Nicco

Ch. 29: A Pretty Face

NICCO

The two of us step out of the elevator, and we find an empty, isolated corridor in the lobby to commence our conversation. In low, urgent tones, he updates me on all matters relating to last night's security breach. Carl then tells me that his team has already done a scan for my vehicles and properties in London, and everything came up clean. They are, however, still searching for concrete leads on who might be behind the Inverness breach, but he believes that Liam and his team are innocent.

"The only thing they are guilty of," he contends, "is being unprepared for a hack job as coordinated as the one from last night."

In other words, they are incompetent bastards. Annoyed and skeptical, I demand, "Why do you suspect that Liam is in the clear?"

Carl replies, "Because my team and I found traces of evidence that Liam's laptop might have been compromised in the past few weeks. His security access codes were likely stolen. When we interrogated him about it, Liam did not even realize that he had been attacked. This leads me to theorize that the perpetrators targeted Balmore House because they knew the security systems would be the easiest to undermine."

Fucking Liam.

The fucking idiot.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I grunt, "Let me get this straight. The hackers stole Liam's access codes prior to our arrival at Balmore, but they did not hijack the cameras until Aria and I showed up at Balmore, correct?"

"Correct."

"And they were able to bypass our security at Balmore House so quickly because of the stolen access codes?"

Carl clears his throat. "I believe so."

"I see. It sounds like these fuckers have been preparing for this opportunity for weeks. They were simply waiting for me to make an appearance at Balmore."

Carl winces and nods in agreement. He gives another pause. I frown. "What is it?"

"I have more bad news for you, sir."

I stifle a groan. "Are you fucking serious?"

"Just now, I detected a tracking device in your suite."

I curse, "Cazzo."

"This device is, very likely, how the guilty party traced your movements to Inverness. It also supports the theory that the attack was an outside job rather than an internal one."

Carl is right. Every time I head out to Balmore House, Carl's team in London informs Liam's team in Inverness whenever I am en route. There is really no need for Liam to go through the trouble of implanting a tracking device on my person.

"Is the device still active?"

"No," Carl tells me, "I deactivated it just now."

"So... it has been spying on our location this whole time?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Where did you find the device? On my phone?"

"No."

"Where, then?"

Carl averts his gaze for a moment.

"Tell me," I prompt.

"The signal was detected," Carl finally answers, "from your assistant's necklace."

His words hit me like a punch to the gut. No wonder he was reluctant to speak out in front of Aria. "The one with the heart-shaped locket?"

Carl's eyes grow narrow. "That's the one."

Disbelief rolls through me. "Aria told me that her father gave her that necklace."