The Monster In Us

6- he's very dangErous

The server that I got into wasn't much of anything, which is incredibly disappointing but also not very surprising either. After I got to my apartment yesterday, I started digging through it but realized that it was just a bunch of employee files. They might be useful at a later date so I transfer them to another laptop so that I can keep this one clean so that I can keep searching for a useful server.

Today, I finish up some more of the website like the Berardis want and I chat with Denise a lot. I spend my lunch hour locked in a bathroom stall with my laptop on my lap trying to plant a bug in the system since Dante is up on the roof and I don't want to run into him again. We may have similar experiences but that doesn't make us the same, or friends, and talking to him yesterday was a complete mistake.

The bathroom isn't very busy and nobody will think anything of it when they see my feet under the stall, they might only think that I'm just taking a really big dump.

Most of my hacking and searching hit brick walls. They are better at security than I had expected and hoped but I'm confident that I'm better than their system and after enough studying of it, I will be able to take it down. I am meeting with Sergei tonight though to give him an update on any progress I've made so I want to have something good for him other than just some employee files.

They're not even good files, they're the files of the people in this office, the people that as far as I can tell, have no knowledge of the shady tricks being pulled within these walls. At the very end of my lunch hour, I'm able to grab just a few more files from the server that I'd hacked yesterday. It's not much but just some calendar information that has Dante's schedule on it. I only can load this week from the file because I don't have enough time to let the whole thing load.

All I can find out right now is that he'll be out of the building for two hours tomorrow afternoon which is pretty great news. If I can get into his office, I can physically bug his computer. I won't immediately be able to get all of the data he has on his machine but I'll at least be able to monitor what he's doing by transmitting his screen back to Pantera.

After I can't feel my butt any longer and my lunch hour is up, I pack my laptop away in my tote bag and leave the bathroom to return to work. Tonight, I'll have to get into the security system to override the video footage so that it looks like nobody is in the hallway when in reality, I will be there picking the lock on Dante's office.

I can't set up a plan right now, I have to get back to Berardi business so I sit back down at my desk and try to focus on the website that I've been updating. I know that tonight, I'll be able to talk to Sergei and we'll get a plan together so that I can get in and out of Dante's office tomorrow without getting caught.

"The Tinder guy has a brother," Denise interrupts my train of thought ten minutes later as she is returning to her desk after her lunch break. "I know that you said you weren't interested but I really think that you'd like this guy."

"Why do you think that?" I ask her in confusion considering we've only had a few conversations and she doesn't really know me that well. The fake me or the real me.

"I don't know, he's cute and you're fucking gorgeous and it could be fun for you."

"No," I deadpan. "I've just started this new job and I have to go buy decorations for my apartment this weekend. I'm too overwhelmed right now to think about dating at all. Thanks for the offer but maybe some other time."

Standing over the divider between our desks, she purses her lips at me in distaste. "Fine," She finally gives in. "I'll leave you alone now but I'm holding you to that later down the road."