Ruthless Temptation

by Ravenna Tate

  “They have two specialists on board,” said Ralph. “One is a physicist, and the other has a PhD in magnetic engineering.”

  “What do they expect to do with them?”

  “Hell if I know. All Dave said was they had some harebrained scheme where the program is concerned.”

  “It sounds like they’re grasping at straws, but I can’t help wondering if this doesn’t have something to do with Oliver’s predictions.”

  Did she mean Oliver Fairchild? What predictions? Oliver was head of Fairchild BioSystems. His company kept them all alive underground. Was something wrong with those systems?

  “You believe all that stuff?” asked Ralph, his tone of voice mocking.

  “You sound like Dave. He didn’t believe it either, but think about it. Why would they be talking to experts about electromagnetic fields if they weren’t trying to come up with a way to stop the program, other than forcing the code out of the hackers?”

  Holy shit…

  “Why wouldn’t the hackers simply give it up?”

  “I don’t think it would matter if they did. Not if what Dave told me is true.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  The hairs on the back of Madison’s neck prickled.

  “No one can break back into it, including the people who fucked it up in the first place. He said the Weathermen are spinning their wheels trying to find the hackers because they can’t stop it.”

  Madison’s hands began to tremble, and her body suddenly felt cold. This was far worse than she’d ever imagined. Would Viggo confirm this if she asked him? Did she even want to know this much truth? If what the woman said was right, she suddenly understood why Viggo had reacted the way he had, and why he held onto information so tightly. If the public found out about this, there would be mass panic.

  “Well, Dave would know,” said Ralph. “Still can’t believe he was in on this the whole time. And right under everyone’s noses. Amazed it took them this long to fire him.”

  In on what? The hacking of The Madeline Project? What the hell… Did Viggo know this?

  “How much did Dave tell you?” asked the woman. Something in her tone of voice made Madison sit up straighter, as if doing so would help her hear better. It had a sneaky quality to it, as if she was fishing for information, or suspicious of Ralph.

  “About what?” Ralph, on the other hand, sounded as clueless as usual.

  “About why he was fired.”

  “He didn’t tell me shit. You’re the one who told me he was fired for writing the article and then trying to cover his tracks.”

  “Because he got caught doing it. The article tarnished HCS’s reputation.”

  “Come on, Bonnie.” Bonnie. Finally, the woman had a name. “Do you really believe that’s all there is to it? He worked here for thirty years. Do you really believe they’d fire him for a stupid article and nothing else? They found out somehow that he was in on the hacking.”

  That was the first time Madison had ever heard Ralph sound suspicious. Maybe there was an investigator inside him after all?

  “They don’t know about his association with the hackers. No one does.”

  “Except you and me.”

  “You’d better keep it that way, Ralph.”

  “Don’t threaten me.”

  Who were these two—Dave and Bonnie—to Ralph? She knew Ralph had once worked at HCS headquarters in Central, but not which department, or why he’d ended up in this field office. Did he know Bonnie and Dave from when he worked in Central?

  “I’m not threatening you. My neck is on the line as much as yours.”

  “Why? You said you left HCS voluntarily, so what do you care?”

  “I need them for references.”

  “You mean you left without having another job lined up? That doesn’t sound like you, Bonnie. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “I have to go. I have a job interview, and I don’t want to be late.”

  “Really? Who is the interview with?”

  “I’ll call you later and let you know the details.”

  The call disconnected that abruptly. Madison scrambled to replace her receiver, stop the recording, then save it long enough to email it to herself. She would send it to Viggo from her own computer, not her work machine. She was in the process of deleting the data that would show what she’d just done if anyone went looking, when Ralph poked his head out of his office.

  “Got time to run an errand for me?”

  She forced a neutral look to her face even though her hands were still shaking from everything she’d heard. “Of course.”

  He handed her a list. “You can pick up most of this at the pharmacy around the corner. If there’s anything you can’t find, order it online and have it shipped here.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Ralph was clearly agitated, and that was fine with Madison because he never stayed around to make small talk when he was upset about something. He went back into his office without another word, and this time he closed the door. Madison took her time, making sure she had all her bases covered, before leaving the office.

  She thought he was really taking a chance discussing something so sensitive on his work phone. If she could listen in on his calls and record them that easily, anyone with access to his system could as well.

  After she bought what Ralph needed and gave it to him at the office, she told him she was taking a longer lunch today as she had a few errands of her own to run. He barely glanced up while nodding at her. “Take all the time you need.”

  Madison went to Viggo’s apartment and retrieved her laptop from his office. She composed the email, attached the audio recording, then waited. It didn’t take long for her phone to ring.

  “Where are you?”

  “Your apartment.” She told him the events that had transpired since finishing the recording.

  “Any chance you can take the rest of the day off?”

  “Probably. I’ll call you back in a few minutes and let you know.”

  She called Ralph and told him something personal had come up. He told her not to worry about it, and take a few days off if needed. Madison called Viggo back and told him she was off for the remainder of the day.

  “Stay there. I’ll be right home. We have a few things to discuss.”

  Madison stared at her phone after he disconnected the call, wondering if his cryptic message had to do with what he’d heard on the recording, or something else. Either way, she had a few dozen questions for him, and intended to get answers as soon as possible. She also realized she was way in over her head, and wondered how much longer he’d expect her to spy on her boss.

  This went much deeper than a warehouse in Central where the hackers were allegedly waiting, and Madison wasn’t sure she should be part of it.

  Chapter Eleven

  As Viggo walked back to his apartment, he wished he’d never asked Madison to spy on Ralph. While what she’d recorded earlier was more than they’d ever hoped to have, it made one thing horribly clear. Dave Perry was either one of the hackers, or so closely associated with them that he might as well be one.

  All of them had known Dave for years, but it was Brent Easton, Ace’s father, who had known him when the two were in college together. They hadn’t yet told Brent anything other than what he’d been able to figure out on his own, but they’d have to tell him now. They would need his insight to piece this together.

  Dave was one of the original architects of The Madeline Project, but the credit for having developed it hadn’t gone to him or others who had worked with him. It had gone to Ronnie Treadway, who named it The Madeline Project after a description of the home in the Madeline books by Ludwig Bemelmans, written in the twentieth century. Ronnie was so obsessed with those books he’d even designed his own home to look that way.

  Viggo wondered if Dave still resented not being given any of the credit. He’d never overtly said so to any of the Weathermen, but Brent might be able to tell a few
stories from Dave’s younger days. Viggo knew for his part if he’d put that much time and effort into such a ground-breaking program, he’d want partial credit at least.

  Dave had worked at NSSL at one time, and up until he’d been fired, had been with HCS for thirty years. He’d been vehemently opposed to the Weathermen having first crack at the hackers, and had then written that ridiculous article under an assumed name and tried to blame its authorship on Bonnie. When his supervisors at HCS found out what he’d done, they’d fired them both because it was clear Bonnie wasn’t completely innocent in the grand scheme of things.

  What still bothered Viggo and the other Weathermen was why Dave would take a chance like that. He was the best programmer any of them knew. Had he wanted to get caught? It would have taken a rookie mistake that Dave was unlikely to have made to be outed that way concerning the article. So why had he done it?

  If what Ralph and Bonnie had discussed on the recording was true, Viggo could come up with a few working theories on why Dave had gotten himself fired from HCS. And if he truly was part of this hacking, they would never shut down the program without his help.

  Viggo keyed into his building and then took the elevator to the penthouse. The worst part was now he’d have to involve another outsider in this mess. Madison wouldn’t let this go. Not after what she’d heard, and it was all his fault. He had to accept the blame for this.

  He’d known her less than a week, and now he was forced to entrust her with secrets that only a handful of people knew. He sure as hell hoped his instincts about her were right, because once this cat was out of the bag, there was no putting it back inside. If she betrayed them, he’d never live it down.

  Not only that, it would jeopardize everything they’d worked for to this point. One of the hackers was already in the wind. They hadn’t heard anything from Sam Preston after he’d quit Fairchild BioSystems unexpectedly. They’d been lucky to round up the other four. Associates of his and Blaine’s were still rounding up the other thirteen people who had been on the satellite call that Barclay had intercepted.

  The plan was that once they were all in the warehouse, each of the Weathermen would travel to Central and do what they could to convince them to help stop this program. They would show them Oliver’s numbers so they knew it wasn’t a joke that they all had less than three years to survive underground, and then hope like hell that was enough to sway one of them. If they got one on their side, they felt confident they’d get the rest.

  But knowing this about Dave put a whole new chink in the armor. Dave wouldn’t let himself get caught like a common criminal by Viggo’s or Blaine’s associates. If there was code in there preventing them from hacking back in, Dave had been the one to put it there, and he was the only person who could show it to them.

  And if Dave was involved in this, and there was a way back in, why hadn’t he done that already? Why had he let this go on for eight years? Had he been afraid he’d be caught? That seemed like a flimsy reason to allow the surface to fall into ruin.

  On top of all that, Bonnie was loose on the world. That was a hot mess waiting to explode in their faces. They really should pick her up, too. He’d ask the others what they thought once everyone had a chance to listen to the recording.

  Madison was in his office, clicking away on her laptop. He sat down next to her, frowning when he realized what she’d been searching.

  “What do you hope to find that I can’t tell you?”

  “The truth.”

  He placed a finger under her chin and turned her face toward him. “I’ll tell you the truth.”

  “All of it?”

  Her voice shook, and Viggo saw the fear in her eyes. He couldn’t blame her. They’d been dealing with this shit for eight years, but the public didn’t know the half of it. “Close the browser. There’s nothing about The Madeline Project online that even comes close to the truth.”

  She did as he asked, then looked at him warily. It tugged at Viggo’s heart to see that uncertainty in her eyes. These past few days had been the most exciting of his life. Madison was a breath of fresh air, wrapped up in a sexy body. He enjoyed her company, and that was unusual for him.

  He’d never minded the physical part of any relationship that had lasted longer than one date, but he’d often quickly grown bored talking to the women he dated. Not Madison. She fascinated him, and he had already grown used to her presence here in the apartment.

  “Okay,” he said, focusing on the issue at hand. “Where should I start?”

  “At the beginning.”

  That made sense, and if he was going to tell her about the program, he might as well tell her everything. He started with their early efforts to break into the program, then told her about the breakthrough they finally had when Rob Marin tipped his hand.

  “If he was so involved in this, why was he working for Ace to begin with?”

  “Three of the five hackers worked for one of us.”

  “What?”

  It gave him a small measure of satisfaction to realize the public still didn’t know this. He had no clue how they’d kept it so secret, but was grateful they had.

  “Sam Preston left Fairchild BioSystems before we secured the warehouse in Central, and we can’t find him. Dante Herrera worked for Jensen Software and Web Development, and Mindy Tesserone worked for Hampton Data Recovery Services.”

  “Doing what?”

  “IT. All three of them. They had access to our systems, but none of them had access to the databases we developed from the information our hacker teams found.”

  “That’s insane.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Did Sam find out? Is that why he left?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “But you have the other four now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who are the others you mentioned? The ones who were on a satellite call?”

  “Barclay and the people at HCS who were also searching for clues to the hackers intercepted a transmission from one of the old weather satellites that contained a snippet of conversation about the hackers and the Tommy Twister virus.”

  “That’s the virus that took out the program, right?”

  “Yes. From that snippet, we eventually uncovered Rob’s involvement on the fringes, plus the real names of the thirteen people also involved. Once Rob’s laptop was recovered—”

  She snorted, cutting off his words. “Recovered? You mean stolen.”

  “Okay. Yes. Stolen. Once we had that, we found information that led us to the names of the hackers.”

  “And in all this information you never came across Dave Perry’s name as being possibly involved?”

  “Never. Not until the article came out, and we then heard he’d written it.”

  “That doesn’t sound like something a pro would do.”

  “I agree. There is something off about it.”

  “How does Bonnie fit into all this?”

  “Bonnie and Dave were two of the original contacts Barclay had at HCS. Dave knows all of us from before we moved underground, and he went to college with Ace’s father. Bonnie and Dave opposed our plan to have first crack at the hackers.”

  “And that didn’t make any of you suspicious about them?”

  He nodded. “Bonnie felt it was an HCS issue and we had no business being part of it. She has always expressed concern that we had way more power than she felt we deserved, but Dave’s protest surprised us. He told Grayson and Barclay in a meeting those two had in Central several months ago that he didn’t want us playing vigilante and scaring the public if it got out.”

  “Okay, I get that, but does it matter who finally ends this? I mean really?”

  “You don’t know how true that statement is.” He told her about Oliver’s numbers.

  “Are you sure?” Her voice was so small and frightened. Viggo wanted to hold her in the worst way, but he wanted to get all of this out first.

  “Absolutely, without a doubt. We wouldn’t
have resorted to such drastic measures otherwise.”

  “What happens now?”

  “We find Dave, we find the rest of the thirteen, and then we try to get some answers.”

  “And if you can’t?”

  He pulled her close and held her. “If we can’t, we all die anyway. Game over.”

  She sighed, then leaned closer to him. Viggo was only a man, after all. And there was nothing like the fear of death to make one horny as hell. His dick jumped to attention, and he stroked her hair. It was so soft, and he loved the scent of her shampoo. Or was that the shampoo he’d stocked in the guest suite? Either way, he inhaled it deeply, wishing circumstances were different.

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Trust me. And keep this to yourself.”

  She didn’t answer for a few moments, and he wondered whether she’d stick around now. If he was in her shoes, he wasn’t entirely sure he would. Finally, she pulled out of his embrace and looked at him with so much clarity, that for a few seconds, his world shifted.

  Viggo wasn’t used to such visceral reactions where women were concerned. He never let himself feel too much. It was dangerous to do so. But not this time. Everything was different with Madison. She was already under his skin, and he had no fucking clue what to do about it. He had no frame of reference.

  Was this what the others had felt? They’d lived their lives the same way he had. Keep it loose, carefree, and no commitments beyond the next date. But now, ten of them were either engaged or married. Ace and Emmett were going to be fathers. If anyone had told him two years ago that would happen, he’d have laughed his ass off.

  “All right,” she said, pulling him back to the present. “I’ll trust you where this is concerned, and I won’t tell this to anyone.”

  There was something unspoken in her tone. “But?”

  The corners of her mouth turned up. “I’m very transparent, aren’t I?”

  “Yes, but I like that about you.”

  She frowned. “I’m not sure I can keep working at HCS. Not after what I heard today. I’m surprised Ralph hasn’t been caught with the phone calls he’s made lately from his desk phone. And I’m also not sure I covered my tracks completely today when I recorded his conversation.”