The man shoved him in the back again. Hagen’s initial thought was that they were heading for the front door. Perhaps they’d take him down to a waiting car, and then who knew where after that. But instead of the door, the man reoriented him toward the stairs that led up to his office.
A) He should have expected that, and B) oh, shit.
He had far too much sensitive information up there. His only chance at keeping them from finding anything damaging would be if he could reach his kill switch. It would trigger the automatic corruption of all his drives, rendering each completely unrecoverable. It would be a huge blow to his business, but it would be worse if the info got out.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, he said, “What exactly are you looking for? If you tell me, I can-”
“Up,” the man ordered.
“All I’m saying is, if you give me a little hint, I can help.”
The man yelled toward the hallway. “Number Three.”
“Yes?” one of the men answered.
“A warning.”
A warning? Hagen glanced around. The only man not in the stairway with them was the man holding- “Wait,” he said. “Wait, wait!”
Eva screamed in pain.
“Stop it!” Hagen yelled. “Stop!”
“Up,” the man behind him said.
This time Hagen did as he was told. When he reached the top, he didn’t wait to be ordered to open the door. He turned the knob and rushed in. The kill switch was only a few feet inside, disguised as part of a poster frame hanging on the wall. His hope was to get there and push it without the man realizing what he was doing, but he’d barely crossed the threshold when he saw that no matter how fast he might have moved, it wouldn’t have mattered.
The poster was no longer on the wall. In fact, none of his artwork was. Each had been pulled down and thoroughly inspected. The kill switch was lying on the floor, its wiring pulled out and its case smashed. It was clear the men had gone through all his computers, too.
A chair from his main desk was sitting in the middle of the room with nothing else around it, like an electric chair waiting for its next client.
As if to reinforce this image, the man shoved Hagen toward it. “Sit.”
After he sat, he asked, “Okay, now what?”
Saying nothing, the man walked over to the computer station nearest Hagen. He turned the monitor so it could be seen from the chair. “You said you wanted to talk to someone.”
He hit the trackpad, bringing the screen to life. On it was a head-and-shoulders image of a stern-looking bald man. At first, Hagen wasn’t sure if it was a still or video, but then the man spoke.
“I have a question for you, Mr. Hagen.”
“Who are you?”
“You can call me Peter.”
The name in conjunction with the voice clicked something in Hagen’s mind. “You’re…you’re in charge of…the Office. That’s right, isn’t it? Or, I guess, were in charge.”
“Yes.”
Hagen felt a surge of hope. This was a misunderstanding. Had to be. “We’ve worked together before. You know me. I was under the impression you were happy with my performance.”
“This has nothing to do with any interactions you and I may have had in the past.”
More confused than ever, Hagen asked, “Then what?”
“Your intrusion two days ago.”
“My what?”
“We want to know who hired you.”
“Who hired me for what? I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”
Peter stared at him, his lips sealed.
“Hired me for what? ”
The punch in the gut caught Hagen completely off guard. The man who’d brought him up had moved over to the side opposite the computer, so Hagen’s focus was in the other direction when the blow landed.
He doubled over, groaning, his hands gripping his stomach.
Computers were always something that came easy to him. It was why he’d fallen into that profession. One of the other things he liked about his line of work was being exposed to the intrigue while experiencing none of the danger.
Apparently, he’d been misleading himself.
Once he caught his breath, he pressed his forearms against his thighs and tried to straighten up. Pain radiated out from his stomach, almost causing him to collapse again, but he gritted his teeth and held on. He said between stinging throbs, “I don’t know…what…you’re talking…about. What…is it you…think…I’ve done?…Just tell me. Maybe…I can…figure out what…happened.”
The way Peter looked at him made Hagen think he was about to be hit again, but then the former head of the Office said, “One twenty-three p.m. local time, you hacked into a secure US governmental system and accessed files you should’ve left alone.”
“One twenty-three? Not possible. I go out to lunch every day until at least two.” He paused, thinking. Two days ago. He didn’t go out that long then. He had an urgent project he was working on, so had only been away long enough to pick up his lunch and bring it back. When had he returned? “Wait. Two days ago I did come back early, but I’m sure it was later than 1:23.” He thought some more, then said, “I have a receipt from my lunch. And you can check the T-Bana computer system to see when my monthly pass was used. I’m sure there’s no way I could have been here at 1:23!”
“If not you, then who? Someone used your system.”
“Impossible. My alarm would have gone off.”
“It didn’t go off tonight, did it?”
“No,” Hagen admitted. “Okay, so I guess someone might have been able to bypass it, but there’s something we can check.”
“I’m not interested in stall tactics, Mr. Hagen.”
“I’m not stalling.” Hagen glanced at the man in the room with him. “I put a security camera outside that covers the entrance. You can access it through that computer over there. The footage gets stored on a dedicated drive and stays there until I run out of room. That usually takes about six months.”
The man looked at the computer screen. “What would you like me to do?”
“Check it,” Peter said.
Following Hagen’s instructions, the man located a listing of the footage, then turned the screen so it could be seen by both Hagen and, via the other computer’s camera, Peter.
“Looks like the camera was activated seven times between noon and two,” the man said.
“Play them,” Peter ordered.
The first two events were people leaving through the front door. The third was of a man walking up and knocking. When no one answered, he left. The fourth was Hagen leaving the building. This came at five minutes to one.
“See,” Hagen said. “I told you I wasn’t here.”
“Keep playing them,” Peter said.
The fifth showed a woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat entering. She kept her head down so it was impossible to see her features. This occurred at 1:10.
“I don’t know her,” Hagen blurted out.
The next image came up-Hagen again, returning.
“What’s the time?” Peter asked.
The man studied the image, then said, “One twenty-seven.”
“See? I was right!” Hagen said.
