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“Just you be really careful with these jokers. They’re bad business to mess with,” the man huffed and received a nod.
With a final glower, Mr. Duncan turned and left, closing the door behind him, leaving Henry with Camila.
She smiled at Henry. “So, Henry is settling in with your new neighbors?” She used his new name to reference his new identity.
He smiled happily. “Yes, they’ve welcomed me with open arms. They’re good people,” he said fondly.
She nodded. She’d heard reports from Marisa and had to agree Henry had found himself a good circle of friends. “Are you still friends with the member of the Hidden Races Council, Ms. Beaumont?”
“Yes, we’re still getting used to each other’s forms. Michelle’s equally squeamish. My arachnophobia isn’t as bad as it used to be but she’s struggling a little with my having horns and hooves. She’s really nice though.”
“Does she talk shop with you?” Camila asked.
“No, we agreed to keep our work and home life completely separate. I think it’s healthier that way,” he said with a smile which faded as he saw the disappointment on her face. “What?”
“I was just hoping we might have an inside line on Council business where you were involved,” she admitted. She saw the uncomfortable look on Henry’s face and raised her hands. “It’s fine. I’m not going to ask you to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. You’ve struck up a friendship with her, and I’m not going to jeopardize that.”
Henry smiled in relief. “Thank you!”
She nodded and looked back at her screen, obviously ready to get back to work. “Remember what Roy said but see if you can find a way to make them lose interest in us.”
“Will do.”
He paused as he contemplated telling her about his ordeal with the policeman’s death but with the NSA poking about he thought he’d keep the NYPD issue to himself.
Henry stepped out of her office, smiled at Felix on his way by, then headed for his own office.
As he walked into the outer office, Marisa looked up at him with a smile.
“Good morning, Mr. Gable!” she said with a wide smile, dazzling him in the process. While her glamor hid her Succubus attributes, it did very little to mute her intense beauty. Even the non-prescription glasses she’d taken to hiding behind couldn’t diminish it.
He blinked to get his mind back online and returned her smile. “Good morning, Marisa!”
Her expression turned curious. “What’s up with Mr. Duncan?”
Henry reached back and rubbed the back of his neck as he winced with embarrassment. “I might have attracted the attention of the NSA with our new firewall.”
Lovely blue eyes widened in surprise then worry.
“It’s ok though. I can… well I’m not sure what I can do yet, but I’m going to work on that today.”
“Should I reschedule your 11 AM with the Marketing team?” she asked.
“Huh? No, that’s fine.” He said as he made his way to his office. He noticed a new door handle. “What’s this?”
“Orders of Mr. Duncan. Biometric readers are replacing the access card readers in the building. They’re starting with all the doors for the executive officers. The biometrics of the owners are the handle’s keys. Just grip the handle for it to identify you,” she explained.
His eyebrows went up as he gripped the handle and heard the latch pop open. “When did he take my biometrics?” Henry asked.
“Have you visited the Security Department recently?” Marisa asked.
“This morn-” he stopped as he recalled the new handle on the Security Office door. “Sonuva-”
Marisa’s giggle snuffed out his annoyance immediately as it was such a sweet sound.
He shook his head and looked back at her. He admired her long smooth neck then realized he could see it because her hair was teased up onto her head. Elegant in a retro way.
“Oh! Sorry for not noticing before. Your hair looks lovely like that!” he said with a smile.
She nodded to him demurely. “Thank you, kind sir.”
Her dress also looked rather fancy, if from a bygone era. “Are you going out after work?” he asked.
She smiled. “Very good, Henry! You’re getting better at this! Yes, Siobhan and I are checking out a new club after dinner. Its theme is the Cold War espionage years. You dress up as either a Russian or an American spy. I chose American and Siobhan is dressing as a Russian.”
“Sounds like a fun place!” he said.
“Would you like to join us? I know a place where we could get you a wonderful Russian General’s uniform!” she said with a delighted smile.
He grinned back at her. “Thanks, no. I’m not much of a dancer.” His mind flashed back to Nate and his group of friends heading to the club. He sighed. “Have a good time though!”
“Oh, we will!” she said which left little doubt in his mind that she was hunting tonight.
He turned and let himself into his office before she could see the conflicted look on his face. He understood that, as a Succubus, she needed to feed and sex with humans was her primary source of energy.
The first night they met, they’d discovered that she was also able to feed on his energy. Recently though, she seemed to be resisting her urge to be with him. He could almost feel her resistance if that made any sense. Perhaps she recalled the close call of her overdose? He felt bad about that, so he was willing to give her space and try to be understanding about her reluctance to look to him for recharging. That sounded better than feeding. He knew he was being stupid feeling jealous of the people she would be hunting tonight. To her, they were just food.
Camila had no such reservations about using him for a meal as he’d discovered when he returned from Ireland. He twitched as he’d come to do when his mind returned to his visit to the Emerald Isle. He forced his anxiety down and dropped himself in his chair.
Cold War or not, he had a spy of his own to uncover.
*************
Kent was fried. He’d spent the entire weekend at the office using every trick he had to crack open the fucking firewall at VRL. Several times he’d experienced a moment of absolute joy when it seemed he’d peeled back the last defense wall only to find he was facing another. He’d been awake for over 50 hours, tossing back energy drinks to keep his brain riding the edge of maximum sharpness but now he was struggling. He had to make a report to the Director tomorrow, and he had nothing to show for his efforts.This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.
Having exhausted every legal and semi-legal authorized method, he had one more weapon at his disposal, but he couldn’t use it from work. His home system had better access to what he needed to do. Besides, the team he was going to call upon to assist him couldn’t see he was connecting to them from the NSA. He signed out from his work terminal and left his office.
“Kent! Where ya goin- shit! You don’t look so good buddy,” Graham said as he leaned away from his pungent friend.
Looking at Graham blankly for a few seconds, recognition finally flared in his eyes. “Graham! Sorry. Had a long weekend here. Working on a secret project. I need to head home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He wobbled away, and Graham just watched him leave with a worried look.
Kent had a few narrow misses on the drive home and drank another energy drink in a vain attempt to keep his edge.
When he got inside his home, he started up his system. Then he realized he’d left the firewall signature files on his work PC. For the next ten minutes, Kent had a screaming fit. Breathing deeply, he decided he couldn’t afford the time to drive back to get the files, so he used the back door access code he’d added to the NSA firewall to hack into his office PC. Blinking with exhaustion, he realized he was using the wrong password and had to cycle through three attempts to get in. Finally, he transferred the files to his home PC.
He hammered the received files with his virus scanners and several other tools to ensure they weren’t hiding anything inside. Then he copied them to a USB stick to manually transfer them to his dark web PC which was on a physically separate network. He used this connection to route its communication through a series of proxy servers. Once in place, he began making preparations for bringing the might of the darkest team of hackers on the web to bear on VRL. If his efforts were like using dynamite to blow a hole in the VRL firewall, the dark team were like a thermonuclear bomb. He giggled at that visual. He’d worked hard gaining their trust.
Now they’d do the hard work for him.
Lise-Anne Hoek was Minister of Security for the Hidden Races Council. It was one of the highest positions one could have in the secretive organization. She’d worked hard to get where she was and was proud of the work she’d done over her long tenure. Humanity remained blissfully unaware of their magic based neighbors outside of the fanciful stories the Council themselves spun and supported and a few ‘nutcases’ whose credibility they destroyed.
Today she heard evidence that her work might be coming undone by some unknown force. This made her very, very worried. As one of the Fairy folk, this wasn’t a state of mind she could tolerate for long. They were people of action, and if something worried you, you did something about it!
She was standing before a 17th-floor window overlooking the reservoir in central park as the sunset. In her Human disguise, she could be taken for a woman in her sixties, dressed in a tailored business suit. In reality, she physically resembled a six-inch tall young girl who hovered on tiny wings. This wasn’t something that would go unnoticed, even in New York.
She appreciated the view, but there was business to attend to. The argument raging at her back was getting out of control.
“ENOUGH!” she barked crisply, and silence returned as she turned to look at the group.
A short, barrel-chested man with a braided red beard was glaring at his blonde counterpart seated across from him on a facing couch. The redhead was Rand von Deussel, Council Investigator in charge of the Eastern United States. He was one of the dwarven race and a damn good investigator, normally able to keep his temper. When faced with his blond cousin Thane del Neev, Investigator for Western Europe, tempers always flared. The blonde’s face was also red with suppressed anger.