Firewall (4 page)

G
etting
his feet back on the ground after being fired turned out to be trickier than Justin had thought. After walking into a couple of other tech companies he’d freelanced for in the past, he was getting nothing. Stony faces or rejections outright instead of “we’ll see what our next project is and give you a call tomorrow,” like he’d heard before. Justin was used to being in demand.

How fast had word spread. And, worse yet, what exactly was being spread? Had the incident with Sybil Industries leaked out? All it took was one pair of loose lips and companies wouldn’t dare trust him with their sensitive security information. And nothing had even been proven—in court or otherwise.

It was all a bit much. Justin wanted to curl up in bed and bury himself in
Doctor Who
books. It felt so much easier to lose himself in fantasy worlds rather than face reality, but it had to be done. Justin was too prideful to let this take him down.

Not for something he hadn’t even done in the first place.

Justin needed to prove that he still had what it took, and earn a chance to salvage his reputation. He loved what he did too much to give it all up now. That was where his idea of creating his own firm had come from. He could put together a team of pentesters and hackers to rent out to companies for projects big and small.

He didn’t know
how
he was going to do that yet, but he was working on it. It would be a hell of a lot easier if he knew what people were saying about him, though.

As he wracked his brain at home, he browsed his usual tech forums. He didn’t really converse much with others, even there, but the forums were handy for learning new tricks. They were also good for following up on bugs and half-finished testing methods that others were too lazy to finish and use.

Then, he froze as he read a thread title that made his stomach twist.

He clicked on the thread and grimaced. The first poster was talking about the security breach, and it only got nastier from there. Apparently he didn’t have friends on
this
forum either. A lot of the comments were attacking him personally rather than his work.

They only went on from there. Justin hardly knew what to do, his jaw tightening as he read the posts.

He had to defend himself. If people were going to be talking about him like that, it’d look even worse if he
didn’t
respond, right? Putting a lid on his growing anger, Justin typed out a detailed defense of himself. He told them that he knew he wasn’t the best at socializing, like a lot of geeks and nerds, but he knew his job and he’d always done it. He had no idea who had caused the breach, but it definitely wasn’t him. Some asshole had pinned something on him, and he knew it.

Just before he posted it, he hesitated, his cursor hanging over the “post” button.

“Maybe I’ll send it to Calder first,” Justin muttered. He went to his email account and composed a new message for Calder. He copied and pasted what he had written into it and explained the situation.

Calder was good at defusing situations. That was what he did for a living. The last thing Justin wanted to do was make things worse.

After he sent off his email, Justin paced around his house, muttering to himself. He was so worked up that even the thought of tinkering with gadgets or playing games didn’t soothe him.

A few minutes later, Calder sent back an email with an attachment. It was a revised version of what Justin had sent him, and a quick note.

As Justin glanced over the post, he had to admit that it sounded a lot calmer than what he had originally sent. He didn’t know how Calder did it but he had such a good way with words.

Justin grabbed that revised version and posted it to the forum, then let out a breath. There. The post was out there for these people to see—these... not friends, but also not strangers, most of them known to him after years in hacker circles. Apparently, not even friendly acquaintances.

Justin emailed back.

Hopefully this would stop some of the rumors. He needed to find freelance jobs again, and worse than people’s dislike of his social habits was the implication that he’d caused a breach in security. That would be the day he quit for good.

I
t was
the day after the Justin had posted on the forum in his defense. While some people responded positively to the post, thanks to Calder’s wording, others were still disbelieving. It was hard for Justin to accept that there were people out there that loathed him
this
much. He had no idea he had that kind of impact on the community. He had always naturally hoped that he had more admirers than haters.

And worse yet, more emails were coming into his personal account as well. While none of them had been death threats, some of the words still stung. These people knew who he was, which wasn’t surprising. Doxxing was easy enough for most beginner hackers. It still made him feel uncomfortable, though. They all knew where he lived now, as some of the messages and emails indicated, and they could cause real trouble.

Justin decided to try his luck going to the police. From what he knew, going to the police was almost always fruitless when it came to online harassment but he had to try. It’d be easy enough for Justin to turn things around onto the people harassing him and make
their
lives hell but he had to resist. He prided himself in being an ethical hacker and didn’t want to stoop to their level. That was not why he’d gotten into the business.

Still, on days like this, the temptation was strong.

Justin printed off some of the emails and messages he had received, then headed to his local police department. Although Justin considered himself to be one of the good guys, he still found people in uniforms intimidating.

As he stepped inside the lobby, he moved up to the window with his papers. “Hello,” he greeted.

“Good afternoon, sir. What can I do for you?” the woman behind the counter asked.

“I’m being harassed because of a crime I didn’t commit that got me fired and I need help,” Justin said. “The harassment’s getting so bad that I’m being sent emails. Some of them make it known that they know where I live. These people and their rumors are stopping me from getting more work, too.”

“Have any of them physically approached you?”

“Not yet but they can. That’s why I’m here—to try and stop this,” Justin insisted as he showed her the papers.

The next few minutes were painfully frustrating as Justin had a back-and-forth with the officer, who was more or less telling him that there was nothing they could do. Justin had been expecting such a response but it still blew him away. Here they were, sworn to serve and
protect
but there was nothing they could do? Even if Justin did break his own code of ethics and doxxed these people for their personal info, it was likely the police wouldn’t do anything.

What good was the “protect” part in “serve and protect,” then?

When Justin left the police department, he fisted the papers in his hands. As he gazed at the people coming and going all around him, paranoia swirled deep down inside. Any of those people could have been the same people sending him hateful messages. Any of them could have known where he lived. Maybe they were already staking out his home.

Justin shivered, checking the backseat of his car before climbing into it.

He needed something to calm his nerves, and he knew just the thing as he pulled his car from the parking lot.

Not long afterward, Justin walked in through the doors of his favorite place in the city: a cat café. It was a great place to enjoy coffee and destress in the presence of cats waiting for adoption. He was a regular at the café, although he had yet to adopt a cat. The temptation was strong, but there hadn’t been a cat yet that truly stole his heart. So many came close, though.

When Justin took a seat near the corner, an old tabby named Tiger immediately jumped up into his lap. Justin gave a startled laugh as he shifted to make room for the cat. Old Tiger was busy purring and bunting his hand, looking for affection.

In that moment, Justin’s heart hurt. She was looking for attention and comfort just like he was.

Justin was so frustrated by everything. Nothing was going his way, although he was trying his best to get back onto his feet. Everyone around him seemed so cold. Had he been as cold to them as they were to him? Justin really did try to be a friendly and approachable person.

Justin wrapped his arms around the old cat, burying his face into her fur. He took calming breaths, not caring that he got mouthfuls of fur as he did so. The deep rumbling of her purrs and her heat soothed him, and Justin gradually calmed again.

Everything was going to be okay. He was going to get everything sorted out.

Justin wasn’t sure how long he was there cuddling the cat before he finally had to head back home. As he put Tiger down, he kissed the top of her head. “If someone doesn’t take you home soon, I’ll come back for you,” he murmured.

He rose to his feet and straightened up, willing himself to be confident once again as he walked out the door to head back home.

O
nce Justin arrived home
, he checked his computer to see if anyone wished he’d die in a horrible car crash, or something. He was a glutton for punishment. After having a nice time at the café, he was going to throw himself into stressful situations again? It was unavoidable, though.

And even though it was a train wreck, he couldn’t resist checking in on his usual forums. He sighed as he went through the messages, still flabbergasted by the hostility from the community, then paused.

There was a private message from Wallace.

Justin eyed the message. That bastard. What the hell was he doing messaging like that out of the blue? Wallace
had
to know that Justin suspected him of framing him, didn’t he? Was this some kind of cruel game?

The reply came back almost immediately.

Justin’s mind was churning. He had been trying remotely to get dirt on Wallace since he had been fired but hadn’t been able to get a thing. He suspected that Wallace was likely working from a second hard drive, or using some other secondary system that made his work inaccessible.

What if he tried to get back onto Wallace’s good side to join the team? He’d be able to snoop around. No, there was no way Wallace would fall for that now. The fact that Wallace was contacting him like this told him that offer was off the table.

And that Wallace perhaps felt threatened. He
had
to be the one stirring everything up behind the scenes, too. The nastiness on the forums, the unwanted emails, the potential employers turning him away without a second look. How powerful was Wallace? How far was his reach?

Justin’s fingers itched to type a scathing response to Wallace, but he resisted. He couldn’t make things worse. As much as he wanted to nail the bastard, he had to move on as well. He couldn’t let himself keep being dragged through the mud.

Instead of engaging, Justin took a deep breath and pried himself away from the computer screen.

I
t was
a rare day off for Calder, a couple of days after Justin’s forum rant that he’d quickly edited and sent back on his lunch break.

That day, Calder was lonely. His job was a strain on all areas of his life. Calder had had few dates over the years and even fewer relationships. The last relationship he’d had ended abruptly when the woman he was dating accused him of having an affair with one of his clients. She had seen video of him with an arm around a businesswoman to help her across rough terrain in her stilettos before the paparazzi could block the way to the house or push his client out into the street. She’d instantly assumed he had been sleeping with her, not protecting her.

People outside the job just didn’t get it.

As he worked on his second cup of coffee and debated reactivating an old dating profile for fun, he got a phone call. God, it was probably Underwood asking him to come in. Couldn’t a man get one day off?

But it was Justin’s number on the screen.

“Hey, Justin, what’s up?” Calder said. God, hopefully the forum hadn’t exploded on him or something.

“Hey. Hope I’m not catching you at a bad time,” Justin responded. While Calder’s voice was low and rumbly, Justin’s voice was softer and a bit higher than average.

“No, you’ve caught me on a day off, actually.”

“Cool. Sorry I haven’t been too talkative over the past couple of days but I’ve been really wracking my brain.”

“What’s up?”

“Okay, so, the stuff with the forum, and a bunch of other forums, has been getting harsher. People have been emailing me now. They send emails telling me off and even letting me know that they know where I live.”

Calder’s eyes flashed as he straightened up against the couch. “What the hell?”

“I know, right? It’s pretty standard online harassment stuff. It’s getting ridiculous, though, so I tried going to the police. They’re gonna do dick all about it, though, just like I suspected.”

Calder grunted. He knew how that was. Online harassment never seemed to warrant attention. It was awful because in Calder’s line of work, he saw that a lot as well. There was very little he could do, too, except when these people turned the threats in their messages into reality. It was stupid that the police didn’t get involved until something actually happened. What was the point of that when a whole situation could have been stopped beforehand? With Calder being all about defending and defusing, the way the police sometimes operated blew his mind.

“So, since I’m not going to get any help from the police and employers are still turning me down because of what these jerks are saying, I
have
to go with doing my own thing. I have to try and make my own IT security firm.”

Calder raised an eyebrow as he sat up straighter on his couch. “You’re serious about that?”

“Yeah. I have money to invest and I need to clear my name. I’ve been thinking about the business structure and checking into business lawyers.”

“That’s great!”

“And I was thinking... Remember how I mentioned going to some conventions? There’s this one in Seattle next week, so how about you be my bodyguard? I know we were talking about you coming in for a vacation, so I understand if you don’t want to work while here.”

The stress and fear in Justin’s tone was impossible to miss, and it made Calder angry. He was pissed that people could turn Justin’s life upside down like this. And what if these guys weren’t all talk? What if someone got the balls to follow through with what they’d said?

What would happen to Justin?

“I’ll do it,” Calder said without missing a beat. A charge zipped through him like he hadn’t felt in ages. Protecting was what he lived for and what better was there than using his skills to protect Justin? Someone he cared about needed help, and he was just the man to do it.

“Are you sure? I mean, I know you’re busy with your own work.”

Calder worked his jaw around. Underwood was already being a pain about letting him choose his own clients. The odds of them letting him take Justin on were slim, especially since Justin wasn’t considered an A-list individual.

Still, he had to try. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“That really means a lot to me right now,” Justin breathed out, his voice shuddery. “I feel like I don’t have a friend in the world.”

“You’ll always have me,” Calder stated with absolute conviction.

“Calder... Oh, man, I wish you were here right now.”

The yearning in Justin’s voice made Calder quiver. With the stress of his job and the fact that he hadn’t gotten laid in ages, he was hyper aware of Justin in a different way. It was ridiculous, though, and would come to pass just like times before.

He really needed to pick up some hobbies to keep himself busy.

“Yeah, me, too,” Calder assured him. “I better go and see if I can get this gig, then.”

“Cool, I’ll let you go, then. I’ll be around if you need anything.” Since social media was their primary way of contacting each other, being “around” meant just to shoot a message if anything came up.

“Take care and I’ll get back to you soon.”

When Calder hung up the phone, he rubbed his face. He couldn’t believe that things were getting this out of hand for Justin. He was determined to help his bud set things right, though. It had been a long time since he’d seen Justin this stressed, and he had never seen him fearful.

That made his skin crawl and blood boil. It took a lot for Calder to keep his hate down for the ones that were causing such misery.

Convincing his firm to let him take on Justin as a client was going to be interesting.

“
Y
ou want
to work with who?”

“Justin West. He’s an ethical hacker who made it big and was recently fired,” Calder explained.

“And why was he fired?”

“It looks like he was framed but he has no way of proving that yet.”

Calder was standing in front of Don, his boss at the private security firm, just hours after the phone call with Justin. Day off or not, this was important. He had to do it as soon as possible.

Don was in his fifties and had a nose that looked like it had been broken more than once. His hair was more gray than brown these days, though he insisted that it was because of stress more than age. He had been the boss for as long as Calder had worked with them and they typically got along well.

“And why do you want to work with him?” Don asked as he looked down at the papers Calder had handed him. Calder had drawn up a quick background report like the hundreds he’d seen before. He’d included most of the relevant details about Justin and the case. “From everything I see here, he’s a low-risk case. Hardly worth considering.”

“He’s being harassed online and denied work because of the rumors, and the harassment is personal. I think it will get worse as he builds his own firm.”

Don shook his head. “This is not the kind of case I want you taking. I’d much rather put you with our high-risk A-list clients. Your skills will be much better used there.”

“I know that, sir, but this is a good friend of mine asking for a favor.”

Don raised his brow. “Being personally involved with clients isn’t a good idea.”

Calder remained firm, his back straight. “I’m aware and intend to take the necessary precautions.”

Don looked back down at the papers while shaking his head. “I don’t want you taking that case, Calder.”

Justin would have stayed calm and understood that it was a business decision. Calder, however, simmered underneath. He wanted to rant about his loyalty to the company and how he had never asked for a specific case before, but he channeled a bit of Justin and kept his cool.

He’d somehow expected this answer from his boss, but he’d had to try first.

“Very well, sir. I quit.”

Don was startled as he stared hard at Calder. Calder stood straighter as he maintained eye contact, not letting his resolve falter.

“You’re willing to lose your job over this friend?”

“He’s worth it and more,” Calder asserted as he gave one last nod to his boss before leaving his office for the last time.