoot multiples with a single action?"

"Sure, you have to learn how to do that. It's actually easier than with a double action."

I filled the one spent opening in the cylinder and stretched to be ready.

The bell went off and I fired six times, hitting all six plates. I would have been in last place if this had been a competition.

Steve said, "You fired so fast fanning that hammer that I couldn't tell how many rounds you shot. All of the plates are cocked, so I guess you hit all of them."

Arnie asked, "Do you want to shoot that double action? That is one nice Colt."

I went through a couple of cylinders with the double action, and the two of them didn't believe I was any slower with that gun than the other. When I was attempting to clean the two pieces, Steve pulled a couple of pieces from the gym bag he had carried in and asked, "How about seeing how you do with either of these?"

Steve handed me a Remington 1911.45 that looked to be in good shape. I put six rounds into the magazine and fired at the twenty five foot target. The gun was nice and everything was in the paint.

"Nice, Steve. Decent balance, good action; this is something my dad would like."

Steve was grinning, "Try this. Mercy says this one is sweet."

The one he handed me was a Sig Sauer 9mm. The gun looked close to new and the magazine was still a little stiff. I love 9mm autos, so I kept filling the magazine until there were fourteen rounds in it. Steve smiled at me and pointed at the targets.

Arnie said, "I'll put another next to it so you can alternate. See if you can do what Chuck does. Put four in the left mass, four in the left head, four in the right head, and four in the right mass. Oh, you can't do that. That's sixteen. Here, put a round in the chamber and another in the magazine and you can put three in the right mass.

"If you want me to time you, I can or you can just shoot."

I told Arnie I would just shoot.

This was a sweet piece. The mass shots are easy, as there is so much paint, but the head shots are tough. I moved from the left to the right and finished with the three in the right mass. The action locked back and I dropped the magazine. "This is nice, Steve. I think I like this better than the forty-five. The only time you'd ever use a piece like this would be if you had to. This one shoots straight."

Steve used the Remington and fired a couple of magazines. He was very accurate and put round after round into the paint. We cleaned the weapons, and Steve told Arnie, "Fit this guy with a comfortable shoulder rig. If something comes up, I want him armed. He's working on some sensitive stuff now, and I'd feel better if he can protect himself."

The harness Arnie fitted me with was super comfortable using web belts and some kind of web holster the gun slid in and out of as if it was oiled. I had only seen leather shoulder holsters before, so this was new to me. Steve had loaded the 9mm with regular rounds and handed it to me. "Wear that for a while until shit cools down. Do you have a sport coat to wear over it?"

It was my turn to laugh, "Of course. I've been a professor for a long while. I have multiple sport coats with leather elbows." We both laughed.

I offered to pay, but Arnie just indicated that he would put it on the bill. He told Steve, "Brandy and Kathy were in last Friday and were really into it. I think they went through two hundred rounds. They are getting good too."

Back at my place, Steve said, "Put a sport coat on and once you're in your office, you can hang all that stuff up. Wear that when you're out in the open. I'll feel a hell of lot better, unless you want to wear your six guns."

"This will be fine, Steve. Thanks for taking me shooting."

"We'll do it again, but next time I'll let you watch Chuck and Jan. Those two are awesome."

I put my six guns away on the top shelf of my closet. I was a little screwed up over the way someone could get into my place so easily.

At the R&D building, Jeff was sitting at the reception desk, reading physics text. He closed the book and said, "Nothing happening, Boss. There are a pile of guys back there, but I haven't been standing over their shoulder. Go see how much they have to do yet."

I looked into the server room and could see they were cleaning up. Two of the men were unpacking equipment and bolting it to the racks. Each stack had a keyboard and monitor, and the front of the room had another multi-monitor setup for working in the server room.

An older man came up to me, "Your battery back up system is in the back room and is set up and wired into your racks. We'll have your equipment up and linked by the end of the day. It will take us all day tomorrow to load all of the preliminary software and set up your drive arrays. We'll be able to run some tests the day after tomorrow. Is that okay?"

I told the man, "How about I help?"

"I don't think so, after what happened out here. We're going to make this the most perfect installation in our company's history. Sit back and relax or go play golf."

Back in my office, I turned machines on and began loading my special software. I loaded all of the protection parts, the watchdog that would call my cell twenty-four hours a day if there was an attempt, and my detective software that would not only trap someone attempting to break in or hack, but would instantly track the connection through up to thirty bridges. I could have an attempted hacker's IP address in seconds, and if I could access the provider fast enough have the name and address of who was trying to break in.

When lunchtime came, I went into the server room. "Let's lock up and go get lunch. Let me treat you guys today. I want to talk to you anyway."

The leader agreed and we sealed the place and took Jeff with us to the patio. Lunch was excellent, with roast beef, chicken, and turkey sandwiches. There were multiple kinds of cheeses and a delicious tomato soup.

While we were eating, I asked the leader, "Who's the best computer geek you have. I want someone to try some hacking for me."

The man rolled his eyes. "Man, I can't do something like that. The company pays me to keep people out, not to try to get in."

I said, "Hang on a second. I want to get something."

I had not taken my laptop from the little trunk of the cart, so I opened it on the table and asked, "You work for the shipping company, right?"

"We work for the computer company that makes these things. We make 'em, ship 'em, and install them. Some of my guys are near genius."

"So, who created the software protection for your company network?"

The man smirked and said, "I did. Craig over there helped, and Ron tried his best to break in to test it. We have traps all over the place. No one gets through the hardware firewall and our router has a watchdog program."

"Okay, I was in your system yesterday. Let's see if you've done anything new since yesterday. Ron, Craig, come watch this to make sure I don't destroy any data on your system."

Craig snorted and sat next to me. The team leader was behind me as I began building bridges. Ron asked, "Can you give me some of those addresses? Holy shit, you're fast."

I went through their firewall and router with only six bridges so fast, that Craig asked, "Can you do that again slower. There's no way you can do that."

"Let me prove a point first." I highlighted the order from yesterday and did the same analysis to show the multiple hits the lady had done. "That's how I figured out who the inside person on this thing was. Let's see, Craig, let's look at your last performance report."

I went through each of the three who were interested, and the older guy, Charlie said, "Look at that, I didn't remember that I had that much vacation saved. Hell, look at the sick leave. Fifteen years and I haven't missed a day."

Ron watched me as I cleaned my tracks while backing out. I had left a note on each of their iPhones to confirm with them that I had been there.

"Now, I need someone to hack a couple of networks. I want someone to really bust their ass to try. Someone is always better at getting in than you are at keeping them out. I have to keep ahead of those who can try to get in."

Ron said, "I'll try, but I'm not in your league. My teacher at the tech school might be who you need. I'll call him and ask if he's interested in playing."

"Ron, tell him it isn't playing, I'm paying, or rather the company is paying for an outside consultant who will help me. Call him right now and I'll talk to him."

A minute later, I was talking to a guy who spoke in broken English. I explained what I wanted and was willing to pay a consulting fee, with a sizeable bonus if he could get in.

"Mr. Feeny, get the bonus ready, and I will leave you a note. What is your IP address at the company?"

"You're the hacker, you tell me. Just look up Salvatore Feeny when you're in the personnel files. Oh, don't be surprised if you get kicked out a few times until you figure out a go around. Don't worry about using bridges unless you want to. I can track you down even with bridges."

"You seem sure of yourself, Feeny; will you be angry when I break in? What should I do to let you know I was in?"

"Leave a note on my appointment calendar for when you will pick up your check."

"Good idea, Feeny, I need the money."

The man hung up and I knew he was on his way to try and hack me. I'd bet he was building a big bridge to try and stump me. As we were finishing our lunch, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out and told the guys, "My watchdog program says your man is in the false router program now. That's inside the fake firewall. We'll go back and watch how he does."

Back at the shop, all of the techs crowded around my desk. I built a few bridges to screw the intruder up, and then used my tracking software to hunt him down. The man wasn't too smart, as he was using a school computer with just off the shelf protection. I did a scan and found personnel records with his name. I did a cut and paste that would scroll across his screen, then added my screen eater that I made when I was eight.

"What do you think? Is he going to get mad if I eat his screen or mess with his head? He's still lost in the first series of traps. I might as well do him, so he'll get his hacker buddies to try to bust my personal server. This isn't the main system or the company system, only my own program for hacker protection."

I modified the scroll with my phone number with just Feeny on it. I hit enter and his keystrokes immediately stopped, then they were frantic as he was trying to block what he perceived as a vicious attack. He turned his PC off so I dropped out of his network. My cell phone rang.

"You can't do that. I have hardware and software firewall and the best watchdog program on the market. You went all the way through to personnel, and then loaded that sneaky program that had Ms. Pac man eating my screen. That can't be done."

"Mr. Patel, I'm sure you have many friends who are involved in what you and I just did. Offer them the challenge, and I will give you the reward and you can pass it around if you want. I want my system to be cracked."

"I will try, Feeny. Can you tell me? Was I in something that really wasn't there?"

"Good thinking, Patel, now go find a code breaker for me."

Ron said, "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it. I hope he isn't mad at me in class. I have a long way to go to get to your level."

They went back to work and I went to work on a new program that would detect a hacking attempt and shut down the home provider. I was working on an auto-bridging unit that would instantly build a thirty party bridge, close down the providers, and leave a trace to the hacker for them to get mad at. I liked this, as it caused some grief without hardware damage. All hackers had hardware viruses, but I didn't like those.

I set up a couple of scenarios and tested it. The software built the bridges and killed my server that was acting like a provider. It was almost instantaneous. There was the trace right back to my laptop operating off the mini-server. I might try that tonight, otherwise my cell phone would go nuts throughout the night.

Little Niki was at the reception desk, with an Advanced Algebra book open and some scratch paper. She had a calculator, and I loved that she was using her head instead of the machine.

"Have you had any trig yet?"

"Yes, Dr. Feeny, I had that last year. The teacher wasn't very good and I don't think I learned much."

"Did you learn how to use a slide rule?"

The little girl reached into her book bag and brought out a nice full sized slide rule in a leather case. She said, "He said this is too slow and not all that accurate. I've taught myself how to use it and it is accurate if you set it up correctly. He won't let me use it for tests, so I use this stupid calculator and my pencil."

I pulled my tiny slide rule from my pocket and said, "Come on, give me a square root number and I'll give you a whole." We played back and forth faster and faster for a couple of minutes until the little girl was giggling. "You're too much, Dr. Feeny. That's fun, isn't it? Can you imagine a teenage girl playing with a slide rule for fun?"

"Well, Niki, I did it younger than you, and as you could just see, I still do it. I use that silly thing all the time. From now on, you call me 'Sal' or I'll have to address you by Ms. Niki or something equally droll."

She giggled her tinkling laugh again. "Niki, look at your watch. Time flies when you're having fun. Let's go home."

My cell phone buzzed to let me know someone was attempting to get in. I told Niki, "Let me add something to a program real quick or my phone will drive me nuts."

I set the software up for a remote hardware shutdown, but only after they had been working within the doorway for thirty minutes. This would give them a break, as well as me. For fun, I put the screen eater in to drive them nuts. They would think a certain door tripped it, but it would be a timer. A lot of people were going to lose sleep over this tonight. I hoped they could break in.

Niki wanted to go home for a while before supper. She said she had some extra credit work she wanted to turn in tomorrow. I'll bet Suki is proud. I stopped by my place and had a couple of the calzones before going back up to the patio.

The patio looked as if there was a bunch of junior execs hobnobbing tonight. Several men were wearing sport coats. That told me Steve was taking the intrusion seriously. I really didn't need any bullshit, but I understood security. I thought it would be better to just hire more security guards and build a fence around the business park. If not the park, it could be done around the R&D buildings.

I had a beer, but didn't feel like drinking much, and when Rita snuggled up to me and said, "I'm supposed to be your date tonight, but Jenny says she really needs some TLC.

Jenny had joined Rita and me and told me. "I'm kind of off kilter with my period and everything that has been happening. I need your company tonight, and Rita is coming over later to visit with us."

I looked at Rita, hoping this wasn't the first of some ploys to interrupt another's time. Rita kissed me and told me, "I have to do something with the twins tonight anyway. I was going to drag you off to a Girl Scout event, so this works out well."

Jenny was almost hanging on me as I asked, "Want to do something other than just go home later?"

At her nod I continued, "I think I'm guessing right. How about asking Jeff if he would like to fly us somewhere for supper? If we get a Cessna, we can take Grenaline if she wants to go. I heard John and Jan say something about a great restaurant at the Daytona airport."

"You would trust my son to fly us?"

"If he's licensed, he's been trained by some good people. He's out getting more time every chance he gets. Don't you think he's a good pilot?"

Jenny almost looked ashamed, "He's asked me to go flying with him a dozen times, but I always put him off. I'll call him right now and I'll bet he's out at the airpark."

While she was dialing, I told Jenny, "Tell him I'll pay for the rental and fuel."

She laughed, "That will make his day and you his hero."

We drove our carts home and jumped in my pickup. Jenny directed me out to the airpark and I was remembering some landmarks this trip. Jeff had a shiny Cessna 172 in front of the charter office. I went inside to tell the night clerk that she should either charge my employee account or I could pay when we get back.

Jeff was about as happy as a guy could be. A beat up old Chevy Nova pulled up and Grenaline got out. She told her mom and brother, "Thanks for taking me with you. I love to fly with you, Jeff. When I get money, I'm going to learn how to fly."

Jenny and I sat in the back and enjoyed the flight to Daytona. It wasn't very far, but gave Jeff a little flight time. The meal was as advertised and that was very good. It was dark when we came out, and Grenaline asked Jeff, "Are you allowed to fly at night?"

Jeff bragged, "I sure can, and it's not only part of my regular lessons, but I have my instrument ticket now. Let's fly down to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport for some ice cream. The little snack shop doesn't close until ten. It has great ice cream."