Security Deception

DISCLAIMER: This was meant for the "Reset Your Password" challenge. However, due to other unforeseen circumstances, I was not able to post in time. I thought I post it on my page now anyway because I didn't want to waste the story.

*****

Bethany walked down the long hallway, her footsteps echoing on the linoleum floor with each stride she took. It had been a long day, and she was the only one left in the building. The night was howling outside. It had been raining hard for the past few days. Now, the wind wanted to tag along as well. As she reached the entrance, she spotted a shadow looming outside. It was practically a scene right out of a horror movie. Because the moment that she halted, the rain suddenly stopped, its pitter-patter rhythm gone, allowing the wind to enhance its volume to a higher level. The looming shadow had become a little clearer—all thanks to the rainstorm that had temporarily subsided. Through the fogged-up glass, she could make out a silhouette wrapped up in a raincoat. And it was coming even closer. It was a matter of seconds before that mystery figure reached the door.

“Bethany…” the person howled at her.

In a fine moment of courage, Bethany turned and ran as the door slid open.

“Bethany…”

A hand clapped her shoulder, forcing a scream out of her.

“Bethany, wake up!”

And bright lights hit her in the eyes. She blinked and used her hand to shield her eyes out of reflex.

“Oh,” Bethany managed, as the world was coming back into view. She straightened up in her seat and scanned the room full of people. Machines were beeping everywhere, and the office was brightly lit, contrasting to that of her dream moments ago. She did a quick check on the situation outside to see that the rain had stopped already.

“You all right?” Arlene asked as her eyes were still on Bethany.

Bethany turned her attention to her coworker. She nodded, feeling guilty upon seeing Arlene’s worried expression. “Yes, sorry.”

Arlene shook her head. “It’s fine.”

After that, Arlene returned to her workstation. That allowed the newly emptied space to be occupied by Brian. He slid his chair next to her, stopping only several inches from her desk.

“Had a nice nap?” Brian asked, his smile teasing.

Bethany rubbed her forehead. “How long was I out?”

Brian shrugged. “How should I know?”

“Then why are you here?”

Brian shrugged again. “Just making conversation?”

Bethany gave his chair a quick push before returning to her computer.

“Hey, that was uncalled for,” Brian protested—although he had gone back to work.

Their manager’s sudden presence helped.

“All right, everyone,” Brad called out from the other end of the room.

That was when everyone looked up from their screens.

“News from upstairs,” Brad continued as his radar eyes scanned the room.

Everyone seemed to hold their breaths at that moment.

“This project’s outcome will determine which team gets the big project from ANDRE. I appreciate all the hours everyone put in thus far. With that said, I hope you would stick it through for two more weeks.”

There was a mixture of murmurs and groans throughout the room.

“Everyone,” Brad tried again, “I know it has been harsh, but we’re so close to the finish line now. Would you want Team B to win the ANDRE file?”

“NO!” the others bellowed, sending the room into a livelier mood than previously. Brad sure knew where to hit. It was their common enemy. And because their ego hadn’t healed yet since the last defeat two months ago. It was about time they showed Team B what they were all made of.

“Good, very good,” Brad said when the noise finally died down. “Take a break if you need to. Make some calls and rearrange your schedule if you have to. But we must get this project in tip-top shape before next week.”

The crowd roared once more, showing that they were united on this mission.

After that, Brad turned and walked away from them. He wasn’t the talkative type. He was always direct and precise. He never did more than what was expected of him. No, it was more like he was efficient in his work, but he never cared to mingle with them.

“There goes my vacation,” Brian whined after Brad had returned to his office.

“I thought you hated the plan,” Troy—whose desk was facing Brian—said.

“Even if I didn’t like the place Trish picked this year, I still get time off, okay? Now?” Brian threw his hands up for dramatic emphasis.

Troy, seeing how upset Brian looked, returned to his work instead of continuing the conversation.

*****

The next day, Brian was seen with his coffee mug in one hand and a stack of folders in the other. He was walking toward the elevators and whistling a cheerful tune. The sun was out again. That might have contributed to his good mood. Or did he somehow convince someone to take over for him?

“Hey, Brian, wait up!”

Brian looked up in time to see Troy running toward the elevators. He pressed the key in time and avoided Troy an inconvenience of having to take the next one.

“Hey, you’re in a good mood,” Troy noted as he entered the elevator out of breath—but still managed to broadcast his observation.

Brian shrugged, leaning back against the back wall as the elevator made its way up. “There’s no point dwelling on the past, right?”

Troy nodded. “Sure.”

They rode the rest of the way up in silence.

“Hey,” Bethany greeted them when the elevator doors opened. “Good that you’re both here.”

“What’s going on?” Troy asked as they walked down the hallway.

“I found a solution to our current problem,” Bethany returned.

Troy scanned the crowd. “Regarding?”

“The interface issue. I know what went wrong whenever we run the commands.”

“Let’s wait until we reach our office before discussing any of this.”

Bethany finally realized why Troy was tense. “Good point. My bad. I was just too excited.”

Brian didn’t say anything but just followed the other two. When they were finally at their desks, Bethany pulled out a folder. Brian and Troy exchanged a look before taking and reading the files between the two of them. After that, they glanced up at Bethany. She had a bright smile on her face.

“Well?” Bethany prompted.

“Not bad,” Brian admitted.

Troy scratched behind his ear, still thinking.

“Come on, Troy,” Brian said possibly five minutes later, shoving Troy’s shoulder.

It was actually two. But the way Troy was going about, it might as well be ten minutes for all they knew.

“You think there’s something wrong with it?” Bethany asked. “You can say it. It’s better that you bring it up when it’s just the three of us than when I present it to the rest of the team in an hour.”

“What could be wrong?” Brian jumped in before Troy could answer Bethany. “Come on, the sooner Bethany presents this plan to Brad, the sooner the interface issue is fixed. That means we could present it to the bosses upstairs. Then we could get the next two weeks off even.”

Bethany laughed, shoving Brian. “Yeah, right.”

Brain laughed also. He wasn’t offended by the shove. Or her lack of faith. “What? The interface issue is the only problem we have to take care of. I mean, aside from getting that meticulous documentation in order. And, okay, running the last round of simulation before we present the project. And possibly other bug fixes too.”

“That’s a lot of ‘and,’” Bethany said, shaking her head. “Now I know why Troy’s worried.”

“If he has some legit concern, he should tell us before we grow old,” Brian argued.

They finally turned to Troy again for his input. He was still scratching behind his ears and looking quite worried.

“You seriously don’t think it will work?” Brian asked, shocked.

“It’s not that,” Troy said, taking the folder from Brian’s hand. He then turned to Bethany. “Can I run through the codes really quick before answering you?”

Bethany checked her watch before nodding. “All right. You have until the meeting.”

“I’ll give it to you fifteen minutes before the meeting.”

“Weird,” Brian said when Troy walked back to his station with Bethany’s folder still in midair. “What’s with him today?”

Bethany shrugged. “I don’t know either. I thought you guys came in together.”

Brian shook his head. “Not really. He was in a hurry earlier and seemed distracted.”

Bethany took another look at Troy’s back before settling into her seat once more. She was gathering some additional information for the meeting. Brian took the hint to go back to his station.

It wasn’t about fifteen minutes later that Troy returned and handed Bethany’s folder to her. He had on his bright smile and nodded, so she took that as good news. They discussed a bit more before heading to the conference room together. Unlike their usual meeting, it only took half an hour. That was a new record for them. The majority were happy. All thanks to Bethany’s solution. They still had a long to go, but it was a much-needed break all around. Brad was going to push the deadline up and they would present it to their boss next week instead, wanting to knock Team B out of the game.

*****

One week after Bethany’s breakthrough, they had another meeting. This time, it was on a larger scale. Because the bosses from upstairs were also present. Just one more hour and then they were done. They could even declare victory.

“Excited?” Troy asked Bethany as he entered their office. His mood was tenfold better than one week ago. “All the bosses are coming.”

Bethany nodded, tensing up at the same time.

“Nervous?”

She was indeed nervous. It was going to be a big day for her.

“Troy!” Brad’s voice called out.

“I’m going to go see what that’s all about,” Troy said, pointing his thumb in the direction of Brad’s office. “You’re going to be all right?”

Bethany nodded.

“Breathe.”

Bethany attempted a smile.

“I’ll see you at the meeting.”

Bethany nodded again. She watched Troy disappear inside Brad’s office before checking some last-minute details. That included checking email. Most of them were routine, departmental weekly updates, so she scanned them briefly. She would read them more carefully after the meeting. Her top priority at the moment was to focus on that meeting. Even if she didn’t consider her own career, she needed to do this for the team. As she was about to close the email application and logged out of her workstation, she spotted an email with the headline: [URGENT] Reset Your Password. She looked up from the screen and scanned the room. Her eyes stopped at Brad’s office. The door was still closed, so Troy was probably still inside. When did Troy send this out? He wasn’t the sender, but he was in charge of security measures. It was probably his intern who sent it out. Bethany pulled herself together, blaming it on her nervousness, and forced herself to check again. The timestamp said fifteen minutes before they left the building yesterday. She recalled Troy leaving early, so that was probably why he didn’t have time to tell her. But why didn’t he tell her earlier? Or was he going to tell her but was interrupted by Brad?

“Hey!”

Bethany jumped—not literally. But her heart almost stopped—almost. Luckily, it didn’t. She steadied her nerves and turned to check on the voice. It was Brian.

“You’re jumpy today,” Brian said.

“You scared me half to death,” Bethany returned, her voice hostile.

“What’s going on?”

“I just received a suspicious email.”

Brian’s eyebrows came together. “Oh? What kind of email? Did you open it yet?”

Bethany shook her head. “I didn’t want to risk it.”

“Well?”

“Here.” Bethany pointed to her screen.

Brian’s tension dissipated after reading the headline. “Oh, seriously, Bethany?”

“What?” Bethany asked, annoyed.

“It’s the new security update. Troy told me yesterday before he left. He must have forgotten to tell you. He said his intern would send it out before the day’s end.”

Bethany wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure?”

Brian was offended. “Why would I lie? I already changed mine. Nothing was wrong with it.”

Bethany let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Sorry, I…”

Brian clapped her shoulder. “It’s all right. I know it’s your day. The big bosses are looking. I’ll let you be. But try to keep it together before you have a nervous breakdown. Half an hour until show time.”

Brian left after that.

Bethany forced herself to take in a deep breath and exhale before returning to the email. “Keep it together, Bethany.”

After a mini, silent pep talk and another set of breathing exercises, Bethany finally opened the email and read its content. It was indeed about the new security measures Brian mentioned. Bethany smiled and shook her head. Her paranoia was getting the best of her. Nerves, good old nerves. She indeed needed to keep it under wraps. Or she would have a panic attack before that meeting even commenced. Not second-guessing herself anymore, she finally clicked on the link provided. Seconds later, Bethany realized her paranoia was right. Because the screen blinked and flashed some random codes on there. And she was locked out, not being able to take control of the situation.

“What in the world?”

Bethany turned around to see that another coworker was affected as well. She refocused her attention on the screen in front of her, trying to do a forced shutdown.

“What is going on here?” Brad asked walking over to them.

“I don’t know,” the person from earlier answered.

“Shut it down!” Troy yelled from somewhere.

After that, things sped up or slowed down. Bethany didn’t know anymore. She felt dizzy. But no one seemed to notice. They were busy trying to salvage the situation—whatever was left of their data bank. There was a lot of yelling, panicking, and curses around the office. All the commotions eventually just morphed into one another. It was hard to tell how much time had passed until things settled down again. But the short version was: that meeting did not take place. In fact, the meeting was canceled since the incident unleashed itself. Brad had to personally go down the hall and apologize to everyone. He had handed Troy the reins after he left. When he returned, Troy was still doing his cleansing job.

“How could you fall for it, Bethany?” Brad yelled when they were all in the small conference room an hour later. ‘Reset Your Password’ and a suspicious link? We learned about this from day one. It’s a rookie scam.”

“I…” Bethany managed, scanning the room full of disappointed faces. They were all judging her, wondering how she could have landed the job. And she didn’t blame them. Because all of their efforts had been wasted. They could have been sitting in the big conference room, delivering the good news, and celebrating already. Instead, they were all present in their crowded room, investigating a security breach. No, it was more like an interrogation.

“What?” Brad said. “You’re not going to at least try?”

Bethany cleared her throat. Her mouth was dry. Her tongue seemed to have folded into itself. What could she say? Anything would come out as an excuse. Her judgment was telling her otherwise. Why did she have to do it?

“Bethany,” Troy called out from a faraway place. “Whatever it is, you can tell us. We’re a team, remember?”

“She doesn’t seem to think so,” Jon—another team member—said with much frustration.

“Jon,” Jessica—who was sitting next to him—chided. Although she also showed traces of disapproval on her face, she still wanted to keep her professionalism intact. Or whatever was left of it. After the disaster that had unleashed itself.

“Bethany, just say something, anything,” Brad said impatiently. “How much worse could it be?”

“I didn’t think I should open it at first,” Bethany managed.

“Then why did you? Why didn’t you speak to Troy if you suspected something? Or come to me?”

“You and Troy were still in your office.”

“So? Come and get us.”

“I was going to wait until you were finished.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Brian came up to my desk and said it was a new security measure update. He also said that he already opened his email and changed his password without any problem. So, I…”

“Bethany, Brian isn’t here anymore,” Jessica said. “He transferred to a different location already. Friday was his last day. Why would he be here?”

“Yeah, at least, make up a more believable excuse than blame it on the guy who’s no longer working here,” Jon snapped, his expression beyond hostile at that point.

“No, that’s not true,” Bethany said, getting up from her seat. “I saw him earlier. I talked to him. I’m not making it up.”

Brad scanned the room briefly. “Anyone saw Brian?”

Everyone else shook their heads, including Troy.

“It was still early,” Bethany tried again. “He came in a bit and then left again. I thought he was heading to the conference room. If you don’t believe me, check the footage.”

“Unfortunately, those were gone as well,” Troy said.

“What?” Bethany slumped back into her seat, not believing her luck.

“The only information we have left are past project information and some old records because those were stored separately on a different server. I took them offline last week and haven’t turned the server back on yet.”

“Bethany, I know you’re tired,” Brad tried again. “Everyone is. But you couldn’t have seen or talked to Brian.”

“I talked to him, I really did,” Bethany insisted. “I wasn’t imagining it.”

Brad sighed. “Even if he was here, the farthest he could go was the cafeteria on the third floor. He couldn’t have entered our offices. He already turned in his badge and card key. I was there. The point? He can’t gain access unless he goes through the security checkpoint and requests a visitor’s pass. But the security department would have to call me to confirm before letting him in. He can’t just roam around.”

“Yeah, just accept it,” Jon said again. “You messed up. That’s the adult thing to do.”

“But I didn’t…” Bethany tried again. Yet she stopped herself this time. She scanned the room once more. A smile formed on her face. She was no longer rushing to explain. Because that wasn’t the real reason for the current meeting. She took another deep breath before standing up.

“You need a fall guy, don’t you?” She was staring straight at Brad. “Or in this case, a fall gal. What’s more convenient than the one who fell for the trap in the first place? It makes sense actually. But I want everyone to know that I did nothing to damage this company. Not on purpose. Call it naivety or stupidity—if you will. Regardless, I will clear out my desk and hand over the necessary documents before I leave. You could even check everything if you don’t trust me.”

“Bethany,” Brad said. “This isn’t about quitting. This is a security breach.”

“Then we’re talking compensation? Or legal action?”

“We will need time to assess the damage. But you’re right. You will need to hand over everything. You’re suspended until we finish the investigation.”

*****

That Friday, Bethany was seen walking out of the building for the last time. The investigation has just been finalized. She was told to come in and clear her desk. Although the scope of the damage was not as extreme as they initially thought, a month’s work had disappeared because of Bethany’s action. During a meeting with the big bosses, Brad had used Bethany’s past accomplishments to appeal to them, so they didn’t take further action aside from the termination. Well, that was what Brad had told everyone in the conference room about an hour ago.

“Bethany,” Troy called out from somewhere.

Bethany didn’t halt her steps. She proceeded out of the building, pushing past the double doors and increasing her pace.

“Bethany!” Troy yelled this time.

Bethany still didn’t answer.

“Bethany.” Troy was finally by her side. He took another step to block her path. “You can’t be mad because I kept my distance during the investigation. Brad warned me. It would make both of us look bad.”

“You were just doing your job,” Bethany returned, her voice flat and cold.

“Bethany, you act like I was the one who wronged you. It was the hacker.”

“You didn’t even try to defend me. I don’t mean by blindly arguing with the others. I meant the fact that I said I saw Brian and interacted with him. Do you think I would lie to save my skin?”

“Bethany, I tried. I even went to the security department and have them pull the footage of that morning. Brian wasn’t there.”

“What if the footage was removed?”

“You think Brian has anything to do with this?”

Bethany sighed. “Forget it.”

She was done. Ten years of work down the drain because of a moment of carelessness. She could only blame herself.

As Bethany walked toward her car, she saw a familiar figure standing there waiting for her.

“Came to gloat?” Bethany asked, stepping a distance from her car. “You won, Brian. Congrats.”

Yes, the person standing there was Brian. His smile was beyond condescending.

“If you’re done, step out of the way so I could enter my car.”

“It’s not that bad, you know,” Brian said casually. “Maybe you’ll find a place that will fit you better. Less brain work, I mean.”

“I thought we were friends,” Bethany said, not being able to contain it anymore. “What have I ever done to you?”

Brian shrugged. “We’re not friends, Bethany. We’re just coworkers, nothing more. Don’t be naïve. So, what if we exchange words? It’s just small talk. Don’t tell me you don’t know what that is. If we were friends, don’t you think I would have told you I was leaving?”

“You really had everything planned right down to the details.”

Brian nodded. “I didn’t want to do it. Call yourself unlucky. But you didn’t have to show me that plan. I was going to use that as a parting gift for Team B, but you already showed it the Brad. So, it would look suspicious if it ended up on their side this time as well. Even if Brad had forced himself to move on from the leak incident, wouldn’t it be too much if there’s another one so soon?”

Bethany gasped. “You’re the mole.”

“But you can’t prove it. Your words against mine. And you just got fired. They wouldn’t believe you. Especially after that hysterical act you pulled on Monday.”

“You really had it all planned,” Bethany repeated, beyond herself at that point.

“Final lesson for you, Bethany. This is how the business world is. You want to float or sink? You always have to strike first. Don’t trust anyone but yourself. Even Troy failed you, didn’t he? He also wants to protect himself. Why would he want to sink with you?”

After saying that, Brian finally removed himself from Bethany’s sight. However, she didn’t enter her car immediately. She was still numbed by the confrontation.