White-Hot Hack (Kate and Ian #2)(53)

“Oh my God.”

“I couldn’t exactly tell them you were on your knees, now could I?”

Kate raised her hands, palms up as if she were weighing one side against the other. “Those were the only two choices?”

“Well, there aren’t a lot of things to choose from when a man and woman disappear for a while. Trust me. Nobody ever questions stomach problems.”

“The supreme court justice did. And thanks to my being caught completely off guard, I don’t think he bought my fumbling explanation. The only thing that saved me from cross-examination is that he probably knew what we were doing in there and would rather shove a hot poker in his eye than hear anything more about it.”

Chad passed them as he walked down the hall. Before he reached the bathroom door, he turned around and started laughing. “I’m sorry. Do you need to get in here again, Kate?”

“You’re hysterical, Chad. And there’s nothing wrong with my stomach.”

He didn’t say anything for a second, and then he groaned. “Oh, Jesus, I just realized what you two were really doing.”

“Yeah, well, we’re newlyweds, so deal with it.” She turned back to Ian. “I won’t be able to look Phillip and Susan in the eye. I’m too embarrassed.”

“Eh, shit happens, Katie.”

She laughed and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Oh my God, stop.”

He slid his hands underneath her jaw and kissed her. “Mmmm. Minty.”

She pinched his ass—hard—as they walked down the hallway on their way back to join the others.

“You know what? You’re a pincher. I’m going to pay you back for that later. You can count on it.”

The women went into the theater room to watch a movie while the men opted for whiskey and pool. Steve and Phillip sat down with their drinks while Ian racked the balls.

“Go ahead and break,” he said to Chad.

“So Kate’s really good at this—what do you call it again?” Chad asked as he sank two balls in the left corner pocket. He knocked two more in on his second shot, but on the third the ball banked off the side and rolled just short of its goal.

Ian lined up his shot, aimed, and knocked his first ball into the pocket with ease. “Social engineering, and she’s phenomenal. She’s smart and she can think on her feet. Plus she’s likeable and people trust her. The truth is, she was bored and she was never going to be satisfied without something more stimulating to fill her days. She’s much happier now.”

“My sister has always succeeded at anything she put her mind to,” Chad said, and there was no mistaking the admiration in his tone.

“You know what else she’s really good at? Pool. We play a lot, so if she challenges you to a game, don’t assume you’ll beat her. There’s a good chance she’ll wipe the floor with you.” Ian sank his second, third, and fourth shots before missing.

“Thanks for the heads-up.” Chad made his next shot but missed the one after that, a rather tricky bank shot. “You seriously hacked the Pentagon?”

“It was just so damn tempting. I was young and thought I was invincible.”

“That’s cool that you and Phillip are so close now. I’d wager not many long-term friendships begin with an arrest.”

“He thought I needed some guidance, and he was right. He’s been a great mentor.”

When they finished their game, they joined Phillip and Steve. Ian fetched the bottle of bourbon, and Phillip poured two more, sliding one across the table to Chad.

“How long have you worked for the FBI?” Chad asked Phillip.

“Almost thirty years.”

“Have you always worked in the cyber division?”

“I have for the past twenty. Been leading task forces for almost fifteen.”

“I bet that’s been interesting,” Chad said.

“Technology is constantly evolving, so we always have a wide range of cyberthreats to address and eradicate. The task force recently brought down a large carding ring responsible for bilking consumers out of millions of dollars, but fraud and theft will always be an ongoing battle. Hacktivism activity and cyberterrorism are our biggest concerns right now.”

“What’s the difference, exactly?” Chad asked.

“Hacktivists are driven by ideology, and the end result is often more disruptive than damaging. A hacktivist group might protest outside a church whose beliefs they don’t agree with, but they’re just as likely to bring down a ring of pedophiles because they hate anyone who would harm others, especially children. They don’t believe in suppressing information, and they definitely don’t want to be silenced, so their first objective might be to steal data before proceeding to a denial of service or destruction of data attack. Hacktivism is something we were battling long before the Sony hack drew the attention of the mainstream media.”

Phillip took a sip of his whiskey. “Then there’s cyberterrorism, which is our biggest concern of all. Attacks are often politically motivated, and the intent is to do great damage, including loss of life. Traditional terrorists are not as technically savvy as cyberterrorists, and they’re more likely to rely on time-honored methods such as bombs. But it would be na?ve of us to think they’re not working to combat that. Terrorists taught themselves to fly planes. There’s no reason to believe they’re not honing their computer skills right now, or aligning with hackers who have a vendetta against the US government. Any hacker who’s capable of exploiting the technical vulnerabilities of our computer-supported infrastructures is a threat to us, whether it’s the disruption of our electricity, the pipelines that deliver our natural gas, or the systems that ensure our cities have clean drinking water.”