by Dave Daren
“So…” Arielle mumbled before she looked up with hope in her ice-blue eyes, “Are you planning to find a way around the legal system since you can’t serve your subpoena?”
I had no intention of telling her of the backup plan or giving her any information that a quick Google search wouldn’t tell her. I knew that she couldn’t help me do anything legally, but I wasn’t sure if her hatred for Gryffon would outweigh her duty to her government to report any illegal intentions I might’ve had.
“I prefer doing things the legal way,” I answered with a shrug while I finished getting dressed.
“But that’s not an option,” she huffed as she hugged herself. “Trust me, I’ve tried doing things inside of the law. They either pay off or get rid of anyone who stands in their way.”
“Do you have a suggestion?” I asked as I leaned against her dresser.
“I thought that you might,” the lawyer said with a shrug. “I assume you and your boss had a backup plan before you flew all the way over here.”
I decided to borrow some old law school tactics and use hypothetical situations rather than tell her my actual plan. I wouldn’t tell her about Gabriele or our plan to hack into their servers, but I could skirt around it. I trusted that she wanted to bring the corrupt company down, but I had to be careful if I wanted to get the information that I needed, and she’d already misled me twice.
“I might have another plan,” I said.
“I want to help,” she said as she stood.
She put her hands on her hips as she stared across the darkened room at me. She was beautiful, fierce, and determined, and she looked like she was ready to go to war.
“How do I know that I can trust you?” I asked.
The attorney deflated a little as she tugged on the end of her braid.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have lied to you about the subpoena or knowing who you worked for. But, I needed to make sure that you were really going to go after them. I’ve had so many people back down.”
I studied her as I made my decision. I knew that she couldn’t help me with the legal approach, but she’d done enough research that she’d be helpful in other ways. I was fairly certain that she’d have files on everyone that she could identify in the company, and maybe even blueprints that we could use to find the servers.
“Alright,” I said. “What if, hypothetically, I needed to get into the building. Would you be able to help me with that?”
A bright smile broke out over her face as she clapped her hands together.
“I can,” she said. “Let me put on a pot of coffee.”
She padded across the small studio apartment toward the corner that held her kitchen. It took up the back corner of the building, but the arched windows were the same as the ones that had been out front. The floors were all hardwood that had seen better days, and the walls were brick covered with a thin layer of plaster and peeling white paint.
The bed took up the corner opposite of the kitchen, near the bathroom, and next to the rack where she hung her clothes. There was a solid oak dresser with drawers for everything else, and her shoes were all neatly lined up on their own rack.
Her bathroom was the size of a closet with a low toilet, tiny shower stall with frosted glass walls, and a pedestal sink that had a round mirror above it. She had white fluffy towels on a shelf next to the shower stall, and on either side of the mirror were shelves where she kept her makeup and hair products.
There was a long couch planted in front of a small TV in the area she’d set up as her living room, and a long coffee table in front of it that was covered in files and notes. The floor underneath the couch was covered in a pale-gray shag carpet, and she’d hung paintings of the mountains around the room.
I hadn’t paid much attention to it when I’d first come into the apartment, but she’d done a decent job of making the shabby little place comfortable. I couldn’t help but think of the drab little apartment where I’d spent so many years during and after law school. I almost missed the place as I walked over to where Arielle was making a pourover, but I loved my new house too much to ever go back.
“I hope you like it strong,” the brunette said with a smirk.
“I do,” I said.
I leaned against her counter as I watched her continually pour the steaming water over the coffee grounds. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of the familiar smell, and then I straightened and wandered over to the shelves where she kept her white ceramic coffee mugs.
“I already have the blueprints for the building,” Arielle said as she took the cups from me. “There’s creamer in the fridge.”
“Perfect,” I said. “I’ll need a copy of it.”
“Naturally,” she said. “We should go over it before you leave. I can tell you all of the vantage points that I’ve learned about.”
She passed me a sweetened coffee and then motioned toward the couch. She took a sip before she led me into her living room and sat cross-legged on the sofa.
“That could be helpful,” I said as I followed her.
She was effortlessly beautiful with her long legs and perfect curves, and I glanced toward the bed as I sat on the opposite end of the couch. She licked her lips before she took another swig of her coffee, and then put the cup down on the coffee table so that she could rifle through the scattered files.
“Here it is,” she said as she pulled out a manila folder triumphantly.
She flipped it open, pulled out a large sheet of paper that had been folded several times, and then spread the blueprints between us on the couch. She had a bright smile on her face as she smoothed out the paper, and when she was done she reached over to grab a few pictures of the Gryffon building.
It was a two-story, unassuming square block with hardly any windows. The first floor only had one entrance, and a parking lot spread out in front of it. The only sign that it was the Gryffon building was the dark red symbol to the right of the doors.
“This is their headquarters?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “But trust me, it’s not nearly as boring on the inside.”
She handed me the printed photos before she grabbed her coffee to take another sip.
A lot of the pictures were blurry, like someone had taken them from their phone on a tour, but what they showed me was interesting enough. It had the same maze of hallways as the building in the US, but there were several elevators, and one of them had a reading for a subterranean level three floors down. The offices were all monitored by cameras, and there were motion detectors in every single photo.
“It’s like Fort Knox,” I muttered underneath my breath.
“Fort Knox?” the dark-haired woman asked.
“It’s just a saying,” I said. “It means that it’s going to be very hard to get into.”
“It is,” Arielle said with a nod. “I’ve managed to take these, but as you can see, I had to keep my camera hidden. The blueprints will be the most helpful.”
I looked at the lined paper that stretched in the space between us, took a sip of my own coffee, and then put it back on the table. I had seen a few architectural blueprints before so I knew what I was looking for, and I grinned when I saw that the building had four basement levels.
The servers were most likely in the bottom two levels since they would need to be kept cool, and that would need a security pass. I noted several checkpoints in the thin lines that included more motion detectors and cameras, and more than one keycard reader.
I had no doubt that Gabriele could get through them all, especially with access to the blueprints. I had a few ideas for how we could get into the building in the first place, but I’d have to go over those with the young hacker to make sure that he could pull them off on such short notice.
“This is perfect,” I said as I looked up at the beautiful brunette.
“So you think that you can bring them down?” she asked with a bright smile.
“Yes,” I said.
�
��Good,” she replied as she let out a heavy sigh. “I have been waiting for this for a long time.”
“I’m glad that I can help,” I said.
She gave me a big smile as she leaned over to run a hand up my thigh.
“Why don’t we go back to bed?” she asked. “We can plan the rest of this in the morning.”
“I’ll need to be back by then,” I said as I stood and offered her my hand. “My associates will be worried if I don’t come back.”
“Then a few hours,” she purred while she ran her hands up her chest. “In celebration of our new partnership.”
“I think that I can be persuaded,” I whispered against her lips before I kissed her.
We spent the next couple of hours in bed as we worked off our dinner and the coffee.
I left close to two a.m. and made sure that the door was locked behind me before I’d slipped down the stairs. I’d taken the copy of the blueprint for the Gryffon building and the photos with me, and I tried to tuck them out of sight just in case someone besides Hank was watching. I glanced up at the building as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and put in the address of my hotel in the GPS app.
The gorgeous attorney and I would talk again after she woke up, I was sure of that. She wanted to be a part of the plan, that was obvious, but I needed to talk to Hank and Gabriele before I could just let her into our little group. At least she’d agreed to wait until they were ready to meet, but she’d made me promise that I would give her something to do.
For my part, I would need to look into her a little more before I entrusted any part of the plan to her. I had no doubts about her desire to take Gryffon down, but I wanted to know why. I was sure that I’d find some connection, and thankfully, the hotel had wifi.
I thought about everything that I’d discovered throughout the night as I walked through the almost empty streets. I kept an eye out for anyone that might be following me, but no one gave me more than a second glance as they stumbled to their own homes and hotels.
The room was dark when I let myself in, but I could see Gabriele’s outline stretched out over the couch with a twizzler still in his hand and one of the foreign energy drinks on the floor next to him. He had his laptop balanced on his legs, and his purple hair stuck up at odd angles like he’d run his hands through it in frustration.
“You’re getting back late,” Hank said as he opened the door behind me.
I spun around to look at my bodyguard as he let himself in.
“So are you,” I said.
“I wanted to keep an eye on the cops,” the large man said as he shrugged out of his suit jacket and tossed it onto the back of a chair. “I don’t trust them. They could’ve warned Gryffon already.”
“I’m sure they have,” I said. “But I have the start of a plan. I’ll tell you more about it in the morning. After we’ve poured more energy drinks into Gabriele.”
We both glanced at the almost comatose hacker and then back at each other.
“We’ll get started bright and early,” the bodyguard said. “The less time we spend in this country, the better. We’re not safe here.”
“I’ll set an alarm for eight a.m.,” I said.
I tugged my cell phone out of my pocket to set my alarm, and then I waved goodnight to the large man as he walked off into the other room. I made my way to my bed, kicked off my shoes and suit, and then climbed into bed.
The next thing I was aware of was the smell of bacon, sausage, and eggs that filled the suite a few minutes before my alarm went off, and my growling stomach pulled me out of a dreamless sleep.
“How’d you sleep?” Hank asked as I puttered into the sitting room with a yawn.
“Like the dead,” I chuckled. “Is there coffee?”
Hank pointed to a large paper cup with my name on it before he continued to unbox the breakfast that he’d bought for us. He had stuffed French toast along with the bacon, sausage, and eggs, and I practically drooled as I grabbed one of the styrofoam plates.
Gabriele came out of the bathroom with a look that could peel the skin off of bones. His purple hair had been combed, his face washed, and he’d changed into another black shirt with a computer that said, ‘Careful, I byte.’
“There’s not enough coffee in the world to make eight a.m. a good time to wake up,” the hacker grumbled before he cracked open another energy drink.
“How about a plan to get into Gryffon?” I said.
I retrieved the file that I’d taken from Arielle, sat down at the tiny table to eat my breakfast, and then handed the information to Gabriele as he walked over.
“Damn, Hunter,” the hacker said as he flipped through the information.
“I guess the attorney was helpful,” Hank said with a smirk.
“She was,” I said. “She can’t help us to serve the subpoena, but she had all of the blueprints for the building, and some pictures that she took with her cell phone.”
The two men looked through the photos before Gabriele took the blueprints and spread them out on the floor between the couch and the small table. He munched on a piece of bacon as he studied the lines, nodded his head as he pointed to the security checkpoints, and then went to grab a pen from the coffee table.
“This is good,” the purple-haired man said. “I can work with this. I looked into the servers yesterday, just in case we needed the backup plan, and I’m going to have to be in the room with them if I’m going to send the information stateside.”
I nodded my head as I took a bite of the stuffed French toast. I’d suspected that Gabriele might have to get into the building since the security was so tight, and I was glad that we had the blueprints.
“We’ll have to bypass the cameras,” Hank pointed out. “But it doesn’t look like they have any bio-scanners.”
“Which means they’ll be easier to hack,” I said.
Gabriele grinned up at me like the Cheshire cat and then started to write notes on the huge sheet of paper.
“We’ll need to wait until tonight so that we don’t run into too many people,” Hank said as he took his seat across from me.
“I should update Anthony,” I said. “And I need to check in on Tommaso.”
I took another bite of my French toast while I pulled my cell phone out and dialed Anthony’s number.
“How’s it going?” my employer asked on the second ring.
“We have a plan,” I said. “Though the subpoena isn’t going to work over here.”
“I didn’t think it would,” the mafioso chuckled. “That’s what Gabriele and Hank are for.”
“Gabriele is figuring out a way inside, now,” I told him.
“Hunter found exactly what I needed,” the hacker shouted from his place on the floor.
I heard Anthony’s laughter from the other end of the line, and I could picture him shaking his head at the purple-haired man.
“Keep me updated,” the younger Febbo said. “And Hunter, be careful. You’re not in the US. They won’t have any reason to back down.”
“I will,” I promised. “I’ll call you if there’s any changes. For the moment, we plan to go in tonight.”
I hung up the phone and then checked in with my new paralegal. He’d organized the rest of my office, copied me into a few emails to postpone hearings, and helped to bail out another associate that had been arrested for loitering after dark in a city park.
Someone banged on the door just as I had hung up with Tom. I reached for my gun and sighed when I realized that it wasn’t there. I glanced over at Hank to see the large man had already pulled his weapon and was looking out of the peephole into the hallway.
“It’s the lawyer,” he said as he slid the gun back into its holster. “She looks scared.”
“Let her in,” I said as I stood.
Hank shrugged and then opened the door enough for the beautiful woman to slip through. She was in a pair of tight blue jeans, a dark red blouse, and black leather boots that laced up her calves.
“Some guys
started following me!” she gasped as she squeezed through. “They were right behind me on my morning jog. I called into work and told them I was sick. I just know that someone at the office told Gryffon that I had dinner with you.”
She paced back and forth in the tiny sitting room, and her hair swirled around her shoulders with every turn while her hands flew about her as she talked.
I walked over to her to gently grasp her shoulders and then led her over to the couch to sit down.
“Slow down,” I said. “Some guys followed you?”
“Yes,” she said after she took a deep breath. “I woke up at six, like I always do, and then went for a run. But I felt like I was being watched the entire time, so I headed back to the condo. That’s when I noticed that there was a car following me. It was slow about it, but no matter what road I took, it would come down it. I managed to lose them when I took one of the small alleys, but then they were right in front of my condo when I got home.”
She’d started to talk faster again as her panic rose.
“You think someone from your work tipped them off?” Hank asked.
“Yes,” the brunette said. “Wait, weren’t you at the restaurant last night?”
“I was,” the large man said with a small smile. “I’m Hunter’s bodyguard, Hank.”
“Oh,” the attorney said before she looked over the back of the couch. “And who are you?”
“Gabriele,” the hacker said. “I work in tech support.”
“Right,” Arielle said. “Tech support.”
I sat next to her on the couch and took her hands in mine.
“Arielle,” I said to pull her attention back from the blueprints spread out on the floor. “Did they try to talk to you?”
“No,” the beautiful woman said. “And the car they drove wasn’t marked, but I know that they’ve gotten rid of people before. If they know that I’m working with you, then they’re going to kill me.”
I glanced over at Hank to see that the beefy man had a deep scowl on his face.
“Do you want to back out?” I asked as I looked back at Arielle.
“No,” she said.
She straightened her shoulders and pursed her lips as she glared out of the window like she could see them. Anger flashed in her pale-blue eyes, and I wondered again what it was that made her hate the company so much.
