TimeLess (Time Tells, #2) (ON-GOING)

Chapter Ten

Happy reading sweets.

Take care and protect yourself as well as Houston would protect her home. 

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I seat myself on his bed and look up at him expectantly. Kri stands before me, legs spread and arms crossed.

"When you received a call from me this evening without my doing so, do you remember what Houston said?"

My brows furrow, "Something that made me think she was talking of a bug in the new update to her software?"

Kri tilts his head, "Yes. Except the last software I'd loaded into our server for her was one month ago. She also has a self-corrective system built in, which ensures she doesn't malfunction—such as making or receiving unwanted calls or accidentally opening the front door. This corrective system ensures that any out-of-the-ordinary command is shut down and consulted with me first before being performed. The controls shift to manual automatically in such a situation."

I gather my thoughts.

"So before making that call to me, Houston should have informed or asked you?" I ask.

Kri nods, his gaze sharp, "Her response to my asking her to run diagnostics was clearly automated."

It takes me a moment.

"Automated... by someone else?"

He nods, "Or something else. A program that overrode the self-corrective actions and that also generated a response that sounded appealing enough that I don't look too deeply."

"Who.. who can do that?" I whisper. "Why would anyone do that?"

"The list of who can do it is small." He says, then he steps forward and crouches before me. He's tall enough that even crouching, his head is almost level with mine.

"Alanna." He says, "Do you understand what it means?"

I'm staring at him, "What what means?"

"Someone had the means to hack into a well secured system and they didn't choose to attack my company. They chose to attack my home."

"Are you saying that this is personal?" I ask, "That they're meaning to attack you?"

He doesn't say anything for a moment.

"Alanna. Do you know what it means to be able to control a smart home assistant?" He asks.

I swallow because dread was swelling inside me. "What?" I whisper.

"Houston had large control over the home... including video and audio feed capabilities in the house. Which can be turned on only upon my demand or under specified emergencies."

My gaze widens and my hands cover my lips.

"Are you saying whoever this is has been—"

He shakes his head no, his hands dropping to my knees.

"No, whatever the program was hadn't made it all the way into Houston's main controls. Only the peripheral controls were infiltrated. The coffee maker, pool monitor, phone calls, schedules, messages..."

I stare at him horrified. "And the camera on our phones?" I gasp, "Could they have—"

His jaw tightens. "I don't know. Perhaps."