Code of Conduct (Cipher Security Book 1) by Smartypants Romance & April White

Author:Smartypants Romance & April White [Romance, Smartypants]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Smartypants Romance
Published: 2019-10-14T18:30:00+00:00

30

Gabriel

“Things that are equally inadvisable: sliding down a 50-foot razor blade and pissing off a hacker.” – Billy “Sparky” Spracher

Shane was shaking with anger as she sat down in front of the laptop and opened an e-mail server.

“Wait, Shane, what are you doing?” The prosthetist, aptly called Sparky, seemed to come back to consciousness all at once. He reached for the keyboard of his laptop, but she batted his hand away as if it were a fly.

“Pissing off a hacker,” she growled.

“Wait, wha... don’t do that!” Sparky sounded frantic, and she batted his hand away again as he tried to reach for the laptop.

“Go sit down, Spark!” she snarled, typing furiously. She was likely playing with the digital equivalent of rocket fuel, but somehow, I didn’t think Shane would back down from taking on Alex Greene.

She hit send and then pushed back from the computer. She was scowling. “Did you know?” she asked quietly. She didn’t look at me, but I knew she was talking to me.

“I didn’t.” My voice held a quiet note of urgency. I needed her to believe me, but she was so angry. I straightened and held my hand out to Sparky.

“I’m Gabriel Eze,” I said quietly. “I work with Shane in a private security firm, and with the man who may have been responsible for hacking your accounts.”

“Billy Spracher,” Sparky said automatically, shaking my hand. Shane snorted. “I build Shane’s legs,” he finished, lamely.

Shane scoffed. “You have a bio-mechanical engineering degree from University of Chicago and a graduate degree in bionics. You design prosthetic prototypes for some of the biggest manufacturers in the country, and I’m lucky to be your crash test dummy.”

Sparky smirked faintly at her, and I sensed a long-standing relationship with layers that might have included friendship, humor, comradery, and possibly a little attraction, at least on his side. “You’re a good dummy,” he said.

She inhaled deeply. “I’m really sorry I brought the hacker down on you, Sparky. I’ll make him put it all back to rights.”

“Forgive me for asking what may be a foolish question,” I interrupted, “but why would Greene interfere with Mr. Spracher’s finances?”

“Because I used Mr. Spracher’s computer to find out what I could about the hacker’s wife,” she said, disgust evident in her voice.

My eyebrows arched up in surprise. “Truly?”

“The guy’s a psychopath,” she said, swiping the trackpad to keep the computer from going to sleep.

“He would probably argue high-functioning sociopath with overactive protective instincts,” I said evenly. I was familiar enough with my own protective instincts to diagnose the condition in others.

She looked up at Sparky. “I’ll fix this,” she promised him.

“I gotta admit,” he said with a nervous laugh, “I was more pissed than scared until you mentioned mental disorders.”

“High-functioning is definitely the key to him, Spark,” she said. “The guy plays chess against Google.”

“No kidding?” I could see the first vestiges of admiration in Sparky’s expression, but his next question was mercifully interrupted by the chime of his e-mail.

Sparky reached for the keyboard, and Shane once more batted his hand away as she opened the message and read.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.