I Need You Now

by Cynthia P. O'Neill

  Alexander looked toward me. “Please continue, Nate.”

  “Thank you, sir. In regards to the accounting and sales reports, I added a software package to my computer that my friend helped design for me several years ago so I could be alerted to any changes. As soon as a new copy of the reports was saved, it would ping my computer and phone to let me know there’d been activity.”

  “So this is more complex than we first realized?” Alexander asked.

  I looked between the two of them and nodded. “You have someone hell bent on causing chaos, which makes me wonder . . .” I knew I’d trailed off, but I wasn’t quite sure how to break the potential scenarios to them.

  Both Alexander and Gianna sat at the edge of their seats, asking within minutes of one another. “Wonder what?”

  My phone vibrated in my pocket and I checked it to confirm it was the message I’d been waiting for.

  September 14—7:18 PM

  Test—successful. Msg from AP to AP, copy of last file attached.

  Challenge level—TOO EASY!

  The message was cryptic, but it told me more than I wanted to know and confirmed what I’d already suspected.

  I leaned forward in my chair to engage both of their interests. “There’ve been other job assignments where I’ve encountered similar issues with the reports being tampered with, but it was always small potatoes, an attempt to cover missing funds that had been skimmed from the company and moved over into the person’s private account. That’s part of the case here, but not all of it.”

  I went on to elaborate. “I had a situation in Texas where a worker had been let go and wanted to be paid a better severance package. The company started having a few errors in various reports, had software programs freeze up on them for no reason, and information go missing without a trace.”

  To my surprise, it as Gianna who spoke up and asked. “What happened? Don’t keep us in suspense.”

  I smiled in her direction. “We did a background check on her and found that her brother had a degree in computers and had designed a few bugs to get into the system. While they were causing chaos and diverting everyone’s attention elsewhere, she’d hacked her way into the back of the computer system and started transferring funds to off shore accounts. She’d managed to take six figures by the time we caught her, but we were able to reverse the transactions and get it all back.”

  I could feel the tension building in my neck. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head, trying to explain. “It was a difficult case to solve, but I’ve never seen anything as baffling as the issues you have here. You have a foolproof system of keeping your hard copies and scanning them in before entering them into the computer system. There’s always the possibility of human error in entering the information incorrectly. But having the scanned copy change, too? That’s highly irregular!”

  Alexander’s face was baffled, as was Gianna’s. “What are we dealing with, Nate?” He was quick to get to the point.

  “I think there’s something more than just messing with reports to get some kind of weird kick out of it. I’d almost bet there’s more than one individual involved in this, with one internal and one external. But who it is is still a mystery.”

  Alexander laughed and shook his head. “You’re mistaken. We have top of the line firewall security for our computers and no one can penetrate it. I think you’re grasping at straws here.”

  I eased back in my chair, resting one foot on my knee. “I beg to differ, Mr. Prescott. While we’ve been sitting here talking, I asked an associate of mine to run a little test to bypass your computer security.” His eyes got large and a worried expression crossed his face.

  “I’d like you to go into your inbox and open up an email that’s been sent to you from yourself. You’ll find a note from my associate and a copy of the last file you worked on today, along with another copy of that file that’s been altered.”

  Alexander turned to the side and did as I’d asked. Gianna gasped at the realization that things had easily been tampered with.

  He threw his hands up in the air. “I admit things are not as they appear to be. How?”

  “My associate is a computer genius. I trust him implicitly. I didn’t tell him everything I was working on, per se, but I ran a few scenarios by him, because I needed his knowledge to see if I was missing something that didn’t entail accounting, but rather computer software and viruses.”

  Gianna jumped in and asked. “You think we have some kind of virus or software that we’re not aware of causing all of these changes?”

  I nodded. “It’s a possibility. We’ve ruled out quite a few other options, so why not look into that.”

  “Please enlighten us,” Alexander requested.

  “Nothing has made sense with the accounting and sales reports. I’ve been able to deduce that no changes occur to the reports any earlier than a half hour after they’ve been changed, minimum, and upwards of four hours maximum. It’s like clockwork, but not always consistent. If a person was sitting at the computer, doing this manually, they’d be sporadic at best, even taking upwards of a day to change the information—when time permitted. But a virus timed to activate in a specific time frame would act exactly like this. It seems to be triggered immediately after one of your computerized signatures is placed on the reports and saved as a finalized copy.”

  I looked between the two of them to see if they were ready to dispute my thoughts, but there was utter silence, so I continued on.

  “I’m leaning towards a virus being in place. I’ve seen them run before where they sit dormant in the computer until the item they are programmed to see is activated, which turns on the virus and it runs through its list of commands to follow.”

  Gianna asked softly, “Is that why different information is affected each time, never the same information twice in a row?”

  “Yes. That’s it exactly.”

  Alexander’s fist came down hard on the desk, startling both of us. “But why a damn virus? And who’s responsible?”

  “I can’t be 100% certain it is a virus, but I have strong suspicions. It could also be a ghosting software protocol,” I suggested.

  It was no surprise to hear her ask, “What exactly is that?”

  Alexander seemed to agree. “Yes, please enlighten us, Nate.”

  “There is some spyware out on the market that can be installed on the system that can make the system look like its running normally, but hidden is another program that can make changes to the system without anyone ever realizing it.”

  Gianna simply stated, “Explain, please.”

  “Your network server is designed so that anyone logging into the system is documented. Any report that is opened will have the name of the last individual to work on it, along with the date stamp and time stamp of when the file was last saved. But the reports all show the last time your reports were opened were by you and the time that you saved them, despite changes being made a couple hours later.”

  Alexander spoke up. “So you think it could be some kind of spyware on one of the computers, or some sort of software being used by someone getting into the system?”

  “It’s very possible, but it could also be a virus or combination of everything.”

  He was quick to ask, “How do we determine what it is and get it fixed?”

  “I’d like your permission to bring on my associate. I’m going to keep monitoring the accounts, because I feel there’s more involved than what we know, but, I’ll be the first to admit, while I have some computer knowledge, I’m not capable of hunting down a virus and knowing how to disable it. As for the ghosting spyware, my friend can create a program designed to detect every known ghosting protocol out there. If it’s on one of the computers here, we’ll find it. I just need to have access to all the computers during the night to run system checks.”

  “I want an end to this!” Gianna announced.

  “I do, too,” Alexander agreed. “Do whatever it is you need to do, Nate. Who is this a
ssociate of yours? I’d like to meet them before you let them loose on our system.”

  His eyes narrowed at me. “I’m not too keen on the fact that you let them loose to hack into our company’s computer, but I understand you had to prove a point.” He stopped to smile. “Well done, my boy.”

  “Thank you, sir. You already know my associate. It’s Ethan McDonald. He’s a whiz on the computer, but currently without a job.”

  His facial expression changed to one of confusion. “His company let him go?”

  “Yes. Their company was purchased by a larger one in a merger. The new corporation didn’t like how long he was taking to go through rehab. It’s illegal to let him go, but they cited the need to downsize due to the merger.”

  Alexander smiled. I knew he didn’t blame Ethan for causing the accident that killed his daughter. He’d been just as much a victim, almost losing his life too, thanks to my sister’s ex-boyfriend, Tom, and all because of some misguided principles.

  “By all means, hire him, utilize his services, and we’ll pay whatever fee he wants if it means we can get back to functioning like normal,” he offered.

  “I’d like to, Mr. Prescott, but he wants to work pro bono. He still feels indebted to you. I told him if you’d okay him working on the computers to help me pinpoint what the hell is going on here, I’d offer him my salary, since I’d offered my services freely, wanting to clear my sister’s name.”

  Gianna sat in her chair quietly, looking befuddled with everything we’d discussed. I’d hated hiding things from her, but the only people who knew my identity were Mr. Prescott, Dane, his brother Rafe, and my sister.

  He turned to me and shook his head. “When is Ethan going to accept that it wasn’t his fault? I wish I knew what to do to convince him. Neither of you will work for free. You’re doing a great service to this company and will accept anything I give you to help resolve this issue. But to make him feel better, you pay him some of your salary and I’ll give you the difference.”

  “I’ve already insisted on me paying him out of my pocket for helping me. He’s still undergoing rehab to try and walk again. I can probably check him out of the facility over the weekend to come in to help me figure out if a virus exists, which computers it’s on, and how to disable it. He’s already given me a few disks to use on the computers to detect an anomaly. He used my laptop to create the program. Apparently, my laptop has already been infected.”

  I went on to elaborate. “Once we pinpoint which computers have the virus, we can work on removing it. He has some programs that can trace the virus back to the person who created it. Ethan explained that most hackers are humble and don’t want to get caught, while others like leaving a signature so they can seek acknowledgement for their work, or in this case—destruction.”

  I didn’t know how to ask the next requests, so I just came out and did it. “In the meantime, I’d like to get approval for full access to the system so he can check a few things, including the main frame. I’ll also need the name of the banker you work with, and which bank, so I can see if any funds have been moved around.”

  I turned to Gianna next. “Can you get me a copy of the report, with the current net worth of the company? I’ll need that to check against the bank’s balance.”

  “Sure.”

  Alexander sat back in his chair, seeming more relaxed than when we first started this conversation. “Do whatever’s necessary to resolve this issue, Nate. The longer this goes on, the more uneasy I feel.”

  “I agree. I’m not happy with how things are transpiring. I’d like to get this wrapped up so I can figure out what I plan on doing for work.” I was thankful I had enough money put away to give me time to sort things out. Ethan and I kept talking about possibly forming a partnership one day, but that’s all it was at this point—just talk.

  “Since we’re behind closed doors, I feel I should mention that your accounting department is overstaffed. I’ve been finishing my work in no time and actually doing research into your problem on company time. I’ve offered to take some of their workloads to help catch the department up, but they refuse.”

  I turned to Gianna. “You probably already know this, but you have a little clique going on in your department and it’s being run by Cameron and Karen. I’ve watched as a couple employees tried to get to you to ask questions, but they dismiss them and turn them away, citing they’re higher up than the others.” I shook my head and half laughed, recalling the scene. “I don’t know what they’re tripping on, but they think they run the place, not you.” I leaned toward her, so I could look into her eyes. “They want you fired, hon.” I let my feelings for her slip in front of Alexander and I didn’t care.

  “We need some reorganization in the department. Cameron’s turning out to be a bigger pain in the ass than I first thought,” he said.

  Gianna sat in her chair, looking a little more relaxed, but still flustered. “Why didn’t you tell me you were the forensics guy?” She was still hung up on this piece of information. I knew she’d been hurt by it and I could understand why. I couldn’t trust anyone who hadn’t been honest and forthcoming with me. But given the circumstances, maybe she’d forgive me one day.

  I COULDN’T BELIEVE I could be so blind. Here I thought Marissa had been making goo goo eyes at Nate, when he turned out to be her brother. I’d been prepared to confront her if it continued, but now I could see that she was just acknowledging him in the meeting the other day.

  I tuned out the conversation after my uncle made our introductions. Nate hardly seemed phased by the fact Mr. Prescott was my uncle.

  My mind started wandering, wanting to compare Nate and Marissa side by side to see if there were any obvious similarities, but to my surprise, the only thing they had in common were a similar facial structure and their tan.

  Marissa’s hair had some curl, and some subtle red tints running through it. She’d explained she’s half Italian, half Irish, so she ended up with a bit of mahogany hair color. Nate, on the other hand, was just a deep brown, but I was detecting a slightly lighter color growing out from the roots.

  It’s no wonder I didn’t see any resemblance. But then again, he hadn’t figured out I was a Prescott and he still didn’t know my sister was my Uncle Alexander’s assistant, Marjorie Bentley. We didn’t look anything alike. She had my mom’s lighter complexion and auburn hair, while I took after my father and his deep Italian roots. I got my nice tan and dark straight hair from him.

  “Do we come into agreement on this?”

  I heard some comments being made, but hadn’t responded. I felt Nate shake my shoulder with his hand. “Gianna? Are you okay?”

  I blinked a few times and rubbed the bridge of my nose. A headache was definitely in my future. “I’m sorry. There’s just so much information to take in and process.” I looked up. “What were you saying?”

  My uncle explained, “Nate just pointed out that the department is overstaffed and not functioning at full potential because Cameron and Karen have decided to play boss behind your back.”

  Oh, great! This was exactly what I needed, to deal with the two thorns in my side. Sometimes I wished they were little bugs, so I could squish them and make my troubles go away by flushing them down the toilet. A person can dream!

  My only response out loud: “Perfect!”

  A gleam filled my uncle’s eyes. “The department thinks I brought both of you up here for disciplinary action, with Nate probably being let go and you being demoted or read the riot act, Gianna.”

  His face beamed. I could see the wheels spinning in his mind. Before I knew what happened, he hit the top of his desk and started smiling ear to ear at us. “This is what we’re going to do. I want you both to start working together as a team, which includes helping Ethan run through the computers at night and on weekends. But in regards to your department, you will be a team of co-managers, guaranteed to put the little pricks in their places.”

  He went on, “Gianna, you are a fabulous accountant
, a hard worker, and very dedicated to the family’s business, but let’s face it, there’s not a dominant bone in your body. You’ve been putting on an act for months now and instead of gaining the favor of your department, you’re driving them away.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but he put his hand up to silence me. Was I that obvious? Could everyone see that I’d rather work than manage?

  “Let me finish,” he added. “Nate, I’d like you to be the brawn of the team, using your dominance to show the employees who’s boss, while Gianna can be the drive. Together, I think you’ll make an amazing team. Any objections?”

  What use would it be to have any? When my uncle got an idea in his mind, it was hard to change it. I might as well suck it up and take one for the sake of the company.

  Nate seemed to puff up like a peacock, showing off his knowledge and ability, while I felt deflated and a bit exposed. I’d thought I’d pulled off being dominant at work, but my uncle managed to see right through my dual persona.

  I knew Nate was a dominant; it was obvious by the way he talked and his posture the first time I’d laid eyes on him. I wonder if he could see through my exterior to the person I really was inside? Time will tell, hon. You have to break down your walls and let him see the real you.

  “Are you in agreement, Gianna?” my uncle asked.

  In one way I didn’t like giving up some of the power of the position, but I had to admit I looked forward to seeing the reaction of my two troublemakers when my uncle announced we’d be co-managers. “Sure. I’ll do whatever’s best for the company.”

  My uncle stood from his desk. “Wonderful. Let’s go make the announcement to the department.” He rubbed his hands together with a mischievous grin spreading across his face. “I can’t wait to see the expression on their faces.”

  We all walked down together. I made a small note to remind me to get the bank information for Nate so he could check that all of our funds were accounted for. I’d been so busy with the errors in the reports that I didn’t think to check the bank on a daily basis. I just prayed all the money was there.