Maxine Justice: Galactic Attorney by Daniel Schwabauer

Author:Daniel Schwabauer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781621842231
Publisher: Enclave Publishing
Published: 2021-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Kenji was waiting for me when I arrived at the office the next morning at seven thirty. An unchangeable night owl, he’d never before beaten me to work, and one look at his face told me something was wrong. “What happened?”

He sighed—a noise like a balloon deflating—and leaned against a corner of the desk. “Last night I got a warning notice from the security program guarding my private server. Something got past it and started corrupting the data blocks. It was like”—he waved the Goldy’s delivery box he was holding as if it were a visual aid—“like a snake eating its own tail. And I couldn’t figure out how the virus had gotten past my firewalls, but I decided once I shut my computer down, I could wipe the master and reboot from my backup array. But the diagnostics—”

“Kenjiro,” I interrupted. “I’m a lawyer, not a nerd. No clue what you just said. Also, is that my breakfast?”

He looked at the box, and his eyes widened. “Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I guess it is. Some guy just dropped it off a couple minutes ago. But that was after I turned the lights on. Anyway, that’s not the weirdest part. Because the reception desk was still locked—like it always is—to my thumbprint.”

“Okay? And?”

Kenji handed me the bagel box and went around the desk. He slid open the top drawer and pointed. “It’s gone.”

“You ate my bagel!” I pulled out the empty wrapper and held it up as exhibit one. At least the tater tots were still there.

“Your bagel? But you said you were going to respect my allergies.”

“Well, yes, when I order something for you. But that was for me.”

“How was I supposed to know whose it was?”

“It has my name on it.” I pointed to the handwritten black text: “Maxine Justice. M-A-X-I-N-E.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the name of our business. And I’m an employee, so—are you telling me it wasn’t gluten free?”

“Why would I order something gluten free? And my name doesn’t say L-L-C after it.”

Kenji grabbed his scrubby hair with both hands. “Do you know how frustrating it is to work for a lawyer?”

I popped one of the tater tots into my mouth. Still warm. “Actually, yes. Three years at Stinkle, Hemorrhoids, and Pit taught me a lot about arguing. Plus a bunch of other stuff I’d rather forget.”

He returned to the original subject. “It’s gone, Max. All of it. Are you hearing me?”

“Kenji, I am all ears and extremely motivated, but no, I do not understand what you’re saying.”

“The videos I found for the McEnroe trial. They’re gone. All of them.”

“What—from the server? That secret elephant-burial-grounds thing you were talking about?”

“They were deleted from my own computer. And from my backup system, which isn’t connected to the web. And from the flash drive I taped to the bottom of this drawer.” He pointed again for emphasis. “The whole drive stick is gone. But nobody knew it was there except you and me!”

Okay, now he had my attention. Someone had not

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