The Idle Threat
Hours had gone by since I started the data recovery on the drive from the Non-Critical VM server. The PFY and I were replacing less critical infrastructure at this point. We worked in near silence, the PFY making the occasional wise crack at a system. Together we got to a point that the company was operable, most systems were online and data was restored. There were some non-critical things we would have to be fixing in the coming weeks.
"Skip, why don't you head on home. I'll see you on Tuesday." (It was a Saturday)
"Sure thing, you don't want me to come in Monday?"
"No, take the day for coming in today." Skip gave me a nod and went to gather his things. Once he had gone I went to my laptop and pulled up the results from the file recovery. The drive was completely corrupted. Disappointed I grabbed my bag and decided to head home. Monday was a litany of paperwork, first from Money but then from the Police. I managed to finally tackle the paper devil around lunch time, so I grabbed my coat and went out for a stroll. I returned to the dregs an hour later to hear the sounds of two people arguing.
"Tell me the password!" The first voice I didn't recognize as it echoed through the hallway.
"Even if I knew it, I still wouldn't! Do we need to call rstrt in here?" The second voice had the squeaky undertone of the PFY. I decided to hold back a second around the corner, but the sounds were obviously coming from within my office.
"Just give me his password, before Head of HR (HoHR) needs to come down!" The Crony seemed upset, he didn't like the PFY dropping department head names apparently.
"Are you stupid? I don't know his password!" The PFY was now the one echoing through the halls. I wanted to wait longer, but I would have been content to hide a HR Crony in the plenum. I rounded the corner and stepped into my office.
"You" I said, pointed to the HR Crony "Get out of here, go back to the HR department. Oh, and tell HoHR I send my love, and if she wants to go through my computer all she has to do is ask."
"I'm going to report Skip here for how he treated me." Skip opened his mouth, but he caught my glance before any words managed to fall out of it.
"Go to HR, tell HoHR to come down here. We apparently need to have a discussion on overstepping bounds again." The Crony shot the PFY a dirty look as he exited the room.
"I decided to take a half-day instead. Came in to see this asshole going through your desk and he started screaming at me for your password." Concerned, I looked in my top desk drawer. It was safe, the flash drive containing Sword. It didn't take long for the clacking of HoHR's heels to draw close.
"You can't be serious, rstrt. First the building gets broken into, then your employee harasses my own?" HoHR's familiar acidic spittle that vaguely resembled speech made my skin crawl. "Don't think that I don't know you were involved in that! I'm launching an investigation into you, so unlock that computer!" HoHR didn’t point at my laptop, she pointed to the desktop sitting on the floor. The desktop that once belonged to Motorcycle IT Guy (MITG), I had kept it in case I needed one of his files.
"HoHR, surely you aren't serious. Why don't you and your cronies go back to HR and stay the hell away from the dregs." I pointed to a small area in the ceiling, where a piece of plenum had been removed. "Or, I'll pull the tapes."
I bluffed.
"Who gave you authorization to tape employees?" As she was busy barking at me I unlocked my computer and pulled up a saved tape. It was her shutting off the exchange server. HoHR's tone completely changed. "Do you have the tapes from the server room this weekend?"
Something was wrong here, she seemed genuinely concerned, almost human.
"I'm running recovery on the disks, it's just a matter of time until we catch whoever did this."
"I want them the minute they're done. Do you understand me?"
"I understand, but I'm not handing them over to you. The tapes will be turned over to the proper authorities."
"That's a direct order, I want those tapes!"
"Why? Will I see your face on them?" HoHR was visually shocked.
"How dare you! I should fire you for that accusation alone!"
"HoHR, you accused me of exactly the same thing a minute ago. Go back to HR before we need to bother the CEO again, he's been growing rather impatient with you lately."
"This isn't over, rstrt. Don't think I won't have your job."
"You wouldn't be you, without idle threats." The words slipped out of my mouth, shocking even myself. The words hung in there air for a moment, creating a palpable tension in the room. HoHR spun on her heel and huffed out of the room. Skip gave me a blank look, as if he just watched someone get hit by a bus.
"I don't have the energy for this kind of shit today." The PFY understood, and went to his station to start going through some tickets. My attention shifted to the desktop system that once belonged to Motorcycle IT Guy (MITG). I powered on the system, logged on using the credentials stored in 'The Bibilca IT' and navigated to explorer. It didn't take long to find a shared drive that contained the video files. I motioned to Skip to come in and shut the door.
The door to the server room burst open, and a man wearing a black hoodie walked inside. He reached into his backpack and pulled something out. I couldn't make out the can until I saw the lighter in his other hand and the flames bathed the servers. It was completely surreal, the PFY and I both sat in shock as if we were witnessing a murder. The figure smashed the monitor connected to the KVM, and started to cut patch cables with a knife. Unsatisfied with the level of destruction he had caused he started to pull drives out of their hotswap bays. The video cut out as he reached for the non-critical VM server, bay number three.
I grabbed a blank flash drive from supply and copied the file onto there, I also moved a copy to Sword. The flash drive went into an envelope, and I called the number on the card that the detective in charge of the case gave me. As we watched the video again I caught a glimpse of our vandal's face.
The face looked familiar…