UnAlaska

2. Laura and Helen

Afternoon August 15th, Seattle

Laura opened the glass door of her office in Seattle's Pioneer Square. She looked at her watch, and saw it was just after 6 o'clock. She stepped into the open work space and leaned her shoulder against her office door frame. Next to her, a small gold placard read:

Laura Constantine

Founder and CEO, Solidus Security

The office was a buzz of activity despite the late Friday hour. Three of her employees were huddled in the corner of their work stations, deep in conversation. A handsome receptionist sat behind a wide desk by the entryway, dressed in a crisp white shirt and tie. The phone trilled. He cleared his throat softly, smoothed his tie, and answered. "Solidus Security, how can I help you?"

Laura smiled. Glad I hired him, she thought. Behind him on the wall stood a round gold logo with a profile of the Roman Emperor Constantine wearing a laurel with the engraving 'SOLIDVS / SECVRITY.'

One of her employees broke their talking huddle. The others looked as he smoothed the front of his boxy, detective-cut suit jacket and walked over. "Laura! Why are you still here? Aren't you getting ready for your vacation?"

"Okay, a lot to unpack there Ryan." She put up her pointer finger. "First, you can't just ask your boss why they're still here." She held up her index finger. "Second, it's not a vacation. It's a security assessment, same as the rest."

Ryan rolled his eyes. "I know. I'm just busting your balls, boss. We worked together in the FBI, what?"

"Two years." Laura finished his sentence.

"Right. Did you take a vacation once?"

"No."

"Exactly." He smiled. "I'm glad you're getting out, even if it's still work."

Her face softened. "Thanks, Ryan. It is still work."

"But on a luxury booze cruise, sippin' Malbec or whatever on a balcony in your bathrobe in front of some glaciers? I'll take it."

His coworker swatted his shoulder. "You have too much imagination. Why are you talking about her in her bathrobe?"

The third coworker scoffed and folded her arms. "He's hot for teacher."

Laura held her hand out and nodded. "Okay, okay. Too far, Aditi. We don't have HR yet, but I'll send you there anyway."

The other two laughed easily. Late afternoon light filtered in through their second story windows. The walk-up space in their old brick building only fit about ten people. Twelve if they crammed in. Behind Laura, the glass-walled conference room sat empty. The rest of the bullpen had gone home.

Laura cleared her throat. "Hey, speaking of sending you somewhere, Aditi. Did you get that contract signed with Voyagia?"

She leaned against the office partition. "Sure did. We're on for 'white hat' testing their network, starting next week."

"Great. Hopefully we can get in there and poke a few holes."

"Laura, give me some credit. Do you expect anything less of a seasoned cybersecurity agent? We'll hit them with some social engineering, some DDOS, some SQL injection, the works. I can buy some fun tricks from the Eastern Bloc with bitcoin." Aditi paused and smirked. "Want to know something fun, though?"

Laura inclined her head. "Oh no. What?"

"I already started. The IT director offered to get us some coffee from their kitchen. I put a keylogger on his computer while he was down the hall. He left it unlocked in front of us."