Start at the Prologue and First Chapter here

Audrey made herself go to work the next day for the same reason she’d stayed at the going away party after talking to Benson Cronin: she’d be damned if she’d let anyone – especially Greg Olson – think there was anything she couldn’t handle.

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t torture; she felt as if all eyes were on her – and perhaps they were. What if Olson was gossiping right now, speaking with somewhere nearby? Who knew how he would describe their encounter? She sat in her office, even more erect than usual until finally she broke, and called Sylvia Bunsen, the only person in the bank she could think of to share what had happened the evening before.

Sylvia had been playing cat to Audrey’s mouse for months, thus far with no success or any apparent realization by Audrey of what Sylvia had in mind. But Sylvia was nothing if not persistent. Audrey’s exquisite aloofness appealed to Sylvia, something like the way a cat that couldn’t care less appeals to someone determined to gain its affection. Sylvia had no idea whether Audrey was gay or straight, but she was betting the odds were in her favor, assuming Audrey had any interest in playing on either team at all. If so, Sylvia looked forward to the day she could say softly in Audrey’s ear that she thought she was beautiful.

Audrey had first caught Sylvia’s eye at a management retreat, and Sylvia had succeeded in maneuvering herself on to Audrey’s team during one of those long and ridiculous games that are supposed to build camaraderie and team spirit. She followed up a few days later with an invitation to grab lunch. Fishing around as much as possible over their salads, she found out that Cronin never shared budget details with Audrey. From the way she said it, Sylvia decided Audrey couldn’t stand being excluded from anything on the management front. From then on, Sylvia baited her lunch invitations with subtle suggestions that she had interesting information to share. Audrey always took the bait but never reciprocated with an invitation of her own. Sylvia might be persistent, but she was also practical, and therefore on the verge of crossing Addams off her wish list. Audrey’s unexpected call was an unexpected and delightful surprise.

The restaurant they met in was quiet, discrete and lightly occupied. Sylvia was all sympathy and patience, offering Audrey all the time and understanding she needed to describe what had happened and work through it out loud. For the first time, Sylvia felt she was establishing a bond, and wondered how far she could take it. Should she reach across and take Audrey’s hand? No; not yet. Too risky. And anyway, best to hedge her bets; Audrey wasn’t the only woman who appealed to Sylvia, and recently Sylvia had adopted a second agenda to pursue.

“I don’t want to change the subject,” Sylvia said, “but I think I should ask. Are you planning on going back to the office this afternoon?”

“Yes,” Audrey replied, with a look that somehow managed to mix determination with revulsion.

“Okay, then we’ve got to buck you up first. Time to get you back on an even keel. Right?”

“Right.”

“Okay. Let’s talk some shop so you can pull yourself together. What’s new on the blockchain project?”

Always the blockchain project, Audrey thought. She found it deadly boring and wondered why Sylvia always asked about it.

“BancCoin? Not much, really. Well, I guess there is this: there’s this guy named Frank Adversego we brought in to be the senior cybersecurity risk manager on that project some time back. As completely clueless a wonk as you could ever imagine. I think he’s starting to go over the edge.”

“Over the edge? How?”

“He’s convinced someone’s, I don’t know, stalking him. Moving things around in his apartment – trying to intimidate him or something. He wants the bank to hire a private investigator to stake out his place.”

“And you told him what?”

“I told him no way. We’re paying him a ton of money. If he wants an investigator, he can jolly well pay for one himself. And then I called up bank security and told them to send me a daily log of his external phone calls, and copies of all his email.”

This time Sylvia did reach across the table, but only to give Audrey’s hand a friendly squeeze.

“You go, girl! That’s the spirit! Now let’s go back to the bank and give those men hell.”

*  *  *

Sylvia Bunsen loved to dance. She also loved women younger than herself, but not at work. That’s what the clubbing scene was for. On the dance floor, she introduced herself as Jinx Bunsen. It was a made-up nickname, but she thought it would appeal to the kind of person who appealed to her. In any event, it seemed to charm the lovely Svetlana, and she was very appealing indeed. They’d met at a club just two weeks ago.

Sylvia wasn’t sure what Svetlana did for a living, but figured it must have something to do with technology, because she was always asking about the BankCoin project. It had to go beyond just professional interest, though, because her questions were so detailed. Sylvia didn’t mind. Sometimes it was fun to play at being the mouse instead of the cat. How much she decided to share was always up to her, and she loved teasing Svetlana, giving up little but looking into her eyes a lot over a glass of wine in a way that promised more. It was always worth waiting for the rewards Svetlana bestowed when at last Sylvia gave her what she wanted.

Audrey’s little story about Frank therefore made Sylvia’s day. Now She could go clubbing tonight.

*  *  *

Marko Andropov was sitting at his terminal at the New York embassy of the Russian Federation. Periodically, he would toggle back to the screen he’d left open. Earlier that day he’d sent an email to Audrey Addams. In it, he spoofed Frank’s so Audrey would think the email came from him. The message was short, and read as follows:

Audrey,

I think this article on alt coin security is important: [link]

Frank

The link looked exactly the way it should, and in fact would lead – eventually – to the web site displayed in the email. But before it redirected Audrey there, it would first take her to a page Andropov had specially prepared for that purpose. Although the delay in arriving at the article page would be almost imperceptible, it would allow plenty of time for the malware on Andropov’s page to start uploading to the First Manhattan system.

There – Audrey had clicked on her link. Good. Andropov was now inside the most secure level of First Manhattan Bank’s networks, and able to shadow the email and activities of Audrey and Frank.

*  *  *

Da!

Shukov closed the decoded version of the message from the Chief of Protocol of the Russian Federation embassy in New York City. While indeed the sender was identified by the embassy as its CoP and did function in that capacity, his more important role was to serve as the senior FSS agent for the northeastern United States. And his message included the welcome news that the First Manhattan’s BankCoin cybersecurity unit had not only been penetrated, but that the CoP would daily forward detailed information to Shukov on the activities of the most important cybersecurity investigator on the First Manhattan staff.

Shukov was also pleased with the progress his malware team was making. At the next JCSC meeting he would therefore be able to report that it was only a matter of time before the Russian Federation would be in a position to take down the western world’s banking infrastructure.

That was a great relief.

*  *  *

Author Notes for This Week:

My production level has fallen off badly since I returned from vacation, but I am continuing to make progress on chipping away on a 22 point list I’ve generated for completion of the first draft. That list includes everything from minor points to significant subplots. These arise to address all manner of different concerns, from making plot elements more credible to further developing minor characters to  fixing weaknesses of all kinds.

Here are some examples:

– Making plot elements more believable: It’s one thing to make it credible that Crypto could hack BankCoin. It’s been amply proven that a single hacker can take down, or penetrate, almost anything. It’s a lot harder to make it credible that he could believe that he could pull off some major coup during the mayhem that he expects would follow. Crypto may be crazy, but I haven’t been portraying him as being barking mad. So I need to come up with a rational scenario that would allow him to believe that what he hopes will happen could happen. I’ve been working on that one this week. (That said, given that I’ve never written a line of code in my life, I’m always delighted when I read a review like this one, posted a week ago by someone who’d just read The Turing Test: “As a retired programmer I thought this was an excellent insight to programming and what it can accomplish.” Thanks to each of you who helped me along the way.)

– Fleshing out minor characters: Ruth, Dirk’s assistant, and Ryan, the FBI blockchain oversight agent, are both destined for further development.

– Fixing things: One of the issues Nora (my daughter and Alpha Alpha reader) has pointed out is that Frank doesn’t seem to be accomplishing anything yet. That’s bothered me, too, so I’m going to have to come up with some interim victories for him.

One of the things that I won’t be doing is offering anything graphic in the Audrey/Sylvia plot line – sorry. Sexual scenes are not anything I’ve ever had any interest in writing about, so when you think of Sylvia, you’ll need to take a hint from a great T shirt I once saw. It read:

Yes, I’m a Lesbian

No, You can’t Watch

Next Week: More Russian shenanigans. And on Monday, The Alexandria Project will be available in Audio! You can order it on Amazon here, and on Audible here.

Continue to Chapter 25