Hot Flush: The Euphemia Sage Chronicles : Book One by Fenwicke Rosy

Author:Fenwicke, Rosy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780473389550
Publisher: Wonderful World
Published: 2017-05-07T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 29

After the Sinclairs left, Euphemia stayed in the boardroom. How people could use a helpless animal as leverage was beyond her comprehension. What sort of person puts money ahead of the dignity of an innocent pug?

Alison had been right — seeing the dog hair had made her realize how ruthless they were. Malcom kicking Jane hadn’t been a schoolboy impulse but the action of a psychopath. The Sinclairs had gone past all hope of redemption; they were long past any forgiveness. All bets were off.

For the rest of the morning, Euphemia had to mask her contempt and do whatever Alison told her to do. The urge to wipe her hands of them and call the police, if only to have the satisfaction of watching them being hauled away, was getting stronger. Almost as strong as the urge to march out to reception and sort out of that ridiculous woman once and for all. In her mind’s eye, Euphemia saw Alison’s face, her hands upraised, begging her to turn the shaver off.

Soon, she thought. Soon she will get what’s coming to her. Right now, I have to muster every inch of self-control. Alison’s trip to her own special barber’s chair can wait. As she was visualizing exactly which part of her scalp she would shave first, Kezia popped her head around the door.

‘Got a minute?’

Euphemia thought of something pleasant, so she was smiling when she swiveled her chair around to greet her eldest daughter. It was the first time she’d seen Kezia since opening the chest. It felt strange knowing her daughter was next in line to inherit the switch. Her similarity to Rachel was unnerving. They were line drawings, but if they were accurate, then Kezia had Rachel’s eyes, and the same intelligent forehead. The likeness made Euphemia want to get up, throw her arms around her, and ask how the pregnancy was going.

‘Mum, you look awful.’

‘Do I?’

‘Has something happened?’

‘Nothing.’ Euphemia thought about bald-Alison instead of office-Alison and her smile broadened. ‘Is that better?’

‘Not really,’ said Kezia, but ever practical, she moved on. ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is… I found the planted files. They’re buried deep in something I heard once about in a chat group. It’s new, and it’s called a stealth drive. It’s been illegally downloaded into the system. My guess is that Alison stole the access codes and then let someone in to insert the drive.’

‘I’ve never heard of a stealth drive.’

‘They’re cunning little beasts, and they’re the latest security threat because they have no digital footprint. They act by mimicking the normal code but with a few minor differences, which is how data, like bank records, are easily corrupted. One guy likened it to DNA, vast chains of the same patterns. You insert or swap one or two different base pairs and, hey presto, a whole new creature. Once loaded, they’re only accessible with a series of encrypted passwords which are changed every ten minutes according to a preset algorithm.

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