“He’s right.” One of the other members stood up. “That should have been impossible. This system changes when people try to access it. It’s designed to be impenetrable.”
“Well she certainly penetrated it, didn’t she?” I glared around the room angrily. “I told all of you what would happen if anyone ever breached this system. Do you realize how much money this is going to cost? I have to let every single customer know their data could have been compromised.”
“I know.” Robert nodded quickly. “We did our absolute best. This won’t happen again, I swear.”
“You’re right.” I shrugged and nodded. “Because you’re all fired. I don’t want to hear excuses. Pack your shit and get the fuck out.”
Time to find another team that is the best money can buy, because this one obviously wasn’t.
I sat in my office a couple of hours later with my personal contact at the FBI, Agent Danvers, sitting across from me. The arrest had been made and the young woman named Violet Anderson was in custody. She seemed like a normal girl on paper. She was an adult, which meant she would definitely do hard time. She had done enough damage for them to easily get a felony conviction once the case went to trial. I thumbed through the paperwork until I got to a few pictures of her that had been scraped from social media.
“Damn, she’s pre
tty hot.” I chuckled and dropped the file on my desk. “I guess the women in prison will love her.”
“Yeah, the federal penitentiary will chew that beautiful young body up. Did you see the pictures of her in a swimsuit? That makes me wish I was still a guard. None of the women in prison looked like this.” He flipped a couple of pictures until the one he referenced was visible.
“What the fuck is a girl like this doing sitting in front of a computer all night?” I shook my head and held the picture up. “I’ve hired some fairly attractive women right out of college, but fucking hell—she’s gorgeous.”
“Keep the pictures if you want.” Agent Danvers shrugged. “I’ll talk with the District Attorney tomorrow and see if we can offer her a deal.”
“Don’t do that quite yet.” I dropped the picture and tapped my fingers on the desk. “I want to meet her.”
“You’re going to offer a job, aren’t you?” Agent Danvers narrowed his eyes and smiled. “She’s impressed you.”
“I didn’t have to see her picture to be impressed, but I might have a way for her to make things right that don’t involved prison.” I nodded and extended my hand. “It’s a pleasure as always, Agent Danvers.”
Agent Danvers would be getting a sizable donation in his off-shore bank account in a few days. The FBI had every right to ignore my request and charge her anyway. I was fairly certain that if they started digging into her other activities online, they would find that PrinceSoft wasn’t the first company she had hacked. I could tell she didn’t have malicious intent. Even after she breached the security system, she didn’t try to steal any data. Someone that was trying to get into the system for a reason wouldn’t have wasted such a huge opportunity. I needed someone like that working for me. I had a project that required absolute secrecy and as much as I trusted some of the app developers on my staff, I wasn’t quite ready to share my latest gold mine with them until I had a prototype.
“MS. ANDERSON, YOUR visitor is here.” The guard announced me as I stepped through the door.
“Holy shit.” Violet’s eyes got wide when she saw me walk into the interrogation room. “You’re Ethan Prince!”
“Yes.” I nodded and took a seat across from her. “Let’s have a chat.”
“I’m really sorry I hacked your security system. I didn’t even realize I was on a PrinceSoft server. I was just hitting anything that popped up and before I knew it, I was staring at your company’s logo.” Her face filled with remorse quickly as she spoke.
“This program you used to get in. You wrote it?” I leaned back in my chair and stared at her.
“Yeah.” She sighed and nodded. “I was just trying out a few things that I learned in class.”
“You didn’t learn that in class.” I shook my head back and forth. “I also don’t believe you did this on your own. Who helped you?”
“Nobody.” Her eyes got wide again and she shook her head back and forth. “I swear it was just me. I mean, it wasn’t exactly what I learned in class, but I’ve always been good with that kind of stuff. It just comes natural.”
“You’re telling the truth.” I watched her eyes as she spoke and I didn’t see any hint of a lie.
“I am.” She nodded quickly. “I swear.”
“You’re aware of what my company does, right?” I tilted my head slightly.
“Yeah, you make dating apps.” She wrinkled her nose slightly. “I can’t say I’m a fan, but I do know your work. My friends love them.”
“How would you like to walk out her right now and come work for me?” I folded my arms across my chest. “I’m working on something special that could use someone as brilliant as you on it.”
“A dating app?” She twisted her lip slightly. “I don’t know much about them.”
“I’ll give you all the resources you need. You’ll have to sign a contract and a non-disclosure agreement, but once you have a working prototype, I’ll drop all the charges against you.” I tapped the table. “This is the best deal you’ll get.”