Robin Caroll [Caroll - Darkwater Lies

Adelaide

Weve been hacked!

Adelaide Fountaine looked up from her notes and tightened her grip on the phone. Ill have to call you back, Daddy. She hung up the phone without waiting for her fathers response and stared at Lissette Bastien. Weve been what?

Hacked! Our computer system. Lissettes eyes were wider than usual, her smooth mocha skin flushed.

Taking a deep breath, Adelaide refused to stand or give in to the alarm threatening to rise. Explain, please.

Lissette had been learning the hospitality business to take over as managing owner of the hotel for less than a year, not enough time to accurately gauge panic-worthy events. Not like Adelaide, who had nearly six years under her belt at the Darkwater Inn and had weathered the most seriousand almost career-endingevents.

We thought it was just a glitch when the room-service orders all came in, but its so much more than that.

Adelaide held up a hand. Wait a minute. Slow down and back up. What room-service orders?

The younger woman sucked in air, then let it out in a rush. Thats what started everything. Dimitri got one hundred and six room-service orders all at once in the system.

One hundred and six? Thats improbable. The hotel hosted two hundred and seven rooms, including the suites, and as of this morning, with it being Mardi Gras season, they were at ninety-eight percent occupancy. So it was possible to have that many orders, but the likelihood was very slim. It was carnival season and after 6:00 p.m., so a large majority of the hotel guests were out celebrating in the city.

Lissette nodded. Right. Dimitri figured it was a glitch in the system, so he called over to tech support. They ran some tests remotely and told him the system was operating properly, but he knew that had to be wrong, so he called me. We rebooted the system and followed all the advice tech support gave, but the orders were still there. Dimitri rang four random rooms that had orders on the system and asked if theyd placed a room service order. None of them had.

Of course not. Adelaide nodded.

Together we called the software support team. They walked us through everything to try. Rebooting. Resetting. Even starting in safe mode. Nothing worked.

Adelaide let out a pent-up breath. It sounds like perhaps we need a representative from the software company to come check the program, but it doesnt sound like weve been hacked. Thank goodness, because she certainly didnt need anything like that. Nothing that would give Claude Pampalon a reason to, once again, doubt her capability to run the hotel as general manager. Hed been gracious enough to grant her request to take a six-month sabbatical to train at a five-star hotel in Europe as long as she returned for the busy Mardi Gras season, but shed been back a month now. It wouldnt bode well for her if anything went majorly wrong at the Darkwater Inn that she couldnt handle after having been gone.

Lissette shook her head. Thats just what Dimitri thought, too, until he ran over to security to see if Hixson would look and see if he could figure it out.

Smart move on Dimitris part. Hixson, the barely legal young man in the Darkwaters security department, had been taking online classes in computer coding. Finally, Dimitri seemed to be doing what Adelaide had been harping on him to do for a couple of yearslearning the staff. Maybe her time away had helped Dimitri as well.

Lissette continued. Hixson was able to get into the system and figured out there were corrupt lines of code, and hes pretty sure they were put in there deliberately to mess with the system.

That was a game changer. Adelaide pushed to her feet, snatching her cell phone from her desk. How long ago did the room service orders show up in the system? She jerked open her office door and headed down the hallway.

Lissette fell into step beside her, staring at her watch. I think they all appeared about five or so.

Adelaide glanced at the time on her phone: 6:13 p.m. Theyd been down over an hour, and she was just now hearing about it? Unacceptable. She quickened her already fast pace toward the security office.

Ms. Fountaine! Barb, the night-desk manager, came from behind the counter and rushed to her. Weve had several guests complain that their room keys arent working.

Adelaide paused to look the woman in the eye. I need to see to a pressing situation at the moment. For the time being, just get new cards and reprogram as needed, Barb. Ill check back with you as soon as I can.

Barb nodded and went back to the front desk while Adelaide returned to her fast pace toward the security office. She glanced at Lissette. You said the orders showed up around five? Over an hour ago?

But we only figured out it was a hack in the last thirty minutes or so. Lissettes steps faltered.

Pausing with her hand on the security office door handle, Adelaide glanced over her shoulder. At which time you should have alerted me. Weve lost thirty more minutes now, putting the hotel and all of our guests at risk.

Lissettes eyes narrowed, and the muscles in her jaw flexed. Adelaide didnt have time to address the chip that had been on Lissettes shoulder ever since Adelaide had returned from Europe.

Not now. Not when theyd already lost so much time. She jerked open the door and stepped inside. The first thing she saw was acting chief of security Sully Clements typing frantically on dual keyboards and murmuring to himself. Or to Hixson, who sat at a computer as well, fingers flying over his own keyboards.

A hack could compromise all the sensitive data on hotel guests, staff... the hotel itself. Mr. Pampalon would have a fit. This could be just what he needed to prove Dimitri wrong and deny Lissette control over the hotel. Hed probably fire Adelaide for good measure since it had happened on her watch.

Adelaide moved to stand at Sullys right arm. Ive just been made aware of the situation. Any progress? She didnt want to get in the way, but her heart caught in the back of her throat. She needed results.