Hothouse Orchid

37

Lance Cabot was at his desk in the early morning when there was a rap at his door. His secretary was not in yet, and no one was screening his visitors. “Come in,” he said.

The door opened slightly and the disheveled head of the computer geek who had visited him before appeared. “Got a second?”

“What is it?” Lance asked, not a little annoyed. He couldn’t remember the kid’s name, but he thought he had solved his problem.

“Our visitor returned to the mainframe early last evening,” he said, “this time via a chain of computers around the country ending in San Diego.”

“And?”

“And he got into Holly Barker’s personnel records.”

This stopped Lance in his tracks. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, giving himself time to think.

“Absolutely. I still haven’t been able to track him back to a specific computer, but I think he may be in the state of Florida.”

“What was it he was looking for last time?”

“Information on the background of a retired army colonel, James Bruno. Also, he accessed his driver’s license record in Florida.”

“Can you set some sort of trap for him?”

“I already have; when I came in this morning I had an alert from the mainframe waiting on my work station.”

“But you can’t track him to a specific computer?”

“That’s hard. The guy-or girl-is very smart. If he continued to use the same computer chain, that would make it a lot easier, but both times I discovered him he had created a new chain. It’s like he’s making big geographical leaps around the country every time he logs on.”

“And to stop him we’d have to change all the log-on codes?”

“Right. And circulate the new codes to every authorized Agency employee around the world, in a highly secure manner.”

“And that’s a big job.”

“It is, and every time we do something like that we run the risk of opening new security breaches, of having the codes fall into the hands of some hacker lurking out there.”

“When was the last time the codes were changed?”

“Six years ago. We had teething problems, of course, but the mainframe has remained secure since we worked those out. If we issue new codes, we’ll have to start all over again.”

Shit, Lance thought. He stared at the desk in front of him.

“If I could make a suggestion?” the kid said.

“Go ahead.”

“This guy has not shown any evil intent with these intrusions; he’s just looking for information. It might make sense to let him continue and hope that he’ll make a mistake that will make it easier to nail him. I’ve got the alert on the mainframe, and if he makes a more threatening move, then we can act on a code change.”

Lance was pleased to have a way out of this mess. “All right, do that, but every time he logs on I want to know what he’s looking at.”

“I’ll see that you do,” the kid said. He gave a little wave and left, closing the door behind him.

Lance was still thinking, though. This intruder had made two visits to the mainframe, both looking for information about Holly, and he didn’t like that. Of course, it could be somebody from Holly’s past: an old lover, maybe, who had worked at the Agency and still harbored a crush on her. But he kept returning to another possibility: Teddy Fay.

Lance had really begun to believe the man was dead; certainly that’s what he had repeatedly told the director, though she still seemed skeptical. To be frank with himself, he didn’t care if Teddy was alive and well as long as he didn’t call attention to himself and embarrass everybody, particularly himself but up to and including the director and her husband, President Will Lee.

Lance turned to his phone and pressed a speed-dial number, then he stared at the screen.

Holly was jarred awake by the ringing phone. She rolled over and looked at the bedside clock: seven fifteen. Then she realized the television screen at the foot of her bed had come alive, and Lance was staring at her-and at Josh, who had not yet woken up.

“Call me back on your secure line,” Lance said, “as soon as you can be alone.”

Josh woke up. “Huh?”

“It’s nothing. Go back to sleep,” Holly said. She grabbed the remote and switched off the TV.

“I heard a man’s voice,” Josh said.

“No, you didn’t,” Holly replied, placing a hand on his forehead and pushing down. “Go back to sleep.”

She got out of bed, threw on a shirt and jeans and went downstairs to her Agency cubbyhole. She tapped in the code that opened the door, then went inside, closed the door behind her and logged on to her computer. A few keystrokes later, she had Lance on the screen.

“I’m here,” she said.

“Sorry to wake you; something odd has come up.”

“Go ahead.”

“One of those geeks in computer services has come to me twice, now, with the news that someone outside the Agency has managed to log on to the mainframe, at least twice.”

“Yes?”

“Yes. Of course, he may have logged on before, but he has been caught at it only twice.”

“Who is it?”

“Unknown. He creates a sort of channel through several computers around the country, then logs on from one of them, so we haven’t been able to pinpoint his location.”

“What has he been doing on the mainframe?”

“Both times we’ve caught him he’s been looking at information about you.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Is there some old lover of yours out there who used to be Agency who might still be obsessed with you?”

“No. I don’t know anybody who fits that description, especially the obsession part. What did he want to know about me, do you think?”

“The first time, he was looking up background information on one Colonel James Bruno.”

“What kind of information?”

“The trial record of his court-martial and Bruno’s Florida driver’s license application.”

“Bruno is a suspect in the series of rapes and murders we’ve been having here,” Holly said. “The search could be related to that.”

“The other time we caught him, he went into your personnel records.”

“Holy shit,” Holly said involuntarily.

“Exactly. Who would want to do that?”

“I can’t imagine,” Holly said.

“I can imagine somebody who might be just a tiny bit obsessed with you.”

“Enlighten me, please.”

“You attended the opera with him once, and you may have put a bullet in him at one point. Let’s not mention any names.”

Holly winced. “You say you haven’t been able to pin down his location?”

“Not yet. He may be on the move, but the last time, our geek thought he might be somewhere in Florida.”

“You think he might be looking for revenge?”

“Possibly, but he wouldn’t need your personnel file for that; he’d just find you and kill you.”

“Well, yes. Maybe he hasn’t gotten over our last encounter.”

“Perhaps not, but I don’t have any sense that you’re in any real danger. You might keep an eye out for him, though, or for someone who might be him.”

“I take your point.”

“Then go armed and be careful.”

“I’ll do that,” Holly replied.

The screen went blank. Holly shut down the computer and left the little office. She walked into the kitchen to find Josh, naked, making coffee.

He jumped. “Where did you come from?”

“I was just on the phone.”

“Where? I couldn’t hear you.”

“In a secret place,” she said. “You look very nice.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” he said, backing away. “I’ve got to get to work.”

“Oh, you have some time,” she said, advancing on him.