Spear Phishing

Father fell for it, the first message reads.

Then, Erin dumps screenshot after screenshot of text logs into the chat.

My eyes scan over records, scrolling through it quickly, thinking to myself all the while holy shit, holy shit, holy shit it happened.

Tiffany did it.

From Maddie on April 2, 2020, 1:03 pm: Herbie’s picking up steam, Emerson College’s latest poll has him at 4:3 odds

To Maddie on April 2, 2020, 1:04 pm: How much of the war chest is he dumping?

To Claire on April 2, 2020, 1:04 pm: Will need you on the STX deal soon. Need to show them we’re serious.

From Maddie on April 2, 2020, 1:04 pm: Big ad buys across the networks, but rumour is he’s going to self-fund if he primaries.

From Hyerim on April 2, 2020, 1:04 pm: Phoenix lead looks promising. Confirmed that the DC runner bailed back to MIT, but I’m checking with Vidocq again.

From Sascha on April 2, 2020, 1:04 pm: New from Goldman, Angus has NJB on Buy with target price $17, see attached

To Hyerim on April 2, 2020, 1:05 pm: Noted. Nothing on the other leads?

From Hyerim on April 2, 2020, 1:05 pm: Nothing new on the missing two. Working on those, but team thinks trail will be cold even if we trace it now. Phoenix looks most promising.

I suddenly notice Ella Sue, her hands on my shoulders, looking intently at my screen. My first instinct is to shy away from her, to hide my phone, but there’s no reason to do that anymore.

“This is from your Father’s phone? How did you get all of this?” Ella Sue asks me in wonderment.

“With a little help from my friends,” I smile. “It’s possible to embed code in pictures and videos—that’s why you always have to be careful with what you download on the internet. I asked Erin if she knew any way to use that to deliver a virus onto somebody’s phone. Turns out, Ricardo knows his way around some black hat tech magic, and before long, I had something for Tiffany to pass on to Father.”

“Wow,” she whistles softly, looking with a hint of paranoia on her phone at the ground.

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure Instagram is still safe to use. It’s those attachments in other apps that you’ve got to worry about,” I say.

“I mean, wow, Ricardo came up with that in what… two days?”

“I’ve been planning this one for a while now,” I say. “It’s only two days ago that I finally managed to meet Tiffany and persuade her to deliver the goods to Father. I don’t think she even knows what it’s meant to do. She said she can’t lie to Father, so… the less she knows the better.”

Ella Sue folds her arms over her chest.

“That sounds familiar, doesn’t it,” she says.

I take a beat. She has a point.

“Just messing with you,” she smiles. “Mostly.”

Fucking jackpot… or is it a honeypot? I text to Erin, and second later, she replies.

Jackpot is right. We don’t think it’s fake, or, if it is, they’ve put an awful lot of resources in a very short amount of time into making a real sophisticated honeypot.

That’s good, I text back. We’ll never be able to tell for sure if this is Father’s real phone we’re getting intel from, or just a very clever fake, but if Erin says it’s right? I’m willing to trust her.

His security is tight as hell though. We haven’t be able to get access to the rest of the device, just the messaging app. Seems unlikely that we’ll be able to penetrate any more of the system, unless he for some reason passes it on to somebody else with a leaky device, she writes.

“So that’s Erin on the other end?” Ella Sue says, peeking over my shoulder again.

I nod, tilting the screen towards her so she can follow the conversation.

“Tell her I say hi,” she says, poking me in the ribs.

“Tender,” I groan, because it still is, after the physio, but she only giggles and pokes me again.

“Tell her!”

Ella Sue says hi, I write, and then I look back up at her.

“Happy?”

She beams back at me.

So you decided to tell her? Erin writes.

Things got… messy, I write. Ella Sue nods vigorously into my shoulder. I felt she had the right to know.

She probably did, Erin replies.

“I like her,” Ella Sue says, pointing at the latest message. And then: “I can see why you fucked her.”

I flinch. Oh yeah. She knows now.

“Was it fun, fucking your sister?”

“She’s my step-sister,” I mutter.

“Sounds just like a porno,” Ella Sue giggles. “And besides, you didn’t answer my question. Was she good?”

I give her a look.

“Very good.”

“Better than m—…” she trails off, biting her lip, deciding that she doesn’t need to know the answer to that particular question.

“What were you going to say?” I nudge her, glad to finally have something to use against her in this conversation.

“Are you planning to fuck Tiffany too?” she asks innocently.

“Fuck Tiff… Fuck you!” I say, and she’s giggling all over the couch now.

“You’re horrible,” she says.

“You don’t even know what I have planned for the rest of the family,” I say.

“I don’t need to,” she laughs. “You’re a horrible, no-good, incestuous sex-fiend who just happens to have a very rich daddy.”

I roll my eyes, and turn back to my phone.

I think we can use that Phoenix kid, I write. Do we have inside info on our side?

“Stop ignoring me,” Ella Sue says. “You’re just admitting defeat if you do.”

I was thinking the same. Genevieve’s working on it, Erin replies.

“Fine, fine, you win this one,” I tell Ella Sue, and she beams at me again, much too cheerfully, and scoops up her phone, sinking down onto the couch next to me while I sort out the details of this Phoenix thing with Erin.