Unauthorized

Chapter 17: Infiltration

Both Chi and Andrés made understanding noises and turned to stand shoulder to shoulder as Liv slipped away. Definitely compatriots of some sort but not romantic, she decided. The flirtatiousness Andrés had always displayed around her had shifted o a cold professionalism soon as she was out of sight, peeking at them over her shoulder.

Wait...is that his guy on the inside? She had to be.

Andrés moved on moments after Liv turned to look, flashing a politician's empty smile at the next woman as Chi did the same with a man who had approached her elbow. Liv could tell the difference now; he'd given her a genuine smile earlier and even from a distance she could see where this one didn't reach his now-empty eyes. The transformation was incredible.

Curiouser and curiouser, she thought as she sought an exit. Who is he, really?

Her glance around the room landed on a blue-eyed woman in black trousers and a sleeveless top that looked like it was made of leather. The woman's blonde hair was cut military short on the back and sides with a crown of spikes on top, and she looked out over the gathering from an upper level with a faint sneer.

Imogen Quinn.

Liv froze. This was the woman who'd had Lewis beaten to within an inch of his life. This was the bitch she had to bring down. Did Andrés know she was here, watching them? Did Imogen know she and Andrés were here? With an effort, she tore her eyes away from her enemy and looked for her date.

He was now in conversation with another person she recognized from her research: Imogen's COO. Andrés seemed okay – he wasn't being hustled out of the room – but the stiffness of his posture told her all was not alright. Had they been discovered?

Fuck. Of course they'd be here, it's their party. Will they look at me and see Lewis? Will they know why I'm here? How did that not occur to me before now?

She needed to find the server room, or at least an unguarded terminal. It was a multi-storey building, but she guessed the servers would be hosted at ground floor or below. Heat rose, and servers needed to be kept cool. IQ Security was the only tenant of this building – a fact that Liv suspected wasn't an accident – and the building plans she'd hacked had a couple of likely rooms two floors down.

High ceilings loomed overhead as she made her way out, seeming to mock her desire to get belowground. Having seen Northcliffe House, Liv thought she could see what the builders were going for but didn't quite accomplish.

Guests thronged the corridors outside the main entry to the events room, speaking in quieter voices both for having been freed of the cacophony of the party and for the echo the hall created. The clatter of Liv's low heels joined the reverberations, the sound reminding her it was a good thing she was forced to walk slower than she might if she'd been in her motorcycle boots. Andrés's voice whispered through her head: "Rushing draws attention and forces mistakes. Calm, nena, be calm."

"Calm, right," she muttered, smiling like an idiot at a woman who glanced up from her phone. "Nothing to see here. Where are the bloody stairs?" The maps had them around here somewhere. She swung around a corner and pulled up short.

"This area is off-limits, madam."

Liv put a hand to her chest, not having to try too hard to fake surprise. "Oh! You scared me. Sorry, I'm just looking for the loo."

With a bored sigh, the security guard pointed her back the way she'd come and gave directions she didn't really need. She waved and turned around, reminding herself that she didn't really need to find the server room, that was just the grand prize. Any unattended computer connected to the internal network would do. She'd hidden traces of her earlier hack into IQ Security's network, but not removed them, leaving herself a backdoor. All Liv had to do was get in, execute a command, and get out.