The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 34

Kat snuggled deeper into her quilt, wishing she could tell her mother about what was going on. She couldn't tell anyone, couldn't go to anyone to talk about the strange feelings she was having for Jove, her nerves about her new tasks, even the distinct lack of sparks between her and Jack.

She couldn't understand how her life had become what felt like a web of lies so quickly, so unassumingly. She was a simple person, an unpracticed liar, but she was lying to everyone she cared about, lying to herself even. I'm not gonna see him again. She promised herself. I'm going to do what I need to do and forget about him, no distractions.

Kat arrived to the 55th floor the next morning with a tight face that mirrored her nerves. This was to be the most difficult, and potentially most risky, of the three tasks, and she decided she wanted it out of the way first. She would have to go to the 24th floor during the intersecting gaps in security that left the entrance to the core computing processors manned by only one guard for 4 full minutes, just to confirm the timing was accurate. If it was, she should be able to go downstairs and come back up with only one guard seeing her, a guard she was planning to speak to.

That had been her idea, to speak to the guard directly as Jove's assistant, claiming that Jove wanted to update his files on rotational schedules. It was a risk, associating herself with the floor like that, but it was the only way she'd be able to see the schedule without force, and seeing the schedule itself was essential. Only a few scientists at headquarters had core clearance, and she needed to know their names.

After that was another risk, but a necessary one, and one easy to achieve in Kat's opinion. They would need Courtney. She would go to Courtney with a message she claimed was from Jove, telling her one of the scientists at core had failed to receive a quarterly review of his certification and that a hold needed to be placed on his badge. She'd tell Courtney that Jove had been very insistent; do not contact him about this, do not mention that the instructions came from him under any circumstances. She had to hope that Courtney was lovesick enough to obey his odd instructions without exposing him as their provisioner. Was fairly certain of it, but had to hope all the same.

The hold would quickly be cleared after the misunderstanding was unearthed, but he would now have two badges, his previous one already made defunct. Employees, particularly employees at that level, were required to destroy out of date identification in order to avoid badges slipping into the wrong hands, but given that the industrial strength shredders were on the basement level, most employees took their sensitive documents less than once a week, the rationale being that they were safe in the heavily guarded office. As Jove's assistant, her badge gave her access to every floor to do his bidding, and with the employee's name and the building directory she would be able to find his office and steal the old badge from his desk without him noticing.

The difference between the core clearance scientist and a member of FES outfitted similarly wouldn't be noticed by the guards, as each guard had only covered the duty a few times. There were over 300 full time guards on staff in the building and they rotated often to create unpredictable patterns, patterns that they claimed couldn't be planned for. Unless you had their playbook. It was a lot of ifs, a lot of hopefullys, but if they were able to pull this first section off, one of them would have a perfect way in, and a perfect way out.

They wouldn't be able to take the elevator as coming in through the front wasn't an option with the camera layout, but they'd be able to get in through the back fire exit after Kat had disconnected the alarm ("It's easy," Brent had said, "i'll show you how"), climb the stairs to 24, avoid suspiciously passing any guards while coming out of the generally unusused stairwell, and flash their badge to the guard just 3 minutes before the actual employee was schedule to arrive, rousing no suspicion.

The name would match, the FES member would enter, plant the flashbang, wait exactly 60 seconds, pull the pin, and leave immediately, telling the guard that there was an irregularity they needed a second opinion on. They would leave the way they came, down the stairwell during the second gap in visibility, and be halfway down the stairs before the flashbang went off. The fire alarms would follow, meaning the stairs would be flooded with other Tillibenton employees, and in the chaos the FES member would be able to slip right out of the fire exit through which they entered with the rest of the crowd, all while keeping their face turned away from the cameras in their path. The water would short the processor, forcing the company to upgrade, and their mission would be complete. Easy enough.

She stepped off of the elevator, her stomach in knots. She would have to wait until the window, 2:37pm. At 2:37 she should be able to walk from the 24th floor stairwell door to the entrance of the processor without seeing a single guard. She should then be able to stay for exactly 2 minutes, one to account for the entry and badge check, and one for the time inside planting the flashbang. Leaving at exactly 2:39pm should put her out of sight of the elevator as the actual employee approaches and able to exit back down the stairs without seeing another guard. A tiny window, the timing was key, but she somehow knew it was doable, somehow felt it.