Chapter 16

  I met Luke on my way from the dock to the tent for the next round of the bake off. He was carrying a box of used books to Urge.

  “Is that the third box of books they needed to restock Urge with Luke today?”

  “Yes, Laura, I think in volume they are out selling the store, but according to Lucy, we should have higher total sales for the day, because our books cost more.”

  “What about you are you enjoying working at the store, or would you rather just read and play TTRPGs here?”

  “No, I like it, you can’t spend all day everyday all summer reading or playing games, at least that is what my father thinks. So he was very happy to hear that I had a part-time job. Of course he won’t be so happy when he hears what I’m actually working for. Expect an angry phone call from him.” he said with a big grin.

  “If you’d rather I pay you in cash, that can be arranged, Lucy thought you’d rather have the RPG books. I can give you cash and if you want a book, you can give me back the cash.”

  “Nooo, I want the books. If I take the books, I’m getting double the amount of money, I want the discount way more than the cash.”

  “What book are you working for today?”

  “Fallout: Wasteland Wanderer: A Solo Role-playing Game.”

  “They made a table-top version of the computer game?”

  “Yeah, they did and it’s designed specifically for solo role-playing. It looks great.”

  “I actually played the original computer game when it came out over twenty five years ago, but ten years before that I played a game called Wasteland, which inspired the first Fallout game. Same setting, same humor. Really hard though, which was perfect, I was a post college student with a ton of student debt, so I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on games. A hard RPG that had a great story, that was a perfect fit. I bought Wasteland again when it came out on Good Old Games a few years ago. It’s even harder than I remembered it was. But still a lot of fun.”

  I love RPG computer games because of the randomness and the many, many ways to get to the end. My eidetic memory made rereading a book pointless, but because of the many branching paths and the character classes computer RPGs could be played over and over again. Even though I knew the overarching story-line, it’d be like reading the Lord of the Rings from a bunch of different points of view. First play through, Frodo of course, then maybe Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli. Play-through after play-through.

  ***

  The tent was in an uproar when I arrived. The crew buzzed about like a swarm of angry bees. Especially the director who was actually yelling at Roberta. This can not be good. Nope, not good at all. I went over to the judges table and a glum looking mayor sat by himself. I was surprised that Amy wasn’t here, it’s not like her to be late.

  “Have you seen Amy, mayor?”

  “Yes she was here, but because of this delay, she went back inside. I’m supposed to text her when we are ready to go, but it looks like it might take awhile.”

  “What’s the hold up and why is the director yelling at Roberta, I thought they worked for her.”

  The mayor rubbed at his forehead, “They’re yelling about a rat, missing food and if one more thing goes wrong, this whole contest will be shut down. I'm surprised you allow rats on the property Laura.”

  “Mayor, we do not have rats, everyone and once in a while we’ll get a field mouse in the stockroom. But much as it pains me to do it, I set a trap and a few days later we are mouse-less again.”

  “Laura, you have to do something, the town will lose a large endowment to the parks department if this show doesn’t go as planned. I know you care about the town, so please do something.”

  “Mayor, I can’t fix something that I know nothing about, after the director… Never mind, there’s Bobby, she’ll know what is going on.”

  Bobby stood on the other side of the tent and appeared to be making herself as small as she could possibly be. She probably doesn’t want to be the target of either the director or her mother. I went to her to try and find out what was going on. She was watching her mother and director so intently that she must not have heard me approach, when she did hear my step on the plywood flooring, she flinched as if she had been struck. This woman needs to get out of her mothers house, no matter what a fine house that it is. For Bobby it is more a prison, then a home, if this is the kind of fear that she lives with on a regular basis, she’ll die of some stress related illness before she hits forty.

  “Bobby, I’m sorry I startled you, what’s going on? How come no one is baking?”

  “The food delivery was canceled, we can’t go forward. The director is blaming mother and then I know for sure that when they are done having a go at each other, I’ll be the one to catch the blame.”

  “Then we’ll do the unexpected and we’ll attack them first, first check the ingredients and make sure you have flour, salt and yeast for eight contestants.”

  She hurried to the dry goods table and came back and reported that we had plenty for all the contestants and then some.

  “Good come on.” I grabbed Bobby by the arm and we approached the two show runners who ignored both our approach and arrival. Finally I just walked in between the two and said as calmly as I could manage in a loud enough voice to be heard. “Enough, Bobby has solved the issue, so why don’t we get the show on the road, you two can fight with each other after this segment has been filmed.”

  Roberta glared at Bobby, “How could she resolve it, the vendor told me an hour and a half, and that was ten minutes ago.”

  “She solved it by figuring out what you have on hand and what can be made from it. If a plan doesn’t work, you need to revise the plan. That’s exactly what she has done, you have all the ingredients needed to make bread, so it’s a baking show so have the bakers bake some bread. So if you two are done wasting time, let's get moving.”

  “Laura, bread takes too long, that’s why we have been avoiding it.”

  I turned to Roberta,“So you have the bakers make two things at the same time,” then I turned to the director and said, “Through the magic of editing it looks like two completely separate bakes. It couldn’t be any simpler, right?”

  “It would solve the problem and I wouldn’t want to have to do this everyday but it could work. We start them now baking bread and then have them make the Sticky Toffee Pudding once the ingredients arrive. If we start now, we’ll get done early enough and there won’t be any overtime.”

  Roberta looked like she wanted to yell at someone some more, but she must have thought the better of it. Limited time and all. So while the director rounded up her crew and Bobby rounded up the bakers and the mayor texted Amy that it was time to begin, I spoke to Roberta.

  “What happened Roberta?”

  “You told me my laptop was clean and I believed you, I should have just bought a new laptop like I had planned to, I was stupid for listening to you.”

  “No, you are being stupid right now. Your laptop was clean, I checked it twice and both times it was clean. That was yesterday, if you did something stupid in between it might have been reinfected. A new laptop won’t protect you from doing something stupid, neither can this one. Instead of blaming the machine, just own up to the mistake and don’t do it again. Let me have it and I’ll check it again.”

  She huffed and walked away. What the hell is it? This is the second person to huff at me today. If I hadn’t been in such a good mood, thanks to Pappy. Kindness, everyone tries to be smart, how come so few people try to become kind. She walked over to one of the production tables and picked it up. I was determined not to get drawn into this woman’s drama. I smiled when she handed me the laptop.

  “Thank you Roberta, if you want your laptop to remain virus free, you must maintain physical control of the machine. Leaving it over there, everyone has access to it. There is a lot more that you can do to a computer when you have physical access to it. I would advise, using one of our spare bedrooms as an office for the next eight days. You can leave your computer there and it will be unmolested. The head of the writers collective, Bianca might charge you rent for the room but it’ll be worth it, if it avoids another mess like this one.”

  I looked at her machine and it had a micro-USB drive plugged into a USB port on the right side of the machine. I pulled it out and handed it to Roberta.

  “Roberta, did you plug this into your laptop?”

  “No, I wouldn’t know where to plug that into. What is that?”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I took it back and told her, “That is most likely how you were reinfected. I’ll go scan this and call the police, it’s likely too late as we both touched the USB drive to get any fingerprints, but with the bakers all wearing gloves as they bake it is unlikely any prints would have been found anyway.”

  So I grabbed the laptop and started towards the store, Amy was just coming out of the building. We met in the middle of the driveway.

  “Laura, these people are the worst. Someone screwed up and everyone just started screaming at each other. It’s like being back in kindergarten. But no teachers are there to control the unruly little monsters.”

  “I’m sorry I got you involved in this Amy, I envisioned our very own Great British Bake Off. Instead I landed you into this nightmare. I wouldn’t blame you one bit if you quit.”

  “No Bianca has a plan for the money that the writers are saving on the property taxes and I don’t want to mess that up. But I will be happy when they all pack up, except for Will, Pappy and Phoebe of course. I wish they lived closer. But I better get up there, they are already far enough behind.”

  I went into the store, all four staff members were waiting on customers at the register, but there wasn’t a line, so no need to break out the cash box. Instead I went upstairs to my room and after reinstalling Malwarebytes, I started the scan. The scan would take a while, so I walked back downstairs behind the counter and started waiting on customers.

  A half hour later I went back upstairs and the scan was almost complete so I just sat there and zoned out, while I waited the last few minutes for it to complete. It beeped when it was done and gave me almost the same report I had gotten the other day. njRat has been reinstalled. I opened the browser and saw the email that had been sent to the vendor, canceling the order.

  I was about to plug in the micro-USB again to see how the malware had been delivered. Roberta or the hacker, would have had to either trick Roberta again or execute a script when the laptop started. She had been social engineered before, I’d be willing to bet that the attacker switched tactics seeing as they had physical access and just ran a script to download and install the njRAT, I hadn’t hooked up the infected laptop into our network so I could plug the USB back in without reinfecting if I was correct, then I could take a look at the USB. If I was wrong and did manage to reinfect the laptop I could just run the scan again.

  I wanted to know because if it was a script, even if it was purchased on a script kiddie site. It means the hacker was either getting better at hacking or had just been lazy the first time. Before I had a chance to confirm my suspicions, I got a nine one one text from Lucy. So I just dropped everything and went down to the bookstore. I was surprised to see August, with two uniformed patrolmen. My heart was in my throat, something must have gone wrong with Pappy’s plea deal. Maybe we could sneak him off the grounds. It seems they don’t know that he is in Urge, I could just text Willow and tell her to drive away now.

  But where could I tell her to drive to, it’s not like I could tell her to drive back to Woodstock, they had all of Pappy’s details now. We had blithely handed them over. For now I could just claim to not know that Pappy is on the big bus parked righ outside the door at the top of the driveway. Hopefully these cops don’t do social media as there had been pictures posted all day long of Pappy and Willow and Pappy and Phoebe and Pappy and Urge. Yes, hopefully they don’t use social media at all.

  So I was even more surprised when August saw me, pointed and the three police men started in my direction. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, the police had never been after me in this manner before. Should I run, scream for Eve, she’d eat these guys alive. No, I stood my ground, I was at the top of the stairs so I could look down on them. All the customers in the store were watching this all unfold, some had their phones out, filming whatever was about to go down.

  August didn’t look mad, he looked apologetic, which somehow was worse than our usual bickering. He said, “I’m sorry Laura, but we have a warrant for Roberta’s computer.”

  “Sure it’s in my bedroom, come on up.” August turned and told his officers to wait outside. “August, I just cleaned malware off of there. She has been hacked again. I also have the device that was used to hack her with. I haven’t examined the software on the device, but make sure you have computer tech’s examine it. If one of your officers plugs it into a computer on your network, the hacker could infiltrate your network, and cause a lot of damage to your systems. Can you tell me why you have a warrant for the laptop?” I don’t really expect him to, so I’m doubly surprised that I don’t get the standard, I can’t talk about an open investigation.

  “Yes, we had an anonymous tip, that this same anonymous person, saw Roberta reading about bees and poisons.”

  “I’ll bet this anonymous person is also our anonymous hacker.”

  “I agree, but I have to follow the evidence, I’m hoping that I can find that it was planted. My officers aren’t going to be touching this laptop exept to transfer it to the state police lab for a full forensic diagnostic. If you already cleaned this thing twice, they might want to speak to you.”

  “Sure no problem, give them this micro-USB, like I said before, I haven’t had enough time to examine it, and those guys will have access to better tools to do so anyway. But I’m pretty sure this caused this second hack. All the hacker need was one second to plug this into the machine. Then walk away. When Roberta boots the computer, she gets a popup and just clicks OK, it’ll say something harmless but underneath it it is taking over her system. It will look to the world that it is her using the machine, but really the person could be anywhere on the planet that has the internet, yet still have full control of the machine. Before it was only the show that was being targeted, this is an escalation, they are no longer satisfied targeting the show, now they are going after Roberta personally.”

  “I’ll let you know what the crime lab has to say, I’m sorry we had to intrude into the store, when it is so busy.”

  “Thanks, August, it’s fine. I appreciate that you had your two officers wait downstairs, I look less dangerous if I’m accompanied by only one cop.”

  He actually laughed, “Ideally, you wouldn’t be accompanied by any.”

  With that he was gone. Wondered if Roberta knew about the warrant. It must have been either her or Bobby that told August I had the laptop so hopefully she already knows. I think she better contact her attorney. I don’t think they could really pin a crime on someone if their machine has been hacked. That of course depends on how deep they look into it. She has been reporting crimes against her business for more than a week, this may cause her some legal issues but a good attorney like Eve would probably get this thrown out of court in a heart beat.

  I decided to go back out to the tent and see how things were going, this was going to be a real challenge for the bakers and if the editing was done correctly, the public would never know that the last challenge for week three and the first challenge for week one were being filmed simultaneously.

  Lucy was by my side the moment I came down the stairs.

  “Laura, is everything alright?”

  “Yeah, not to worry, August was here for Roberta’s laptop. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw them. I was worried something had gone wrong with Eve’s deal for Pappy. Roberta has plenty of money, rich people hardly ever face real consequences, nope prison is reserved for the poor. If we keep growing oligarchs we’ll all be poor. Then at least the bottom ninety nine percent of the country will be equal. Enough of that though, how is everything in here?”

  “Great, I think we are going to make more money today than we did yesterday.”

  “Terrific, please tell everyone that we are having a lasagna party for Pappy. Amy asked him what his favorite meal was before we left to clear his warrant this morning. I have to go out to the tent, text if you guys need any help.”

  Lucy grinned,“We’re good this is fun, it really is. It seems like I just got here.”

  “You all took a lunch break though, right? I told you I don’t want you killing yourselves. The store is important, but you need breaks and stuff too. Do you think we should get another part-time employee for the next week? We could ask Claire Becker, as the head of the mystery book-club she knows our stock pretty well, and she might jump at the chance.”

  “No, you know what we could do is have a nice lunch delivered every day for the next week, until the bake off is finished. Maybe have a dozen donuts sent over from the bakery at ten, then lunch brought in at one or two.”

  “Okay, if that is what everyone wants, fine, but you can’t keep people here during their lunch, they may have things that they need to do, go to the bank or drugstore or something. Don’t break any labor laws. What would I tell your father? I’m sorry Mr Hernandez, I asked her not to break any labor laws, now she’s serving twenty to life. I think that judge was way too harsh, it was only seven lunch hours. Don’t worry Genre’s bookstore will stand behind her and make sure her commissary account is always topped off.”

  “Thanks Laura, hopefully you’ll mail me books too.”

  “Yes, in fact I often thought, prison wouldn’t be so bad, I’d just refuse to leave my cell and read all day. But today I found out the harsh reality. Jail smells really, really bad. My advice is stay out of there.”

  Roberta was standing in the center of the tent, “Bakers you have five minutes remaining on this challenge.”

  But instead of heading back to the judges table, she headed right for me.

  “Did they take my laptop?”

  “Yes, and I had already cleaned off the malware, but they have a report that you were hacked the other day, Now they have a report that you were hacked today. I also gave them the micro USB that was used to hack you. So if they accuse you of anything, you have evidence that a hacker had complete control of your computer. So how is the baking competition going, running two separate challenges at the same time.”

  “It’s fine, it might be a nightmare for the editor, but that is what he’s getting payed for. It was fast thinking on your part, I don’t suppose that I could hire you as an assistant.”

  “No I’m sorry, I think that you and I, we would kill each other. You should hire someone you don’t know and give them permission to shout at you every-time that you shout at them. No not permission, tell them it is a major component of the job. Once you realize that you don’t like being shouted at, you’ll perhaps have a little empathy for the people you shout at on a regular basis. I should keep my nose out of it, but your daughter is passionate about her writing. If you help her to achieve her dream she may surprise you. The arts are always a gamble, but if you have money. You can write what you want, not what sells. The people that write for money are trapped. They have to write what sells. What sells today will rarely sell tomorrow. There are thousands of writers that make a living, writing what sells. But it’s the ones that wrote what they wanted to write. Those are the authors that still sell. That is the fiction still taught in school, colleges. I get you are trying to forge her in your image. But think about it, when you get older, do you really want to live with a younger version of you? I know I couldn’t think of anything worse for myself than a younger me looking after an older me. Give her a year or two in the arts, maybe she'll hate it and become the cutthroat business woman you always wanted or maybe you two will finally have the relationship that you have been hoping for.”

  “So you think that writers that make money are less than ‘starving artists’. That’s very bigoted of you, Laura.”

  “No I don’t believe that at all, and if that’s what you think I just said, then I said it all wrong. Look at my store, Genre’s, it’s the kind of fiction that I love. No, what I’m saying is that a person who loves Rom Coms shouldn’t be writing Mafia Romance even if they are making money at it. Their Mafia stories will never compete with the Rom Coms that they write because they love them, the others are just a means to an end. Stephen King is a great example of a genre author who made a fortune and deserves every penny, because he writes what he loves. I’m just saying why not let Bobby do something that she is passionate about instead of forcing her into some mold that she is ill suited to fit.”

  “I’ll think about it, but for the next eight days I need to focus on this contest. But if we run into another crisis like what happened today, I expect you to step up.”

  Rich people, you can never please them.