Fair Warning, Part 2

About ten seconds after I finished reading, the pad display switched over to a seemingly endless list of technical data. I wondered if any of it was real. I'm not sure that Slaiton would be able to tell, but Satasha struck me as the sort of person who would run an actual security review, anyway. I handed the pad over to the Commissioner.

“Well, sir,” I said. “It does seem to be in order. The exploits used were just a few day-zeros that have since been patched. Happens to the best of us.” Slaiton snatched the pad from my hand and made a show of looking it over. No doubt his security experts would be reviewing it later on.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

I startled immediately. This time, though, it was the com on Slaiton's belt going off. He yanked it from his belt and yelled into it.

“What now?” he said. There was a brief pause, during which Slaiton's face got redder than I'd ever seen it. He also seemed to be restraining himself from crushing the pad in his hand. I tried to look concerned as he tapped out the com and turned on me.

“I don't know how, Hellard,” he shouted. “But you are behind this!” He hurled the pad at Satasha, who barely caught it. “Call an escort out, Secminion. I'm taking a hyper to HQ.” The only reason he didn't slam the door on the way out was that the automated mechanism wouldn't let him.

I smirked and turned to Satasha. “You weren't wrong. I hope you have Phase Two lined up?”

She was already faced away from me and tapping into the direct access terminal on the server. “Done in five. I think you may want to go. Might be less implicated that way. Phase Three is where it gets messy.”

A few days earlier, I would have bailed at that line. Rep was everything, especially in these early days of my career at Persephone. That day, though, I just grinned and shrugged. I would either be able to spin my way out of this pile or not. Throwing a few more scoops on top hardly seemed worth worrying on.

“How can I help?”