Jacob asked cautiously:
_"Luca? You've mentioned that name before?"
-No. He's just a friend. I'll explain later, okay?"
Jacob didn't press further and sat down beside Matthew. A few minutes later, he told her the coffee was ready.
_"Want me to go get it?"
-No, I need to stretch my legs. From now on, the hard part begins..I probably won't be able to step out much.
She hurried out of the library.
Silence lingered for a while.
_"She's getting serious, huh?" Jacob muttered.
+Mm.
As soon as Diana returned, her phone rang. She answered quickly, it was Luca.
Jacob's eyes widened when he heard her speaking Italian again. Stunned, he glanced at Matthew.
But Matthew, arms still crossed, didn't even flinch.
+Exactly,
he said coolly.
Oblivious to their surprise, Diana kept talking. It took Luca a while to get inside. A tense silence hung in the room.
Diana connected her two laptops with a cable she had brought from her room. Then she turned on the guys, scowling and wagging a finger like a teacher.
-Until I say otherwise, not a word out of either of you, okay? No noise, no calling my name. Just sit there silently. Got it?"
Matthew and Jacob both nodded.
She smirked.
-Good boys.
Then, to the phone on speaker:
-Okay, Luca. I'm ready. Start.
Her laptop screen flooded with scanning data. Several times it flashed red with errors, and each time Diana typed frantically to override them.
She opened a new window an image appeared. A building lobby. Matthew thought: was that Stone's tower lobby?
Diana's eyes darted between the live feed and the scan results.
-Come on… faster.
Matthew clenched his jaw. Not knowing what the hell she was doing grated on his nerves. He wasn't the type to sit back while someone else worked in secrecy.
Eight minutes later, Diana barked:
-Get out, Luca. Pack up and leave. Right now.
Luca's voice answered in English:
/Just two more minutes…
-Damn it, listen to me! They know we've breached the system. Get up and get out now!
/One more minute. Let me finish scanning everyone.
Diana's stomach twisted. She stared at the laptop, worry etched all over her face.
Two minutes later, Luca's voice came again:
/Don't call me until I reach out. Log out of all the channels and shut down your access.
Then the line went dead.
Diana buried her head in her hands, taking a few deep breaths before throwing herself back into the work.
It was close to 7 p.m. now. She hadn't eaten a thing all day except coffee. She closed several windows, then turned back toward the guys.
Jacob had stretched out on the couch, head resting on the armrest, legs curled up, watching her sleepily through half-lidded eyes.
Matthew sat leaning his head against his hand on the opposite armrest.
-It's done,
she said.
No reaction.
Were they… asleep with their eyes open?
-It's doooone,
she repeated.
They jolted upright, startled.
_"Oh..really? Well, damn. Nice."
-I'll explain once. So listen carefully.
-This man you see…
She pulled up an image.
-He's the one who sold your information to the Stones. He's done it before. Not prison time this kind of job. He's not bad at it…
She smirked.
-But I'm the one who exposed him, so clearly I'm better. As I was saying… he entered your tower as part of Stone's protection team. Apparently, that day all the teams had a meeting inside your tower.
-His official role was bodyguard, but in reality he was there to access the Wi-Fi IPs probably both of yours and almost half your team's hoping to find something.
She coughed lightly.
-Which, of course, he didn't. He couldn't even get into the IPs. I've prepared a list of his attempted breaches if you ever need to use it.
-Once the meeting ended, they left. Seems they suspected this approach might fail, so they had a second plan ready.
-The tender only had one judge to approve the architectural design, right?
Matthew and Jacob nodded at the same time.
-Exactly. SocI found the judge's email. He had two. One personal, one for official matters. And yes, I broke into them. He's probably noticed the alert by now.
-Just hours after leaving your tower and realizing they couldn't steal the files that way, they went to him. And he naïve as he was didn't realize you shouldn't transfer sensitive files by email. He sent them your design.
-And…
Diana chuckled.
-Two minutes later, they forwarded the design from his official email. Not even an hour later. Honestly, you two were lucky. If Bradley Wood^that fake bodyguard^hadn't been at your tower that day, my job would've been so much harder. With him, though, it was easy to trace the trail.
-And if you're wondering how… Luca and I built a program that scans faces with extreme accuracy. We'd never used it this heavily before, so we had to stay online together fixing bugs as they popped up. Another thing: Luca got into Stone's tower easily..it's more public than yours. But hacking into their cameras? That was tough. You should be thanking us. We matched the faces, and that was it. The rest was obvious.
-Oh, and by the way I've already sent a redacted version of all this to the tender committee. You should be hearing back in about fifteen minutes.
-As for me I need to sleep. That's it. The rest is on you.
She didn't wait for a reply and walked out of the library.
_"Wait… so, like… now…?"
+Talk, Jacob. Words. You can do it.
_"That damn meeting… holy shit. How did she even figure it out?"
Matthew rubbed his temples. It felt like he had the headache Diana should've had.
+She did well… Maybe I should stop calling her an idiot.
_"Bro…"
Jacob was still stunned, trying to digest everything.
Matthew's phone rang.
_"Is that them?"
+Probably.
He cleared his throat before answering.
+Hello.
Yes.
I understand. Yes.
Our team will review this thoroughly. There's no logical reason to end the tender early. I'll make sure every official involved explains themselves in court.
+Yes… perfectly clear. I'll see the entire judging panel and anyone who played a role in court.
+I'm not interested in continuing this conversation.
He hung up. Jacob stared at him. It didn't matter what the issue was Matthew never came down from his throne so easily. He spoke like he'd been waiting his whole life for this moment.
_"I think we need some rest too."
+Tell them no one enters the tower these next few days not until I've nailed that bastard Stone to the wall.
He stood and left the library as well. Jacob stretched out on the couch again, mind racing with the tasks still left undone.