CHAPTER 18
The attack was fast and aggressive, immediately targeting the weakness within the administrative controls. Lucas quickly knew that the black hat on the opposing computer was far superior to Pratt. He or she wasn’t using a pre-built application, or an automated tool designed to get remote access; they were actively rewriting the source code to the storage server to hijack it completely. It’s exactly what Lucas would have done facing the same challenge.
The battle was intense, but over quickly since Lucas wasn’t interested in dueling with his opponent. Instead, knowing the data on the storage server was an outdated copy, he just restored the box to its original factory settings, effectively wiping it clean of all information. In less than ten minutes, there was nothing left on it to hack.
Lucas sat back in his chair for a few minutes in the silence that followed, thinking through what had just happened. While he had anticipated and prepared for just such a possibility, it still surprised him how quickly it happened. With Fortis about to engage the FBI to apprehend Hernandez, the timing was also very suspicious. Maybe Fernandez somehow knew they were hot on his trail, and this was his last attempt to achieve his goal?
“What happened?” Ned asked, now standing beside Alex and looking between them.
“Hernandez just tried hacking into the Magnus system directly. I shut it down, but I don’t like the timing,” Lucas explained as he was calling Michael on speed dial. “I don’t think we should wait until morning. Let’s get the feds engaged now. Hernandez may already know we’re onto him.”
Michael quickly pulled some strings to get the wheels in motion, and the FBI had an arrest warrant for Cesar Hernandez within hours. He was in custody soon after midnight. Lucas and Ned grabbed a few hours of sleep, but they were up by six in the morning, waiting for an update on what Abe and the feds had uncovered in questioning Hernandez.
“I’m going for a run,” Ned declared about an hour later while they still waited. “Text me when you hear something.”
Lucas nodded, his attention fixed on the record of the hacker’s code that he had recorded during the attack. Something about it was strange, almost familiar. But he couldn’t think of how or why.
“Any news?” Alex asked as she crossed the floor from the doorway to the bedrooms in the direction of the kitchen.
He looked up, watching her progress. She always looked so energetic in the morning, as though she couldn’t wait for the day to get started. Lucas stood up and walked over to join her as she poured a cup of coffee from the fresh pot he had brewed a little earlier, taking his empty mug with him.
“Hernandez was taken into custody by the FBI late last night,” he confirmed, since she had finally gone to bed before eleven o’clock.
“That’s amazing!” she exclaimed with a big smile over the rim of her coffee mug. “So it’s over, right? It’s done?”
“We need to know what he’s said in his statement. But hopefully, yes,” Lucas told her hesitantly.
He refilled his cup, adding cream and a little sugar from the supplies on the table.
“Why?” she asked. “We know he’s responsible for destroying my prototype and trying to steal the design. What more is there?”
Lucas leaned back against the edge of the counter, captured by her animated reasoning.
“Yes, that’s what it looks like. But we don’t know what we don’t know,” he replied.
“Meaning what exactly?”
“Meaning we need to know the full scope of this whole plan. How do we know Hernandez is the only one involved? What if there are others working with him? Or someone else who planned and paid for the whole thing?”
She sighed heavily.
“Okay, I see your point.”
Lucas put down his coffee and stepped closer to her.
“I know you want this over and done with. I do too. But I need to make sure it’s completely safe before you go back home.”
Alex looked back at him with those bright, intense eyes. They were disappointed but accepting, and he couldn’t help but admire her courage.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, a question he had been pondering ever since the day of the fire.
“What, exactly?”
He smiled at her now familiar taunting tone.
“Why are you finishing your engine for the race?” Lucas clarified. “Why not just wait until the threat is gone?”
She snorted with a small chuckle.
“It’s a little late to ask that, don’t you think?”
Lucas shrugged, smiling back. Her light mood was infectious.
“I understand why Magnus Motorsports should pursue this technology, and I know timing is everything. So, my job is to keep you and the asset safe for the duration,” he explained calmly. “But you’re the one here, working nonstop to complete the work. And it was your decision, so I’m just curious about why.”
“Does it matter?”
“Do you always answer a question with a question?”
She laughed, her eyes sparkling with amusement, causing his heartbeat to accelerate.
“Because I don’t like answering questions, that’s why.”
“And yet you just gave me an answer, finally,” he smirked, crossing his legs at the ankle.
“Well, it’s a very rare thing, so don’t get used to it,” Alex replied with dismissive wave of her hand.
“Maybe you just need a little practice,” Lucas teased with a charming twist of his lips. “Why are you here?”
Alex studied him contemplatively, looking far deeper than just the surface of his face like she did the evening they met at the hotel restaurant. Then she looked down at the kitchen counter and placed her mug down on it.
“I don’t like to quit. And I definitely don’t like when someone else tries to force me to,” she said quietly. “That’s not a very feminine quality, I know. My dad calls it obstinate.”
Lucas watched her for a long moment, surprised by the serious undertone in her voice.
“Does that happen often? People trying to stop you?”
She rolled her eyes.
“I’m a female automotive engineer. What do you think?”
“I think you have a very strange idea of what’s feminine and what isn’t.”
Alex glanced at him with surprise in her eyes, then back at the counter. Lucas had the urge to say more, but managed to hold his tongue. She cleared her throat and turned away from him.
“Well, now that I’ve satisfied your curiosity, I need to get back to work,” she finally stated.
“Aren’t you going to eat something for breakfast?”
“Are you cooking?” she shot back over her shoulder.
“Come back in fifteen minutes if you want an omelet.”
She only raised her thumb in the air as she walked toward the side entrance and back to her workshop.
The update from Michael and Abe came later that afternoon. Lucas set up a videoconference with his team, and Evan and Sam from the Fortis headquarters.
“So Hernandez admitted to the whole thing?” Evan asked.
“He didn’t have much choice after the evidence Nunez provided,” Abe summarized. “He knew Magnus was going to release a new engine in June because someone approached his driver last year trying to sell him some of the technology. Hernandez turned down their offer and instead decided to shut down Magnus by stealing the whole design for his own use. When that didn’t work, he had it destroyed.”
“Did he say who tried to sell it to him originally?” asked Lucas. “Was it North?”
“No, he couldn’t remember. Just that it was a woman during an event at a local racing club in Chicago, and that she wanted too much money for just the battery design. He figured it would be cheaper to hack into Magnus and get everything. So he hired a firm called Crow to do just that,” Abe explained.
“Do we know anything about this Crow?” asked Sam.
“I’ve heard of them a few times over the last two to three years,” Lucas told them with his arms folded. “They operate way off the grid, doing freelance work. Cyber intrusion for a fee. From what I remember, that setup in Chicago with Pratt resembles their tactics.”
“Hernandez claims he only paid a retainer fee up front, the final payment was due once the intelligence was delivered. He didn’t ask any questions about how the job would be executed,” continued Abe.
“So, he didn’t know about Pratt or his murder?” Lucas asked.
“So he claims,” Abe confirmed. “Or maybe he’s copping to white-collar corporate espionage to avoid a murder charge. Either way, he says he canceled the contract with Crow last weekend because it was taking too long, and instead hired Nunez to destroy the engine and eliminate Magnus from the race.”
“Wait,” Lucas interrupted, stepping forward. “What about the network intrusion last night? If Crow was fired last weekend, who’s attacking now? And why?”
“Hernandez claims he had no idea,” Abe told them.
“Lucas, do you think Crow went after the design yesterday even after their contract was cancelled?”
“I don’t know. But someone did and they were really good,” he mumbled. “Abe, did Hernandez say anything to indicate how much he knew about the Cicada? Did he know it was electric drive only? Or any of the other performance projections?”
“He didn’t say anything specific about the technology, except that the woman talked about a battery originally, but he decided to destroy the whole engine in the end,” Abe replied as he thought through the details revealed in the interview. “But now that you mention it, he seemed more curious about what the hackers would find rather than trying to get something of specific value. I got the sense that his only real objective was to beat Magnus, one way or the other.”
“Whoever’s going after the Magnus data wasn’t just curious, they were determined,” Lucas muttered. “I’d say they knew there was something very valuable stored there, beyond just beating Magnus in a race.”
The men thought for a minute, and Lucas walked a couple of steps away, rubbing two fingers across his lips.
“So, what’s our next move?” Ned asked finally.
“I’m going to review the information I copied from Pratt’s computer again to see what I can find. He accessed Adam North’s computer in order to plant the Trojan horse, so maybe he discovered more about the Cicada design than Hernandez knew,” Lucas told them.
“If he did, then Crow knows about it as well. Which could explain why Pratt was eliminated in the end,” Evan added.
“Until we know more, the Omega protocol needs to stay in place,” Lucas concluded. “Michael, can you start looking into the woman who tried to sell the battery design last year? It has to be someone associated with North in some way. I’ll give Passante and Cotts the update. Maybe they know something that can provide some answers.”
They ended the meeting soon after, and Lucas went outside to speak to Alex. When he unlocked the door to the shed, it was quiet and dark inside except for the sunlight pouring through the windows facing the lake. She wasn’t in there. Lucas stepped back and looked around the large backyard and toward the house. There was no sign of her. Starting to get alarmed, he took out his cell phone, ready to check the GPS location of her phone in case she had gone against the security protocols and left the property alone. Then something red caught his eye near the edge of the grass, at the wooden steps down to the docks.
As he grew closer, he saw it was Alex, sitting on the top step, looking out at the water. She glanced up with surprise as his shadow fell over her, then stood up abruptly.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Lucas told her.
“No, that’s okay. I was just thinking.”
“About what?” he asked.
“Just one of the components.”
She looked around, then out at the lake, almost longingly.
“Would a walk help? We can walk along the water for a bit then turn back.”
Lucas thought for a moment that she was about to turn him down, and it surprised him how disappointed he would be. Talking with her earlier in the morning had been nice, and something he was looking forward to repeating.
“Sure, why not,” she finally replied.
He sent Ned a brief text message with their plans, then followed her down the stairs. They walked along the boardwalk for about ten minutes in silence. At the end of April, the midday temperature was cool, but the air was still and the sun shone brightly, reflecting off the glassy lake. Alex had her hands buried in the pockets of her hooded sweatshirt, but otherwise seemed comfortable.
Another ten minutes, and they reached the park at the edge of the Skaneateles town center, with a line of quaint shops and restaurants.
“Do you think they have a Starbucks?” she asked as they walked across the grass to the sidewalk along the main street. “I would love a latte.”
“Let’s go take a look,” Lucas suggested.
“I didn’t bring my wallet, or anything.”
“I think I can cover you,” he teased.
There was no big-brand coffee shop, but they did find a café along the main strip that made lattes to order and had a wide selection of fresh baked breads and pastries. Alex got her latte, Lucas grabbed a sports drink and a box of pastries, which he would bring back to the house for Ned. They were walking back to the house along the boardwalk when Lucas brought up the topic of Cesar Hernandez and gave her a brief summary of the details uncovered during the FBI interrogation.
“So, you think someone other than Cesar is trying to steal the Cicada design,” she said with a sigh.
“We have to consider that.”
“I guess that means we’re not going home yet. And here I was thinking this might be a victory celebration.”
Lucas smiled down at her.
“I think I could come up with something better than a cup of coffee, if that were the case.”
“Hey, I wasn’t complaining. I’m a pretty cheap date.”
Alex then stopped in her tracks as she threw her head back with her eyes shut tight and her teeth clenched in a grimace.