CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Had Rowan Andrews, owner of Bordercross, known that Kate Warner was writing the piece on him? Had he gotten a heads-up from somewhere? Cami guessed that was possible. She decided she’d better find out more about the man they were going to meet. As soon as she and Connor were in the car, she got onto her phone and went looking.
Rowan Andrews, age thirty-four, was a tech millionaire, she learned.
“It says here that he made several million dollars from his online gaming ventures,” she said.
Connor raised his eyebrows. “The money that’s in tech,” he observed cynically.
“He’s now a power player, throwing his influence and money behind social causes as well as being a shareholder of several other IT related private and public companies.” Cami wondered if that was why he was worried about the expose article.
“What else does it say?”
“It says here that in the past, he has openly admitted to being fascinated by the idea of ‘cyber-warfare’ and that was a major motivating factor for why he created and financed Virtual Ventures, the company that developed the best-selling game Bordercross.”
“So. He’s highly intelligent. A self-made man and a successful entrepreneur. Clearly, tech is his playground. But is there more to him? Anything else you can pick up?” Connor wondered aloud.
As Connor joined the main road, rain spattering on the windshield and wipers swishing it away, she went digging deeper.
“I’m finding interesting things here,” she said, after a while.
“What are you finding?” Connor asked, glancing over at her.
“That he’s ruthless. He has taken over rivals and colleagues that get in his way. He has no qualms about how brutal he can be. He’s been part of some very unsavory deals. There’s a piece here that was removed from the news website, but it’s still searchable in the archives, that mentions he bragged about his mob connections.”
“Mob connections?”
“Yes.” She saw Connor’s frown and looked at him. “He’s not afraid to do what he needs to do to get what he wants,” she added.
“Sounds like the type who could be behind a hit,” Connor said. “Those murders could be hits that he’s ordered for different reasons. Or the first two could be a smokescreen for the third. Especially if he’s been warned about the investigation.”
They were driving out of town now, into a well-tended countryside area that Cami saw contained luxury lodges and exclusive retreats, as well as private mansions, set in large grounds.
Ahead was the home of Rowan Andrews, director of Virtual Ventures.
The gateway was massive, Cami saw. The gate itself was an extravagant, wrought iron contraption, painted silver and black. The paved driveway beyond was made from jet black bricks. On either side, a strip of brilliant white gravel provided a dazzling contrast. Going up the drive, instead of the trees that other properties had, there were massive decals and artworks, depicting scenes and characters from the games.
Their size and garish color gave the entire place an otherworldly feel, and that was before Cami even got around to looking at the mansion on the top of the hill. It was a black and chrome, modern, angled edifice that looked more threatening than imposing.
A private security guard in a black uniform stood at the gate.
Would they get past this barrier? Cami wondered. Connor seemed calm as he buzzed the window down.
“FBI,” he said briefly.
The guard looked surprised, and scrutinized Connor’s badge carefully, before pressing a button that opened the gate.
They drove up the long drive and Connor parked outside the house.
The entrance beneath the overhang was dark, against a dark metal door, which Cami noted had a camera too. She didn’t doubt that already, Rowan knew they were here and was preparing his strategy.
This was a smart home, she saw, noting the keypad by the door.
It would therefore be controlled by a smart hub. Seeing smart homes were relatively new, their security was not as well protected as it should be. One of Cami’s projects in her second year had been to innovate ways to make smart home technology more secure and less risky.
Perhaps she could get into the network, she wondered. It might allow her to access his devices if she could. There were two ways of accessing a smart hub. The first was to access the hub directly, and the second was to log in to the home’s wi-fi network. Which would work better, she wondered.
She got the searches running, to see if she could find a way in.