Wired (Buchanan-Renard #13)(4)
Liam switched the TV back to the baseball game and came around the bar to Alec. “So much for the element of surprise,” he said.
Alec was angry. “Only a handful of people were in on the Meyer investigation. There’s no way one of them made an announcement to the press.”
“This has happened before, and it’s no coincidence.”
Alec nodded. “Whoever is leaking information . . .”
Liam finished the thought. “It has to be coming from the inside.”
THREE
Jordan Clayborne was considered to be one of the most brilliant hackers in the business. Allison Trent was a thousand times better.
Although they shared a lot in common, there was one other big difference between the two friends. Jordan never broke the law. Allison did . . . repeatedly.
They first met at a reception for a professor who had just received a prestigious award for his contribution to the world of computer science. It was a great achievement for him and for Boston College, where Jordan was an alum and Allison still a student. Jordan sat down next to Allison at one of the tables and introduced herself, but an introduction really wasn’t necessary. Allison knew exactly who Jordan Clayborne was. She was a legend at Boston College, a trailblazer, and in Allison’s opinion a genius in the technology field. She had sold her start-up company for millions of dollars and was currently writing a series of programs that would teach beginners basic computer skills and guide them all the way to advanced software engineering. More important to Allison, Jordan had done what many believed impossible. She had put the boys in Silicon Valley on notice. She had done exactly what Allison planned to do as soon as she graduated. How could she not have been a fan?
As soon as Jordan asked Allison what her major focus was, the floodgates opened, and for the next two hours they discussed writing code. They bonded that night, and it didn’t take long at all for them to become good friends. Neither could have imagined, though, that their friendship would begin a chain of events that would ultimately change Allison’s life.
Despite their busy schedules, the two found time to meet often, usually over coffee or lunch. Other patrons of the coffeehouses or restaurants would see the two women talking excitedly and would assume the conversation was about the latest fashions or some new reality show on television. They never suspected the topic of discussion was computer programming.
Allison didn’t meet Jordan’s husband, Noah Clayborne, for several weeks. The two women generally spent their time discussing their common interest. They didn’t delve deeply into personal matters. Jordan shared the facts that she was married and her husband had a job with the government, but Allison knew little else about him. Then one weekend Jordan invited Allison to her parents’ home on Nathan’s Bay. It was there that she finally met Noah and found out he was an FBI agent. She liked him immediately. He was charming and funny and obviously very much in love with his wife. Allison saw no reason to keep her guard up.
Jordan’s parents, the Buchanans, were warm and welcoming, too, and Allison couldn’t help noticing the affection they showed each other, something she had never seen between her aunt and uncle. Over the weekend, two of Jordan’s brothers and their wives came for a visit. They treated Allison as if she were part of the family. She loved spending time with this gregarious and loving clan, especially the evenings around the dinner table when Jordan and her brothers told stories about their childhood and the pranks they would play on one another. Allison could only imagine the noise and the laughter when all seven of Jordan’s siblings were together. She envied them.
It was at dinner the first night that she discovered most members of the Buchanan family were also involved in some aspect of law enforcement. Three brothers worked for the bureau. One was a federal attorney. Even Jordan’s father was a judge. In any other situation, because of her forays into illegal activity, Allison would have made an excuse and gotten out of there as fast as she could, but the Buchanans were so much fun she ignored her vulnerability. In hindsight she realized she should have been more cautious. Yet, in her defense, she hadn’t thought anyone would have seen what was coming. All she knew was that it felt good to be with a family who liked one another and wanted to be together, not to mention the fact that she and Jordan had plenty of time to sit and talk about languages and codes, and writing programs, and bugs, and hackers.
As the weeks wore on, Allison’s crazy workload kept her from getting together with her friend as much as she would have liked, but an opportunity arose when she learned of an upcoming programming seminar. She signed up immediately. She knew she probably wasn’t going to learn anything new—that wasn’t arrogance on her part, just fact—but the presenter was Jordan, and she wanted to be supportive.
The day of the seminar arrived, and Allison spent the afternoon in the library working on a paper that was due next week. At five o’clock she closed down her laptop and reached for her coat. Checking her watch, she figured she had plenty of time to rush home and change. Jordan was speaking tonight at seven, and Allison wanted to get to the small auditorium early so she could get a good seat. Over a hundred students were attending the event. If it was like her computer science classes, the vast majority would be men—which Allison found galling. Where were all the women? She was aware that women were entering the technology fields, but the forward strides weren’t happening fast enough to suit her. She didn’t feel intimidated by the men. She could hold her own when it came to ability. It was just that she would have liked to have more women around her and not be looked at as some sort of oddity.