But on the other hand, they were here, angrily checking her out. They’d tracked her to her hairdresser’s and knew her by name. So somewhere along the line, she’d messed up. She thought back, trying to pinpoint where it had been.
“You know why you’re here.” Connor leaned his elbows on the desk and stared at her threateningly. Cami could see the lines etched on either side of his mouth. It didn’t look like he smiled a lot.
“Tell me,” she said, doing her best to sound noncommittal, despite the fact that she was starting to feel a little overwhelmed.
“You hacked the FBI’s website. You put up a list of unsolved cases, with the message that the Bureau was useless, and changed the director’s photo to a cat face.”
Connor looked at Cami, and now his expression said he was three moves ahead. He was waiting for Cami to deny this statement. Cami sensed his expectation of this. And then, Connor looked like he would take delight in launching ten levels of hell her way. It would only make things worse. And in any case, why not be honest when the chips were down?
So, Cami shrugged, deciding to play with open cards. “Yes. Yes, I did that.”
She saw Connor blink instinctively and felt a brief moment of satisfaction that she hadn’t played his game. And a game was all this was. Why was she here anyway? The home page had been temporarily down soon after and then back to normal within hours. She’d checked.
She saw the other agent pushing buttons on his phone, as if sending an urgent message out to someone.
“Were you working with anyone? Were you cooperating with anybody to get this done?” Connor quizzed her.
“I did it all on my own,” she replied. She saw his eyebrows raise at that response.
“Why? Do you realize you compromised state security?”
Cami shrugged. “I did it because I wanted to send the message that you don’t help people in need.” And then, because she was pissed by Connor’s aggression, she added, “You guys need to have better firewalls in place. You should be pleased that I tested them for you.”
Connor hissed in a breath and Cami saw that had gotten to him. Really, really gotten to him. He’d just had a catastrophic sense of humor failure. Not that Cami thought his sense of humor was his strong point at the best of times.
“You do not realize how serious this is!” Connor said, and now his voice was icy cold. “This is a matter of state security! Breaching this could have caused a major incident. And our security is top notch. You should be asking yourself why you, a US citizen, tried to subvert the security of an official law enforcement site. Security that is in place for a reason! You clearly have no respect for it, do you? You’re just a—just a little punk!” At the end, he sounded seriously angry, as if his own control was fracturing.
“Well, okay, then.” Cami shot back. This man didn’t like her. Didn’t like her at all.
And inwardly, she was kicking herself, because she had just worked out what step she’d missed in the hacking. There hadn’t been time for a full deletion of her tracks. There had been the tiniest window when getting onto that homepage had been possible. Proud that she’d managed it, feeling mischievous, defiant, and strangely powerful, she’d grasped that window, but she’d left a gap for them to follow her out.
“You know what the prison sentence for this is?” Connor asked, his tone more reasonable now, as if he’d gotten himself back on track.
“Well, of course I know there is one, theoretically,” she said.
“Up to twenty years,” Connor plowed forward. “Quite often, they’ll give the maximum sentence. It’s an offense that’s taken very seriously. Juries don’t like it when people undermine state security.”
“What’s the point of telling me that?” Cami said, honestly puzzled. These agents surely weren’t going to take this further, but they were being far more hardcore than she’d expected.
“Because that’s what the law is about. The law is about preventing breaches of state security by hostile forces. If you do that, you’re a criminal. A criminal. You have committed a first-degree computer crime, and you have committed a terrorist act against a public safety agency,” Connor explained. Now that his anger was under control and his voice was reasonable, the words actually sounded less like a threat and more like a promise.
“You have caused reputational damage and significant financial damage to the FBI as a result of your actions. And that incurs criminal charges. Jail time of up to twenty years for a B felony. And a criminal record that will stay with you for life, following your jail time.” He shook his head, as if in disbelief that anyone could have acted so rashly.
Cami listened carefully to his tone, still not convinced by him. Did he really think he was upholding the law? Or was this guy overstepping his mark and trying to get her to go down because of a personal issue he had? Like moves in a game of chess, she tried to think ahead.
She was not going to let him exact his petty revenge. She could demand to speak to his boss. Show him up for what he was doing, especially since time was supposedly so precious to them and this was wasting it. Or she could ask for a lawyer, get the media involved, and start asking why they couldn’t take criticism when it came to their unsolved cases. Clearly, the truth hurt them. If she could take this further, it could lead to a big expose.
“You simply do not understand the extent of the seriousness of your crimes,” Connor concluded sternly.
“But at least we have a confession,” the other agent chipped in.
“Yes. At least we do.”
“So, you going to go ahead then?” the other agent said.
“Yes. Let’s get going.” Connor cleared his throat and stood up. For the first time, Cami was aware that a small tape recorder on the edge of the table was recording this entire conversation, and it had been from the start.
“Cami Lark, you are under arrest.”