While Brandon deployed his computer in the team's office, Kurt signaled Brock, Cooper and Russell to gather up around him, and they saw Aldana on screen. She didn't waste time in greetings.
"All T was able to find out is that the malware came through the OP app, which pretty much everybody has. The hacker triggered it via Bluetooth. Kurt, T is sending you an encrypted file with part of the malware code. See if you can find what it is for."
"Got it."
"Can you find the hacker?" Cooper asked.
"We only know he's still in the mall. They locked down the whole place a few minutes ago, but Gillian convinced them it'd only cause panic, especially since people can't use their phones. So now she's is instructing the security staff to reopen at least two of the accesses and keep them watched."
"What did she tell the security guards?" asked Russell.
Aldana looked to her side. She saw Gillian had finished talking with the mall manager and turned to her. "She can tell you herself," Aldana replied, and stepped back to give Gillian room.
She leaned to the screen and said, calm and firm, "Ma'am, we should warn credit card companies and banks. If there are no alarms from important network services crashing, this malware may not be meant for crowdsourcing, but to hack personal information, and this could be the first step to a scam."
Cooper looked up and nodded at Brandon, who hurried out of the room.
"Who are you looking for, Gillian?" asked Brock.
She replied right away, without hesitation. "Young man in his early twenties. He'll try to leave without shopping bags, but with a small bag or backpack, the size to keep a computer. He'll look in a hurry and try to go unnoticed, but won't be checking his phone as everybody else in here. Anyway, I told the guards to search people's bags and hold whoever's carrying a tablet, a netbook or a laptop."
Brock just nodded. They could always trust her to come up with a quick profile based more on common sense than hard evidence. She was calm and focused, despite that she would be bearing a lot of pressure from the mall manager.
"Do you need anything else?" Cooper asked.
"Maybe we should let the PD know, because the whole mall is closed right now, and when they reopen the access, we'll be only letting people out, not in. That's gonna draw some attention."
"I'll do it. Keep us up."
They disconnected at the same time Brandon came back. "They're already getting in touch with the banks," he said to Cooper.
"Bran, I have the code here, take a look at it on a secure computer," Kurt said.
"Got it."
"Kurt, can you spare a couple of minutes and explain to us what's going on?" Russell asked.
YOU ARE READING
Three Libras - BLACKBIRD book 4
Mystery / Thriller+18 eps. 17-21 - After a hard case that takes the team to DC in order to catch a blackhat and prevent a bombing, all hell breaks loose on their return to Boston , when the ghost of the Libra killer comes back to torture Brock seven years after the m...