Mr. CEO(83)

“Jackson! Jackson!” I yell, hitting the blacktop. The parking lot of the gym is cracked and worn, and alternates between dusty and soaked depending on the recent weather, so my feet raise little puffs of dirt as I cross the few yards still separating us.

I'm glad when he shuts off his engine and rolls down the window, although he's visibly annoyed. “What, Kat? Wanna arm lock me again? Tell me I'm a piece of shit?”

I stop, frozen more by the pain in his voice than by his words themselves. “I... I need to know if Nathan Black is coming for me,” I finally say. “Are you going to send him to see me?”

Jackson looks out the front windshield for a moment, then slams his hand against the steering wheel of his Audi. “You really think I'd do that? You think I'd just come by, ask a few questions, then send Nathan after you? I'm not my father, Kat. I'm not like him at all.”

“You might want to reconsider that,” I tell him. “From what I saw in the limo, you're going down the same path he has.”

Jackson's eyes are blazing in fury when he looks back at me, and his teeth are bared. “Goddammit Kat, I told you, we all have ways...”

“Yeah, yeah, ways to cope. I'm just saying, you might want to check yours, ask yourself if they're making you the person you want to be... or not,” I say, gentler than before. “But fine. What about your father? Will Nathan tell him about me?”

“I don't know... I don't think so. But Kat, I do know this about my father... this isn't over with Pops. He's not going to let it drop.”

I smirk and tilt my head. “I hadn't planned on that at all. Hell, Jackson, what I did to you is just round one. I've got all sorts of shit planned.”

“Then it certainly won't be over,” Jackson says, calming. He looks at me for a moment, his eyes uncertain. There's something in them, and I kinda understand, I think. It's the same uncertainty that's haunted my dreams for the past week. It's the same feeling that I have right now, looking at Jackson. Douchebag, yes. Spoiled rich kid, yes. But he's still Jackson, and we were friends.

“I know it won't. But, 'even if it seems certain that you will lose, retaliate',” I tell him, knowing he won't get the reference. It doesn't matter, I understand it.

I'm surprised, however, when Jackson chuckles and shakes his head. “'But in the end, the details of a matter are important. The right and wrong of one's way of doing things are found in trivial matters.'”

I blink, absolutely shocked. Jackson shrugs. “You're not the only one who's read that book. I went through a phase of trying to find a philosophical backing to my bodybuilding. Katrina, my father probably deserves every bit of retaliation, hatred, and punishment that's in your heart. Just... make sure you're doing the small things right. As for Nathan... I won't send him. If he's coming, I'll try and warn you at least.”

He starts his engine again and I watch as he drives away, and I'm still speechless. Finally, I shake my head, smirking. “Who the hell would have thought that?”

I walk up my stairs and lock my door behind me, going over to my computer. The processors are still pounding away at Darcy's system, although I think they're developing a crack that I can exploit. I pull my chair over and sit down, looking at the readouts. Okay, so there's a hole. Maybe.

“Yes!” I hiss quietly, seeing the target system open to me. I browse around quickly, knowing it's just a fake mainframe until Darcy gets her reports back, but I still poke around a little, seeing if she left any Easter eggs for me to find. Nothing all that interesting really, so I go into the home directory, create a file folder called CDG and drop in a JPEG of a misericorde dagger. I back out, and shut down both my connection to Darcy's target system and my Internet connection. It's a precaution, but since Andrea already found me, I don't want to make it easier to trace my online footprint.

That done, I type up a quick report for Darcy telling her exactly what hole I found, the crack I used to exploit it, and what recommendations I'd use to shore up the hole. The biggest problem, as Darcy knows, is that no system, no matter how strongly put together, is ever secure forever. Darcy uses a lot of the best tools to reduce the chances of a hacker getting in, but nobody can protect against everything.

Just as I'm finishing my report, my personal phone rings, and I see that it's Darcy. “Hey Darce, guess you found my little present?”

There's disappointment in her voice, but at the same time, pride. She really wanted to stump me, but she's proud that I've actually grown beyond her teaching and become, as she put it, a great hacker. “I did. Where'd you get in?”

“You used some old code, I found a loophole. I might have cracked it a bit faster, but I had a visitor.”

“You? A visitor? You becoming a social butterfly on me?” Darcy asks, laughing. “Next thing you know, you're going to be asking for my earring collection.”

I lean back in my chair, chuckling. “Hey, I'm not the one with seventy-two pairs of earrings I can't wear anymore because my son got too grabby. Besides, you look better without all that junk stretching out those earlobes anyway. And I bet Jeff appreciates being able to nibble on your ears without possibly getting something caught in his teeth.”

Darcy purrs, and I can't help but feel a little jealous. A husband, a child, a dog even... she's got a pretty ideal situation. “He does like doing that, that man and his... well, never mind me. Who was your visitor?”