Not surprisingly, AJ was the first one down to breakfast the next morning, dragging Sam along behind him. They had ordered breakfast and sat drinking their coffee as they waited for Howie and Dani to join them. AJ stretched his arms over his head, a contented look on his face. He caught Sam's eye and flashed her a grin. She returned his grin, knowing she was responsible for that contented statement. "I wonder what's keeping Howie and Dani?" she said, as the waitress arrived with their food. "I can't wait to find out how last night went," Sam mused.
AJ raised his eyebrows and peered at her over the top of his sunglasses. "Well, I doubt they got any more sleep than we did," he said, laughing. His laughter ceased abruptly and his eyes widened as he caught sight of their two friends entering the restaurant. "Hmmmm.. . ," he mused as Howie and Dani joined them at the table. "I feel distinctly underdressed," he said in his best upper crust voice.
"Maybe we should go change, dahling," Sam added, looking pointedly at AJ's baggy jeans and red wife beater.
"Nah," he replied. "How often do you get your own personal Secret Service agents?" he joked. Howie and Dani had dressed that morning for business. Howie wore a classic businessman's double-breasted power suit, complete with red tie. Dani was in navy from head to toe. Shoes, stockings, skirt, and jacket, all navy. Her white v/neck blouse was the only relief from the somber color. Her hair was pulled up into a French knot on top of her head. Dani quickly put a stop to their teasing by flashing her engagement ring in front of Sam. Hugs and congratulations were shared all around and Dani and Sam eagerly discussed wedding plans during the remainder of breakfast. Sam was delighted when Dani asked her to be her maid of honor and AJ agreed to stand up for Howie along with John, Howie's brother.
The jovial mood of breakfast changed once at the plant. It didn't take long before Dani's head was pounding and her stomach rolling. She paced angrily around conference room. Knowing the flash fire temper Dani possessed, Howie was pacing with her, doing his best to calm her. "Hey, Mafia twins, would y'all chill?" AJ said.
"AJ!" Dani shouted, practically breathing fire. Howie reached out and grabbed her by the arm trying to hold her back. She threw off his grasp and closed the distance between her and AJ. "Will you stop with the jokes!" she shouted as she poked AJ in the chest with her index finger. "This is not funny. This is damn serious!" she shouted. "That CD is probably already in the hands of some of the merchants. This could very well ruin all of our careers. Or worse! How do you feel about jail, AJ?!"
"Dani, I think it's time you told me just what is going on!" a scolding voice came from across the room. Everyone turned and stared in surprise at the newcomer. "Jeff!" Dani exclaimed, confused. "Wha... What are you doing here?"
"I talked with the plant this morning around five a.m. and found out about the CD's being produced and shipped," Jeff said. "I thought I'd better get down here and help you sort out this mess. But I can't do that if you won't tell me what's going on," he complained. Jeff crossed the room, stopping in front of Dani who was standing motionless, stunned to see him. He reached out and grasped her hands in his. "Dani, you may be the boss, but I....." He was momentarily speechless as he noticed the new item adorning her left hand. Howie gloated inwardly as he watched Jeff's face fall. "Uhmmm, I see congratulations are in order," Jeff said stoically, leaning in and giving her a light, but lingering kiss on her cheek. Howie walked over and placed his arm possessively around Dani's shoulder. "Congratulations Howie, you're a lucky man. I hope you know that," Jeff said coolly as he extended his hand.
Howie took his hand and shook it firmly. "Thank you, I do. Now would you mind telling us just exactly how those CD's were in production when you told us that the plant had closed for the weekend?" he said, glaring at Jeff. AJ got up and moved to intercede. He knew Jeff had been a rival for Dani's affections when Howie had first fallen in love with her. And despite the fact Howie had won her love, he still didn't like the attention Jeff paid her.
"Hey guys, why don't we all sit down and talk this out? Maybe we can get to the bottom of what happened and figure out what to do next," AJ said, hoping to allay another flare up of tempers.
As they settled at the table, Dani took the head position. Howie sat to her right and Jeff raced to claim the seat to her left. Sam sat beside Jeff and AJ took the seat across from her. Howie stiffened as Jeff leaned in and took both of Dani's hands in his own. "Dani, it's time you told me exactly what is going on. You know I'll do anything to help you," he said, his words syrupy sweet. Sam rolled her eyes as Jeff, who hadn't taken his eyes off Dani, fingered her engagement ring. A slight frown appeared on his face. AJ laid his hand on Howie's arm, knowing he was only seconds away from flying out of the chair and pummeling the programmer.
Dani withdrew her hands from Jeff's and leaned back in her chair. "Jeff, this whole thing would have been over if those CD's hadn't been produced. Now everything is so complicated," she sighed. " We need to find out who would do this. And how to stop it."
"Stop what?" Jeff asked.
Dani sighed again. "When I was checking the files for the enhancements on the CD last week I came across this odd symbol. It was stuck off in a corner and looked like it had been put there for a reason, but I know I didn't have it in my design," she explained.
"What exactly did it look like, Dani?" Sam asked. "I meant to ask you the other night, but you where so upset after that fight with Howie, I forgot." A smug grin crossed Jeff's face. Howie glared at Sam. Realizing she had said too much, Sam shrugged as she glanced over at AJ and then down at the polished granite top of the conference room table.
"It's some kind of Oriental symbol," she explained. "I don't know what it means." "I wished you'd shown it to me," Sam said, "It if was Japanese I might have been able to help you with it."
"I know," Dani agreed, "but there was so much going on when you got to the house, I completely forgot to show you. I emailed it to a friend of mine to translate. I imagine he'll get back to me sometime this week. Anyway, I thought at first it must have something to do with the CD destined for the Asian markets. So I dug into the files to see what it was attached to, and that's. . . ."
"You found it on Wednesday night, right? The night we made love in your office," Howie interjected solely for Jeff's benefit. Dani leaned forward, placing her forearms on the table and clasping her hands, giving Howie an embarrassed, puzzled look. "Uhmm, yeah. As I was saying, the next morning when I was able to really dig into the files, I found it. The programming on the CD has a very sophisticated back door in it, Jeff."
"That isn't unusual Dani," Jeff said condescendingly. "You know that programmers almost always leave themselves some kind of way in to a program so they can fix any problems that creep up after the fact."
"Dani?" AJ said, confused. "Tell us again what exactly a back door is. I'm not sure I understand."
"A back door is a hole in a program. A way for a hacker to get in after the CD is in place in an outside computer system," Dani said, trying not to get too technical so that her friends would understand.
"What could a hacker possibly want to do with it?" Sam questioned, her reporter instincts kicking in.
"Yeah, Dani. It would only give the hacker access to the computers of about ten million teenagers. Not much damage to be done there," Jeff said sarcastically.
"The first run of CD's is for promotional purposes," Dani said. She turned to Sam and explained that this batch of CD's was being shipped to retailers, reviewers, award nominating committees, and industry people. "It's not the teenagers they want, Jeff," Dani said directing her gaze back to him. "It's the retailers. The backdoor files are designed to allow the hacker to get past the retail chain's computer security and enter their inventory and sales tracking database."
"Dani, are you sure?" Jeff said. "You're not a programmer. Could you have misread the coding?" Anger flared in Dani's eyes. The programmers who worked for Jeff reminded her constantly that she was only a designer and that writing programs was their job. She just put the pretty pictures and fancy letters on the page. Knowing how remarks like that hurt Dani and taking full advantage of the opportunity to put Jeff in his place, Howie jumped into the conversation. "Dani knows a hell of a lot more about programming than any of you give her credit for. I've seen her bring our website back up after it has gone down by flying through hundreds of HTML instructions and finding the one that crashed the site," he said. "And she can do it within minutes of the site having gone down. She rewrites the coding that your programmers screw up all the time." Howie's voice grew louder with each word.
"Howie!" Dani said. "Now is not the time," she said, laying her hand on his. She turned and looked coldly at Jeff. "Let's just let it suffice to say, Jeff, that I know enough about programming to know what these files are designed to do."
"And what would that be?" Jeff said sullenly.
"Fix the sales," Dani informed him "When a customer purchases a CD it will ring up as a single sale. But the computer will record it as a multiple sale for reporting purposes. One sale can become three or four, depending on how the hacker activates the program."
"And just why is that so bad?" Jeff said. The annoyance in his voice was obvious. "They," Jeff waved his hand at Howie and AJ, "will get kudos for their huge sales."
"That's just it, Jeff," Sam chimed in with journalistic professionalism. "If anyone discovers that the sales are being fixed, the group's credibility will be ruined at the very least. The worst part is that they will be paid royalties based on reported sales that never happened. Given the amount of money we're talking about, that makes it a federal crime," she explained.
"And what worries me even more," Dani added, "Is that I'm sure that whoever put that symbol there means for it to be found. It's too obvious. Too easy to find. All it will take is the right hint dropped in the right place in the media, and the cat will be out of the bag. Even if we can prove that the group had nothing to do with it and avoid charges, their careers will be ruined."
"So," said Howie to Jeff coldly as he leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest, "Who tampered with Dani's
security clearance? Who got those CD's produced without any of us knowing? And which one of your programmers is out to get us?"
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