White-Hot Hack (Kate and Ian #2)(26)

“All of them?”

“Two out of three. I expect the third will soon follow. The bathroom drives were used first. They always are.”

“I can’t believe people will stick an unmarked USB drive they found in a bathroom, one of them on the floor next to a toilet, into their work computers.”

“Unbelievable, isn’t it?”

“And gross.”

When she got home, she walked into Ian’s office and leaned down to give him a kiss.

“Do you feel okay?” he asked.

She threw herself down on the couch and sighed as if she felt terrible. “I’m in the throes of a wicked bout of morning sickness.”

An affectionate smile appeared on his face. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

She could not love him more.

“Your reaction is the sweetest thing I have ever seen and my heart just melted, but unless we’ve recently had a birth control failure I’m not yet aware of, this baby is only the pretend kind. I used foundation to make myself look pale so the receptionist would think I wasn’t feeling well. I dropped the VP’s and his assistant’s name so she’d buy that I had a legitimate reason to be there. But then I worried she might not let me walk it back to Sheila, which is exactly what happened. Plan B involved forcing her to buzz me back by telling her I had morning sickness and making it seem like I was about to throw up all over the lobby.”

“Man, you’re good.”

“That ruse is definitely going in my arsenal. I have a feeling there will be a high rate of success with it.”

“Are you up for a team assignment?”

She’d never considered the possibility of the two of them partnering on a social engineering job and could not think of anything more entertaining than working with her husband.

“I just brought on a new client, and I have to tell you, Katie, his smug arrogance is bugging me a little bit.”

She laughed. “He must really be arrogant if it bothers you.”

“The last two firms he hired were unsuccessful in their penetration attempts. I got the feeling he gave me the business solely for the satisfaction of making us number three.”

“Oh, it is on, Ian.”

“That’s what I thought, sweetness. I’ll have the pretexting done by the end of the weekend. We’ll start on Monday.”





CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Those are some sweet khakis,” Kate said.

“Aren’t they?” Ian turned in a circle to give her the full view. “Help Desk Todd wears them every day.”

“I bet he’s a real lady-killer.” Ian was also wearing a light blue short-sleeve polo, which he’d told her mirrored the uniform worn by the majority of the male employees who were not part of upper management. His hair had been tamed into some semblance of order, which wasn’t easy considering it hadn’t been cut in a while.

He took a step back and assessed her appearance. At his directive, Kate had dressed in neutral colors and had chosen a cream-colored cardigan sweater and a pair of pants in a muted tan. Their wedding rings would remain at home because Ian had found they encouraged people to ask questions that they might not want to answer. He’d told Kate that the fewer things people could ask her about? the better her chances were of avoiding a lie that might quickly spiral out of control.

“The clothes are perfect. I just wish we could do something about your face.”

She’d applied minimal makeup, and the only thing she’d done to her hair was blow it dry. “What’s wrong with my face?” she asked, looking genuinely concerned.

“A good social engineer blends into the scenery, but you—Jeannine from Legal—are way too beautiful. You’ll stand out, and they’ll remember you.” He studied her. “Can you pull your hair back?”

Kate slipped an elastic from around her wrist and scraped her hair into a ponytail with her fingers. Ian slid a pair of black-rimmed Wayfarer-style glasses with nonprescription lenses onto her face and sighed. “I was trying to make you less attractive. It has backfired spectacularly because now you look even hotter.”

“Does someone have a naughty librarian fantasy?”

“Come to bed tonight looking like this and you’ll find out.”

“I’ll even bring a book.”

He removed the glasses and took Kate’s hair down, tucking it behind her ears. “Better,” he said. “But still stunning.”

“Flatterer.”

“Here’s your lanyard.” Kate slipped the cord over her head and scrutinized the badge attached to it. It looked official, but it was a dummy and incapable of buzzing her through any of the company’s doors. What they were about to attempt was the riskiest type of social engineering because it required them to infiltrate a company and impersonate its employees. Ian had told her that wearing the lanyards around their necks in plain sight instead of clipped to their shirts would go a long way toward deflecting suspicion. They might not be able to use their badges, but it would look like they could.

“I did some digging, and the reason no security firm has been successful in penetrating this company has less to do with its current security practices and more to do with the fact that the IT manager knows about the audits and likes to leak the news about them so his direct reports will be more vigilant.”