Firewall

W
arm lips slid
against Calder’s own as he embraced Justin in the doorway of the bedroom. He had not been expecting this at all, but he found it hard to resist the attention. Justin’s smaller body pressed against his own, his hand tangled in his muscle shirt, had Calder’s heart racing. The soft moan from Justin that vibrated through their mouths made Calder’s cock twitch to life against his boxers.

Justin was adorable to kiss. It was easy to tell he was inexperienced. Given his awkwardness with others, it didn’t really surprise Calder. Still, he tried to be patient in those fleeting moments to let Justin build up his courage and technique.

Justin seemed to be building up his courage quickly because the next thing Calder knew, he was being walked backward into the bedroom. Justin nudged the door close behind them and Calder grew all the more hot.

He had thought about Justin before in the middle of the night. They’d seemed like such forbidden fantasies, though. Justin had been his best friend all his life—clearly it wasn’t a good idea to sleep together, right? Especially since Calder wasn’t even gay?

But something about Justin was different—it had always been like that.

What if this was the only chance he had to make some of those fantasies come true? It was clear that Justin thought the same to be pushing it like this. They were both sound of mind and consenting adults, so why
not
have a bit of fun?

Calder surged forward, grabbing Justin by the arms and crushing their lips together. The way Justin moaned and quivered beneath him stirred the embers of passion within Calder. In that moment, he wanted to give in to the lust he had for Justin. Damn it, it was no secret that
he
needed to get laid, too.

And here was his opportunity. Not only that, but it was an opportunity to send Justin over the moon with pleasure. He wanted to see what that was like.

Calder devoured Justin’s mouth, pressing their bodies hotly together. Before he could go any further, though, Calder broke the kiss, his eyes hungry. “Justin, if you want to stop, now is the time to tell me.”

“Don’t stop,” Justin breathed.
“I want to explore with you.”

Calder’s head spun as he heard these words. He moved forward to claim Justin’s lips again, eager for them both to explore together.

All he hoped was that this wouldn’t mean the end of a lifelong friendship.

“
H
ey
, I’m new here. Can I use your login and password for a second, real quick? I’m not set up yet.”

Justin pursed his lips and gave his best puppy eyes to the older blonde woman in marketing —Cindy, her cubicle name tag said. His heart thudded as he fought to maintain eye contact. The routine never got easier but he had done the act so many times now.

He ought to have been pleased that she shook her head and gave him an apologetic smile, but instead his heart sank.

Being a penetration tester was the most ethical way he’d been able to pursue his love of making computers tick.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t ignore the human component of his job. A lot of ethical hacking was based on charming his way into people’s computers to see what he could make them do. He’d have preferred to be doing this from home in his pajamas but that wasn’t what companies hired guys to do. At least he wasn’t selling out mobile phone exploits to foreign marketplaces like a lot of the guys he knew of.

“No problem. I’ll go talk to HR.” Justin gave what he hoped to be an extra-charming smile. He tugged at his neck for a moment and looking around as if a little lost before striding off in the wrong direction, like a newbie would, not like he’d been here for three years. That was about the extent of his people skills as far as social engineering went.

He preferred the technical side of his job: finding and patching vulnerabilities in software and hardware stacks. There, he could think like a hacker and use their own tools and skills against them.

After moving a few cubicles away, out of earshot of Cindy, Justin tried worming his way into the system again—and again. To their credit, nobody let him in, meaning Sybil Industries’ training on sensitive login information had gone well. On the other hand, nobody took note of him, either. Someone should have spotted a new hire wandering around the department and at least picked up the phone to HR.

As he used the two tools he had at his disposal—looking cute and looking lost—Justin was more nervous than he let on. Interacting with people wasn’t his forte. He wished he were working on the new beta, but this was his job. He had to do it, even on the sucky days.

Just as he was about to give up and declare the floor secure, something caught his eye from a cubicle near the end of the row. It was a yellow sticky note with a username and a string of characters that looked like a secure password—a lot less secure when it was stuck to the side of the cubicle.

Justin memorized the details, glanced around for prying eyes, then slipped into the unoccupied chair. His heart pounded as he typed without a second thought, his eyes on the screen instead of the keyboard. Yep, he was right—he was in.

Sorry, Sue Browne. This was going into his report.

He glanced up over the rim of his glasses when footsteps approached. A guy around his age, in his late twenties, was walking by. He had a folder under his arm.
Uh oh
. Sure enough, he did a double take, pausing and glancing back to Justin.

Justin glanced up with a smile and nod. It was painful, but he had to do it to show no fear.

Hurry up and move on already
, Justin mentally shooed. If the guy lingered too much, people in the department would start to get suspicious.

“Doesn’t Sue work at this station?”

“Yeah, they called me to help fix her computer.”

“Oh, you’re from IT support?”

Justin adjusted his glasses. “Yes, sir.”

“Right. Sorry for bothering you.” The man narrowed his eyes slightly in thought but shook his head and continued on through the sea of cubicles.

Justin let out a breath and focused back on the screen, seeing what sensitive information he could glean from her access. Looked like just entry-level stuff. He was only there for a few moments before he was distracted again by the sharp sound of heels striking the floor.

A woman in a blue dress and carrying a cup of coffee was on the other side of the office, but headed his direction. Justin’s gut instinct told him that this was Sue. He had to get out of there before she spotted him—or that guy from moments earlier drew more attention to him.

He logged off Sue’s computer and hurried from the cubicle. Straightening his back and fixing his tie, he strode away.

He didn’t dare look over his shoulder.

Justin’s heart hadn’t slowed one bit by the time he left the building and climbed into his car. So this part of the job
could
be a little fun, he had to admit. Social engineering was better than small talk, at least. It made him feel a bit like a spy.

But as he drove back through the busy downtown streets of Portland, Oregon, he dreaded the boring part that came next: writing the report.

A
fter a few days
of investigating that floor, Justin had all the evidence he needed. Once he’d finished avoiding it, the report was quick to write up. He’d found a bug in some outdated software they were using for logging phone numbers, and he mentioned a couple of other employees like Sue who hadn’t protected their logins according to company policy. Along with his findings, Justin included suggestions on how to fix those flaws.

Justin headed to his boss with the detailed report. Pat was an older guy with an unfortunate mustache, and a familiar face.

“Good morning, Justin,” Pat said as he gestured to the chair in front of his desk.

“Good morning,” Justin responded automatically as he sat down and produced the folder from his bag. He launched straight into it, as always. Sometimes initiating conversations was difficult, but Justin found it easier when it had to do with his work. Pat didn’t give him grief, at least. Previous employers had expected him to chitchat about the weather before dropping the bombshell of a stupid security flaw they hadn’t fixed. “Here’s the report for us to go over.”

Pat nodded, focusing on Justin’s findings in the report as he gave it. While Pat wasn’t pleased to see the problems Justin had found, they both knew it was critical for him to pay attention. With Justin’s guidance, security would be tightened further still. Because Sybil Industries was always expanding and creating new hardware and software, Justin’s job was never done.

“Great job once again,” Pat said as he leaned back in his chair.

Justin adjusted his glasses and nodded. “Any time.”

“We’ll see you again soon,” Pat said, letting him go without a fuss, either. Thank God. Justin nodded, then grabbed his bag and headed off.

He was done for the day now and couldn’t wait to get home. He had a few new games downloaded to try out tonight.

When he wasn’t busy “pentesting,” as his circle called his line of work, he was geeking out in every way possible. That, and talking to his best friend, Calder, who lived in Los Angeles.

Justin had admired Calder Lesley ever since their friendship had formed at eight years old. Now, twenty years later, they were still involved in each other’s lives. They hadn’t seen each other for almost eight years, thanks to career paths taking them to different states and places in life, but they had a strong bond nonetheless. There was rarely a day that went by where they didn’t contact each other online.

At the end of a long day, Justin loved nothing more than to unwind at his computer while catching up with Calder, a video game on in the background.

As Justin headed into the elevator, his finger hadn’t quite hit the ground-floor button when Wallace Greyson hopped in to join him. He was a little older than Justin, and wore his dark hair tied back into a ponytail. He had piercing eyes that always unsettled Justin. While Justin wasn’t the best at reading body language or expression, Wallace just rubbed him the wrong way.

“Good morning,” Wallace said. He was one of Justin’s few coworkers, an ethical hacker employed by Sybil Industries to keep them safe from bugs and social engineering.

“Morning,” Justin murmured. He’d known Wallace for a few years, online and offline, but he still didn’t really
know
the guy.

“Another report done, huh?” Wallace asked as they headed down in the elevator again.

“Yeah. The fixes were easy.”

In the reflective surface of the elevator wall, Justin caught Wallace’s expression harden. It was gone a moment later, and replaced with a smile as Wallace reached out and brushed Justin’s arm. “So, me and Elliot and the other guys are thinking of going out for drinks. Are you game?”

Justin did
not
like being touched. By now, Wallace definitely should have known that. He pulled his arm away as subtly as possible. “No, thanks.”

Wallace pulled his hand back with a sigh. “You
never
want to hang out with us. Too good for us, huh?”

“No, that’s not it,” Justin said as he glanced to his coworker. “I just prefer quiet evenings.”

That was mostly the truth. In reality, Justin was nervous about hanging out with people because he wasn’t the best in social situations. He tended to find it hard to start or maintain conversations and read social cues. He also tended to talk a lot about himself. Most people tended to think that he was self-centered.

Having Asperger’s was a challenge. It was why he preferred technical jobs where he didn’t have to interact with people. But when he had to work with people to test security, that was a little fun, at least, since it was part of the challenge.

“Whatever,” Wallace murmured as they reached the ground floor. “See you around, then.”

“Wait,” Justin interjected as he stepped out of the elevator with Wallace. “I would like to go out with you guys tonight.”

Wallace seemed surprised by the sudden change. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Justin responded, offering a little smile that he hoped was right for the situation. His hands grew clammy with nerves but his chest fluttered as well. It wouldn’t kill him to go out and have fun, although he wished anyone but Wallace had asked him.

“Great! Meet us at The Dragon’s Den in a couple of hours.”

While Justin wasn’t particularly fond of Wallace, he didn’t have anything against the other guys. They all seemed friendly enough, as far as Justin could tell.

Out of all of his coworkers, Wallace was the one who was always trying to get his attention in some way or another. Whether it was romantic or social, Justin couldn’t tell—and he wasn’t interested either way. He had no idea how to tell Wallace to back off or even if he should. What if Justin was just reading too much into it?

“See you then,” Justin said as he and Wallace walked through the lobby and out into the street. They both headed off in different directions, and Justin’s heart pounded. As he headed home, he grew more excited at the thought of actually going out and being one of the guys for once.

Hopefully he wouldn’t screw it up.