Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Surveillance cameras are going down first. My fingers fly over the keyboard as I look for any hole in their armor, a vulnerable entryway for me to get into their camera systems and make sure I—
“Oooh, yeah,” I say, like a teen furiously killing aliens in a game. “Pew, pew, pew!” I take them out one at a time.
I don’t have audio access to the main guard station but can see the looks of consternation on their faces. That’s right, boys. What happened to your little security cameras? I happened to them. That’s what you get for fucking around with my husband. If Mikhail Romanov wants to auction expensive, rare artwork so he looks like a philanthropist? That’s what he does.
While they’re likely occupied bringing the cameras back online for everything that’s literally right in front of their faces, I move toward the electronic lock system.
Plink.
Plink.
Plink.
It’s easy enough to do this remotely, as well.
Next up, I override their internal texting system and have a little fun. I give one of them the day off. Tell the second there’s been a mistake and all held cargo will move ahead double speed because they were delayed. And the third’s sent to do some busywork sweeping a holding cell near the main office.
“You didn’t even hear me come in.”
I nearly jump out of my skin to see Mikhail and Aleks standing in the doorway. Aleks, his hands shoved in his pockets, jerks his chin at me in greeting. He doesn’t dare mistreat me in front of his brother, but I know he’s seething below the surface.
“I was concentrating. Maybe you could knock or something to pull me out of evil genius mode.”
Mikhail gestures toward his phone and narrows his eyes, a warning to watch my tone of voice. I shiver, suddenly aware of how hot he looks when he’s staring at me like that.
“I could. Or you could answer your phone.”
I swallow and nod. Yep. Yes, I could.
“I was catching Aleks up to speed but before I do, how are you feeling?”
“Much better.” I gesture to the empty tray. “See? It must’ve been that food we ordered.”
Mikhail scowls, unconvinced.
“What did you order?” Aleks asks Mikhail, not looking at me, of course, but at him.
“Moscow Morsels,” he mutters.
“I’m telling you, those blinis were terrible. I swear they cook them from frozen,” I chime in.
Aleks shakes his head. “They’re the worst there.” We suddenly realize we’re agreeing on something.
I turn away. Hmph.
Still, a part of me remembers what Polina said about testing for pregnancy…
“Have you made any progress?”
I snort. “Have I made any progress? You bet your ass I have.”
Mikhail gives me “the look” with a hint of a smirk. A warning. Not exactly a curse but I’m close.
I look at him with wide-eyed innocence. “I mean yes, sir, of course I have.”
Aleks seems to forgive me momentarily. “Fill us in?”
I quickly tell them the progress I’ve made.
“It would be a lot easier if only I could hear what they were saying. I’m right there, right on the cusp of getting your shipment expedited but it’s a bit tricky.”
Aleks’s eyes gleam. “I know exactly how we can hear inside.”
Hmm. I’m not jealous at all. I narrow my eyes at him. “Yeah? Tell me.”
“May I?” He gestures toward my laptop.
“No one touches my laptop.” I glare at him. “Tell me.”
Mikhail nods, so Aleks tells me, even though he’s obviously not too pleased about it. “Voice over Internet Protocol. We intercept VoIP traffic and —”
“I thought of that,” I interrupt impatiently. “We don’t have time for that.”
His lips thin. “Have you found any vulnerable devices? Security camera with a microphone, unsecured smart phones?”
He has a fair point. “Maybe not fully,” I admit. Maybe not at all?
“I’d start there.”
I’m already on it. In seconds, I’ve located Jim’s iPhone, wide open for all to see. I quickly enable the audio function and hit the speaker volume on my laptop. I can hear them as well as if I were standing in the room next to them.
Point one for Aleks, but I won’t admit it.
“Something’s not right here,” one of the voices says. “We should be able to access all video footage, and it seems…”
Their voices get jumbled for a moment.
“Our ten o’clock hasn’t arrived.”
I put my hand over the speaker. “Their ten o’clock hasn’t arrived because I hacked their texting system and gave him the day off.”
Aleks looks impressed. Mikhail, however, gives me a wary look and pulls out his phone.
“Relax,” Aleks says, waving off Mikhail. “I have a firewall and MFA installed so no one can access our lines.”
“MFA?” Mikhail shakes his head.
“Multi-factor authentication,” Aleks and I say in unison. He glares. I narrow my eyes at him. Not sure if now’s the time to demonstrate I can totally get by his firewall and MFA?
“You should conduct more frequent penetration testing,” I tell him.