He shrugged as if to say, I know.
"If you have a problem with Andi, you can take it up with Gran. I told her everything she needed to know, so it's all on her plate now,” I said.
"What’s on my plate?" My grandmother said as she walked in looking regal as always. Behind her, Andi followed. She wore a black pencil skirt with a white shirt and fitted jacket that made her look fierce and sexy. It was very difficult not to react to her. I wasn't trying to hide what was going on between me and Andi. Instead, I was trying to prevent my brothers, particularly Hunter, using it against me.
Andi took her usual seat near my grandmother while my grandmother stood at the head of the table. My brothers cast glances at each other, noting that Andi seemed to be in her regular position.
"Now I understand you have some information to relay to me. Carter, where are we on the takeover of Marcus Chen’s company?"
"We completed the takeover a day and a half ago, and yesterday we began the process of sending our people over to the office in Hong Kong. Interestingly enough, many of Chen's employees weren’t the happiest workers, and have given us quite a bit of information. Phil is still doing an assessment, but he believed that we should be able to keep many of them on, which will make for an easier transition.”
"Chen is trying to do some interesting finagling still, but we have our lawyers ready to fight anything that he might do. We've also taken measures to ensure Strong Incorporated doesn't get entangled in whatever legal or other types of actions Chen might take," Ryan said.
"Excellent." Gran turned to look at me. "And, Noah, you have a report for us."
"As you know, the hack came in from a computer in Hong Kong but was able to gain access to the system through a malware sent here. We've been able to pinpoint the infected systems. The tech team has scanned all the computers here as well as all and our other locations, to clean them of malware. I also arranged to have them all installed with a protection system I created which will better guard against these types of breaches. It will also create a report every hour of all activity. Now if something does happen again, we will have an easier time identifying the source. It will also note any porn you might be watching, Hunter," I couldn’t stop myself from saying.
He glared at me. Gran ignored my comment. "Very good. I assume you’ll include the cost of this program you created when you send us the invoice for the work you did."
"You and I can talk about that later," I said to her.
She nodded.
She was about to say something when Hunter chimed in, "Wait a minute. What about the fact that somebody in this company may have been helping Chen?” His gaze briefly glanced over to Andi, before landing on my grandmother.
Andi frowned and I could see she wanted to defend herself but my grandmother put her hand on the table in front of Andi, a sure sign telling her to not speak.
"I understand that was resolved, wasn't it?" she asked me. “I was satisfied with your assessment. Has something changed?”
"I give you all the information. I don’t believe anyone on the inside was involved in this hack or helping Chen. At least not on purpose.”
"Maybe someone else should look into that," Hunter said. "I think Noah is biased."
I stood up. "Well, if you would like to investigate all potential accomplices, I can give you the list of possibilities to investigate.” I pulled out a piece of paper from my folder. "One came in through a spreadsheet sent to Gran through Andi.” I glanced at Andi who frowned. I gave her a slight smile to let her know I wasn't about to toss her under the bus.
Before Hunter or anyone else could say anything, I pulled out another piece of paper. "There is another piece of malware attached to a financial report that came in through Carter's computer.” I slid the paper to him. "And here's one that came in through Hunter’s computer," I glared at him as I slid the paper over to him. "On a report for preliminary focus groups." I sat down again. "So how are we going to do this investigation? Did you help Chen?” I asked Hunter.
"You can't believe we had anything to do with this," Carter said.
I looked over at him. "I don't believe any of you had anything to do at this. But of course, I'm just a contract worker. Even so, it seems to me that if you're going to have an investigation of Andi, you need to have an investigation of everyone who received and opened an email that allowed a piece of malware into the system, which will include you and Hunter."
"I think he’s made his point," Gran said.
"I think you all owe Andi an apology,” I said.
"May I say something?" Andi asked Gran, who nodded.
Andi looked over the rest of us at the table. "I understand how easy it is to doubt people you should trust implicitly," she said looking at me. "But I can assure you that I have always been a devoted and loyal employee of Margaret Strong." She turned and looked at Gran. "It has been my honor and pleasure to work for you. I have learned so much. More than I would've learned in a graduate program as I had initially thought I might do. But as you move to your retirement, I wanted to let you all know that with your leaving, I’ll be leaving too."
My stomach sank.
"I can't tell you how disappointed that makes me feel. You know that I would look out for you, Andi," Gran said.
"I know. But in light of everything, and with the changes going on, thinking that perhaps it's time for me to spread my wings a little.” Andi sat down.
"I respect that,” Gran said.
"Andi, please don't leave because we've been jerks," Ryan said.