The Walls of Jericho

Cracking

In the end, I do get Drake to let me take a look at his KDS project. As I expected, he is working on the Heritage database setup, the one that Damien has hidden software in place to prevent.

Drake lets me sit at his computer workstation—he’s got a nice big home office set up with three monitors, an ergonomic keyboard and a really kickass executive chair he works in. It takes a couple minutes for the KDS installation program to initiate, attempt to build the database, then fail.

“Yeah. See? That.” Drakes hauls a hard chair he brought in from the kitchen up closer beside me. Putting his hand over mine on the mouse, he highlights the error on one screen, then opens up the installation coding in another program on another monitor. He scrolls through the code using the mouse’s scroll wheel, his finger brushing between my two fingers so lightly it nearly tickles.

The guilt rolls in like a settling fog as Drake locates the section of the code he wants to show me and begins explaining where he thinks the problem lies. I don’t hear a single word.

I know that all of this was impromptu, entirely on my part, but mostly on Drake’s too. We didn’t meet clandestinely, deliberately, to hide that we were doing something together. But I know how Channing would feel if he knew, and I wouldn’t blame him. If I found out he’d spent the day with another woman, even platonically, I’d still be upset. 

Hell, I'm still mad at him for walking girls home before we were even involved, back when the best he got from me was some snarky comment or putdown. 

Forcing myself to concentrate, I reach out and touch along the electronic connection with my indiscernible feelers, getting a picture of what Damien has done. 

At the most basic level, it’s a multi-layer security approach. It uses encrypted channels to transmit data from the Avernus server in response to installation attempts, then an AI-driven threat assessment to prevent other installations from being tampered with and ensure their legitimacy. Every program on the Heritage side runs in isolation and without any external interference, minimizing the opportunity to skirt the protocols using something already installed on the system. 

I have to give him kudos. It's clean and effective.

It would set me in good standing with Drake and potentially secure a job for me at KDS, if I crack this and get the installation to run. I have no doubt if he pitches that I can get Heritage off the ground, the dragon will see to it that I wind up with a job. Once I’m inside, it’s a matter of time before I figure out who he is.

My conscience pangs again cruelly. It’s bad enough that I’m here—Channing would be devastated—but if he also learned I compromised the thing he and Avernus are trying so desperately to protect. There’d be no end to the pain it would bring him, even if they finally had their KDS insider and got to the dragon.

There’s got to be another way.

“Jericho? Are you okay, love?” Drake sets his hand in the center of my back. A soothing heat sinks through my tank and into my skin, radiating from his palm so warm that it’s nearly uncomfortable.

“I—yeah.” It’s multi-layer for a reason, I tell myself. I can dismantle a tiny portion of it without significant notice or compromise. Damien would have anticipated some parts would fail. Before I can doubt myself, my fingers click rapidly on the keyboard. With a last quick adjustment, I start the installation again.

This time it proceeds noticeably further, though it’s not even a little chunk of what Damien has in place. Beside me, Drake cheers. “Yeah! Look at you go! I’ve been working on that for two straight weeks. It took you two minutes. You’ve got to have a job. I swear I can’t get this done without you.”

He opens a drawer on his desk and rummages about in it. “Where the devil are they? Ah! Here.” He pulls out a business card and turns it over. Grabbing a pen, he scratches out a number on the back. “That’s my email, and I wrote my cell on the back. Email me your resume, then send me a text so I know to look for it. I’ll find a way to get you into KDS if I have to give you my job.”

**

It’s not until after Channing is home again and a few days have passed that I have time to work up my meager resume and email it to Drake with a guilty pang. I send the text like he asked afterwards, doing my best to keep it neutral.

Hey Drake. It’s Jericho. Wanted to let you know I forwarded my resume. Thanks for offering to take it into KDS for me. I appreciate your help.

His reply comes about thirty seconds later. No problem. I’ll get it into KDS right away. Thanks.

I can’t actually surmise much of anything from his terse reply, but I hope he’s gotten the message in the intervening days since he showed up and the time I’ve taken to get in touch that I’m not going to do something stupid and wreck my relationship with Channing. In the interest of avoiding an unplanned meeting, I change my schedule and explore the Tassler Heights trails in the evening when it’s cooler and entirely avoid the trail that leads to the community’s lower valley where Drake lives.

Still, the day after, he sends me an email letting me know he dropped my resume by KDS human resources and provided a glowing recommendation for me. I respond and tell him thanks again. Another two days later, he sends a text letting me know that the human resources recruiter forwarded my resume to several hiring managers. He follows it with a link to a video that’s going viral of tai chi and martial arts gone wrong that makes me laugh so hard I can’t breathe.

By the time Channing has to leave for Dublin again to go see the demo of Damien’s teams’ latest dragon-proof tracker housing, the guilt I felt about Drake has metamorphosed into excited expectation. I check my email regularly, wondering if there’ll be something from him, and take my phone everywhere with me, just in case he texts. It’s subtle yet pervasive how he creeps his way into my life.

Of course it’s all rationalized easily too.

I’m not doing anything wrong. This is how networking works—this is how you make connections that get you a job when you need it. We’re friendly acquaintances, that’s all.

Which is exactly how it starts. A chance meeting during a terrible thunderstorm brings someone new into your life. They fill a void you didn’t even know was there, make you feel in ways you didn’t know you could. Despite knowing unequivocally that this can’t end well, I do it anyway, telling myself the ends justify the means.