I sat on the edge of the desk and smiled sweetly at her. “Are you using the same program as Mr. Roski? He’s the one who put in the call to get this thing fixed. I think he was working on the GHN program and it was bugging up.”
“Um,” she murmured. “No. I don’t really use that program. He has clearance that I don’t.”
That’s what I thought, I told myself.
“Would you like to ask Mr. Roski for permission to let me in?”
“Well,” the pretty girl said. “I do believe that Mr. Roski is out of the country at the moment.”
Yes, I know.
I shrugged. “Well…” I said with a warm and engaging grin. “I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble, but if you tell me I can’t go in there and do my job, it’s up to you. I fully respect that.”
“Well.”
She stood, giving me the full view of her voluptuous body. She was a looker, all right. And by the way she looked at me, she knew it.
“I certainly wouldn’t want Mr. Roski to come back and find that his computer system is still not working.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a key. “Come with me,” she said as she came around the desk. “I’ll show you where it is.”
“That’s very kind of you.”
I walked behind her, admiring the sway of her generous hips as she sashayed down the corridor.
She stopped at an unmarked door and unlocked it.
“You must be quite important here to have access to this room,” I said.
Beaming with pride, she opened the door wide and gestured for me to go inside.
“Thank you very much,” I said as I entered.
To my surprise, she followed me in. “Is there anything I can assist you with?”
I knew she had no desire or perhaps ability to help me with anything, but I turned sweetly to her and smiled. “You know, I think I have things under control here.”
Her optimistic smile faded.
“But how about giving me a hand, let’s say… later tonight.”
The beaming grin returned, and she looked at me with a flirtatious gleam. “Sure thing.”
She walked out and quietly closed the door behind her.
“Good,” I let out softly. “Now, time to get to work.”
I got deep into the system and found what I wanted. Then, one by one, I eliminated the security clearance needed to get in, leaving a few accounts wide open.
Satisfied, I walked out of the computer room and headed back to the receptionist.
“All done,” I said. “You might not notice anything if you don’t use certain programs, but all looks good now. Mr. Roski should be happy when he returns.”
“Thank you,” she said as she stood and looked me up and down. She handed me a small slip of paper. “Call me.”
“I will.”
I hurried out and headed to the parked car around the corner.
*****
That night, as I sipped on a nice Chardonnay, I sat in front of my laptop checking out a few websites.
I looked at the short list I had and checked out the first one.
Sorry. The website you are attempting to obtain is temporarily closed. Please try again later.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s try number two.
We are presently experiencing a temporary shutdown. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please try again later.
“Good. Now how about number three.”
Our website is closed for re-construction. If you have an emergency, please contact one of the following numbers. Our deepest apologies.
“Re-construction, my foot,” I said to the screen. “Why not just come out and admit that you’ve had a security breach? Afraid of what that would do to your image?”
I put away the flash drive my father had given me shortly before his death. “All settled, Pops,” I said sardonically. “You can rest in peace now. The Inner Circle is going to be hurt by this one.”
Sighing, I took another sip of wine as I looked out at the London skyline. It was beautiful… gray as usual, but beautiful.
“You in, Parker?”
I turned around to see Ace coming in. “Yeah,” I called out. “I’m back here.”
He joined me and glanced at my glass of wine then at the bottle. “May I?”
“Of course,” I said. “Help yourself.”
He took a wine glass from the silver tray and poured himself a small, sample sip of the red wine.
“Nice,” he said. “2011?”
“Actually,” I corrected. “It’s 2012.”
“Very nice, indeed.” He set the glass down and sat across from me. “So, it would appear that all went well, Boss.”
I smiled as he took out his phone, opened the desired page and turned the screen to me.
“These,” he said as he scrolled down. “They are all emails I’ve received from the companies that are pulling their hair out about these security breaches.”
Grinning, I took another sip of wine. It was tasting better and better with every passing minute.
“Did you have a hard time… getting in.”
I chuckled. “Getting in where?” I let the question hang there a moment before giving him an option. “The computer room, or the girl in charge of looking after the computer room?”
He tilted his head back and let out an amused laugh. “Man,” he said. “You always get the jobs that include banging a girl on the way.”
“Hey, hey,” I said, holding up a calming hand. “I did not bang the girl.”
Frowning, he looked at me, the gleam of amusement in his eyes replaced by a solemn apology.
“I had to smile and play nice to get her to open the room for me, then I had to promise to call her so that she would leave me alone, and then…”
“And then…?” he said when I left my sentence hanging.
“And then, she banged the fuck out of me.”
Laughing, he pulled a red lace thong out of his pocket. “Good,” he said as he held it up. “Because I was beginning to wonder where this had come from.”
He draped it over the back of the chaise lounge behind him and brought his gaze back to me. “So, let me get this straight. You had to persuade the director of operations to let you in there to begin with. Then you had to persuade the supervising manager and now…”
“Yep,” I said as I took another sip of wine. “I had to do a lot of persuading here and there. I got lucky this time. Every one of them was as sexy as hell…”
“And every one of them fell for your persuasive arguments.”
I shrugged and cocked a brow. “Sometimes it’s almost disappointing to see just how easy it is.”
“Yeah,” Ace said as he got up. “It must be hell being a good looking dude with money and charisma. I feel for you, man. I really do. I’d even be willing to mess up that face of yours if you want.”
He headed into the kitchen to get a glass of water and returned. “Important thing is, the mission is complete.”
“Hmm,” I said as I lightly tapped the side of my glass with my finger. “If there’s one thing my father instilled in me, it’s the importance of completing a mission. Everything else was secondary. Screw up a mission, and you’re as good as dead.”