David(12)

“I doubt you ever truly feel intimidated.”

“Men intimidate without trying to. Just standing over a woman, a guy like you can be incredibly threatening.”

“How’s that?”

She turned toward me, gesturing with one delicate hand. “You’re nearly a foot taller than me and your shoulders are probably twice as wide as I am. You don’t think that’s intimidating?”

“I’ve never raised a hand to a woman.”

“You wouldn’t have to.” She studied me, her eyes moving quite deliberately over me. “You’re much less intimidating like that.”

“Gee, I’m glad my disability can make you feel safer.”

“Not safer. Just less intimidated.”

“Are you done with the questions now?” I asked, gesturing toward the computer. “I’d like to get back to work.”

“Sure.”

I turned back to the computer and began working again. She stayed by the window for a while, standing there staring down at the street like it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever done. For hours she stood there.

Donovan came into the room as the sun began to disappear from the sky beyond the window.

“Ready?” he asked.

I sat back, rolling my chair back from the desk a few feet and rubbing my eyes with the heel of my hands, those gloves biting into my tender flesh. I was tired. More than tired. But I was used to being tired these days.

“I’d really like to stick around a while longer. I’m close to finding what we needed.”

Ricki pushed away from the window and came to stare at the computer screens. She pointed to one screen that displayed a long line of code.

“Where did you come up with that?”

I shrugged. “Whoever did this knew what they were doing. They hide their movements in lines of your code, which means that it’s probably someone who’s worked closely with your code either through the company—as you suspected—or in the past.”

She shook her head. “I recognize this,” she said, running her finger along the line of numbers. “I’m not sure how, but I know it.”

“As in, you know who wrote it?”

“Can you really tell who wrote specific code?” Donovan asked.

“Yes,” I said. “A lot of programmers like to leave a type of signature in their code. Small bits of code that are unique to them.” I focused on Ricki again. “Do you know who wrote this?”

She stared at it for another minute. Then she shrugged. “It’s familiar, but I can’t place it right now.”

I looked up at Donovan. “It could be a personal attack.”

He nodded. “I’ll call Ash and let him know,” he said as he stepped out of the room.

“We should probably have a list of the hackers you worked with in the past,” I said quietly. “We should check them out.”

“That’s going to be difficult because I only knew the majority of them by their nicknames.”

“A lot of hackers from that time period have been identified. I can figure out their real identities if you give me their nicknames.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

Donovan stepped back into the room. “Ash wants to have a meeting in the morning,” he said, looking directly at Ricki. “Do you think that would be possible?”

“Of course. But he’ll have to come here. I have a meeting at nine with an important corporate sponsor.”

“He’d like to see you about eight.”

She nodded. “Works for me.”

Donovan’s eyes fell to me. “Ready?”

I shook my head. “I really need to stick with this. I’m close to finding the backdoor.”

Donovan glanced at his watch. I knew what he was thinking. Kate got off work at the bank at seven. He liked to meet her there and drive her home personally. The threat was gone, but he worried about her just the same. And he liked to spend as much time in her company as possible.

“Go,” Ricki said, almost as if she was reading my mind. “I can get him home.”

Donovan’s eyebrows rose. He looked at me. “Is that okay?”

I wasn’t sure I could get into a car with Ricki behind the wheel. She was so tiny…could she even see over the wheel? And was she a good driver? A reckless driver? It was hard enough riding with Donovan when I knew he could handle himself. The unknown scared the crap out of me.

But then my eyes fell to the computer keyboard. I really did want to finish this.

“Yeah. It’s fine.”

Donovan looked from her to me, then nodded.

“Change your mind, I’m just a phone call away.”

I might just take him up on that.