Headhunters by Charlie Cole Page A

needed to leave. I’d come to
realize that if I didn’t set the reminder, I’d lose track of time and find
myself running late. I never wanted to be late for my family again. It was like
a pain point. Don’t be late. The promise of coming home early that I’d made to
Alaina had not been made lightly, so when the reminder popped up, I began to wrap
up my business for the day.
    I dialed the number of the Chinese restaurant that was on my
way home. I ordered sweet and sour chicken, beef with broccoli, shrimp egg foo
young, steamed dumplings and crab rangoon. They had my credit card number on
file.
    I finished my last email and hit ‘send’. I closed out my
screen and grabbed my briefcase. The office had settled into its quiet
afternoon hum. Max was out at a client visit. Christine had her office door
closed and Ellis was chatting up a woman in Business Intelligence who didn’t
look like she’d give him the time of day, but he was wearing her down. God
bless him for trying.
    Walking toward the door, I saw no one else in my path. I was
home free. Then I heard the voice.
    “Simon, wait a second.”
    I turned to see Jess approaching quickly, a stack of files
in her arms.
    “Hi, what’s up?” I asked.
    “I was just going through the DHS files,” she said,
mentioning the Department of Homeland Security project. We’d placed five more
people in there since Chris Swenson on my first day.
    “Sure, but I’ve got to get going,” I said.
    “Totally understand. It’s just this one thing.”
    Jess pulled a file out of her stack and opened it.
    “I had been showing Max some of our work on the DHS
project,” she said. “He wanted to see what progress had been made…”
    “What’s the word from Chris?” I asked.
    “Very positive. He’s done a number of tests, a couple of
trial hacks, exposed some flaws and now is going through the data to ensure
that the proper controls are in place to prevent fraud, misuse or loss of the
DHS data,” Jess said.
    “Good, so what’s the problem?”
    “More of a question than a problem. I was entering my notes
in the system and was reading back through the files that Max had returned to
me and I found this. He must have accidentally included it in my file instead
of his.”
    Jess handed me a single sheet of paper.
    “It’s an email detailing logins and passwords for the DHS
site that were sent from Chris back here to Max,” Jess said. “As well as a
project timeline.”
    “Is this part of the security protocol?” I asked. “Are these
passwords supposed to be kept offsite? Isn’t that dangerous?”
    “I don’t know,” Jess confessed. “But here’s the other
thing…”
    She produced a second sheet of paper. Another email.
    “Max removed the logins and passwords when he forwarded the
email, but he reported the status of the project to someone outside of this
company,” Jess explained. “And outside of the DHS…”
    “Who?” I asked, fearing the answer before it came.
    Jessica searched the printout.
    “Someone named Randall Kendrick from a company called
Blackthorn, Inc…”
    I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I couldn’t
breathe. I needed to sit down. My legs felt as if they would buckle at any
moment. My mind flashed through the scenarios of what had happened.
    Randall Kendrick hadn’t introduced me to Max Donovan to help
me get away from Blackthorn business. He’d introduced me to Max so that I
continued to do Blackthorn business… whether I knew it or not. Max must have
known if he’d kept it from me. Known how I’d react. Known what I’d do. I’d been
a fool. I’d recruited Chris to the project on my first day, showing off like a
complete jackass, trying to impress the boss and in reality only digging the
hole deeper for myself.
    Chris had been the only person who could enter into the
Department of Homeland Security under the guise of a legitimate organization
and hack into the DHS files. But why? Why would Kendrick want to lay bare all
those