Recker and Haley arrived at the office at the same time. Haley went over to Recker’s for breakfast, as he did from time-to-time. They found Jones hard at work, like usual. As Haley went over to the Keurig machine, Recker noticed a face on one of the computer screens. He walked over to it to get a better look.
“Who’s this guy?”
Jones looked over at the monitor. “I believe he may be involved.”
“In?”
“The hacking thing.”
Recker stared at the screen. “This guy?”
“That’s correct.”
“How’d you land on him?”
“Um, just through simple detective work.”
Recker glanced at Haley, who brought his partner over a cup of coffee. It sounded like an unusual answer from Jones.
“Doing your best Sherlock interpretation?” Haley asked.
“You might say that,” Jones answered.
Recker took a sip of his coffee, but he was willing to let it go at that. “So how did you zero in on this guy?”
“Just followed the clues.”
Recker could tell something wasn’t right here. Jones was holding something back. “What clues? I didn’t think there were any.”
“I did another look and found a trail I could follow.”
“You said there wasn’t a trail yesterday.”
“Well I was wrong. I found it. What’s with the questioning?”
Recker glanced at Haley, who simply shrugged. He thought the answers were odd, too, but left it up to Recker to grill down further.
“So this guy is a hacker?” Recker asked.
“Tough to say.”
“How can it be tough to say if you said you traced him through the system? Wouldn’t that make it obvious?”
“Well…”
“David, it’s time to cut the crap. Why don’t you tell us what’s really going on here? And how you really came across this guy? Because I don’t believe for a second that you magically found him by going back over things.”
Jones sighed and scratched the back of his head. He was hoping to get away with it without explaining everything, but Recker was too smart for that. He was going to have to come clean. Without saying another word, Jones loaded up the security footage from overnight. He put his arm out to direct his friends to watch.
Recker and Haley intently watched as they saw a man dressed in black at the bottom of the steps just outside the office. As the video played, Recker’s eyes grew wider, and he was a bit unhappy about the developments. But he stayed silent until the video was over.
“When did this happen?” Recker asked.
“Around two,” Jones replied.
“And we’re just hearing about this now? Why didn’t you call us last night when this was going down?”
“I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“Not necessary? David, there was a guy outside the door trying to get in.”
“I knew he wouldn’t,” Jones said. “Well, unless he had a cannon in his pocket to blow open the door. Besides, he didn’t stick around long enough for you to get here in time.”
“You couldn’t have known that at the time.”
“I thought it best to be quiet and act like nobody was here.”
“So now we got a guy out there who knows where we are?” Recker said.
“We don’t know that. For all we know, it was a simple robbery attempt.”
Recker gave him a crazy look. “You can’t believe that, do you?”
“I believe in not jumping to conclusions.”
“And I believe in not taking chances. We can’t stay here.”
Jones put his hand up, not wanting his friend to go any further. “No, the last thing we should do is panic.”
“David, there was a guy right outside the door! How’s that panicking?”
“Look, there’s a secret compartment here if anything ever goes sideways. I’m not worried.”
Recker put his arms up, as if he were going to fight back, yelling and shouting, but no words came out. He stood there, dumbfounded, not sure how to get through to his partner. He looked at Haley, hoping he could somehow convince Jones it was no longer safe there.
Haley took his cue. “David, out of an abundance of caution, don’t you think it would be better if we moved to another location? Just until things have died down, and we know for sure what’s going on here? If we find out everything’s cool, we can always move back.”
“Moving to another spot takes a lot of time,” Jones said. “Time we don’t have. It takes time to find a location, time to move the equipment, and time to set up the equipment. That’s a lot of time wasted. Time we don’t have to lose.”
“What if this guy comes back? And this time with more firepower?”
Jones pointed over to the bookshelf. “Then we’ll know where to go.”
Recker stood there, his arms folded, his head down, and his hand on his forehead. All he could do was shake his head in disapproval as he listened to Jones talk. He disagreed on every point he was making.
“How do we know this guy isn’t watching us right now?” Recker asked.
“He’s not,” Jones answered. “I’ve got the cameras out in full force, and the facial scan going. If he shows up, we’ll know.”
“And what if he’s got help we don’t know about?” Haley asked.
Recker snapped his fingers and pointed at his partner. “Good point. What then?”
Jones knew he was unlikely to argue the point. So he wasn’t going to try. He was going to continue making his case, though. “Look, I know you both mean well, and you both make excellent points. And maybe you’re right. Maybe we should pick up and move. But as I mentioned earlier, we do not have that kind of time. We need to find out what’s going on as quickly as possible. And the best way to do that is for me to stay right here to work on it. We all know that nobody is coming through that door unless they blow it open.”
Recker clapped his hands together and rubbed them. He wasn’t sure what else he could say.
Jones had more points to make. “Besides, if this person’s already gotten into my system, who’s to say that if we move, he won’t do it again, and find out the new location as well? Then all we’ll have done is waste time, as I suggested.”
Haley looked over at his partner. “He makes a good point there.”
Recker didn’t want to acknowledge it. “The fact still remains that this location is compromised.”
“To add to my point,” Jones said. “What if that’s what this person’s plan is? To get us to pack up and move. Make us more vulnerable?”
“That could be, too,” Haley said. “If he could get us somewhere else, he might think we don’t have time to get as many security features in play.”
“I still don’t like it,” Recker said.
“You don’t have to like it,” Jones replied. “None of us do. But right now, we have to live with it. This is what we have to deal with at the moment. Our best chance is to get this over with quickly.”
Recker didn’t respond at first. He folded his arms, shook his head, and made a few groaning sounds.
“Look, I know you’re unhappy with it,” Jones said. “And you should be. I’m unhappy with it too. We all are.”
“Then why does it seem like you keep holding back here?”
“I’m not?”
“Really? There’s a guy outside our door, and you just happen to mention it seven hours later? And only then because I kept pressing.”
“I don’t know. Maybe because on some level, I feel like this is only on me.”
“It’s not,” Recker said.
“They’re hacking into my system, leaving me messages, quite likely someone from my past. There’s no mention of you two yet.”
“Makes no difference. We’re in this together. Always have been. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it’ll always be. None of us ever fight a battle alone. Your fight is our fight, and vice versa.”
Jones nodded. “Maybe it’s partly embarrassment on my part.”
“Embarrassment for what?” Haley asked.
“Here I am touting myself as some kind of computer genius and I can’t prevent someone from hacking into my extremely sophisticated system. Maybe I’m not as good as I thought.”
“You are,” Recker replied. “But that doesn’t mean someone else out there may not be just as good. This might be that one in a million chance.”
Recker glanced over at the picture of Ned Arden, the man Jones identified from the license plate. He then looked over at the security footage, which ended with Arden walking away from the steps. There was something bothering him about it.
“David, how did you get to this guy from that? I haven’t seen a clear picture of his face.”
“Oh, he left in a car.” Jones typed on the keyboard to bring up the video of the car leaving the parking lot. “Grabbed the license plate.”
“He got in the passenger side.”
“I know.”
“That means there was someone else with him.”
“Yes.”
Recker pointed to Arden’s picture. “How do you know this guy wasn’t the driver?”
“I don’t.”
“So there’s another person we have to find.”
“Wait a minute,” Haley said. He rewound the footage to when the person was feeling the door. “Look at this. There’s a good way to figure out who this person is. He’s touching the door. He might’ve left fingerprints out there.”
Jones stopped his friend before he went any further with it. “That’s a good thought. But not helpful in this instance.”
“Why not?”
Jones zoomed in on the man. “He’s wearing gloves. No fingerprints to be found.”
“Thought we might get lucky.”
“Not this time.”
“So what’s the story on this Arden guy?” Recker asked.
“Small-time,” Jones answered. He’d already printed out the man’s criminal record, and handed the sheet to Recker.
“A couple burglaries, some other low-level stuff. Nothing that would indicate he’s any type of mastermind.”
“Maybe. I would caution you to avoid any generalities. Many hackers, or great computer minds, are self-taught. That’s not something that would show up on a rap sheet.”
“Is this address listed still valid?”
“As far as I can tell.”
“Well then, I guess that’s where we’re starting,” Recker said. “Will you be all right here by yourself?”
“I don’t see why I wouldn’t be. If something happens, I’ll be sure and give you a call this time.”
“You better.”
“You have my word. What do you plan on doing with Mr. Arden?”
“I don’t know yet. Just shake the tree, I guess.”
“Shake the tree? What does that even mean?”
“You know, shake the tree,” Recker answered. “You know what they say about shaking trees.”
“No, I don’t know.”
“Shake a tree, and sometimes things fall out of it. That’s what Arden is right now. A tree. And we’ll do the shaking. Let’s see what falls out.”