Hacker For Hire (Ted Higuera Series Book 2) Read Online Free

Cream-colored
walls without a single picture or photograph. No plants. No decoration of any
sort, just mind-numbing plainness. There was no indication of the personality
of the man who worked here. Probably because he doesn’t have one.
    Donna turned her
attention to the laptop on the desk. Her breath came in short bursts as she
raised the lid. The keys to the kingdom , she thought as she removed an
aerosol can from her cleaning cart and blew the keyboard clean. I have to be
patient. She worked diligently, cleaning the office from top to bottom to
operating-room standards.
    Finally, she
closed the blinds, turned off the TV and pushed her cart to the door. A smile
spread across her face.
    Maybe the extra
money wouldn’t be so bad. Taking her family to Cabo, when winter closed in on
them, might just be what the doctor ordered.

Chapter 3
    “Boo! Hiss!”
Someone threw peanuts at Richard Freeman’s image on the big screen TV. Catcalls
filled the conference room.
    Híjole, Ted
thought, these dudes are wired. He watched the scene on the television
shift to Justin getting out of the van in the parking garage of the Millennium Tower.
    Ted had never seen
Justin in anything but his tank top and shorts. In the coveralls he looked like
any working Joe.
    “We have hidden
cameras following Mr. McCormack’s progress.” Janet’s professional voice-over floated
through the speakers. “He wore a disguise in case MS security had warned its
staff to watch out for him.”
    On TV, Justin stepped
out of the elevator and looked around the office. People hustled busily about.
No one paid him any attention.
    “We’re looking for
the department manager’s office, checking out the attentiveness of management
and employees.” Justin’s voice-over covered his actions.
    Even though Ted
knew the outcome, he held his breath.
    On the screen, Bear
stepped behind Justin. The camera hidden in his glasses zeroed in as Justin
typed in “JAPOTT” and hit the “enter” key.
    “I was denied
access three times,” Justin said. “Then the system locked me out. That’s good
security practice.” On TV, Justin picked up the phone. “I called the help
desk.”
    He did his song
and dance routine with the help desk agent. “We call it social engineering,”
Justin told Janet. “Human beings are always the weakest link in any security
system. They would have seen from their caller ID that I was calling from Mr.
Potter’s desk. They heard what they expected to hear. They reset the password
and I was in. I returned to my office where I have better tools and less chance
of detection, to hack their system.”
    “Woo Hoo!” The
room erupted in applause. People high-fived, fist bumped, hip bumped and chest
bumped.
    Caramba , Ted
thought, you’d think they just won the Super Bowl.
    “It took you five
minutes to break into one of the most secure computer systems in the world.”
Janet Petersen’s voice cut through the celebration.
    Ted leaned back in
his chair. There was a lot to learn here. If Justin could break into Millennium
Systems network, he could hack any system in the world. He smiled to himself. What
he can do, I can do. You have been given great power, my son. Use it wisely.
    ****
    Donna put her
cleaning cart in the closet, punched out on her time card, removed the rubber
band from her ponytail and shook her hair free. She had let the streaks of gray
show in her chestnut brown hair for this assignment.
    Donning a ratty,
old wool coat, she stepped out of the downtown high-rise and made her way to
the corner bus stop. Her timing was precise. The ST545 bus pulled up only
moments after her arrival.
    On the long bus
ride across Lake Washington to the Bear Creek Park N Ride lot in Redmond, Donna read a Susan Wiggs novel and tried to decompress. She didn’t want to bring
the stress of work home.
    The sun crept over
the Cascade Mountains as she disembarked. The Park’N’Ride lot was just
beginning to get busy. She walked the short distance to a