Page 94 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Just hold on. Before we figure that Rylie can work magic, let me finish my story,” Gideon interrupted everyone.
The team nodded their heads. Gideon continued. “As he’s bragging about what an evil genius he is, we talk about Sid Bonham and what he was working on, and then the bastard says he’s going to rule the world. He says that he’s going to be bigger than Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.”
“Come again?” Ryker said.
“Yeah, it’s not making sense to me, either. But I think fucking with me was just an opportunity that presented itself, and it was too good to pass up. He’s always been planning something else. Something big. It has to do with the tech that Bonham was working on.”
“Okay, what was Bonham working on?” Dex asked.
“He was working on ways to physically introduce things that could be directly installed onto a company’s firmware. This would make it virtually impossible to detect.”
“How about to kill?” Kostya asked.
“We could stop it, once we know what it is. We just have to write and install the correct virus. Installing the virus is going to be the problem. If Kendall somehow figured out a way to get into the firmware, that means he was physically onsite. Meanwhile, we have to either get onsite or find a zero-day to get into their systems remotely.”
“What’s a zero-day?” Lark asked.
“It’s a vulnerability that the target doesn’t realize they have. That’s where Kendall or any other bad actor would install malware.”
“Got it,” Lark responded.
“So all we have to figure out what he’s planning and stop it. That’s not going to be hard at all,” Ryker added sarcastically.
“We need to come at this a few different ways. Dex, start taking notes,” Gideon ordered. “First, we need to try to track down where Kendall is. Next, we need to figure out what his over-the-top master plan is and stop it. Third, we have Naomi Sims in custody in Oregon. She’s the sister of Kendall’s girlfriend, so maybe she has some ideas on how to track her. Fourth, we need to create some kind of malware that will counteract the firmware that would be corrupting the target, whatever it is. Let’s parse out the jobs.”
“I’m on for Naomi,” Lark said. “I can get a flight today. I have a knack for getting in to see people, and then getting them talking.”
“Boy does she,” Kostya grinned.
“Okay, next?” Gideon asked.
“I want the over-the-top master plan,” Rylie said.
“Sounds like you’d be our girl for that,” Gideon agreed.
“Rylie, let’s team up since we have so often in the past,” Lydia said. Rylie gave a thumbs up.
“I’ll watch the police interview on the guy at the warehouse and check out his past. My gut says he’s going to be worthless, but we need to tie up that loose end,” Dex said.
“Jada, how about you and I check out Bonham’s work, then build some malware that would counteract his firmware?” Kane asked.
Jada nodded.
“That leaves me with finding Kendall.” Gideon rubbed his hands together with a satisfied smile on his face.
